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Practical advice for dealing with the heat onboard


DShK

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It's going to hit up to 38C where I am. I'm worried as neither me or my dog deal well with the heat. Does anyone have any practical advice for dealing with heat onboard? My plan is to keep all my sun facing portholes covered, moor under trees and place a bowl of ice in front of a fan. Keep either end of the boat open to allow a breeze to pass through.

 

Anymore tips/tricks? My neighbour in the marina has an A/C unit, people laugh at him but I think he's ahead of the curve, might need to fit one myself...

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8 minutes ago, DShK said:

Anymore tips/tricks?

 

Do not give the dog water with ice cubes in it. A Hot dog (no not that sort !) can be killed by giving it chilled water.

 

I didn't know but our VET told us.

 

However make your own decision \;

 

"The RSPCA advises freezing a dog's water bowl or kong before putting water or fresh treats inside (to help keep them cool for longer). We also advise putting ice cubes into your pet's water or making frozen treats to help cool them down," a spokesperson for the animal rescue charity told the Mirror".

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12 minutes ago, Chris John said:

If it’s warmer outside than inside (which it could well be) you’ll be allowing hot air in 

That's a fair point, on tuesday it's supposed to be pretty windy which can obviously be cooling, but in this kind of heat it might not be a good trade off. I think I need an internal/external thermometer!

 

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Do not give the dog water with ice cubes in it. A Hot dog (no not that sort !) can be killed by giving it chilled water.

 

I didn't know but our VET told us.

 

However make your own decision \;

 

"The RSPCA advises freezing a dog's water bowl or kong before putting water or fresh treats inside (to help keep them cool for longer). We also advise putting ice cubes into your pet's water or making frozen treats to help cool them down," a spokesperson for the animal rescue charity told the Mirror".

 

Ooer, that's confusing. I guess I'll err on the side of caution on that one... thanks for the info

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22 minutes ago, DShK said:

It's going to hit up to 38C where I am. I'm worried as neither me or my dog deal well with the heat. Does anyone have any practical advice for dealing with heat onboard? My plan is to keep all my sun facing portholes covered, moor under trees and place a bowl of ice in front of a fan. Keep either end of the boat open to allow a breeze to pass through.

 

Anymore tips/tricks? My neighbour in the marina has an A/C unit, people laugh at him but I think he's ahead of the curve, might need to fit one myself...


What colour is your roof painted? Regular buckets of water over the roof can be effective if it's darker than cream-coloured.

 

8 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

We also advise putting ice cubes into your pet's water or making frozen treats to help cool them down," a spokesperson for the animal rescue charity told the Mirror".


So in the RSPCA's view, killing a dog is not cruel if performed with ice cubes?

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Just now, Puffling said:


What colour is your roof painted? Regular buckets of water over the roof can be effective if it's darker than cream-coloured.

 

 

Better still, buckets of white paint!

 

Our roof is off-white (buttermilk maybe?) and I find that inside the boat with front and back doors open is pretty much always cooler than the outside during the hottest part of hot days. We had no problem during the hot weather last weekend. I never moor under trees as my priority is always getting enough solar to ensure the fridge runs ok during the night. Dunno what I'd do if we had a dark roof though.

 

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11 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

One hot summer I met a boater who had secured garden canes across his handrails and fixed white sheets across them. He said it helped and it may have helped more if he kept the sheets damp.

Same approach as the old tropical roof on a land rover, full sized ally plate over the entire roof, painted white and with a half inch gap between it and the roof itself. If it worked in Africa....

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5 minutes ago, gatekrash said:

Same approach as the old tropical roof on a land rover, full sized ally plate over the entire roof, painted white and with a half inch gap between it and the roof itself. If it worked in Africa....

 

When I have to keep beer barrels cool at a hot summer party, I drape towels over them and keep them damp from a hose. The water evaporating is *very* effective at keeping them cool (latent heat). The same should work for a narrowboat roof, if you have enough towels or anything else absorbent like sheets, and can keep them wet.

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Dogs cool themselves by evaporating water from their tongues, panting to pass air over it. Humans cool by evaporating sweat from much of their skin area. Evaporating water takes away a lot of heat, hence @Puffling's suggestion of buckets of water on the roof and others suggestions of dampening your clothing and I guess the dogs fur. Provided the humidity isn't too high, which I don't believe is forecast, then our two species methods of staying cool work well, but keeping you both hydrated to replace the lost water and salts is essential. Stay out of the sun during the main part of the day. In the absence of all else, these are essential.

What they are forecasting is very hot for the UK, so our usual tricks for staying cool on the boat may not work. It could be time to find a nearby dog friendly pub,  with aircon and head there when the heat is at its worst.

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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2 minutes ago, buccaneer66 said:

Probably a good idea to open all doors and windows early morning and let the cooler night/morning air chill your boat down, but shut everything when it starts towarm up.

You should get a job as a weatherman 😃

He just said the same on the news.

 

I’m with Jen-in-Wellies, find a nice cool pub 👍

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Some solid advice here, thanks. I have some big solar panels on pivot mounts on my roof. Not all are installed yet but I'll throw the other two up there and chuck as many damp towels etc as I can. Hoping the air gap from that + trees will stop the boat from baking. Just today I bought a generator from my neighbour so I can run that for power on monday/tuesday. As for the pub solution - if I find monday too difficult I will resort to that. I work on the boat so that complicates it, but if monday is problematic my employer will understand.

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The hot weather has been advertised for some days now. This has given sufficient time to relocate boats to moorings at or near a pub with air conditioning. Ensure its not a Spoons though, because even though they do indeed have aircon, they dont allow dogs 👍 Pubs now open early so you can have brekky, dinner and yer tea all during the hottest part of the day, simples ;)

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17 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Wear wet clothes is the tropical solution.

Yep.  When it get warm over here and if I have to work outside I soak my hat in cold water regularly.  I dont go to the lengths of soaking all my clothes though.  Drink lots and do as little as possible in the sun.

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17 hours ago, IanD said:

 

When I have to keep beer barrels cool at a hot summer party, I drape towels over them and keep them damp from a hose. The water evaporating is *very* effective at keeping them cool (latent heat). The same should work for a narrowboat roof, if you have enough towels or anything else absorbent like sheets, and can keep them wet.

We do that with our milk. We also do it when camping. We keep it in a bucket of water with a wet tea towel draped over it. Even at the moment the milk lasts 48 hours without a fridge. We change the water in the bucket every week or so. In the “old days” they used a porous clay cover. Latent heat of evaporation.

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25 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

We do that with our milk. We also do it when camping. We keep it in a bucket of water with a wet tea towel draped over it. Even at the moment the milk lasts 48 hours without a fridge. We change the water in the bucket every week or so. In the “old days” they used a porous clay cover. Latent heat of evaporation.

A development of this is known as a zeer pot, or pot in pot fridge. Evaporative cooling fridges work well with plenty of dry warm air circulating.

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12 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

A development of this is known as a zeer pot, or pot in pot fridge. Evaporative cooling fridges work well with plenty of dry warm air circulating.

Well well you live and learn . I’m sure we will pass a garden centre soon and roll out a mk 2 milk cooler. It would certainly work in the porch in a tent 

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During the hot summer of '75 or '76, a reader's letter in a newspsper recalled how, when the writer had been on active service in Egypt, they used to keep water in unglazed clay pots.  Evaporation of  water oozing through the walls of the pot used to keep the water inside cool.

 

Painting things white certainly helps to  keep them cool when in direct sunlight. On one canal holiday I was able to show my children the different effects of  painting things black or white at a recently-painted lock. It was  mid- morning, and the black part of a wooden lock beam in direct sunlight was bone dry and warm to the touch, while the white-painted end, also in direct sunlight,  was cold, and still wet with the previous night's dew.   

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19 hours ago, Puffling said:


What colour is your roof painted? Regular buckets of water over the roof can be effective if it's darker than cream-coloured.

 

If you're moored in the shade then roof colour is largely irrelevant.

 

The best thing the OP can do is go out tomorrow morning and find a shady spot. That's what I intend to do and stay there for the next few days. When the sun reaches me on one side of the river I'll just move to shade the other side. Mud weights are useful, then you can moor virtually anywhere. 

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