A company I have worked with thru my insulation business has done a lot of marine insulation. They use polyureathane foam. It is an extremely good insulant. Timber framed houses are tricky to insulate. You can use cellulose insulation within the inner cavity void formed by the timber studs if there is one. Then there is draughtproofing which is not particularly difficult nor expensive but more of a labour of love to find the draughts.
For the heating there are some sensible suggestions here already.
I would add as a possibility for the wet heating system a water source heat pump. Typically you might place a radiator-like device into the water. https://www.nuenta.com/viewproduct.asp?pid=109 it would absorb heat from the water.
But here I wonder whether one might actually use the hull as the heat collector by running pipes round its inside.
It would be an interesting project and should in theory qualify for renewable heat incentive support!
Hi @Peter_Dunsby, thanks for the great information and welcome to the community. I also actually thought of the idea of putting a water-source heat pump into the river. In theory it should be at least as effective as a ground-source pump and has the advantage that you donāt have to dig any holes! Iāll take a look at your link. Thanks again.
Heat pumps are on my mind at the moment as my combi boiler was condemned a few weeks back. I can see why heat pumps would struggle on a boat, as itās a giant heatsink sitting in the water.
Iām surprised though that the COP was so close to 1. Iād be really interested to know what make and model that was and see their spec sheets? Did you mean -11C not +11C? Looking at Daikin and Panasonic units the SCOP for heating is around 4.7. Real world is bound to be a bit less of course.
Actually I was leaning towards air to air, but today I spoke to a heat pump installer who was really not keen on them. They only recommend air to water and he said theyāve just fitted solar to help someone with huge bills because their air to air system is getting a COP around 1.
Perhaps some systems are really that bad when the weather cools. It does seem strange for them to perform so badly as the outside units for air to air and air to water are doing the same basic job of getting heat into a refrigerant. Air to water systems can certainly be very efficient if properly specād and installed - this video I found yesterday is a great real world experience (and some serious detail!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2-_x0XZUSM Also air to air ought to have an advantage as it doesnāt have to transfer heat into the CH system water, or lose heat through pipes.
I just saw this post but I would recommend looking at what the federal government of Canada has to say. Because winterās here are down at -10 for long stretches and often get below -20c.
Good luck!