Insulation

So much of this vessel has been playing catch-up with our somewhat premature launch.  Through the summer, the highly reflective skin of our membrane kept us cool and sheltered.  Now with winter coming on, though, we can see that condensation may start being a problem, not to mention the desire not to find myself a Mungosickle by morning.

So today we began installing a foil backed glorified bubble wrap under the membrane.  The one we wound up using was Ecofoil, though there are a number of similar products on the market, including Reflectix and a few others.  This is basically two layers of small bubbles clad both sides in aluminized mylar reflective material.  The resultant fabric is VERY tough, and with an air gap, you can get about R 7 out of the installation.

I of course recommend doing this BEFORE you put on the freaking membrane during the original build, but time and money conspired.  The Ecofoil is fairly flexible, and VERY resistant to tearing, fortunately.  Almost immediately, you can feel your own body heat being reflected back at you.

But as you can see by the look on Morgainne's face, doing this over your head is hot work, and fatiguing.

The result, though, is going to be a much more comfortable winter space.

We're lining the interior between the rafters with a selection of cool old tablecloths we've been collecting over the years, which will not only give us something to look at and make the bedroom look a bit less like the interior of a beer can, it will give us another 3" or so of air gap as insulation.

It's time.  The trees are turning in a rather spectacular show of color along the river, and tonight will dip into the 30's for the first time this fall.

All in easy view of our now cozier home.

M

Hey, check out our other Blogs:

Life, Art, Water
Onboard Cooking
Mungo's Forge
Gail Elwell's New Works