Any ideas on a new door to my cabin to fit over a new A/C unit?

[Captain Sly]

As you can see in the picture, I'm planning on running a window A/C unit sitting like that. Been trying to figure out a nice-looking solution for closing the opening, perhaps with a door that rolls down from the top and sits on top of the AC. Wondered if anyone here had any ideas!

For anyone curious, this A/C runs on just 460W and has a low energy startup (so no surge power required). It will be powered by solar and batteries while underway and off shore (the boat does not have a generator, and I'm not going to use a gas one for all the reasons we all know about, to power the existing A/C, which consumes much more power).

Thanks!

 

[Stee6043]

I'd buy some canvas from Sailrite and make a soft door. Maybe add some snaps or velcro? Could be easy enough.

 

[Captain Sly]

Wow, amazing to me I didn't think of that to begin with! Seems so obvious now, hah. Thank you!

 

[bobeast]

460 watts at 120V calculates out to about 4 Amps. However, it will draw closer to 40 amps at 12VDC, not counting conversion inefficiencies (~15%). To account for this conversion loss, the typical rule of thumb is to divide the AC watts by 10, so that works out to a constant 46 amp draw from your battery bank.

The way it works is, to accommodate a given wattage, as voltage goes down (120V -> 12), then amps have to go up (4A -> 46 amp), for wattage to stay the same.

With a 220 Ah battery bank, you'd be able to safely run the ac a little over 2½ hours before bringing your battery bank down to 50%. (you never want to draw down below 50% on lead-acid batteries)

 

[Captain Sly]

Thanks bobeast! That is pretty much the plan. I have a 195ah SLA battery and waiting on two 400w panels. On a good sunny day (which is basically the only days we take the boat out anyway), should have A/C all day.