Planar Heater review

[fredrussell]

Hoping to put one in our 33' Westerly, so interested if 2kw will be adequate.

I have a 31ft boat but with a similar internal volume to your Storm. I fitted a 5kw and would not go smaller than 4kw. I have heat throughout, aft cabin and forepeak included.
Toasty. Quickly! Poey’s Sadler 32 is a considerably smaller boat internally than your Storm.

 

[david_bagshaw]

I have a 8kw Planar, installed it a year ago as a replacement for a eberr d7l. I dont have any fancy control, just the basic one which totally meets my needs as we ran the ebber either at full or half chat, mainly to lower the number of starting glow plugs it got through if run on a room stat.

very happy with the planar, as it leaves no soot in the exhaust , starts cleanly and has brushless motor. fitted 3 in the 30 years to the ebber.

 

[Poey50]

Poey’s Sadler 32 is a considerably smaller boat internally than your Storm.

Also using an external air supply rather than recirculating air as I do will make a difference.

 

[peteK]

I have a Chinese 2kw heater and recirculate the cabin air,the humidity decreases after its been on 45minutes as the heater dries the air,the outside air at the moment is around 80%humidity so if your bringing in that air from outside you will never get the boat dry.

 

[Poey50]

I have a Chinese 2kw heater and recirculate the cabin air,the humidity decreases after its been on 45minutes as the heater dries the air,the outside air at the moment is around 80%humidity so if your bringing in that air from outside you will never get the boat dry.

I recirculate warm air too with our 2KW Planar but it's a bit more complicated. Warmer air will 'feel' drier since it holds more water vapour than cold air and therefore relative humidity decreases as temperature rises. Once the heating goes off, the temperature falls and dew point is reached then the water is returned. But, as said, we always keep some level of air circulation going to mitigate the effect as far as possible.