heating

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boathead

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In the absence of the all mighty Eberspasser and without removing a hanging locker to fit a drip feed diesel heater and no shore power, do any of you folks know of a stand alone heater I can buy which wont gas be whilst asleep?!!! Technically it would need to have an output of 2Kw no less; or are you all gonna tell me what I probably already know............ buy a second hand eberspasser and knuckle down to fitting it!

Thanks folks.
 
All depends what you want it to do. If you want to heat a 40ft based in Scotland and liveaboard all winter you need something different to if its a 26ft in Devon and you are only aboard May to Sept. Charchoal is also good in small sizes. From my experience and judging from post on here the last thing I would do is fit an eberspacher, lots of posts shoulting for help to get them working, they seem to be fiddly, critical and heavy on electric power and very expensive to buy and on service/spares. Add some more details for more detail replies
 
o.k. fair point, I want to heat a 35 footer, and yes at present it is based in Scotland, near Inverness and again it will be over the next winter. I can get second- hand eberspacher out of a truck breaker,and yes they can be problematic and you do have to watch the battery useage for sure. It may be the easiest system for me though I don't know where to put the exhaust, I suppose I would have to cut a hole through to the cockpit??? Not an idea that I like.

I would prefer a stand alone and 'stow away' method if at all possible but obviously a gas heater gives off fumes and eats through gas bottles. It's only the cabin heating that's the problem as I have water heating via calorifier.
 
DO NOT RUN AN EXHAUSE INTO THE COCKPIT - it could be the last thing you do as you could fill the cockpit well with CO which will then drain down the companion way where you are sleeping...

That is a fairly serious heat requirement, probably about 5Kw if you want to be snug in a Scotish winter but does depend on the level of insulation. You are also ideally going to want something that can both push out enough to warm the boat quickly and then be able to shut down and tickover 24/7 to keep it warm and dry. Nice thing about the eber's is you can fit a thermostat but you would be looking at the bigger sizes. The speck they give about boat size is based on spring/summer use for winter you need to about double it accrding to the canal people who seem to be the experts on boat heating. The nicest (and cheapest) option is a log burner and if run on charchoal is quite clean but as you say finding room for one is difficult. There are bulkhead mounted charchoal burners which are more compact but only about 1.5/2Kw. Gas is hopeless unless it has a built in flue as it liberates 1L water for each L gas burned so you get a sauna. The taylors diesel/parafin bulkhead stoves are probably the most compact acbin stove & might be a possibility? very reliable and simple with good heat output and small size flue. If you cant mount then near sole level you can always fitt a small fan to blow the hot air down.
 
Hi boathead,

You could look at one of the bulkhead mounted paraffin heater range made by Walls Marin available from Kuranda in the UK. Don't know their web address so try Google.

They offer different heat outputs IIRC and are extemely well made. We've had a 1.8kW unit aboard for 24 years and, aside from replacing the fuel bowl packing (kit costing circa £9.00) absolutely nothing has gone wrong - and we were cruising full time for over nine years.

What we, SWMBO especially, love about it, is that we simply have to switch it on! No messing about with pre-heating etc, it's all electronic ignition. Exhaust goes through a s/s chimney which, in our case, exits about 5" above deck near the mast and is fitted with a push down and twist-to-lock storm cover.

Well worth a look IMHO.
 
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