[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Dehumidifier question

[VBra676539@aol.com]

Karl,

You know me pretty well for someone who lives half way around the world from me. Thanks for the input. I was hoping that I wasn't the only one who read it that way.

Dehumidifier: We used the old Sears variety with a removable condensate tray in the PC-9 years ago, and I carried the practice over to Intersub later. You can stick one in the sub after the Post-Dives and in the morning it is like the Sahara in there! Mighty nice. After an 8-10 hour dive, the unit would pull a couple of liters of water overnight. As for having one full time and operating it during a dive, I think the same sort of problem as the air conditioner would apply. A hefty bill to pay in power, more electrics in the boat, a fairly bulky box to deal with, and another fan whirring away to distract you. We never tried it, so I don't know whether it would really pay off or not.

The AC is sure nice, but again, with the small battery packs that the psubs tend to use, I think the penalties would be too high. You'd have to plan it into the project from the first, I guess, budget the power for it as part of the design, and then smile across at me over here sweating. Mind you, the JSL air conditioners were an afterthought and retrofitted after the first season of operations. Ed Link didn't realize the scope of the humidity problem until JSL 1 was already diving. But the sub has a 1400 amp 28 VDC battery pack! They just cobbled up an ac unit and stuck it in there and didn't worry about the power. And what they are using today is very little changed from that first scrap heap built in the early 70s.

I like the dsl/elec sub idea. Something with a thousand mile range, 2000 foot depth capacity, snug bunks, coffee pot and BIG viewports. Captain Kittredge did a concept design for a pocket tourist sub that would probably do the job, and I saw another one down here that a fellow from Indiana built (also dsl/elec) that would have been pretty nice. For that matter, the old Ben Franklin that Piccard built for Grumman is sitting around somewhere and would probably do the job. It would need plenty of anodes and careful attention to coatings technology, but I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. You've already been down the steel boat pathway so rust and corrosion aren't news.

I catch a bit of the races and thought Prada was doing pretty well. The Kiwis race their asses off though, so I won't be surprised if that homely old cup stays down your way for a while longer.

Vance