Dry heating for a tenner

RupertW

RupertW

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I'm about to have a bit of time off, and once I run out of DIY tasks at home I'm probably going to do a bit of day sailing in my not very luxurious old 24 footer, with the odd bit of port-hopping.

Now in the Summer I'd be fine kipping overnight without heating, and have a cheapo fan heater for cold mornings. Given the lack of marina staff around on Winter evenings to get electricity switched on to a visitor's berth, then any ideas on cheap alternatives to electric heating?

My only idea so far is to put a cooker ring on, but not sure that'll help dry the boat.
 
Cooker ring .... a) you'll need to leave hatch open a bit to allow fresh-air in, b) LPG burning increases moisture in the air significantly.

I know others have poo-poo'd the idea before ... but a Finesse I visited many moons ago ... had similar to an old Hilyard I knew as a child. A parafin heater - the old tall tube style ones with wide round parafin tank bottom and wick. The tank has a joint ridge around its circumference and the owners had cut a hole in the cabin sole to fit and butt up against this ridge - holding the whole affair rigidly in place. They only used it when alongside and not liable to be on beam ends ....
Yes it has same problem as the cooker ring ... needs good supply of fresh air passing through cabin and also produces moisture ... but IMHO far safer than a cooker gas ring.

Ok if you have a spirit stove - the risk is less than with gas and could work ... but open flame ?
 
I agree with sbc - paraffin heaters are effective. If you buy good fuel, they don't smell much, either. Your gas ring will heat up the top of the cabin and leave the bottom perishing.
I tried staying on board with a rinnai gas bottle mounted heater once - it was not successful because the gas bottle froze up!

Neil
 
On an earlier post someone suggested placing a flower pot on top of the gas ring then turing the gas of after the pot has heated up. Not tried it but seems to be a good idea
 
Ah, now that's getting into my budget - and should mean gas on for less than 10 minutes, so a lot safer. Hmm..might the pot absorb some of the moisture too, I wonder.
 
Even better than a flower pot is one of those ( extremely heavy) bricks from inside an electrical storage heater - put it over a very low gas for an hour and it will still be warm in the morning - if you get up early enough that is.......
 
Ive had the same needs. The most successful "non specific" heater.I went through three stages the first to have a local plumber make a heater body with chimney from copper soldered together cost £40!! Result when placed over the cooker burner compleat succsses heated wonderfully untill the solder melted and it fell apart!!

Next (as it was Freezing) Aluminium sauspan about a foot accros i cut a hole and pushed in a chimney(from the copper one) used gun gum so no leaks vented via an air vent i took out so as not to have to cut another hole.

Went to scrap yard and found what had been an auto clave 6 inch accross 18 inces high had a stainless pipe weldedin that sits on the gas ring and heats wonderfully untill the gas ran out!!

You can also go to a ironmonger buy a standard solid fule domestic heater chimney fron steel(10 euros)or stainless (65 euros)50cms long then buy a cap cut a hole for your chimney pipe and have it welded in or weld a flange and push in fit that will sit on your stove and work perfectly! Its in pricipal the same as a force ten gas heather without gas safty cutout!!! This is the best version the lest costly and simplest.

You can also add a single burner dedicated jam makeing ^type gas ring had have the heater where you want!!

Ive gone a step further modifieing the auto clave and adding a talors drip feed and safty cut out into a burner pot Drip feed cost 2 euros from a sunday market in Grimaud found it amongst some other useful junk!!!Other wise i would still be useing the gas system and getting fit changeing gas cubes every few days!!

As your in the uk you could just pop along to their factory and ask for one perhaps a burner pot as well but that has to be welded into the body so you can just as soon make one!

Good heating!!

Just read the post about parrafin heaters!Tried that they heat really well but even moveing about the boat causes them to flare up Really DANGEROUSE!!

Last winter i tried that and petrol heaters that dont flare up but have other draw backs!! I was experimenting on the key so as not to set fire to the boat when the police came to warn me about Muslims as they were burning anything they could the police saw my experiments and sent the firebregade along who made it very clear they dident think much of my Petrol heater and less of the parrafin!!! So back to the gas just the hissing gets on the nerves arter a while
 
We used to do that on our Primus cooker. Worked a treat.

Make sure that it is not a glazed pot as we found that the expansion of the pot as it heated caused little bits of glazing to be shot around the place.

Our pot had a crack in it and when heated the crack opened up to around 15mm but returned to normal as soon as the pot cooled.

Just do not touch the pot until it is truly cold as it, for some odd reason, cause swear words to be uttered.

Cheers

W
 
Just a word of warning:

Any gas, charcoal, parafin heater will produce Carbon Monoxide so, as previously mentioned, good ventilation is essential.

I would also add that if any of these methods are to be used it is very important to fit a carbon monoxide detector.
 
If you could get a small domestic/caravan gas heater with a flue, that gets rid of the condescension: fit it against the forepeak bulkhead with the flue on the other side and warm the forepeak as well. Be sure to get a Corgi gasfitter in.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Just a word of warning:

Any gas, charcoal, parafin heater will produce Carbon Monoxide so, as previously mentioned, good ventilation is essential.

I would also add that if any of these methods are to be used it is very important to fit a carbon monoxide detector.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll second this. Last time I tried cooking with the main hatch closed (even though there is other ventilation) the CO detector sounded. Even though the cooker seems to be in good working order and gas flame is blue.
 
If you are notionally "indoors" hence out of wind and rain then modern camping gear is spectacularly fab, such that still-lightweight stuff is fine for use in a tent a long way below zero. The more difficult trick is to have super-warm bags/clothing which is also rain/wind proof but you don't need that in the boat.

Whilst awake, yep, it's the gas ring i reckon.

Othr option of course to find a gas heater which uses same gas supply but this getting touch ott for 24 feet.

Finally, realy giant extension leads extremely useful and it is very satisfying getting the cheap deal for visitors berth - and rigging lectricity anyway.
 
Re:Flower pots and bricks

They really do work, but have two drawbacks:
1) the gas ring tends to be high up and heat rises, this leaves everyone with cold feet.
2) For every pound weight of gas burned, you will generate a pound of water condensation in the cabin.
So, I to am looking at a small paraffin heater with all gasses taken though a flue. The prototype works, now,where to mount it?
 
Carver .... now another name .. but

Caravan breakers often have full Carver / other makes of Water and cabin heaters available with all the fittings ...
I was looking at them for SA ... but the top flue versions was not available at the time .. only the side flue type - not suitable for boats.
Worth checking out such as :

http://www.caravanninglinks.co.uk/caravanbreakers.htm

you will be amazed at what is available via some of the links ... and most are quite used to boaters needs ...

Lately I have been thinking about a Charcoal heater ... what I call a "Liveaboard" heater. My house in latvia has solid fuel enclosed fires with ceramic outers in various rooms ... feed in wood and the ceramics warm up and stay warm for couple of days ... This has brought me back to the older traditional heaters .. ie Charcoal / Solid fuel jobs. Near all heaters will require a flue / chimney pot so why not have a good old system that not only warms but looks old-worlde as well ???

I used to consider getting a Mini Catalytic heater ... but after hearing some tales about them and especially when people didn't keep a hatch open ... decided against one.

Usually I can get shore power - so have a couple of B&Q 200w £9.99 jobs + the Dimplex Coldwatch 500W job £35 ... take little power and are small enough to tuck away ... in fact 1 200w + the 500w job are quietly keeping boat warm inside out here in Latvia right now .... and will stay doing so through all the winter.
 
Storage heater bricks ......

Now been thinking ....

Above people advise putting flower pots / bricks on the hob ring.
Why not put a load in the oven and close door ... heat 'em up ... gas off ... crack open oven door ? That way you have them reasonably low down ... and the oven will itself also help to keep warmth in ... ?
 
Re: Storage heater bricks ......

Sounds like a great idea for a storage heater solution: you could also ventilate the cabin while you are warming up the bricks (stones picke up from the beach?) to remove the water produced by the gas, and thereafter rely on the heat stored in the bricks to emanate as DRY heat in the cabin.
 
No need for bricks or flowerpot

if you have an oven, just lighting it for 20', gives you heat for another 60', from the warmed stove.

That's what I do when not connected to shorepower.

The trouble with all forms of non-blown-hot-air heating is that the ears (and bits between them) overheat and the feet stay frozen.

The best boat heating I've ever come across was Eberspacher boiler + blower heat-exchangers.
Blown Eberspacher (.or Webasto) great for occasional heating but lack stamina for liveaboards in a cold winter.
 
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