240v rather than diesel eberspacher conversion

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2copplane

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I have a collection of oil filled radiators on my boat for heating the boat in the marina (free electric), and unless carefully stowed are a liability when sailing.

I've been searching for a kit that can augment my eberspacher heating to run off 240v rather than diesel.

I've found this: Eberspacher Airlectric Airtronic D4 2.0 Kilowatt 240V (E8519-P) at fadly.com

Has anyone any experience of this or similar, and where to source parts in the uk?
 
There are good low voltage AC units available to suit wet heating systems and they work well, but blown air supplementary has never been successful, I really wouldn't bother even if you can find one. As said earlier, buy a couple of fan heaters.
 
I have a couple of fan heaters on board but they are a bit noisy, hence we tend to use oil filled radiators. We do use the fan heater in really cold weather as the saloon needs the extra watts of heat.

I was looking for something more elegant and integrated to the boat, and cheap to provide some background heat. However I'll heed your advice.
 
David2452 said:
Drop the duct from 10" on those to the 4" max (normally closer to 3") and they would overheat in a heartbeat.
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Interesting, these are 1600watt and 4"
Http://www.ventilation-system.com/item/443/NK-100-1-6-1/

Similar on ebay are about £60.00. No idea if the air volume pumped by a the airtronic would be enough to keep the output under the auto cut off of 50C. I expect vent pipes would need lagging or little would make it to the outlets.

Purely hypothetical.
 
2copplane said:
Interesting, these are 1600watt and 4"
Http://www.ventilation-system.com/item/443/NK-100-1-6-1/

Similar on ebay are about £60.00. No idea if the air volume pumped by a the airtronic would be enough to keep the output under the auto cut off of 50C. I expect vent pipes would need lagging or little would make it to the outlets.

Purely hypothetical.
Click to expand...

Relies on a separate fan which could obviously be provided by fitting upstream of the heater and use the heater's ventilation function to pull air over it. Air volume should be acceptable with the larger heaters, so a possibility. Cutting out at 50⁰C could be an issue as the heat output at the vents would be quite low compared to the heater, can't really see it being any quieter than a properly installed diesel heater though, the air noise would be the same inside the cabin and a properly silenced diesel heater is a very quiet beast indeed outside.
 
David2452 said:
Here's one of the dedicated Eber units at £180

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Eberspacher-Airlectric-Electric-Air-Heater-Unit-for-Airtronic-D2-240v-1kW-E7354-/171236805227?pt=UK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories&hash=item27de824a6b
Click to expand...

Brilliant well spotted! Shame it isn't a 2kw model as I doubt 1kw would be enough (unless anyone else has real life experience?) but nice to see they come up for sale.

I've now started researching these £60 duct heaters as a cheaper alternative ideally the 1600watt as I should be able to run that with a kettle without blowing the 16amp fuse shore trip.

The D4 outputs roughly 120m3/hr in one of the high settings which is enough for the 1600watt duct heater. Next question is whether running on diesel will take the duct heater over the 90C that requires a hard reset next time i use it.
 
2copplane said:
The D4 outputs roughly 120m3/hr in one of the high settings which is enough for the 1600watt duct heater. Next question is whether running on diesel will take the duct heater over the 90C that requires a hard reset next time i use it.
Click to expand...

It almost certainly would, but not if installed upstream of the Eber, another alternative would be to use une of the controllable Y valves normally used to switch between or blend outside air with recirculated air. It does seem a lot of bother for what benefit?
 
David2452 said:
It almost certainly would, but not if installed upstream of the Eber, another alternative would be to use une of the controllable Y valves normally used to switch between or blend outside air with recirculated air. It does seem a lot of bother for what benefit?
Click to expand...

With you there. I have recently refuelled and was able to calculate that our 12 month old diesel D4 is costing us 27p / hr to run and that's keeping the main living area at 19 / 20 degs. I can live with that.
 
The positives are: My electric is free.my electric is free. It would be even quieter, and running the eber on diesel keeps daughter awake. More servicing required if running on diesel. It's a nice little project.
Benefits over fan heaters. Don't trust them, noisy, no good for heating heads and smaller cabins, circulates warm damp air, whereas the eber would draw mainly from outside. And don't like all the electrical items lying around, especially with young kids around.

If i averaged £5-10 per weekend in diesel then I would soon recoup the initial outlay probably within the year, though cost isn't the primary factor ( a full nights sleep from daughter is)

However I didn't realise how efficient the D4 is, so as a compromise I might try the eber on diesel but on its very lowest setting as it may be quiet enough, and just keep one oiled filled radiator in the saloon.

If only I could find a built in dehumidifier as well....
 
Please don't think it will be less noisy, the fan speed required to cope will make the interior noise just the same. Exhaust noise can be muted to almost inaudible with a proper marine silencer for about £120. However if the fuel is free we have an entirely new part to the equation, but that is the only area where a benefit will show. Running the heater on low setting is often counter beneficial as the increased service costs of more frequent decokes will offset any fuel saving.
 
I did state the free electric in the OP. thanks for confirming running on the eber on low will lead to more servicing. I'll try some experiments this weekend, including a borrowed silencer.
 
wow they look good Will, I think we could buy a few of these one in the salon one in the forepeak and a one in the aft cabin, thats 6 in all should be able to get a trade discount on that many LoL
 
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