Downsides to gas heating systems?

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Saintlysimon

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Hello,

I'm searching through the forum, and have seena few people say they wouldn't install a gas central heating system. People seem to favour the webasto and eberspacher.

Can someone tell me why you wouldn't install a gas system? What are the downsides?

My current boat has an eberspacher and it makes a horrendous ticking sound, which is akin to Chinese water torture - so id rather not have one again (and it never goes away, even after a few hours of running)

Thanks
 
Our gas heater makes a noise when it's burning away, so I don't think you'll eliminate noise. My experience is that diesel heating is more powerful than gas.
 
I'm currently looking at this myself and approached the dealer. His view was that gas has historically been unreliable compared to diesel particularly underway as the movement caused issues. He did caveat with saying that as a result they almost never fit gas so the units themselves may have improved to the point that this is no longer a valid argument not to fit. His other concern and reason to go diesel was the risk of gas escape in the cabin which may be unfounded but does cause me to lean towards diesel.
I unfortunately have no personal experience but after discussing at length with them I am going to go for diesel (they have no affiliation btw so their biaise is purely led by experience).
 
indeed the ticking is each dose of fuel going in. Need to look but I think I installed my webasto pump suspended in the fuel line with mounting just before or after the pump.
There might be a rubberized bracket around the pump. Will look if I go this weekend. Don't think I can hear the ticking in the cabin.
 
Yep, the ticking sound with Eber is related to the installation of the pump and (I guess) the location of the fuel tanks. On my P42 it was massively annoying, because the fitters had lazily fitted the pump in the most convenient location for them, which was directly behind a sofa back in the saloon - so all you could hear was this variable-speed ticking. On my T40 the pump is mounted back in the engine room and you can't hear it at all in the cabins.
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Yep, the ticking sound with Eber is related to the installation of the pump and (I guess) the location of the fuel tanks. On my P42 it was massively annoying, because the fitters had lazily fitted the pump in the most convenient location for them, which was directly behind a sofa back in the saloon - so all you could hear was this variable-speed ticking. On my T40 the pump is mounted back in the engine room and you can't hear it at all in the cabins.
Click to expand...

I am sure it gets heaps of use in Antibes :-)
 
Having had both types of heater, I prefer a diesel to gas. My experience is based on an Eberspacher D1LC and a Propex HS2000, both fairly basic units.

The ticking from the Eberspacher pump can certainly be reduced by careful siting and mounting and I never found it a problem with mine.

I think that using LPG is likely to be more expensive that diesel. It is also more convenient as we carry much more diesel than gas.

The Propex heater is either full on or off and the temperature tends to vary over too wide a range for comfort. The Eberspacher fan runs continuously, adjusting the speed according the the demand for heat and seems to maintain a more even temperature.
 
If you mount the pump with rubber and use flexible pipes (en 7840) the noise is vastly reduced, I run a Mikuni and would recommend them over an Eber.
 
If you already have a generator, may be using a reverse cycle air conditioning unit in heat mode might come out to about the same overall expense in diesel fuel consumption.

A generator has an efficiency of about 33% when under 3/4 load or more. A reverse cycle air conditioner in heat mode outputs about 3-4x the heat as the electric energy input.

I.e. overall you get out about the same heat per unit of fuel as you would get in a diesel fired heating system (33% * 3 = 100%).

You can improve the heat pump efficiency of the reverse cycle air conditioner by using the waste heat from the generator to heat up the water going into the airconditioner heat pump. (But I think the gain does not necessarily outweigh the pain of setting that up and switching all the valves in the right way when using it).
 
Dave_Seager said:
Having had both types of heater, I prefer a diesel to gas. My experience is based on an Eberspacher D1LC and a Propex HS2000, both fairly basic units.

The ticking from the Eberspacher pump can certainly be reduced by careful siting and mounting and I never found it a problem with mine.

I think that using LPG is likely to be more expensive that diesel. It is also more convenient as we carry much more diesel than gas.

The Propex heater is either full on or off and the temperature tends to vary over too wide a range for comfort. The Eberspacher fan runs continuously, adjusting the speed according the the demand for heat and seems to maintain a more even temperature.
Click to expand...

yep diesel is better.
 
Saintlysimon said:
My current boat has an eberspacher and it makes a horrendous ticking sound, which is akin to Chinese water torture - so id rather not have one again (and it never goes away, even after a few hours of running)

Thanks
Click to expand...
My eberspacher doesn't sound like water torture so does that mean yours is faulty ? Or perhaps mine is faulty ?
Friend has Propex and it makes a noise like an airbus on take off ...........well not really but it makes a sound more so than the Eber. But perhaps its all related to the location and installation?
 
MartynG said:
My eberspacher doesn't sound like water torture so does that mean yours is faulty ? Or perhaps mine is faulty ?
Friend has Propex and it makes a noise like an airbus on take off ...........well not really but it makes a sound more so than the Eber. But perhaps its all related to the location and installation?
Click to expand...

From the feedback, it seems as though it is down to the location and also the installation. People have mentioned these rubber seating mounts. Ive seen others mention using a different type of connection from the pump. Some people seem to experience a ticking noise and others seem not to notice it. I do think the ticking noise is a part of the system, not a fault.

I popped onto a chaps boat today, he runs a gas system, its the latest Truma heating and water heating system. Snazzy little LCD panel. His system was not in the main cabin, all you can hear is the wind noise of the hot air coming through the ducting. That I could cope with.

Granted its more expensive. But I dont use mine all that often, only when away from the Marina.
 
Like the old red diesel problem with heaters the pump noise is really a thing of the past, granted the old pumps could be intrusive and particularly so if not correctly installed. The latest pumps and particularly the DP42 issued with Evo air heaters are a horse of an entirely different colour and when correctly installed are at least as quiet as a gas heater, coupled with the new process air silencer and inlet and exhaust system are really quiet, the one on my own boat easily allows me to sleep with one of the vents less than four feet from my ear. After all the installs I have done the greatest improvements have in my opinion come over the last couple of years or so and we are now in a place I couldn't have hoped for five years ago. As for LPG heaters, I have been asked on a few occasions to remove and replace with diesel but never vice versa, mostly people have one reason for fitting them and that is capital cost.
 
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