Boat Air Conditioning Improvment

My 28' houseboat is used both on the water and as a travel trailer on the road. My wife has MS and doesn't do well in the heat. It's imperative that we have reliable effective air conditioning on the water and on the road.

The boat has a 13,500 BTU roof mount unit over the dinette. This unit is more than adequate for the rear half of the boat, but the cold air doesn't get far enough forward to be useful at the helm or settee. We remedied this by installing a squirrel cage fan in the galley that blasted cold air all the way forward. This was an acceptable solution...but the fan needed a second home for when it was not in use and it was a little awkward even though it was pretty much out of the way.

I made a bracket to hang the fan on at a slight angle into the cabin.

Then one day my son-in-law held up a cardboard with a curved piece of tubing on it that directed the air from the forward air conditioner vent to about the middle of the boat on the starboard side instead of blowing it straight into the dinette bulkhead.

I translated his design into a baffle that mounted using a single thumb screw.

The circular cutouts are to easily get to the control knobs.

Then to our amazement that cold air found it's way forward to the settee and helm.

View forward from dinette. The cold air readily makes it's way all the way forward.

By closing off all but about 2" of the aft vent on the air conditioner, the entire boat could be brought down into the high 60's and the compressor would cycle on and off.

A "temporary" piece of wide Scotch Tape covers all but about 2"of the rear facing vent.

And the old hanger bracket for the squirrel cage fan turned out to be a handy trash bag holder.

Big Duck gets a generator for the air conditioner.

Developments on Big Duck's air conditioner