A/C or Heating the back deck on Trawlers

As I preparing to move on to an older Hatteras/Jefferson/Main ship I’m wondering how well you can cool or heat the back deck of these Trawlers? These Trawlers have back decks that are somewhat enclosed but I don’t see any marine/RV A/C units on the roof for instance. I’ve only seen one with a portable roll around unit venting to the outside. Heating I’m guess could be done with a ceramic heater or two I’m not trying to condition this area in a Florida summer, but maybe the Fall and Spring, and heating in South Carolina in the winter.
So the question is….Have you tried this and is it reasonable to consider climatizing the back decks in moderate conditions?

The Brockerts, working towards the dream

Yes anything is possible just a question of how much you are willing to spend. How enclosed is the aft deck? Our aft deck has an enclosure but many air leaks and would not really cool well. Besides we don’t want the area air conditioned with the shade and the openings in the enclosure. If it gets way too hot we just go below into the A/C spaces. You could mount an RV A/C on the sundeck. It would probably run continuously and use a lot of electricity. I don’t know if a marine A/C would work that high up due to head pressure on the water pump.

Yep, going to use a lot of electricity and was thinking of the cruise air carry on portable boat A/C hatch air conditioner as a possibility too. I'm thinking it would only be used for a few hours and not everyday.

On my Hatteras, a PO had installed an all-in-one Mermaid air conditioner in a cabinet. It worked just fine but we very rarely used it; you could open up the various doors, windows, and EZ2CY panels in infinite configurations, but better yet the same PO installed a little ceiling fan that we did use a lot. In winter, we found it more efficient to just use a portable ceramic eater.

That aft deck was by far the most used room on the boat, and we can't imagine having another large cruising boat without one.

I avoid hot weather so don't have vessel wide ac. I use a couple roll around portables for when I get caught in some hell hole. If you go that route, get the model with two hoses. The hoses are for the air cooling the refrigerant. The single hose models draw inside air and exhaust it after heated. So somewhere in the boat you draw in hot outside air.
Ebay or Amazon had the best prices.

"That aft deck was by far the most used room on the boat, and we can't imagine having another large cruising boat without one."

We were thinking the same thing and thats why I was looking at heating and cooling that area.

The Brockerts

Our Jefferson 42 has a dedicated cruise air ac/heating unit installed on the rear deck. The sides have 1/4 inch plexiglass sliding windows with the aft deck protected with plexiglass and isinglass panels. In NJ we mostly open the doors and sliding windows and enjoy the nice days. But it is great to have AC when it is really hot and conversely enjoy a heated rear deck in the fall.

The sort of set up Clam Digger describes is really nice. Here was ours:



The Mermaid was in the cabinet under the basket. The real of the aft deck was enclosed by EZ2CY panels which could be removed easily or one hinged up and could be secured to the ceiling as shown here:

Ceiling fans work so well. I don’t have headroom on our sundeck for one though.

All fans do is blow the hot wet air around: not much relief there.....

Woodland Hills said:

All fans do is blow the hot wet air around: not much relief there.....

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I guess our fan didn't get the memo on that. Nor have the ones in our house.

Good information from this thread, I'll move forward with this idea. Thanks everyone

Seems like a full motor yacht configuration would make sense if the space will be enclosed anyway.

That aft space, particularly if enclosed by canvas and Stratiglass, will have very poor insulation and lots of air leakage. It will probably take a 13,500 btu RV air conditioner mounted on top to begin to cool it and even then it will probably get hot in 90+ deg outside air temps.


So since you say you will probably only use that space in moderate temps such as in the spring or fall, why not keep it open to let the sea breezes flow through?


David

What's the energy draw on a full size ceiling fan too?? Seems like a huge draw. Obviously not as much an AC unit but seems kinda out of place on a boat. Looks nice though!

South of Heaven said:

What's the energy draw on a full size ceiling fan too?? Seems like a huge draw. Obviously not as much an AC unit but seems kinda out of place on a boat. Looks nice though!

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I haven't seen a boat big enough with a high enough ceiling that would comfortably accommodate a full size fan. I'm sure there's some big yacht out there somewhere that does. That little bullet fan moved an amazing amount of air at high speed; we got a lot of compliments on it from various guests. It was over a dining table so height wasn't an issue.

Power consumption I don't recall exactly, but was negligible, I remember looking at the amp draw on the inverter remote once with it on and off and it had barely budged.

Our Hatteras has a 10’x18’ aft deck with a full Charm City canvas enclosure. It is easily heated with an oil filled radiator heater in the Florida winter and cooled with a portable a/c in summer. Just keep the hatch and wing doors shut.

I heat the sun deck with a Buddy Heater. I installed a 2.5 gallon tank. During the summer We remove the windows and open it up. I also made a mister that I use in fresh water.