Ive been doing some business with a guy here in colombia that has the ability to build some killer compact mini split ac syetems for boats.
I was thinking of partnering up with him to make them if there is enough interest, and handling the marketing in the states.
He is building solar powered inverter style fridges and freezers currently.
he also has a large solar power company so has lot of knowledge in this area.
I was thinking small unit that mounts in the engine bay, open your engine hatch to expose flip out solar panels to power the unit and have the inside unit hang from a deck hatch...or be permanently mounted to a bulkhead.
Im picking up some stuff from him in the am so will ask him to try to cost out a system.

Please let me know if you would be interested in a system if i can sell a 7 to 9k btu system in the 2k price range.

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated... rm

if you can produce 7 to 9k btu without turning the entire deck of my boat into a 40'x8' solar panel I'm in. do you have or can you get details on how big the panel is projected to be?

I do not think it's possible . I would like to see the details and if it is on the level I would be in. But I'm in the trades and just don't think its possible to start a compressor without huge battery back up.

Maybe he could have duramax315 put this pipe dream into his 35 Fountain project

Oh lets do a little farmer math here, 7000-9000 btus of ac needs about 2 kw, a typical solar panel at 100% max output yields 250 watts, it would take 10-12 panels to get your 7000-9000 btus of ac, the panels are 200$ eac and are 32" x 64" so we are talking 382" x 768" of area, translates to what, a 10 foot by 17 ft wide array, or I guess you could have 2 rows 64" high by 10 feet long, each weighing 42 lbs with no frame or bracklets added so 12 42 Lb panels, , so lets say 500LBS, panels would cost 2400$, they arent real rugged unless mounted safely, cant be banged around, um, yeah, not on MY boat!!!! http://www.gogreensolar.com/products...-microinverter
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/produc...250S1C-G2.html

http://www.treehugger.com/sustainabl...rket-soon.html

This system is home grown but its 10k btu, on the thread about the honda vs yamaha 1000 watt gensets guys are using on the swim platform or in the engine bay. But they were running very low tech 5k btu ac systems.

Now look at this large 12k btu or so it appears running on thrèe solar panels
So a hi seer mini split of 6k btu should run just fine on two smaller panels...

http://www.hotspotenergy.com/solar-air-conditioner/

So stick ur farmers math in the ole corn ole o ye of little faith. Lol

I have been looking at and trying different ac systems on the cabanas im building on my island hotel. A 5k btu window shaker draws about 500+/-watts
my 12k btu GE inverter mini split draws 650 watts so halve that for a 6k btu mini split inverter ac and u should be around 325 watts... so it should be very doable... rm

If nasa had your outlook we would still be dreaming about space travel... shuttle ride anyone?

So the 2 solar panels would weigh about the same as a honda 1000 genset
The mini sllit would i think weigh the same or less than an old window shaker... game on btches

Whats the best way to lash down the honda genset and window shaker? bungee cords or duct tape while wave crushing.
I think a small permanently installed mini split would be way easier to live with

Im sure the system would need a small pair of batteries, but with the inverter ac units the compressor never shuts off so there is only one start up surge all day when u first turn it on.