Really small heater for 18ft boat

I use a BlueCat myself. It takes a short while to heat the cabin after which I switch it off, stow it in the cockpit and put in the washboards. By the time I'm in my 3-seasons bag it's still toasty warm and there's no condensation or CO2 problem. It's cold again in the morning but WTH, another quick blast with the heater and the temperature's back up.
 
In nearly 60 years of camping, motorhomes and sailing I have never once left any form of heating on overnight, and that includes such activities in temperatures down to -20C.

A Tilley lamp takes a lot of beating for evening use, giving out plenty of light for cooking, reading, etc and loads of heat sufficient for a much bigger boat than yours. Then into a decent sleeping bag and turn the heat off. Used Tilleys are widely available for low cost and the parts to refurbish are not too pricey.

Good insulation on the hull and topsides of the boat make a massive improvement at little cost - PBO had an article on it in the past year. We followed much of it, fitting aluminised sheet with airpockets from Homebase, has made a big difference.
 
chrisbitz said:
So, unfortunately, a £1000 heater is a little impractical on a £2000 boat! :-)
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A large part of that will be the standard Blakes-Lavac-Taylor extortionate markup. Did you know they charge £4000 for a simple manual toilet?

A drip-feed diesel heater is not a complex beast (my mate's dad has a big one in his car workshop, burning old engine oil/brake fluid/hydraulic fluid as well as normal heating oil). I haven't looked, but someone must be making them cheaper than B-L-T.

(On the other hand, you probably don't have space for one anyway. Get a gas or pressure-paraffin lantern and save running down the batteries with lights at the same time.)

Pete
 
prv said:
Get a gas or pressure-paraffin lantern and save running down the batteries with lights at the same time.
Pete
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Thinking the same Pete, I was going to get an Origo5100 but you may as well get a Tilley lamp that gives light out as well - the only worrying thing is the lighting procedure :eek: and maybe where to hang it from considering there could be a lot of heat coming from the top. I presume a Tilley Light is the best one to go for... It burns Paraffin (Kerosene) whereas the Origo is meths so not sure if there is any advantage to either...

Chris
 
A few years ago I read an article about a boat heater someone had made for his 28' yacht using a Tilley pressure lamp which was mounted in a simple s/s open fronted metal box, fitted in the coat locker opposite the heads.

The important thing about it from a safety point of view was that there was a flue leading from the top of the box up throught the coachroof. This made it as safe as a Taylor's paraffin heater because the fumes were not discharged into the cabin.

You could probably subsitute an aluminium beer barrel for the s/s box, with a cut out in the side large enough to give access to the Tilley lamp.
 
dylanwinter said:
on a tiny boat you will be amazed at how much heat half a dozen tealights on a plate will throw out

the cheapest place to buy them is Ikea

Dylan
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I thought a few simple calculations would determine how amazed I would be.

Not sure of the differnce between Tea lights and night lights but we have some 8hr night lights

They weigh just over 20g so assume that in 8 hours 20 g of wax will be burnt.

Assume the calorific value of the wax is approx 46 kJ/g this means the heat produced by one nightlight will be about 46 x 20/8 = 115 kJ/hr
That's equivalent to a heat source of 0.032 kW

6 night lights will therefore be very roughly equal to 190 watts.... not a lot!

Perhaps just about enough to keep a small boat cabin warmish on a chilly evening but I don't think it's going to feel very cosy when the outside temperature is below freezing. I suppose you can then use two platefulls.

Well I think that's what the science says.
Perhaps the accountants can work out how much its going to cost.
 
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Sophie19 said:
My Victory (£90 FleaBay) is nothing more than a Tilley stove in a box with a copper pipe as a flue.

All on my blog.
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I have a Victory Heater as well. Mine is a basic Primus. It works ok but I have made a big copper bell to protect the deckhead. I always crack the hatch open and have never found a problem with condensation. As I am ashore for 5 months, over the winter, that is when it gets most use.

There was some chat about Tilley lamps a few years ago and this alternative brand were well thought of:

http://www.petromax.com/lanterns.htm

It is what I would go for, if not for the Victory.
 
I've used a 'couple of platefuls' of IKEA tealights - perhaps no more than 8 - on a Rival 34, after the Taylors' burners corroded and nearly killed me with CO ( PBO passim ) - on several winter's nights where the OAT fell well below Zero Celsius ( the decks were 'crunchy' underfoot when I went out to 'check the lines' at 4 am ). Those tealights kept the Inside ( still ) Air Temperature above zero, and decent fleeces/tentboots/sleeping bag did the rest.

I will certainly use a Tilley lamp in a s/s reflective shroud. That will do very nicely, and I imagine it will do even better in a 19-footer.
 
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great maths

VicS said:
I thought a few simple calculations would determine how amazed I would be.

Not sure of the differnce between Tea lights and night lights but we have some 8hr night lights

They weigh just over 20g so assume that in 8 hours 20 g of wax will be burnt.

Assume the calorific value of the wax is approx 46 kJ/kg this means the heat produced by one nightlight will be about 46 x 20/8 = 115 kJ/hr
That's equivalent to a heat source of 0.032 kW

6 night lights will therefore be very roughly equal to 190 watts.... not a lot!

Perhaps just about enough to keep a small boat cabin warmish on a chilly evening but I don't think it's going to feel very cosy when the outside temperature is below freezing. I suppose you can then use two platefulls.

Well I think that's what the science says.
Perhaps the accountants can work out how much its going to cost.
Click to expand...


the ikea tealights last about four hours

our bathroom has a 2kw fan heater that we run at half tilt

my guess is that our bathroom is six times the volume of my small boat

maybe more given that the bathroom is full standing headroom

the boat is full crouching headroom

the bathroom is hot enough to be naked in there

the boat is not warm enough to be naked but enough to shed a fleece

six candles

loads of heat

six pence for four hours of heat

bargain

D
 
I slept on my uninsulated boat one night a week through most of last winter. I did use one of these a couple of times:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-portable-gas-camping-heater-p142458

The amounts of condensation were unacceptable. Plus I worried about having a Viking style funeral ahead of schedule.


One of these was the answer:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/starlight-iv-p152177

Anything down to freezing and I'm snug. Plus the outside is water resistant which is a bonus, (my windows still leak a bit).
 
Moxon said:
One of these was the answer:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/starlight-iv-p152177

Anything down to freezing and I'm snug.
Click to expand...

A good sleeping bag is definitely the place to start. I've woken up feeling nice and warm in mine before, and then noticed all the ice that had formed overnight on the outside of it.

(Not doing any epic mountaineering or polar exploration, just sleeping in a tent in someone's back garden while visiting a beer festival in February :D )

Pete
 
CO monitor

a second on the co meter, tried a large kerosene lantern that tripped the co after about 2 hours. there is a small propane heater called the 'buddy' with co cutoff and tip over that would be small enough....thats in the usa, expect they are available on your side, too.
 
prv said:
A good sleeping bag is definitely the place to start. I've woken up feeling nice and warm in mine before, and then noticed all the ice that had formed overnight on the outside of it.

Pete
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Perhaps look up a musucbag. It's a sleeping bag with arms and legs. Keeps you warm and you can still move around. You may look rather yetti like, but noone will see. :D
 
In the search for keeping warm, I rather like the traditional advice on treating hypothermia...

"Put subject into a sleeping bag with a fit companion."

I'm thinking large sleeping bag, small wriggly Yorkshire lass. Fond memory tells me them are very warm... ;)
 
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