Heating / hot water at anchor, generator or hotair

[cliffdale]

Most boats Ive looked at do not have heating suitable when away from the power supply.

A top of the list rule from SHMBO is we must have heat and hot water when at anchor.

OK, the options are fire up the engines for hot water. Oil fired hot air blown heating installed.

Im wondering if it would be better to install a 6kW generator and decent inverter to power electric heaters and immersion for hot water?

If you have a diesel generator, are they noisey? I would be grateful for advice as to which system is best for at anchor heating and hot water. Generator seems like a good idea but I have no experience with them to make a reasonable decision. Any comments appreciated.

Thanks CD

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[hlb]

Having bee totaly pissed of with boats along side running generators. I understand your posision. Years ago iff we wated to heat a big place cheaply. We used to buy verry cheaply a salimander. It would burn anything. Old engine oil. What ever. Now flue. So waas 100 % eFfisient. No comuter aids. Nowt to go wrong All we have to get back to is small medium and large salimanders. Instead of Eberspatcher shit.

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Haydn

 

[cliffdale]

Bit of festive cheer I tink.

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[Deleted User YDKXO]

An inverter to run electric heaters and an immersion water heater will run the batteries flat in very little time. A good diesel fired air heating system (eg Eberspacher) will be perfectly adequate for heating the boat and a calorifier heated by the engine coolant water will keep water hot for 12 - 24 hours. If you think you might need to keep water hot for longer or you will use a lot of hot water for showers, then a generator is a good idea but you only need 3 or 4 Kva for a calorifier
You can also get a diesel fired water heating system which will heat the boat thru radiators and provide hot water as well - see this month's MBM - but I think a generator is always a good idea for driving other electrical appliances as well such as kettles, toasters, hair dryers etc and, most importantly, charging the batteries if you run them down. Just ensure that the generator has it's own dedicated starter battery
As regards noise, a modern generator will have a soundproofed enclosure but to minimize noise, the generator should be located as far away from the accomodation as possible eg in the lazarette. With an aft cabin boat the location is usually in the engine bay which does mean that it will be heard in the accomodation but with a proper installation, it should'nt be too intrusive

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[hlb]

I[e affecting craft along side. So switch the bugger off and use gas like every one else or suffer abuse.

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Haydn

 

[MainlySteam]

We have used household sized kerosene fueled portable heaters on board but find they are too big a capacity for us. I have searched worldwide for small ones with no luck - do you know of any littler ones?

John

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[hlb]

No. Cant understand why not. ecxept not much money in them if you make one. To little high tec to earn any money. But they did the job and very cheaply as well

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Haydn

 

[MainlySteam]

Yes, and everything else either takes up too much room, entails chopping the boat up or costs a lot for use in only a few months of the year. The vehicle blown ones always give me the feeling that there is a potential flame thrower lurking in the woodwork. In a boat I like my flames where I can see them.

John

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[[2574]]

CD,

I installed a Webasto hot water system last year (5KW on a 40' boat) for just the reasons that you are now considering. I have always thought generators a little inconsiderate to others so didn't want to go that route.

The Webasto was easy to fit (as you are only cutting 15mm holes for the hot water pipes) and the heater unit provides bags of hot water for the calorifier and heat exchangers. The heat exchange units are critical for success though. There is a new design out (not the Webasto offered version) which are much more efficient at extracting hot air. Let me know if you want more details.

RH

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[Bejasus]

Eberspacher also do a hot water heating system and you can run a heated towel rail etc, and hot air blowers via small car heater type matrix heat exchangers complete with fans. All you do, is run a 22mm loop around the boat with 15mm pipes teed off to the appliances. Got to be better than 100mm air ducting. Look on their website.

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[Nauti Fox]

I've got a diesel generator that was built into the boat,7.5kw so will run just about anything.Its fitted with a good silencer so from the outside its quite,but inside noisy!Would'nt like to retro fit one though.
Al.

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[Deleted User YDKXO]

So how am I supposed to run my icemaker and cigar humidor then?

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[hlb]

Mannage like every other bugger and use ice thingy in fridge, sod the rest. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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Haydn

 

[robind]

I once found myself in the galley of an old vessel which, having experienced a very bad storm travelling from germany to the UK had rigged up a replacement "stove" (having dismantled/ wrecked their original one in a force 10). Using a 5 gallon drum full of Diesel suspended from the deck beams above, over the top of a partially lid less 45 gallon drum, a nail hole had been punched in the bottom and diesel was allowed to drip into the bottom drum where it flared up and burnt. The flow was " precisley" can you believe that? controlled by a sliver of wood suitably adjusted in the nail hole by the ships cook, the fumes were drawn out by a single open window. bread was cooked in a tin box to prevent the diesel getting at the ingredients (it regrettably didnt stop the cooks diesel covered hands getting at the bread).

How about something like that on a grp hull in a marina?????I think not. Oh! by the way the galley was very warm, and the deck and the mess next door.and !!!!!!

Rob

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[Col]

My hot water lasts 12-24 hrs depending on usage. I run engine up to re heat water if needed. Takes about 20mins. I have an "Erby" for cabin heating when away from shore power, but rarely use it.

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