Air Conditioning Equipment for Ships

With air conditioning prevailing in cars, trains and planes, it is all but natural that there also is air conditioning equipment for ships. Just as there are certain points and aspects that have to be taken into consideration when air conditioning your car and home, there are some points to bear in mind when air conditioning your ship.

It is always better to approach a professional to have the air conditioning of your ship done. This is because the professional will be competent enough to prepare a thermodynamic heat load analysis of your ship, and then work on the air conditioning equipment for ships. This thermodynamic heat load analysis of the ship is determined by sizing the ship and determining the amount of temperature control that is desired. Sometimes the individual staterooms of the ship may need separate air conditioning systems with independent control with a single large system for the main salon and galley areas.

There are basically three types of air conditioning equipment for ships possible. With split systems, you find the condensing unit in the bilge while insulated refrigerant lines are used to connect it to the evaporator found in the cabins. The advantage of this system is that the professional spends time and expense in evacuating and charging the system with a refrigerant on its installation. And if a repair is required, the refrigerant is evacuated and recovered. However this system always has leaking problems while the condensing unit in the bilge has a short life because of its wet environment.

The chiller system is the most expensive and complex systems for air conditioning equipment for ships. It is usually found in larger yachts where you find the chiller unit placed in the engine room or bilge area and have fan coils placed throughout the boat. There is a complex plumbing system found here which consists of an expansion tank, a circulating pump and hundreds of feet of insulated piping for the cooled water loop. There is also an additional pump and pumping system for the raw water cooling.

The cabin that needs cooling has a fan engaged on the particular fan coil to provide cooling of the air in the cabin. It is possible to stack several chillers in series so that different units are run at a given time to maintain a predetermined water temperature as stipulated by the heat load of the system. This is the quietest form of air conditioning equipment for ships which takes minimal space in the cabin. However it proves to be disadvantageous because of its initial equipment and installation and the requirement of a marine trained and licensed HVAC technician to maintain it.

The third option for air conditioning equipment for ships is high pressure system which is used for large vessels and ships. A powerful blower motor is used to pressurize the cooled and heated air to distribute it throughout the vessel using PVC piping that is small in diameter with this high pressure. With this, there is no need of having HVAC equipment found in the living quarters of the vessel and the need for condensate and electric lines in the vessel. 

So it is up to you to decide on which form of air conditioning equipment for ships should be implemented in your ship while taking into consideration the pros and cons for these different air conditioning systems.