Really small heater for 18ft boat

[V1701]

Yes I would like a Vapalux one day. Interesting what you say about the Trangia as the Origo Heat pal is VERY expensive (£140) for what it is (a burner in a heat shield) I wondered if you could buy a Trangia burner or even an Origo one and stick it in a biscuit tin or just have it open.

I have a Trangia burner which is spare as I have it linked up to a little gas bottle (much easier/quicker to use!) so I might try that - should have done it in the first place and saved a load of money I have probably just bought the equivalent of another Trangia by buying the Heatpal - idiot and could have used the money to buy a Vapalux or oil lamp....groan!

But the Origo is safe if kicked over & heats for 4/5 hours on a fill where the trangia lasts an hour if you're lucky then you have to wait for it to cool before you refill & relight. I think the Origo is about 1.5kw on full, I've read/seen somewhere that the Vapalux puts out about 1kw. I think for what you get for £50 a used Vapalux is good value for heat & light...

 

[oldbilbo]

I've acquired from my wizened FiL a 300cp Bialaddin 305 (1954) paraffin pressure lantern in 'as new' condition, and also discovered - with some memory-assist from my good lady - an Optimus 1551 500cp lantern, in its original box, in the loft. This also is unused, but some of the chrome is now beginning to rust.

So, with a little fettling, I should have two smelly sources of heat/light to brighten up the dark, dank hours up the top of the Tamar or Truro rivers this time next year. Now I have to work out how to do toast on 'em......

'Manky Auld Boat' indeed.....

 

[pongoglo]

Well due to the really 'nice' weather were having just now this topic has come to the fore once again! Having gone down to the boat a couple of times over XMas new year I have continued my experimentation and surprisingly one of the best solutions I have found is one of these...

http://www.worldofpower.co.uk/outback-heat28-heater-attachment.html

I was doing a bit of follow up research after the earlier discussion on this thread and found this little item on a camping forum I think. Anyhow it got rave reviews but was surprisingly hard to find, even on Ebay no joy! Anyhow I finally tracked one down on the link above, and for 9.99 GBP plus P and P thought it wouldn't harm to give it a go. I have a compact cartridge type camping stove as my main cooking system for making a brew or knocking up the occasional meal in any case, so it all made sense.

It is advertised for the Outback type stove, but they all seem to be made to the same design, and it fitted mine just fine. Mine's a Halford's type as you can see but I'm sure the Asda ones or whatever would work just as well. It locks on just fine, and actually the only down side is its quite hard to get it off after, so no danger of it falling off, but even if it did there is no naked flame, and the hot heated centre is fully protected by an outer guard. A very neat design.

It is surprisingly effective in use. Some of the blogger's credit it with 2.5 KW, but I would rate it probably about 1.5kw? Anyhow heats my cabin lovely, enables me to strip down to t-shirt and boxers, even when its about 0.5 outside. Only downside is that the propane cartridges can be a bit pricey, and compared to a 'self' filled 907 especially so. However you get about two hours of decent heat per cartridge which works out at about one quid or so an hour, so not too bad. here's mine in action...



Oh yes, I do keep the cabin well ventilated, a UFO type ventilator plus the hatch open half an inch. I have two CO monitors as well, and neither alarmed. One is the digital type and the highest reading it showed throughtout was 0.06, this incidentally not when I was using the heater attachment but when I took it off and was making a brew with a somewhat rusty kettle I might add! To the original poster, cheap, safe and chucks out a good amount of heat. Might just be the solution you seek.

 

[V1701]

Good one, presumably it would sit on a fitted gas stove as well?

 

[chrisbitz]

That looks really interesting - How do they work? what's in it?

My No1 plan at the moment is storage heater bricks - Heat the hell out of them with doors and windows open for however long, and then turn the heater off, close the vents, and let them give out their heat for a few hours, CO free!

The only flaw is moving them if needed when they're at 10000deg!

 

[Greenheart]

http://www.worldofpower.co.uk/outback-heat28-heater-attachment.html

That looks and sounds great - notwithstanding CO and condensation worries, which you covered; but what does this inexpensive fixture actually DO, which the open flame of a camping stove does not?

 

[Giblets]

A smidgeon cheaper here.

http://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/compact-heater-attachment-heat28-for-camping-stove-p-23789.html

 

[nathanlee]

When I'm sleeping in my Micro Challenger, it can get a bit chilly overnight...
...
any other ideas?

Never tried it myself, but I hear people have had good results from having girls onboard.

I used a coleman lamp (like tilley, but petrol powered) which kept the chill off. Dylan is quite correct with candles - they do make a difference, but bloody dangerous on a boat, so don't sleep with them lit. Origo do a heater, which looks decent.

Basically, heat on a small boat is a nightmare, and there doesn't seem to be any real solutions to it, and I spent a long time looking. At best, you'll end up with something that will take the chill off, but you're not going to get the cabin warm off a tilley lamp or upside down plant pot, but as long as you're not living aboard, taking the chill off should be right enough.

 

[nathanlee]

My No1 plan at the moment is storage heater bricks - Heat the hell out of them with doors and windows open for however long, and then turn the heater off, close the vents, and let them give out their heat for a few hours, CO free!

The only flaw is moving them if needed when they're at 10000deg!

I'd be very surprised if that worked. I've got an oil filled radiator (2kw) in the forepeak, and once that switches off you have about 10-15 mins before the forepeak is cold again. Within an hour it's back to ambient temp.

 

[SvenH]

Never tried it myself, but I hear people have had good results from having girls onboard.

I once had 15 people in my 9 meter boats cabin during a sudden down poor. It got too warm very quickly, I'm sure it would have been much better if the guys had stayed out.

 

[jpay]

I bought today a hot water bottle from Amazon for 2.50, I was thinking about how I can heat the boat overnight and then I saw a comment somewhere which made me realise...

Heat the bed not the house...

Might be useless and I'll go back to just wearing lots of clothes and having teas during the night to give me an excuse to put the cooker on and also warm me back up...

But in theory it's a renewable, reusable and inexpensive solution to a cold night. I plan on testing it out this weekend which is meant to be coooold.

 

[sam_uk]

I'm quite interested in the stove-top approach as used in the Pan 2000 mentioned earlier in the thread: http://www.pan2000.se/english/index.html

I happen to have a thermo-electric generator from here: http://tegpower.com/pro1.htm

So I might try and build my own, where the power for the extractor fan is generated directly from the heat.

Actually thinking about it maybe it would be better to move the alcohol stove into the cockpit, put the TEG on it there and use it to pump CO free air/heat into the boat. Might be easier not to put the the wet/CO laden air in to the boat at all.. The origo would need to go in a biscuit tin or something to stop it blowing out.

This would also give me about 20 watts spare charging capacity from the TEG to keep the lights on and the netbook running

 

[sam_uk]

Well the thread is _really_ small heaters..

Bigger than a handwarmer this puts out 250 watts. About £120 +tax

http://www.pitt.edu/~kconover/ftp/Vest.htm

Could be useful in the event of a hypothermic MOB too..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HeatPac-P...377?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d353fb629

The charcoal bricks are massively expensive however. I wonder if it would work if you just filled the thing with lumps of charcoal? I guess it might burn too quick.

 

[Greenheart]

The charcoal bricks are massively expensive however. I wonder if it would work if you just filled the thing with lumps of charcoal?

I haven't checked the link, but doesn't a substantial chunk of hot charcoal in a sealed cabin, bring with it the old deadly CO danger, widely underestimated, like the tenting family whose cooling BBQ killed one of the teenagers as she slept?

 

[sam_uk]

If you put it in the cabin it could, (although the spec says it's safe to use indoors). The hot air is pumped down little hoses so you could keep the unit outside.

I don't really think its a practical solution as the heat is too low. If there was a similar device 5x the size that I could keep in the cockpit and feed standard lumps of charcoal I would be interested however.

 

[Cappen Boidseye]

Hot thing

This looks like a good idea for a small boat heater: A small propane catalytic heater, I remember being told that these give off far less condensation (or was it more?) I am very tempted.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coleman-Bla...XUBW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1359150592&sr=8-9

 

[Yara]

Here in Australia we are thinking more about how to stay out of the hot sun, but back in our cool winter sailing, we had a similar thread. Interestingly we also had a couple of engineers getting shirty about units of measure!

I sail an 18ft boat, and whilst our winters are not as cold as those of Europe, we can have lovely cool weather, and a heating certainly helps.
My solution is based on the following assumptions:

• Radiant heating is the best solution for a small boat, as air heating is too complicated
• LPG or similar on board without complicated, reliable detectors, is similarly too difficult.
• A single burner methylated spirit stove (Origo in my case), puts out enough heat.

So the solution was to modify a two sided toaster by adding a reflector. It works well! A small amount of air in at low level, and a crack of the hatch, and the stack effect creates plenty of ventilation.
See http://www.trailersailerplace.com.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8275&start=50

 

[Yara]

For a small boat radiation works well- I converted a toaster by adding a reflector on one side, and placing on top of a one burner Origo alcohol stove. A small crack in the washboard, and the hatch also just slightly open, and the stack effect ensured good ventilation. I wouldnt use LPG as the boat is too small to start messing with gas detectors, and those cheap camping stoves have quite a few reports of the danger of using in confined spaces.
http://www.investigator563.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=362

 

[sam_uk]

Thermal mass for feet

Thermal mass for your feet, where it counts!

I find the problem on the boat is cold feet. I have started using a pair of those sealable plastic cake container things as a 'uber' hot water bottle.

Yes you could just put a hot water bottle under your feet but:

* Its somehow uncomfortable to have your feet wobbling about
* It might burst again this makes me slightly uncomfortable
* It has a small volume of water, 1 litre?

With my *Patent-pending cake tub thermal stores:

* They are useful for storing things in the rest of the time
* large 4 litre volume so stay warm for hours
* Flat strong surface on which to place your feet

A prototype is here:

Remember to leave one of the 'locking' tabs open so pressure can escape!

No doubt appearing in chandlerys near you for £59.99 soon!

 

[fergie_mac66]

Thermal mass for your feet, where it counts!

I find the problem on the boat is cold feet. I have started using a pair of those sealable plastic cake container things as a 'uber' hot water bottle.

Yes you could just put a hot water bottle under your feet but:

* Its somehow uncomfortable to have your feet wobbling about
* It might burst again this makes me slightly uncomfortable
* It has a small volume of water, 1 litre?

With my *Patent-pending cake tub thermal stores:

* They are useful for storing things in the rest of the time
* large 4 litre volume so stay warm for hours
* Flat strong surface on which to place your feet

A prototype is here:

Remember to leave one of the 'locking' tabs open so pressure can escape!

No doubt appearing in chandlerys near you for £59.99 soon!

2 or 3 liter coke bottles make good hot water bottles so long as you dont put boiling water in get the tempright and they stop hot all night !