radiators, eberspacher and calorifier

[steve1967]

Hi my 1st post here and i could do with some help pls
i live on my boat (birchwood 33)
i have just installed an eberspacher D5w water heater
with a calorifier in-line to heat the rads and domestic water

i seem to have an air bubble for starters in the DW side
before when i turned the water on the pump was instant ie it cut in as soon as the tap was turned on and switched off as soon as its was turned off
now it takes a few seconds to turn on and rattles and takes up to 15 secs to turn off

also i have been having probs fitting the Ebby running the water pump but have engineers trying desperatley to sort that one

also as soon as the ebby switches off the rads go cold really quick
and the water inside the calorifier goes cold quickly too i have a 22LT tank from surecal so should be a good one
we managed to fill a bowl for the washing up before it went luke warm today
so its a start but no good for a shower etc

can anyone advice please this is really annoying me now as i'm running out of ideas

thanks steve

 

[Cloven]

Hi & welcome to the forum

I'm have a very similar set-up on my boat but using the D4W.

As for the technical parts of your question, I do not feel qualified to answer those.

Looking at the other problems, firstly, the amount of water the Ebby is heating and circulating round the system is very small and I would only expect it to produce heat from the matrix rads when running. Once turned off, the fans will remove any residual heat in the rads very quickly.

As for the calorifier - really its the same issue. As soon as you run off any hot water, it will be replaced by cold so you will then have a residual & increasingly cooler water the more hot you run off. We find that the calorifier will do a good washing up, a good shower but not both - there simply is not enough hot water in calorifier compared to a domestic situation.

I'm sure this is not what you ant to hear, but its really a matter of the small volume of hot water in the heating systems.

 

[steve1967]

No not really lol
especially as this little lot has cost me over £1,000 now lol
i still have my combi boiler installed and at this rate might well go back to it lol

i wonder how most ppl cope with things on liveaboards?

 

[BrianH]

i wonder how most ppl cope with things on liveaboards?

Well, personally, by not expecting the same level of comfort as at home.

I cruise most of the summer on a boat about your size - with only a Webasto, which is used about one or two times a year, in early spring or late autumn.

When cruising I have no calorifier, I put a kettle on the gas to wash up after a pre-rinse in sea water and shower in the cockpit with cold sea water rinsed with a little fresh, sun-heated water. I have a shower in the heads (cold water) but it's too much trouble to clean up afterwards and check that the electric bilge pump has cleared it all - and too much water from my precious tank supply.

In my Italian marina I have leccy and toilet/shower block, so that's when the luxury life kicks in. That is, before I leave and when I get back.

It's amazing how one can adjust to the life when all the other, less materialistic, aspects are considered. Perhaps you have to get to a significantly smaller number of degrees latitude for lots of warm water to not be so important.

 

[steve1967]

that set-up certainly wouldn't be suitable for me and esp not my wife
and as we are in the uk when temp got down to -9 last year where we were we def need a good heating system

 

[duncan99210]

If you want more than a bucket full of hot water, you'll need to run the heat source (your Ebers heater) throughout what you're doing. Don't forget you've only heated 22 litres - that is only about 1 1/2 buckets! A hot shower will use all of that, especially if your SWMBO has loads of hair to be washed, conditioned and rinsed.

Our hot water comes from the engine when it's running and we find that we can do 2 persons showers by wetting down, turn off water, soap and then rinse off (25 litre calorifier). Best way of doing it when we're motoring and then there's so much hot wat water available you can forget the fact that there's only so much in the tanks and then have to go and find somewhere to fill the things up again. Must start saving for a watermaker.......

We have a hot air blown Ebers for heating which we use through the winter. We find the air being blown through the boat helps keep condensation at bay and it keeps the boat toasty but the temp drops like a stone once the heater goes off.

If you've got water filled radiators, don't forget to add antifreeze to the liquid ver the winter if you have to shut the system down for any period where a frost might get in and freeze the pipework.

 

[vyv_cox]

i have just installed an eberspacher D5w water heater
with a calorifier in-line to heat the rads and domestic water

It's a little difficult to picture what you have. When you say in line are you using the calorifier as a hot water tank? Does the Eberspacher have two outlets, one for hot water the other for central heating? (Sorry, no experience of Eber water heaters) It would be unusual in domestic heating to have a reservoir in line with a heating system. I would expect the radiators to cool fairly quickly after the Eberspacher is turned off but the hot water should remain hot for several hours in a separate arrangement.

One possible answer has been posted a few times recently. If the calorifier is positioned lower than the top of the engine the hot water rises by convection and heats up the engine block, thus you lose heat to the boat very quickly. The answer may be to loop the hoses down below the engine and calorifier, which should prevent the convection.

 

[BrianH]

that set-up certainly wouldn't be suitable for me and esp not my wife
and as we are in the uk when temp got down to -9 last year where we were we def need a good heating system

Sorry, got you mixed up with someone underway to the Med.

Quite understand your dilemma if you're in the UK where of course you need plenty of artificial warmth.

My problem was keeping cool this summer, which is underestimated by those from northern climes.

 

[steve1967]

lucky you
altho the heat we had in july was really hot and being in a wheelhouse of glass it did get really hot

no offence taken i can assure you

 

[steve1967]

No the ebby doesn't have 2 outputs
only the 1 out and 1 in
and yes the calorifier is used to heat the water and to store it
it designed to withold the heat for at least 24hrs after the heater is turned off

i have disconnected the rads today and the water heated up really quickly with the ebby just going thru the calorfier and back to the ebby
and as far as i can tell the water is still red hot

so its defo the rads that are causing the problem

 

[Mrnotming]

ebby and rads

If the rads are the little matrix boxes with fans, is there a way to throttle one side of each rad like the lockshield valve on a domestic rad.you may need to balance the circulation in this fashion.Also lagging all the pipework may have already been done, if not this would help to get the heat to where it is needed most?We use 12 litres per person to shower, as we are in the med it that is a mix of cold and hot so we get 3 showers from a cylinder.Recover is better when under engine, but the immersion is not bad either about 1 hour gets the temp up to max.

 

[steve1967]

no the rads are normal household ones
ie water filled

 

[bendyone]

If the rads are higher than the cal. then when the system is at rest the heat from the stored hot water will by convection be drawn up to the rads. I think this could be your problem.

 

[mainmarine]

Do you have a thermostatic mixer valve at the calorifier hot water outlet? this adds cold to the water you draw off to keep it at a lower, useable, temperature, thus avoiding adding cold at the tap when you are washing etc. This can conserve your hot water supply.