Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Air conditioning

[VBra676539@aol.com]

In a message dated Wed, 30 Aug 2000  9:46:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "Michael B. Holt" <mholt@richmond.edu> writes:

<< Jon Hylands wrote:
> I suspect it has more to do with when the sub is sitting at the surface
> waiting to dive, baking in the hot tropical sun...

Busby reports that the plastic-nosed boats -- and the all-glass 
ones that appeared in the 60s -- would become uncomfortably hot
while surfaced.  He said the problem is solved by submerging.


Mike


 >>Mike and all,

Remember that Frank was reporting what he heard, not what he knew about. The dome nosed subs that Perry and Hyco built did not have any substantial high temperature problems except in the very hottest parts of the world. The hulls were steel, and that cools quite adequately nearly anywhere I've ever been. An exception that springs immediately to mind is the Persian Gulf, where I found 80+ degree water at 200 feet. That's hot no matter what you do.

The plastic HULLED submarines however, have a pretty good RH factor and tend to fog up like a Pinto with the defroster broken without A/C of some sort. The HBOI folks developed a really neat system but it extorts an enormous penalty in parasitic load on the battery bank as it is the equivelant of running a one hp thruster almost all the time.

The tourist subs run chillers to manage water vapor from all those gasping and oohing and aahing vacationers, and to counteract the body heat by all that sunburn on white skin. They run industrial strength units with AC power and all the rest.

For us psubbers, the need to chill is minimized by short dives in mostly temperate waters and no insurance company to frown over the occasional cooling brewski. It will be easier to wear shorts in the summer and long britches in the winter and bring a towel to wipe the ports, than to go to all the time and trouble to build an AC unit. Maybe a fan to keep the vapor off if you are a heavy breather like me, but otherwise not much of a problem in my experience.

Best Regards,
Vance