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The sun came out yesterday and......


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Now I'm probably going to to get beaten over the head by traditionalist boaters but.

 

The Sun really did come out yesterday and we decided to head north of Cambridge in search of moorings sites around the Ely area, very fruitful it was too. as we are looking to have a fixed base from November to to March each year

 

Speaking to one of the boat owners at this particular remote and exposed site, she mentioned her lovely garden to sit in on those days that were too hot for sitting in the boat.

 

We had heard a couple of folks also mention the problem of hot days being unbearable inside a boat and as we like to remain fairly cool on hot days (our house has air con) so It got me thinking.

 

I often see small slim air con units on the top of trucks cabs (for the waggon itself I mean, not those big gensets on the trailer unit) , esp noticable in the south of France, Spain etc and wondered if they could be xferred to narrowboats or indeed if there was a specialised genset and device available.

 

Have any narrowboaters fitted aircon at all? is it feasable? What do you charge other boaters to come and sit in your boat?? :PB)

 

Would the fitting of such a device (if poss) promote you as a bigger source of disgust than having a bow thruster or the wrong loo?

 

is this a question too far?

Edited by jim and pat dalton
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Now I'm probably going to to get beaten over the head by traditionalist boaters but.

 

The Sun really did come out yesterday and we decided to head north of Cambridge in search of moorings sites around the Ely area, very fruitful it was too. as we are looking to have a fixed base from November to to March each year

 

Speaking to one of the boat owners at this particular remote and exposed site, she mentioned her lovely garden to sit in on those days that were too hot for sitting in the boat.

 

We had heard a couple of folks also mention the problem of hot days being unbearable inside a boat and as we like to remain fairly cool on hot days (our house has air con) so It got me thinking.

 

I often see small slim air con units on the top of trucks cabs (for the waggon itself I mean, not those big gensets on the trailer unit) , esp noticable in the south of France, Spain etc and wondered if they could be xferred to narrowboats or indeed if there was a specialised genset and device available.

 

Have any narrowboaters fitted aircon at all? is it feasable? What do you charge other boaters to come and sit in your boat?? :-) :-)

 

Would the fitting of such a device (if poss) promote you as a bigger source of disgust than having a bow thruster or the wrong loo?

 

is this a question too far?

 

We bought a boat that is white and stays nice and cool in the cabin. No need for air con :lol:

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Yes aircon can and has been fitted to narrowboats a boat centre near me does it, but its far from cheap. Aircon is a rof mounted integrated condenser evaporator unit electrically driven which would mean a travelpack power supply. If I remember properly the unit allows ducting to spread the effect. Really great for de-humidifing a boat... I'm not sure whether its a reversible design permitting heating in winter ...

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Every boat has air-con, it's called "opening the windows/hatches/doors"...

Agreed. We have a light coloured roof which helps, but with side hatches, doors & windows open it's never been a problem.

 

Once or twice we have left a hatch open overnight when it's been really warm.

 

Tony

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I've looked into this, and the power consumption for aircon for a narrowboat would be pretty large.

 

A 50' internal length cabin on a 6'10" boat would require a 3kW aircon unit. That's about as much leccy as a fridge, washing machine, vacuum cleaner and microwave oven being used at the same time.

 

An icemaker, on the other hand, uses just 150W. If ice doesn't cool your drink enough for you, just drop a few chunks down the back of your neck.

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You'd only need the air con in the summer, which is when you won't have shoreline. It would be horribly expensive to run.

 

We've never had much of a problem keeping the boat cool in summer. You just need a through draft - doors (and covers) open at both ends, and ideally a hatch or fully openable window somewhere in between (especially if you don't have a straight unobstructed run through the boat).

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You'd only need the air con in the summer, which is when you won't have shoreline. It would be horribly expensive to run.

 

We've never had much of a problem keeping the boat cool in summer. You just need a through draft - doors (and covers) open at both ends, and ideally a hatch or fully openable window somewhere in between (especially if you don't have a straight unobstructed run through the boat).

or pour a couple of buckets of canal water over the roof. You could even hang a submersable pump over the side and have a sprinkler system

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I don't like too much heat, but we've managed to survive hot summer days and nights without aircon via:

 

Opening windows/hatches in such a way as to produce a draft.

 

Closing blinds/curtains on the sunny side of the boat (i.e. doing what those who live in hot countries do). That makes a big difference.

 

For sleeping: having a small fan in the bedroom. You can turn this into a mini aircon unit by directing the fan over a small tray of water or, even better, ice.

 

Another trick to cool down a hot interior is to use one of those garden sprays filled with ice cold water from the fridge, and spray the boat using the fine spray. Cools down the air noticeably, and the small amount of water quickly dries.

Edited by Québec
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I have been vaguely looking into this, but rather than just aircon, at air source heat pumps. Basicly the same thing but they do hot and cold. The better half is from Finland where many houses have this as the primary source of heating as they are quite efficent.

 

Our stove is great for heating the boat but reliant on us being there and I am not keen to come back to a cold/frozen boat in the winter. We have looked at diesel heating systems but so many people seem to have problems with them and diesel isn't going to get any cheaper !

 

The modern inverter systems tends to be a two part system, the external heat pump and the internal blower box. These are connected together by 2 copper pipes for the refrigerant. Seems really easy to install but they do need commisioning by someone with the relevant aircon gas licence. This has been the problem so far as peeps we have spoken to want stupid money for this so on hold.

 

When specing the system they tend to be listed by output, with the required energy input at about third of this, so a 5kw systen would need 2kw input. Fine if you have shore power but not sure about on the move !

 

Edit for smelling

Edited by Bat & Frog
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I had thought and expected that you would need to properly power it, hence the mention of Gensets.

 

 

However after reading the above, we shall just ignore those folk who have moaned about the heat and kinda forget the subject until we find out what it is really like

 

 

Thanks for the replies, very helpful

 

 

jim and pat

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You'd only need the air con in the summer, which is when you won't have shoreline. It would be horribly expensive to run.

 

We've never had much of a problem keeping the boat cool in summer. You just need a through draft - doors (and covers) open at both ends, and ideally a hatch or fully openable window somewhere in between (especially if you don't have a straight unobstructed run through the boat).

 

Air con is useful in the winter months as well. Its is a very effective dehumidifier. We use the air con in the car far more in the winter than the summer!!

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I had thought and expected that you would need to properly power it, hence the mention of Gensets.

 

 

However after reading the above, we shall just ignore those folk who have moaned about the heat and kinda forget the subject until we find out what it is really like

 

 

Thanks for the replies, very helpful

 

 

jim and pat

 

Sorry, just come in on this thread rather late. We had one of this style of air con unit fitted as standard to a boat in France Roof air con, which is the style I think you are talking about. It proved to be pretty poor in performance to be honest and didn't really make a huge amount of difference. The one we had also broke down twice which was a nuisance as, while it was away for repair, we had to make and fit a temporary lid to cover the hole in the roof. Our experience with our narrow boats is that good insulation and portholes, rather than bus windows, alleviates too much of the problem on the rare days when it occurs.

Roger

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  • 4 weeks later...

Reminds me of my brother when he had a holiday in Egypt. He hired a car and drove around with all the windows open sweating his gonads off. He couldn't understand why everyone else drove around with their windows shut!

 

Tone

Edited by canaldrifter
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