Heating & cooling pad for bed

[La Sirena]

We're cruising in the Chesapeake right now and headed to Maine. It's been super hot and humid making sleeping a challenge. We run the generator for a few hours to get the boat cool, but it heats up during the night. It doesn't help to have a 450 horsepower diesel furnace on the boat. I know when it's September in Maine we'll have the opposite problem.

Has anyone used a heating/cooling pad for their bed on their boat? It seems like it may be a good solution, but I haven't really investigated the different brands out there. We'd want one that doesn't use too much power, and is fairly compact.

 

[O C Diver]

We're cruising in the Chesapeake right now and headed to Maine. It's been super hot and humid making sleeping a challenge. We run the generator for a few hours to get the boat cool, but it heats up during the night. It doesn't help to have a 450 horsepower diesel furnace on the boat. I know when it's September in Maine we'll have the opposite problem.

Has anyone used a heating/cooling pad for their bed on their boat? It seems like it may be a good solution, but I haven't really investigated the different brands out there. We'd want one that doesn't use too much power, and is fairly compact.

It's important to separate heat from humidity. I anchored out a lot and tried to avoid the AC units running at night (I like a quiet boat at night). My trick for no AC at night was to turn the staterooms into a refrigerator 2 hours before going to sleep. We're talking 60 degrees and dry as a bone as far as humidity. While I would use a blanket to start, by morning I was down to a sheet, if that.

As far as cooler temperatures, I chose to use an electric blanket. If your bed is queen size, use a twin size so it doesn't overlap the sides much. Basically you have a sheet, the electric blanket, and a light comforter on top. Turn the blanket on 2 hours before bedtime. My blanket drew 165 watts on setting 10. On setting 1 (rarely used past 2) it draws 17 watts. So through an inverter, less than 2 amps at 12 volts DC. Leaving Crisfield MD on February 1st 2015, the temperature in the stateroom was around 40 degrees, remember the electric blanket being around setting 5. Not fun getting out of bed that morning.

Ted

 

[amxr39]

This fan oscillates and tilts. It runs off a usb port or on its own built in battery. A little breeze goes a long way to feel comfort.

 

[amapola]

We mostly anchor out, so if it's really hot, we run the AC in our cabin to cool it down then turn it off before bedtime. Most of the time, we do fine with the Caframo fans running. We live in southwest Florida and cruise the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Chesapeake Bay. We try to stay away from cold weather.

 

[ssobol]

I used to boat in the Bay. When it is summer hot and humid, there is no real substitute for AC. Even if you can get the apparent temp down, there is still the humidity. A cooling mattress pad is just going to leave you cool and damp because it won't take any humidity out of the air. If you can't use AC, a dehumidifier can help if you can keep the excess heat from the dehumidifier out.

BTW, the Bay area is more hot and humid this summer than usual. There were years where we just stayed home during July and Aug because it was too unpleasant to go boating.

 

[Don L]

there are mattress coolers that use cool water and a small pump/evaporator system they work pretty good