Keeping cool

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Don’t they reckon if hole is big enough to push pencil through then it’s big enough for mouse to get through ?

[LadyG]

15 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Don’t they reckon if hole is big enough to push pencil through then it’s big enough for mouse to get through ?

My cat brings mice in almost every day, I have one at the moment which has taken up residence,  my mouse traps are ignored. Suggestions welcome. 

All food is in containers or hanging in nets.

Edited September 16, 2023 by LadyG

[ditchcrawler]

52 minutes ago, Goliath said:

I think rats/rodents will (generally speaking) only invade an unoccupied boat. 
 

The only time I’ve had them aboard is when I’ve left the boat countrified while I go away. 
They soon left when I returned. 
 

 

 

This was outside the bus station in Norwich last week

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

This was outside the bus station in Norwich last week

Not mine,

honest. 
 

maybe it’s a new Banksy ?

[dmr]

Never mind rats, we had a major skirmish outside the boat recently which moved onto the back deck and then onto the roof. In the morning I found some minor scratching on the roof and a mink turd.

 

On our new home mooring I was often sleeping with the back doors open till I started thinking the mink.

A fellow moorer came home from work one day to find two of them on his back deck and as he approached they became aggressive.

 

But returning to the keeping cool topic, I am told that in the big heatwave a couple of boaters just put camping chairs in the canal and sat in them with a cold beer.

[haggis]

56 minutes ago, dmr said:

Never mind rats, we had a major skirmish outside the boat recently which moved onto the back deck and then onto the roof. In the morning I found some minor scratching on the roof and a mink turd.

 

On our new home mooring I was often sleeping with the back doors open till I started thinking the mink.

A fellow moorer came home from work one day to find two of them on his back deck and as he approached they became aggressive.

 

Mink are afraid of nothing and will stand up to a person or even a big dog. When we leave kelpie in the marina we always leave the tops of the windows open for ventilation and I have often worried in case a mink got in. No evidence of mink in the marina but they do move around a bit. 

[Guest]

12 hours ago, DShK said:

I've been looking at motorhome AC. Realistically it'd need a generator going or shore power. Another potential concern is the high in-rush current that could overload your inverter. A "soft start" device may be the solution.

 

What I did during that 40C heat was cover the boat in wet white sheets/towels and keep them wet. The water evaporating keeps the boat cool 

 

 

 

I suspect the Truma Aventa a/c we have would kill batteries in very short order.

 

It does 'soft start' so as not to trip the bollards we are hooked up to but unless you are hooked up to mains not really a solution for a boat.

[DShK]

9 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

I suspect the Truma Aventa a/c we have would kill batteries in very short order.

 

It does 'soft start' so as not to trip the bollards we are hooked up to but unless you are hooked up to mains not really a solution for a boat.

Interesting to hear it soft starts. What's the inrush current? My inverter, victron, doesn't seem to "pass through" shore power so needs to be below it's peak momentary output of 6kw.

 

When I was looking before it seemed their general power pull is 700w, which is plenty doable for me on a sunny day. If I was under trees I'd run generator. But yeah, even if it's moor in a marina for a while, I see it more as a way to deal with dangerous heat.

 

Might be worth considering having it in a well ventilated box to avoid it overheating itself...

[Ronaldo47]

The effect of paint colour on heat absorbtion  was dramatically demonstrated to me when operating a freshly-painted wooden lock gate beam one sunny mid-morning in spring. The black part was bone dry and warm to the touch.  The glossy white beam end was still covered with drops of water from the previous night's rain, and was icy cold. 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[Guest]

1 hour ago, DShK said:

Interesting to hear it soft starts. What's the inrush current? My inverter, victron, doesn't seem to "pass through" shore power so needs to be below it's peak momentary output of 6kw.

 

When I was looking before it seemed their general power pull is 700w, which is plenty doable for me on a sunny day. If I was under trees I'd run generator. But yeah, even if it's moor in a marina for a while, I see it more as a way to deal with dangerous heat.

 

Might be worth considering having it in a well ventilated box to avoid it overheating itself...

 

Id have to get the manual out to confirm the start up draw so Im not sure TBH.

 

 

But, cutting a suitability sized hole in the roof of a narrow boat would be a real challenge, as would coping with the curvature of the roof to match the flat surface mounting of the a/c unit.

[Grassman]

14 hours ago, Goliath said:

Don’t they reckon if hole is big enough to push pencil through then it’s big enough for mouse to get through ?

 

Yes, and I've seen them do it. It's reckoned that rats can get through a hole the size of a 50p coin. Perhaps young ones can but I think generally a golf ball size hole would be about the limit. I once had a rat get through my scupper drain hole when I'd forgotten to put the lid on some duck feed in the cratch.

[blackrose]

14 hours ago, LadyG said:

My cat brings mice in almost every day, I have one at the moment which has taken up residence,  my mouse traps are ignored. Suggestions welcome. 

All food is in containers or hanging in nets.

 

Get rid of the cat? I wouldn't have a cat on my boat for that very reason. Your food may be hanging up or on containers but the mice aren't coming into your boat because of the food, so that's irrelevant. They're coming in because your cat has brought them in.

 

Have you tried chocolate or drinking chocolate powder on your mouse traps?

Edited September 17, 2023 by blackrose

[LadyG]

18 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Get rid of the cat? I wouldn't have a cat on my boat for that very reason. Your food may be hanging up or on containers but the mice aren't coming into your boat because of the food, so that's irrelevant. They're coming in because your cat has brought them in.

 

Have you tried chocolate or drinking chocolate powder on your mouse traps?

No, weill shaved Kit Kat do?

To be fair they have worked with no bait for all but this one, modern things, very sensitive. I have got some standard wooden ones but they are useless by comparison. 

Traps checked: job done.

I did have a cat before who used to announce his arrival before getting it in to boat, so I never had this problem.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by LadyG

[GUMPY]

So long as I could catch sight of  the mice on the boat I found an air pistol worked very well controlling them. 

Had a squirrel onboard once, being larger that was a much easier target.

[magnetman]

I had a rat on the London boat once. It seemed clever so I wrote a note "Dear Mr (or Mrs or non specific gender) Rat. Get out of my boat or I will kill you very badly. You do not want to annoy me. Ta. Signed boat owner". 

 

It went and never came back. 

 

 

Interesting point about the Mink as we do have some at the country estate. Not many but there one or two about. Had not considered them potentially coming in. 

 

I don't think they are as clever as rats so a note may not work. 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by magnetman
paragraphs

[GUMPY]

31 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 

Interesting point about the Mink as we do have some at the country estate. Not many but there one or two about. Had not considered them potentially coming in. 

 

I don't think they are as clever as rats so a note may not work. 

Mink are stupid and have no fear which means that can easily be persuaded to head butt a baseball bat😱

[booke23]

10 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

Id have to get the manual out to confirm the start up draw so Im not sure TBH.

 

 

But, cutting a suitability sized hole in the roof of a narrow boat would be a real challenge, as would coping with the curvature of the roof to match the flat surface mounting of the a/c unit.

 

Maybe one of those cool my camper units might be more suitable for a narrowboat's power limitations. They say it can run from a 700w inverter and draws 450w when running. Only 2559 btuh though so would only cool half the boat, and only designed to be jury rigged on a window so storage might be an issue when it's not in use. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, booke23 said:

 

Maybe one of those cool my camper units might be more suitable for a narrowboat's power limitations. They say it can run from a 700w inverter and draws 450w when running. Only 2559 btuh though so would only cool half the boat, and only designed to be jury rigged on a window so storage might be an issue when it's not in use. 

 

They hang on the bottom edge of the window on a caravan/motorhome with the pipework fed inside, so I'm not sure how they could be used on a boat TBH.

 

I have seen them in use in quite hot temps. though and they seem quite effective in cooling the relatively small area of a caravan.

 

 

 

Edit, I guess the main unit could be hung on the handrails or stood on the roof/bankside.

Edited September 17, 2023 by M_JG

[BoatinglifeupNorth]

16 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

This was outside the bus station in Norwich last week

 I would be more worried if they were outside my local Takeaway🍔 

Or maybe they were just thrown under the bus by some bigger rats🐀 

Edited September 17, 2023 by BoatinglifeupNorth

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, booke23 said:

They say it can run from a 700w inverter and draws 450w when running.

 

Still 45Ah tho'

 

(450Ah over 10 hours, so if you only use 50% of battery capacity you'd need  8 x 100Ah batterys and the means to recharge them every day, if you only wanted to run your engine/generator every 3 days you'd need 16 x 100Ah batteries)

Solar would assist, but then you'd probably not have enough to recharge your 'house' batteries.

[booke23]

4 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

They hang on the bottom edge of the window on a caravan/motorhome with the pipework fed inside, so I'm not sure how they could be used on a boat TBH.

 

I have seen them in use in quite hot temps. though and they seem quite effective in cooling the relatively small area of a caravan.

 

 

 

Edit, I guess the main unit could be hung on the handrails or stood on the roof/bankside.

 

Yes I was thinking some sort of method could be found to mount them. I guess the big limitation on a boat is the relative shortness of the umbilical between the inside and outside unit.

 

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Still 45Ah tho'

 

(450Ah over 10 hours, so if you only use 50% of battery capacity you'd need  8 x 100Ah batterys and the means to recharge them every day, if you only wanted to run your engine/generator every 3 days you'd need 16 x 100Ah batteries)

Solar would assist, but then you'd probably not have enough to recharge your 'house' batteries.

 

Oh yes, a not insignificant power draw. But in todays world of gas free all electric boats with large Lithium battery banks and equally large solar setups, it would probably be feasible for some. Definitely so if you are on a shoreline.      

Edited September 17, 2023 by booke23

[magnetman]

I always thought AC window units looked interesting for boats. 

 

Takes up a bit of room but if one had a second set of front doors on lift off hinges and somewhere to keep the unit when not in use it could theoretically work. 

 

Cold beer as already suggested is the technically correct solution but window AC there is no umbillical. 

 

 

[Guest]

https://www.truma.com/uk/en/products/truma-air-conditioning/truma-saphir-compact-storage-box-air-conditioning-system

 

Truma also do a bunk/locker mounted a/c system that would probably better suited to a boat as you dont have to contend with the difficulties of roof fitting.

 

(The limiting factor being the ammount of cubic capacity they can effectively cool, which in a lot of boats will be greater than a caravan or motorhome).

[Naughty Cal]

For the few days a year we get uncomfortable temperatures is it really worth the expense and outlay?

 

You can  always find a way to keep cool in the short term.

 

Anyway it's winter soon. You can all complain its cold and you have condensation then 🤣🤣🤣

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, booke23 said:

Oh yes, a not insignificant power draw. But in todays world of gas free all electric boats with large Lithium battery banks and equally large solar setups,

 

Irrespective of battery type you will still need to replace (each day) 3x the 'normal' usage of a typical NB - Plus the normal usage as well.

There are dimensional constraints that limit the amount of solar a NB can carry.

 

If you want AC then accept that you need a houseboat on a permanent mooring with 'hook-up'.