advice on heating my boat please

A heater is for life, not just for winter

The OP says he can't afford or justify a permanent heating solution. So which is it, afford or justify?
If it's cost then ok but justify.... I find that at our high latitudes I heat the boat most evenings even in the summer. In fact I have two heaters both diesel fired, one a Webasto and the other a Sigmar 100 which has a visible flame for cosiness and also for the times when the Webasto decides that it needs servicing.
Maybe I'm just a wimp :)
 
Avoid any heater that burns hydrocarbons (gas and oil), wood or coal that discharges its burnt gaseous products into the cabin. As you have realised, there is a severe risk of death through CO poisoning. If you cannot afford an Eberspacher there are oil cabin heaters with flues but you'd have to cut a hole in your cabin roof and they aren't much cheaper anyway. Sorry can't help further.
 
sarabande said:
Would you take a small caravan used as a lambing shed in winter on Exmoor as a suitable trial site ?

Dylan, you are being like King **** (EDIT.... Bloody swear filter. I wrote C N U T) over the "candles as heater" claim.


Have a look at Hydrozoan's outline above. For his upper range of thermal loss, you would need about 40 (four zero) candles.
Click to expand...

I sincerely apologise for having upset you in some way

I bow to your superior knowledge of sheep and caravans and note that you have never tried heating a small space with four tealights

I confess to being confused as to why my post justifies the use of rude words ...

D
 
Last edited:
Propex hot blown air heaters are pretty good and about 2KW heat output for £500. I am not sure they are any better than Ebers, Mikuni,Webasto but at a third the cost worth consdering. Very simple to fit and install also.
 
catalac08 said:
Propex hot blown air heaters are pretty good and about 2KW heat output for £500. I am not sure they are any better than Ebers, Mikuni,Webasto but at a third the cost worth consdering. Very simple to fit and install also.
Click to expand...

+1
Depending on number of outlets, you can be talking about £420 for a Propex. Very different to the '£2k' that people are banding about for a webasto etc.

You could always take it with you to your next boat, or sell it separately, if you think it's too much to invest into your Trapper?
 
dylanwinter said:
I sincerely apologise for having upset you in some way

Not upset at you personally, Dylan, but concerned that you still think candles is a good and safe way to heat a boat

I bow to your superior knowledge of sheep and caravans and note that you have never tried heating a small space with four tealights

I don't need to try the experiment. I know the risks and the impacts, on a technological basis.


I confess to being confused as to why my post justifies the use of rude words ...

You are being disingenuous. Old Norse may not be one of your interests, then. King Canute (bowdlerised English name in schoolboy history books) is really Knútr inn ríki (**** the important)

D
Click to expand...

I can understand why you wish to continue to be associated with the virality (?) of your film, but I sincerely believe it is wrong of you to continue to espouse and promote the belief that heating a boat by candles is effective or safe.
 
On our last boat before we could afford an eber we had a gas calorifier heater for the saloon but for the aft cabin we ran an electric blanket on its lowest setting via an inverter and it was blooming brilliant. It's amazing how warm the bed was and although it took about 40% out of the 100amp battery we never anchored for more than a night at a time in winter and running the engine for an hour on the way back the next day sorted it out.
 
First boat I owned, that I wished to heat, was a westerly21. Dylan, I did try the flowerpot method. Even made a super mk2 version with four flowerpots each smaller than the other and a large central bolt as per countless youtube films. I have to report they did not heat the boat at all. I am talking very cold weather mind. I then installed a Victory parrafin heater. External flue etc. didn't really heat the boat either.

Second boat, a flush decked 24' gaffer came with a charcoal heater. Loved its but heat was very localised so I added a computer fan to the deck head which didn't really help.

Current boat (28' wheelhouse motor sailer). I fitted a webasto 3500 with two vents from David of this parish for a tad under £700 iirc. Including all ducting and fittings. All but silent and actually HEATS the boat! I guess it is a case of you get what you pay for.
 
When i had a large boat, i had an eber for use when off grid and a fan heater when electric available. Did have a couple of repairs on the eber but found it great and ducted air around the boat is wonderful. When you consider how many are in use, they seem to be reliable to me despite the odd fault reported on here. You need a good battery though and means of charging during the day.
The main thing with heating is to avoid burning and venting hydrocarbons inside the boat which can be fatal.
I like the look of the Sigmar heaters but they don't distribute the heat like blown air.
My new boat has no room for heating of any kind but i have a warm sleeping bag for chilly evenings and can reach the kettle without getting out of bed.
 
sarabande said:
I can understand why you wish to continue to be associated with the virality (?) of your film, but I sincerely believe it is wrong of you to continue to espouse and promote the belief that heating a boat by candles is effective or safe.
Click to expand...

Virality = appertaining to unicellular animals which frequently cause disease - by usage any news which passes round fast by social websites.
Virility = appertaining to men who have an excess of testosterone.

In Dylan's case 1. might apply, mainly due to people finding it hard to believe one could really believe in the hypothesis.

However I tend to think of Dylan rather as court jesters, especially those in early Irish kingdoms, were considered. Touched by the Gods, otherworldly, but frequently challenging accepted wisdom and making people review and validate their views.

We should be thankful for his frequent "pokes" on this site.
 
charles_reed said:
Virality = appertaining to unicellular animals which frequently cause disease - by usage any news which passes round fast by social websites.
Virility = appertaining to men who have an excess of testosterone.

In Dylan's case 1. might apply, mainly due to people finding it hard to believe one could really believe in the hypothesis.

However I tend to think of Dylan rather as court jesters, especially those in early Irish kingdoms, were considered. Touched by the Gods, otherworldly, but frequently challenging accepted wisdom and making people review and validate their views.

We should be thankful for his frequent "pokes" on this site.
Click to expand...



incidentally, just the one person on this thread who claimed to have first hand experience of candle heaters

and for some reason he bolted the pots together - thereby choking off the air flow

that makes as much sense as putting a convector heater in a sealed box.

in the same post he mentioned adding a fan to a charcoal heater to improve the airflow yet failed to spot that he had gone to some effort to stop convection from working on his home made candle heater.

Well done for trying but slightly missing the point

I do love it when people would prefer to apply pseudo maths and deeply held beliefs rather than trying the simple experiment for themselves.

the war department suggested using a similar system for taking the chill off anderson shelters - different times of course. However, clearly they knew nothing either.

I do love this place - the way people pile in with the expensive solutions to every problem and then get upset when some-one suggests that it might be worth trying something simpler and cheaper first.

I also greatly enjoy the way people raise fears and worries.

Four tealights in a bread tin.

Surely walking down a wet pontoon is much, much much more dangerous. As for attempting to get from a yacht into a dinghy...

On the scale of risks we take every day lighting four candles is pretty low down

No candle heater is going to turn the cabin into teashirts and flip flops when it is freezing outside as I am sure a webasto could do - provided you have a battery bank big enough to keep the sucker going.

however, a few candles and a fpair of flower pots to help the convection work properly really is a useful way of keeping the chill off the cabin in that period between when you have finished cooking and when you decide to turn in

and it avoids spending £1000/£2000 on an eber or webasto installation - which is more money than some blokes have invested in their whole boat.

Dylan

this from the youtube comments
·
ALittleTimeOut
3 weeks ago

I watched your video last year and shared it with my business networking group. Now quite a few of us have our own plant pot heaters. This really helped to bring my heating bills down last year. I have just lit my heater again and my small home office is nice and cosy again. Many thanks!
Reply
·
1
KeepTurningLeft
3 weeks ago

+ALittleTimeOut that is very decent of you to post the comment - of course you do know (according to several posts) that the heater does not work and that your feeling of warmth must there-fore be entirely illusory
Reply
·
1
ALittleTimeOut
3 weeks ago

+KeepTurningLeft It depends how big the rooms are they are trying to heat. Mind you if it is all an illusion it is working well on the thermometer which has gone from 18 to 22 an hour after I lit it. Who would have thought that thermometers can also be suceptible to illusions. Ha Ha!
Reply
·
3
 
Last edited:
doug748 said:
You have obviously not considered the very real possibility that your insurance may be invalid.

Mrs Trellis (North Wales)
Click to expand...

Dear Mrs Trellis,

you raise a most important point and it is one that forumites need to be aware of at all times

having looked at my insurance I now see that there is a special clause informing me that it will be invalid if I allow naked flames on the boat, the use of any combustible material such as gas, petrol, meths, diesel or paraffin is strictly forbidden. It says that unless I use a bruce anchor my insurance will be void. Water close to electronics also invalidates the insurance. I must have an up to date life raft, PLB, AIS, qualifications to yachtmaster level and first aid to grade eight. I am beginning to beleive that this sailing business is rather too dangerous

I have decided to give up sailing before I die

D
 
I do love it when people would prefer to try the simple experiment for themselves, instead of doing their science homework. (See note 1)

Also see post #52, where a forumite has found the candle central heating is a failure.


It does not heat a boat. It cannot heat a boat.* It may warm your hands when they are about 6 inches away. It produces carbon nano particles which people breathe in. It produces water vapour which requires energy (i.e. more heat) or ventilation (i.e. more cold external air :) ) to remove.

*Just to ease Dylan's mind on this. By heating a boat, I mean raising the general internal temperature from say 5C to a tolerable 12C. Even in his wildest dreams, our peripatetic Sage of the Paraffin Wax would not claim that his 4 candle system would raise cabin temp to the 16C minimum recommended by HSE.

As a self-employed person Dylan has a legal obligation to provide a “reasonable” temperature in his workplace. The Approved Code of Practice suggests a minimum temperature in workrooms should normally be at least 16C. This temperature is not a legal minimum requirement; his core duty is to determine what reasonable comfort will be in the particular circumstances when he uses his boat as an office.

I am beginning to believe that some people enjoy breathing in nano-particles and noxious gases.


Note 1. I like the old story of the scientist, who on achieving the results he wanted in a science experiment, exclaimed. "That's wonderful to see it working in practice; now I wonder if it works in theory."
 
Last edited:
Dear Mrs Trellis,

I regret to inform you that under no circumstances should you ever attempt to use candles as a source of heat.

I have been informed in a most enlightening missive from a correspondent (a former resident of Golgafrincham I believe) that the use of such devices is in breach of universally accepted HSE and working conditions regulations.

It is therefore illegal for me to do any winter sailing in any yacht unless it is fitted with a properly tested and installed heating system from Eber or Websasto.

No more winter sailing for me.

I myself have succesfully taken myself to court for allowing my cabin temperature to drop below 16 degrees C while knocking out a column for an almost unknown sailing magazine

The swinging fine has been a most excellent lesson to all concerned.

I have burned all my tealights and put all flower pots and bread tins in the recycling bin

D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top