An Australian fishing boat is cooling down at night. No worries, by turning a reverse cycle marine air conditioner to its heat setting, the cold is chased away. Next day, the sun heats the deck. Keen fishermen are grappling with their sports rods, but now they’re worried about the stifling heat. They’re sweating, and their catches aren’t getting any fresher.

A Chill-Inducing Fisherman’s Friend

Again, those momentary worries are washed away. In the scenario outlined above, a reverse cycle marine air conditioning unit will literally switch directions. Inside the apparatus, instead of heat being leached from the surrounding water and converted into cabin warmth, the air chills as the appliance’s refrigerant gas transports ambient heat back to the lake or sea. So, what does this flexible, component-streamlining build have to do with fishing? Clearly, the heating function doesn’t carry much weight here. It’s not like the apparatus can cook food. As for cooling functionality, that does interest the builders of Australian fishing boats. Capable of cooling a crew cabin, why can’t the same mechanism keep everyone and everything cool, too?

Biologically Regulating Powers

So far so good, but no one wants to pick up a cooler full of fish and lay it in front of an air conditioner vent. On a marine craft, that action will just send a fishy odour around the craft. That option is obviously a non-starter. It just won’t work. Regarding the freshness issue, a high-performance reverse cycle marine-flavoured air conditioner will keep a fish box cold. As a rule, sea-caught food stays fresh when it’s cooled. More relevantly, though, the cold air can be redirected. Sent outside by a strong in-line fan, the cold air strikes the hot shoulders of a straining fisherman. The guys out there are wearing baseball caps and plenty of sunscreen, but there’s no denying the punishing feel of the hot sun as it beats down hard. The fan discharged cooling effect washes that away sweat and fatigue.

Some cleverly designed shipboard appliances take tap-offs from reverse cycle air conditions. Those supplementary lines keep landed fish fresh. That’s a nice convenience, but it doesn’t really leverage the full power of this technology. Remember the cold crew member? At night, the apparatus functioned as a heat pump. Fishermen stay toasty warm when they use this feature. Happily, the opposite case is true during daylight hours, with the equipment switching and transforming until it assumes its cooling capabilities. The fishermen win again, for now they’re outside, fanned by powerful blowers, by ducts and vents that’ll keep them cool and comfortable while they chase down more angling entertainment.