Jim Cooper
Senior Member
I'll be looking for an A/C system for a 2 stateroom, 2 head 45' pilothouse trawler. I'm needing some help deciding if a split gas system or chilled water system is best. What are the advantages of one over the other?
I have one self-contained unit and one split unit. When the split unit dies I will be replacing it with a self-contained unit to save space.
Also commonly called "self contained," the units have all of the air conditioning components in one package, including an air handler/cooler/blower. The split systems cool the coolant medium at one location (the engine room?) and then pipe it to an air handler that uses the cooled medium to cool air that it collects, blows through a transfer device, and then returns it to the area to be cooled. I assume they have their own water pumps for cooling (not sure), and they'll still exhaust condensate that you'll have to get rid of. (The description based on my rudimentary understanding of how these things work.)What is meant by an "all in one" a/c?
So now that you all have satisfied my concern about sound, on to my next concern with self contained units - thru hulls. Each unit requires a raw water intake and overboard discharge whereas the split & chilled water system require just one. Am I correct that a vessel with three self contained units would have three separate water intakes, circulating pump and overboard discharge or do you share the intake/pump for all three units?