Eberspacher Musing

DJE

DJE

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 Jun 2004
Messages
7,743
Location
Fareham
www.casl.uk.com
It's a chilly evening at anchor and the heater is on. But it doesn't seem right using electric current in order to burn diesel! Trying to think of a way to use some of the heat energy to re-charge the batteries. What about a thermocouple up the exhaust pipe?
 
To be technically correct the electricity is not being used to burn diesel. Once the glow plug has done its job the diesel burns with no further assistance from the battery. The electricity powers the fan and the fuel pump.
 
vyv_cox said:
To be technically correct the electricity is not being used to burn diesel. Once the glow plug has done its job the diesel burns with no further assistance from the battery. The electricity powers the fan and the fuel pump.
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Yes, which to my mind is why Ebers / Webasto et al are absurd in a sailing boat, or one that is sailed at least, as amps are the thing in short supply. When I bought my current boat 5 years ago I was sorely tempted to strip out the installed Webasto. How I wish I had. Never used it due to excessive battery demands. How many nights in marinas does the 3k installation cost buy? Plus the additional space from ducting etc. Good for trucks and mobos perhaps, though I much prefered the radiant gas heater in my 1st motorhome to the Eber in its successor.
 
Quiddle said:
Yes, which to my mind is why Ebers / Webasto et al are absurd in a sailing boat, or one that is sailed at least, as amps are the thing in short supply. When I bought my current boat 5 years ago I was sorely tempted to strip out the installed Webasto. How I wish I had. Never used it due to excessive battery demands. How many nights in marinas does the 3k installation cost buy? Plus the additional space from ducting etc. Good for trucks and mobos perhaps, though I much prefered the radiant gas heater in my 1st motorhome to the Eber in its successor.
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Why say that? Do you have an inboard diesel? The simple thing is just start the Eber when the engine is running...simple! Are you just "guessing" that it's power hungry or have you applied any science? My old boat had one smallish house battery, no solar, a small Forgen trickle wind charger and lived on a swinging mooring so was never plugged in (no shore power setup anyway). She had an Eber and also a Nasa BM1 battery monitor, and whilst it's fair to say that it was very juicy on startup, as soon as it was running properly, the draw displayed on the BM1 was absolutely minimal. I don't need to worry on my new boat, but still get the engine going briefly (or time the Eber start) when running the Eber up.

Are you also going to remove radar, filament bulbs, anchor windlasses and electric starter motors from your boat?

"How many nights in marinas does the 3k install buy?". Well, how many nights at anchor does it allow you to have instead because you're warm? How many winter days can you go sailing and get more use from your boat?
 
My fridge takes far more current to run than my Eberspacher, but we run it non-stop for six months every year. Admittedly this is in summer time when the solar panels are at their most efficient but the far lower demands of the Eberspacher are easily accommodated by a decent battery bank, even in winter.
 
I have a feeling that the Eberspacher is revealing the weakness of the domestic battery bank. It will only start when the engine is running! Possibly too much volt drop in the cables - need to do some testing over the winter.
 
DJE said:
I have a feeling that the Eberspacher is revealing the weakness of the domestic battery bank. It will only start when the engine is running! Possibly too much volt drop in the cables - need to do some testing over the winter.
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I had the same problem, would run on battery charger or engine but not on batteries. Ultimately it would not run at all. I only run it on average once per year and some years not at all, so suspected corrosion in wiring somewhere. Without a lot of difficulty I found a quite corroded multi-terminal plug about 1 foot from the unit in the stern locker. Cleaned it up and now all is well.
 
DJE said:
It's a chilly evening at anchor and the heater is on. But it doesn't seem right using electric current in order to burn diesel! Trying to think of a way to use some of the heat energy to re-charge the batteries. What about a thermocouple up the exhaust pipe?
Click to expand...

What you need is an MGU-H. Suggest you talk to Red Bull
 
Quiddle said:
Yes, which to my mind is why Ebers / Webasto et al are absurd in a sailing boat, or one that is sailed at least, as amps are the thing in short supply. When I bought my current boat 5 years ago I was sorely tempted to strip out the installed Webasto. How I wish I had. Never used it due to excessive battery demands. How many nights in marinas does the 3k installation cost buy? Plus the additional space from ducting etc. Good for trucks and mobos perhaps, though I much prefered the radiant gas heater in my 1st motorhome to the Eber in its successor.
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Was your last boat a canoe? Did you have a gold plated install?

I fitted a Webasto in a 28 footer for under 1K, ducts and all - and never noticed that I lost any room or in fact that my pitiful 90 aH house bank had a huge issue with running it. The wife however sailed more often - that's worth all the alleged hassle of the Webasto.

And for reference I've just fitted an Evo 40 in a 37 footer, with 4 outlets and all the trunking that goes with it - and still havent noticed any loss of room - mainly because I thought about the install and ran it in places where I knew it wouldnt hurt. Oh and the install for everything new was still under 3K by a significant margin (like 950 significant margins).
 
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