Beating the Heat

[anhar]

I shall paint my boat an uncharacteristically light colour in that case... grey maybe.

As I see it, Britain is fundamentally a cool country. Admittedly we get a few hot days a year like now but they are by no means certain every year. Thus the average percentage of exceptionally hot days in a year is pretty small. The rest of the time, which is the large majority, it is cold enough to require the boat's heating to be used.

 

Thus if you were choosing a colour on the basis of heat absorption qualities you should choose those which are more effective most of the time which are the dark colours because you want to absorb heat into the boat for most of the year, which presumably aids in heating the boat to some extent. The trade off is that you then have to put up with excessive absorption on the few hot days but that is a better compromise than the reverse.

 

It's like houses, in very hot countries these are almost always white or other very light colours. In gloomy Britain with its poor light, darker building colours predominate. We need to absorb every ray of sunshine, so rare is it here.

 

Perhaps this is why most narrowboats are painted in darker colours, a tradition arising from a practical reason. Maybe. I'm pretty sure that if we were a very hot country, most narrowboats would in be very light colours.

 

regards

Steve

[DHutch]

I guess thats fair enough.

- Although if you basicaly only use the boat in high summer, for the 1/2 sunny weeks, then light would be better?

 

The other problem is that as light boats reflect more light they are brighter to look at.

- Might not be a problem for some, but for me, and espcailly my mum, it can be quite a problem, even with powerfull sun glasses.

 

 

Daniel

[Richard Bustens]

I would not have believed how much difference there is , last week i painted 2 wooden panels one black and one white, and left them in the conservatory when i went to move them the next day the white one was warm but the black one was so hot i could not lift it.

[Alastair]

dark colours also radiate heat more effectively - so on the basis that it is overcast and cold much of the year, we should paint our boats with light colours!

[Baron & Mrs Boater]

I bought a 12v car fan from Halfords for about £12. It is great, but I can't use it in the bedroom as it makes a noise like a harrier jump jet taking off, thus preventing restful shut eye !

[Bones]

I bought a 12v car fan from Halfords for about £12. It is great, but I can't use it in the bedroom as it makes a noise like a harrier jump jet taking off, thus preventing restful shut eye !

 

 

I have great admiration for anyone who can sleep in their bedroom in this heat... all I can do is sleep on the floor and dream of iceland.

[wrigglefingers]

I have great admiration for anyone who can sleep in their bedroom in this heat... all I can do is sleep on the floor and dream of iceland.

 

I wouldn't; the food is well dodgy and promoted by that woman from Atomic Kitten.

[Bones]

I wouldn't; the food is well dodgy and promoted by that woman from Atomic Kitten.

 

 

but I LOVE nightmares!

[NB Willawaw]

Nightmares ?

 

I dreamt last night that I am reincarnated from a murdered American actress from Houston.

 

Houston, I ask you !

I'd rather be a bed wetter.

 

We've escaped the boat for foreign soil so I don't know what the UK weather is doing but I hear its mighty hot at the moment.

 

I've never tried it, but I wonder if you rigged a bimini over and off the roof, whether this would stop the sun heating the steel up.

They do it on the boats out here and the shade seems to keep them cool.

 

Might be worth a try.

 

Certainly, it seems a bit OTT to fit A/C on a narrowboat.

 

Mind you they said that about A/C in cars once...

[DHutch]

I bought a 12v car fan from Halfords for about £12. It is great, but I can't use it in the bedroom as it makes a noise like a harrier jump jet taking off, thus preventing restful shut eye !

I have two 120mm 24v fans i scavinged out of the chem-eng skip a few week ago (they where cooling fans out of some random bit of equipment)

- Im running them off the 12v line of the PCs PSU, on of the desk, on of the floor, creating a great cross draught!

 

I wouldn't; the food is well dodgy and promoted by that woman from Atomic Kitten.

Ahh, good old atomic kitten, approamtly attractive, but little else....

 

 

 

I've never tried it, but I wonder if you rigged a bimini over and off the roof, whether this would stop the sun heating the steel up.

They do it on the boats out here and the shade seems to keep them cool.

Dont know what a bimini, but you could to worse than string a sheet over the bedroom, espcially if its a dark coloured boat.

 

Certainly, it seems a bit OTT to fit A/C on a narrowboat.

- Mind you they said that about A/C in cars once...

Yeah!

- And you wouldnt do without your aircon in your car!

 

The A/C in my dads car is currently not working, and man its hot!!

- Not as bad as trains with defunct air con tho, that is BAD!!

- Was on a train yesterday with bust A/C, roasting doesnt even cover it! It was absolutly packed from people pouring out of the download (envyous or what) and with the black roof's they all have!

 

 

Daniel

[Christine]

A 'puter type guy I know rigged up a mini computer fan, taken out of an old PC, by his bed - He said it worked a treat and created a surprisingly good breeze from something so tiny.

 

Chrissie

[DHutch]

A 'puter type guy I know rigged up a mini computer fan, taken out of an old PC, by his bed - He said it worked a treat and created a surprisingly good breeze from something so tiny.

Yeah, well thats basicaly what these fans are, just there 24v for some reason, so run a plesant speed off the 12v the computer supplys.

 

The most common size for PC case fans is 80mm, but 120mm dia ones are easly avalable two.

- BUt if your sleeping next to it or trying to think in the say room, you really need to run it at about 6/7volts to slow it down a little. Which is why the 24v ones are ideal!

 

Here we go "120mm Case fans @ SCAN computers"

- 60/80/92mm Fans also valable from SCAN HERE

 

As you can see, the prices hardly break the bank! And they make excelent extractor fans for your bath room too.

- A 92mm fan with the corner trimmed of is a beautifull fit inside a 4" mushroom!

 

 

Daniel

[Cafnod]

dark colours also radiate heat more effectively - so on the basis that it is overcast and cold much of the year, we should paint our boats with light colours!

 

 

Are you sure about this? I thought dark colours absorbed heat. Although even if that is so I dont think painting a boat dark is a good idea cos whn there is no heat to absorb it does not matter anyway.

[dor]

Are you sure about this? I thought dark colours absorbed heat.

 

It's a two way thing - a surface that is a good adsorber of heat will be a good radiator, both in terms of colour and physical form. Matt black being the best and shiny metal the worse.

[blackrose]

I don’t think so. Let call the whole cross-section the “system”, steel insulation and lining. The system has a U-value, which is the same “both ways” so heat, or preferably energy will pass through the system at the same rate either way.

 

 

I'm not sure that's right. The cross-section may indeed be seen as a "system" but I think that system can behave differently according to which side the heat is coming from?

 

For example, the cross section of underfloor foil backed insulating foam (that B&Q sell), could be seen as a "system" too - foil & foam. If its U-value is the same in either direction then why do they tell you to install it in a particular orientation - foil up or down or whatever? In this example the foil is reflecting the heat/cold, in the case of the steel (in the steel/foam system) on the boat it is conducting it.

[Cafnod]

It's a two way thing - a surface that is a good adsorber of heat will be a good radiator, both in terms of colour and physical form. Matt black being the best and shiny metal the worse.

 

Hi Dor, I am not being deliberately obtuse here but if this were the case why are radiators (nearly) always white in houses? Surely that would make them extremely inefficient as they would not be allowing as much heat to escape as a darker coloured radiator.

[Alistair]

Hi Dor, I am not being deliberately obtuse here but if this were the case why are radiators (nearly) always white in houses? Surely that would make them extremely inefficient as they would not be allowing as much heat to escape as a darker coloured radiator.

 

I agree with Dor - but radiators in houses are painted white for two reasons:

 

* aesthetics

 

* so they don't get too hot.

 

I remember painting a radiator black in a house I used to live in and it got *very* hot - so much so that there was a lot less heat left for the other rads.

[elessina]

We have a ivory cabin top and grey 10" wide gunnels. During hot weather the ivory is cool to touch, but the grey is always to hot to walk on bare footed. The grey is a fairly light grey (International deck paint).

 

Inside temp on board last weekend peaked at 27 deg. We have 30mm spray foam insulation. We had all windows open. Moored in Kent (20 miles SE of London).

 

Our 12 year old house inside temp peaked at around 33 deg (our daughter was at home with windows open).

 

So happy to report cooler on board than at home and although we considered installing air con, not justified with last weekend temperatures (or last summers temp when 27 deg was around the max with windows open).

 

I am sure the ivory colour helps keep the boat (60 ft barge) cool.

 

Ian

DB Elessina

Edited June 13, 2006 by elessina

[aread2]

I saw in one of Waterways World's recent new build reviews that at least one builder is ducting the saloon vents through the bilge and fitting 12v fans in them to give bilge cooled fresh air.

[blackrose]

We have a ivory cabin top and grey 10" wide gunnels. During hot weather the ivory is cool to touch, but the grey is always to hot to walk on bare footed. The grey is a fairly light grey (International deck paint).

 

Inside temp on board last weekend peaked at 27 deg. We have 30mm spray foam insulation. We had all windows open. Moored in Kent (20 miles SE of London).

 

Our 12 year old house inside temp peaked at around 33 deg (our daughter was at home with windows open).

 

So happy to report cooler on board than at home and although we considered installing air con, not justified with last weekend temperatures (or last summers temp when 27 deg was around the max with windows open).

 

I am sure the ivory colour helps keep the boat (60 ft barge) cool.

 

Ian

DB Elessina

 

I guess I'll have to do a paint job & then rename my boat Ivory Rose!

[Maffi]

I have a very simple way of beating the heat.

 

 

I'm coming back to the UK.

[anhar]

I have a very simple way of beating the heat.

I'm coming back to the UK.

More a case of beating the cold then Maffi eh? This place is so damned freezing most of the year.

[bottle]

I have a very simple way of beating the heat.

 

 

I'm coming back to the UK.

 

Yes but when

 

(been keeping up with your progress from other places)

[onionbargee]

One sneeky answer to this is get as solar powered pond fountain, and let it pump canal water over your cabin. just put a hose on it with a slow trickle, for a day and see the difference, it's like a fridge !

[Bones]

One sneeky answer to this is get as solar powered pond fountain, and let it pump canal water over your cabin. just put a hose on it with a slow trickle, for a day and see the difference, it's like a fridge !

 

ingenius!!!