30boat
N/A
A wood burning stove if you have the room is much more effective.I made one for a friend and he's delighted with it.
Boat Heating on a Budget
- Thread starter andythilo
- Start date
Trundlebug
Well-Known Member
That's right, but you connect to the heater matrix using standard rubber heater hose from the engine, which you'll find slips on nicely with a jubilee clip. It's also much easier to route through the boat, round bends etc.
I forgot to mention, to find out more about the Webasto Madera units, have a chat with your local Webasto dealer about the Madera 4 or 8, they are very quiet and may be marginally cheaper than Kuranda. I have to say though I have been impressed with Kuranda kit, we have a Wallas diesel heater that's very reliable, and I also fitted a 12v solenoid operated valve for the heater matrix so I could switch the water flow on and off (to blow cold or hot). Good service from Kuranda in my experience. Their diesel cookers are supposed to be good too, but that's another subject.
Good luck
T
ironmaiden
Well-Known Member
thats the road I'm going down..... and I'm thinking of putting a pipe coil inside it as well so that I can have hot water!!
regards rachel
andythilo
Well-Known Member
Well i'll be fitting mine after the calorifier so water temp coming out of the matrix wont be an issue.
andythilo
Well-Known Member
Thanks I spoke to Kuranda and they explained the 16mm bit, saying it was a barbed connection ready to take hose so thats fine. The solenoid valve is an interesting idea although i'm not sure I could do it, well i'd have to T off the output of the calorifier as if it was inline and I shut it off, i'd close off the whole circuit!
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
Raw water cooled engines work fine with calorifiers if they are plumbed correctly. The heating water is not taken from the manifold discharge, as many assume, because this water also includes the bypass water, so its temperature may not be much more than 40C. Instead, as suggested by andythilo, water is circulated from the top of the engine block, through the calorifier/heater and back to a low point on the block. This normally requires the assistance of a circulating pump. Temperatures out of the engine should be around 60 - 65 C, a little cooler than with an indirect cooled engine but plenty for a calorifier.
More details on my website.
lw395
Well-Known Member
cheap heating
Before I bought the eber, I tried simply plumbing a VW Polo heater into the cooling circuit of a Yanmar 3 GM.
Points learned were:
Fan on polo heater takes up to about 9Amps.
Car heater matrices give a lot of resistance to airflow and need serious fans (or a forward air intake and more airspeed than a yacht...).
Yanmar 3GM does not generate very much waste heat at low revs/tickover, it needs to be driving the boat. But even a small amount of free heat can help keep the boat warmer and dry. Obviously depends how you use the boat, but to motor out of Portsmouth is just enough waste heat to do the calorifier nicely, not much more it seems.
When I bought the eber (hydronic), I found that getting the heat from the water to the air was more difficult than envisaged, you either need a lot of surface area or use a fair amount of electric current running fans. Next time would consider an air heater but would miss the hot water for showers etc.
It would be nice if the ducting etc was designed into the boat from the start.
You have to shift a fair mass of air to get each kilowatt from a heater at 70degC into air at 20degC.
I would buy an eber/basto if I could, it would be value added to the boat imho.
Before I bought the eber, I tried simply plumbing a VW Polo heater into the cooling circuit of a Yanmar 3 GM.
Points learned were:
Fan on polo heater takes up to about 9Amps.
Car heater matrices give a lot of resistance to airflow and need serious fans (or a forward air intake and more airspeed than a yacht...).
Yanmar 3GM does not generate very much waste heat at low revs/tickover, it needs to be driving the boat. But even a small amount of free heat can help keep the boat warmer and dry. Obviously depends how you use the boat, but to motor out of Portsmouth is just enough waste heat to do the calorifier nicely, not much more it seems.
When I bought the eber (hydronic), I found that getting the heat from the water to the air was more difficult than envisaged, you either need a lot of surface area or use a fair amount of electric current running fans. Next time would consider an air heater but would miss the hot water for showers etc.
It would be nice if the ducting etc was designed into the boat from the start.
You have to shift a fair mass of air to get each kilowatt from a heater at 70degC into air at 20degC.
I would buy an eber/basto if I could, it would be value added to the boat imho.
NormanS
Well-Known Member
I had a wood burner on my last boat, a 60 ft converted MFV, and even with a big boat like that, storage for logs was an issue, but great fun. We carried a chain saw, and harvested logs on the shore.
The fire, a Morso Squirrel, was down below in the saloon, the chimney was 4" steel pipe, and I had a 4 foot length of 6" pipe round it as a water jacket, which fed a radiator, just by convection, up in the deckhouse. The system worked wonderfully well, and by extracting the waste heat from the flue, was very efficient. The drawback of having anything cooling the flue, either your proposed coil, or my water jacket, is that it produces lots of tar in the flue. I had a long boring tool, and using an electric drill, had to bore out the flue periodically. Have fun.
chrishelen
N/A
Nice website vyv.
planteater
Well-Known Member
This forum is a fantastic resource! I've been thinking about cheapo heating for my 22 footer and then a thread like this appears. Given that a 1Kw fan heater keeps the boat toasty while ashore I'm fairly sure that a Kalori unit will provide welcome winter warmth.
I must confess, however, I'm not wild about the idea of pumping seawater through a second hand van heater matrix. Surely, the potential for corrosion and leaks would be high. Or am I missing something?
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