Mermaid 5M 5200 BTU Air Conditioner

[Mike Smith]

Has anyone had any experience with the Mermaid 5M 5200 BTU Air Conditioner?  I'm thinking about installing one to cool the v-berth at night while we are at anchor.  Supposedly it runs on a 1000 watt inverter.

Mike and Jan Smith
S/V Breezer
www.mikejansmith.com

[hdevera]

Mike,

You'd need a super large battery bank or a generator to keep recharging your batteries, if you ran a/c off the inverter.  Even a 5000BTU ac is going to use up a lot of amps.

[Mike Smith]

Hal -
I am upgrading my inverter bank as Gary Wiseman did: http://www.c34.org/projects/projects-batteries.html and I think 6 - 10 T105s (218 AH each) would be sufficient, although I haven't done the math.  The Mermaid ad says two 12V marine batteries and a 1000 watt inverter would run it overnight.  I currently have a ProWatt 1750. Breezer is dockside and charging during the week and we anchor out Friday and/or Saturday nights. Sounds like a good fit for our lifestyle. I'll keep you posted.

Mike and Jan Smith
S/V Breezer
www.mikejansmith.com

[Jim Moore]

Try this site for info you may be looking for http://216.255.29.178/page10.htm

[Stu Jackson]

Separate Battery Banks

Mike,

I just read your post and also, just by happenstance, reread Gary's oringinal post in my boat book, printed out hard copies of older posts.

All I can suggest is DON'T DO IT!

I posted, twice, the long discussion about battery banks, and splitting them.

If you're going to invest in all that hardware, just wire the batteries up together and it WILL last longer.

Don't install a separate battery bank dedicated to whatever.

Put them all together, and you'll get better performance, and longer, MUCH longer, battery bank life.

It's relatively recent:

http://c34.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=329609511&f=829605811&m=433600922&r=168601532#168601532

Stu