If you want to extend your season enjoying time in your boat, RV or caravan, you’ll want to stay nice and warm for longer in the year. You’ll need to know about insulation for boat RV or caravan.

Insulation for boat RV or caravan really is a basic requirement if, like us, you spend a lot of time using it. We actually live on our boat all year round and because we live in the north of England, we know just how cold the weather can get. We also know that during the summer months our boat gets very hot, it’s very useful that the insulation that keeps us warm in winter also helps to keep us cool in summer! Most of what relates to boats, in this sense, applies to RV’s and caravans too.

Insulation.

As far as insulation for boat RV or caravan is concerned the industry standard is spray foam. If your boat isn’t new, and you want to save bit of money you can do it yourself using insulation boards. Kingspan bonded to the hull with ‘Marineflex’ or similar can make a really nice job. I’d suggest a minimum thickness of an inch, two inches would be more efficient of course but space doesn’t always allow. Make sure there are no gaps between the boards and foil tape all the joints. A really good idea is to photograph the whole job to demonstrate to a future buyer that the job has been done properly.

Once the insulation is done you can continue with the refit. Have a thought about where water pipes and electrical cables are running so that you can avoid having to remove earlier work to perhaps hide a pipe or cable.

Pipe insulation

This is extremely important. This can include hot and cold water pipes as well as possibly hot air heater pipes too. There are situations where hot air pipes can travel quite long distances through areas that do not benefit from heating, but can cause high levels of heat loss. Insulation to these pipes will raise the efficiency of the heater and save money too.

Hot and cold water pipes are typically routed in a way that they are not noticed, generally hidden. Frozen water pipes can burst, resulting in a great deal of upheavel not to mention the cost. Note: it is important that water systems should be installed with drain taps at lowest points, allowing total drainage of the system. Engine systems that are closed should always be filled with the recommended amount of antifreeze, typically a 50/50 mix with water.

Heating

After completing your insulation for your boat rv or caravan, you’ll need to look towards suitable heating. It does require some thought. You have a choice of several types: –

Diesel heating is very common on many boats and RV’s etc. Glass fronted drip type space heaters can supply a focal point to a space and heat the immediate area by convection, whilst also heating water for radiators and calorifiers. Note: A calorifier is a specialised hot water cylinder that has coils inside that use heat provided either by an engine, a fire or both if it has twin coils. Generally, they also have a mains powered immersion heater.

Things you need to know.

Note: If you are using a diesel heater in a motorhome, you are probably using road fuel to fuel it. If you want to save money on your fuel, install a separate tank specifically to supply the heater only and fill it with the much cheaper red diesel, available from most marinas and some road fuel stations. It is a serious offence to use red diesel in a motorhome’s engine!

Diesel air and water heater heating.

Heaters of the Eberspacher or Webasto types can provide either hot air, or hot water, but not both. Blown air is piped around the boat to distribute the heat and can be quite effective. While the heated water types can supply radiators as well as calorifiers.

Electrical heating

Electrical heating can be very effective. It’s comparatively easy to install and very easy to use. Of course, the major downside is that you generally need to be attached to mains electricity to actually use it.

Solid fuel systems

Solid fuel stoves can be used in static caravans without problem. In that sense the stove is just as practical as it is in many boats. Many will be surprised to learn that in the marina where we are now, there is an RV fitted with a small solid fuel stove. The chimney is removable for travel. The stove itself, which I have seen, is a clever little thing that provides plenty of heat from very little fuel.

Our own stove is rated (we think) to about 10-12 KW output. We actually got the stove given free of charge. It was in a sorry state, but salvageable. Our old stove was ‘The Boatman Stove’ that we had bought new back in 2003. It had worked hard, but only had about 4-5KW output. In winter we used it in conjunction with electric heaters.

Rebuilding the ‘new’ stove cost me about £350.00. This may sound expensive, but in fact it covered the whole cost of the refurb plus the cost of stainless-steel plate that I used to make an internal heat exchanger. It’s all working really well. Now we have sufficient heat for the main cabin plus enough hot water for radiators around the boat and a 55-litre tank of hot water too. To buy a stove new with the same performance would have cost more than three times the price.

Conclusion

Whichever method you use to heat your space, reduce unwanted draughts to a minimum but remember, you must also include ventilation. In boating terms, we must have sufficient ventilation to meet the requirements of ‘The Boat Safety Scheme’. It’s a bit like a cars MOT certificate. Without a pass certificate we cannot legally use the waterway.

I hope I’ve given you something to think about. Stay warm

Just out of interest check out all about sprayfoam insulation

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