T&T: Another Air conditioner question..more info

[Milt Baker]

If your air conditioning capacity is right on the edge of adequacy, adding
solar screen to the windows may save you the cost and hassle of a bigger 
AC unit.

This is the same stuff used on thousands of home and automobile windows in 
southern latitudes, and it really helps.  We first used it on q Grand Banks 
and were most pleasantly surprised by the difference it made.  We've had
it on our Nordhavn for almost four years now and notice a real difference
between how cool our boat is as compared with similar models with no
solar screen.  It reduces the air conditioning (and refrigeration) load 
significantly--my WAG is about 25-30%.  We use the darkest solar screen 
available, commonly called "limo screen" or "limo tint" because it's used 
in lots of big limousines.

A collateral benefit is that the solar screen makes it impossible for 
dockwalkers to see into our boat in the daytime and very difficult to 
see in at night.

For the record, we didn't want to obstruct night vision in the pilothouse
with solar screen, so we did not cover the front pilothouse windows or 
those immediately aft of the front windows.

--Milt Baker, Nordhavn 47 Bluewater, Fort Lauderdale


Rich Gano wrote:

Sam, here's some real-world experience with a GB42 in Florida.  The first
16,000 btu unit added after the boat got here from San Diego (where it had
none) did little to cool the main cabin in daylight, even with window
screens added.  It did well enough cooling the aft cabin for sleeping when
all its air was directed there.  Then I insulated the overhead with 1.5
inches of foam, where there had been NONE.  That helped.  The second added
16,000 btu units did the trick.  Go BIGGER.