Heat reflecting windscreen cover

[Growltiger Girl]

Hello all

Last summer we spent 3 months in summer cruising the French inland waterways on our Princess 35. We had a fantastic time but found the boat got extremely hot when the sun beat down on it. My temporary solution was to buy several car windscreen sun shields (like this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anti-Fros...indscreen-Protection-Foil-Cover-/261300555303) and put them on the windscreen under the wipers, round the sides. This did help to keep the inside cooler but didn't look very nice and was time consuming to setup and wasn't very secure if there was any wind.

Has anybody had the same problem? What do you do?

Is it better to put heat reflective covers on the outside or inside of the windscreen? I would have thought outside in order to stop the glass heating up but I have seen lots of campervans where they have the padded, insulated, quilted covers on the inside. I'm not sure of the physics here but I'm hoping someone can explain and advise which is best.

Has anybody had covers made? If so by whom and what sort of cost?

Please don't say install air-con as we need a simple solution that we can use when we are wild mooring and don't have access to shore power to run an air-con unit. We don't have a generator and I don't want to install one.

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Whitelighter]

I have a mesh covering on my forward Windows which keeps the tempted tyre down very well (though I still stick the AC on).

 

[Nick_H]

I doubt there's much difference heatwise between internal and external covers, as the glass itself wont absorb much radiant heat, and the internal covers will be silver reflective with insulated backing whereas external will not (assuming you mean fitting car type screens, as opposed to internal fabric blinds?)

If you want external cover, it should be about £300. I prefer dense mesh (75% material, 25% holes) so you can still see through it. White will be more effective as it reflects more heat, but it will get dirty quickly. We use external because it's easier to fit and remove if we want to use lower helm.