Heating and cooling systems

[AGibbo]

Hey everyone, 

Im hoping someone else has done this before and can tell me whether its a good idea and will work: I'm doing up a 30ft Springer and will be insulating with closed cell spray foam, is it then possible to lay a wet floor heating/ cooling system through the central aisle of the boat (where the hull is deepest), and circulate cold water(from my normal water pump?) and hot water (heated by a back boiler in winter). If so will I need a separate pump for hot water? Everything will be running off 12v solar, and my engine is air cooled so no hot water created by that. Ive been told I can clean the engine to the extent that I could heat the boat from the fumes, but I would rather not have to run the engine and doubt that it could be clean enough that I wouldn't feel like I was breathing in exhaust. 

At the moment I'm gutting the boat and will need to sort these systems out before I can spray foam- is it worth also laying damp proof sheeting under the insulation?

On a separate note, anyone got any tips for building roof storage? How do you handle the curved roof?? Build a curve in to the unit or prop afterwards? It will be holding my solar panel on top so I want it to be pretty secure. 

Thanks in advance! 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Hard to work out exactly what you are planning from your post. Under floor heating has been done. Do a search for more information. Not convinced it is worth doing on a 30' springer. Your mention of a back boiler implies you are planning a stove of some sort? If so, then that will be more than sufficient on its own in such a small cabin. A typical 4 to 5kW stove will mean you are opening windows for much of the winter to keep the cabin cool, rather than the other way round.

I don't see any point in running water tank water under the floor. There are typically only a couple of days in the summer when it might be nice to keep a boat cool, but opening the windows generally solves this. It wouldn't take long to heat the tank water up to the same temperature as everything else and it stop working. The easiest ways to stop a boat overheating on a hot day is to paint the roof a pale colour and moor in the shade. I certainly wouldn't want to have potable water and back boiler circuit water time sharing the same pipes. The back boiler circuit would want an inhibitor in and this would taint the potable water when swapping over. The idea of running diesel exhaust under the floor sounds weird. Little CO poisoning risk, but lots of carbon particulates and smell. Diesel heated forced air blowers exist, but the diesel fumes are ducted straight out of the boat and the heated cabin air is kept separate from the burner air. Using engine heat will only work when the engine is running. On CaRT waters there is a ban on engine running while moored at night.

Any pump you are running 24 hours a day will be taking a lot from the batteries. Solar will be next to useless during the winter months. Have you worked out how you will be replacing this charge from the batts?

You are leaving a gap between the baseplate and ballast and the floor underside for ventilation? This is essential to prevent rot and rust.

 

Jen

[dmr]

This is going to be a lot of effort (and cost) for not much heat. To heat the boat its better to just connect the back boiler to a radiator. I suspect "under floor cooling" would be  very ineffective, the floor is fairly cool anyway, its usually uninsulated and the canal is cold. Its the air higher up that gets hot...and it rises.

 

It is possible to use the cooling air from a Clean air cooled engine to heat the boat, Citroen did it with the 2CV, but again its a lot of effort to heat the boat for just the hour or two each day when you are running the engine to charge the batteries in winter, and any oil leaks will be smelly.

 

..............Dave

[mrsmelly]

21 hours ago, AGibbo said:

Hey everyone, 

Im hoping someone else has done this before and can tell me whether its a good idea and will work: I'm doing up a 30ft Springer and will be insulating with closed cell spray foam, is it then possible to lay a wet floor heating/ cooling system through the central aisle of the boat (where the hull is deepest), and circulate cold water(from my normal water pump?) and hot water (heated by a back boiler in winter). If so will I need a separate pump for hot water? Everything will be running off 12v solar, and my engine is air cooled so no hot water created by that. Ive been told I can clean the engine to the extent that I could heat the boat from the fumes, but I would rather not have to run the engine and doubt that it could be clean enough that I wouldn't feel like I was breathing in exhaust. 

At the moment I'm gutting the boat and will need to sort these systems out before I can spray foam- is it worth also laying damp proof sheeting under the insulation?

On a separate note, anyone got any tips for building roof storage? How do you handle the curved roof?? Build a curve in to the unit or prop afterwards? It will be holding my solar panel on top so I want it to be pretty secure. 

Thanks in advance! 

Not in January and february you wont.