Retrofitting Heating System

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Stats007

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My boat doesn't have any heating on it and as the weather is cooling off I'm thinking it might be handy to have some form of heating for the wife :rolleyes:. I have an inverter than can handle a fan heater but I'm thinking more along the lines of heating supplied from the engine and a 12v blower. I have ducting in place as part of the original fitment for windscreen venting etc.

Not really looking to fit a Wallas or Webasto diesel heater due to expense.
 
We have a car-type heater matrix and blower on each engine. Very, very effective when one or both of the main engines are running but I wouldn't want to run a main engine just for heat for several hours at a time. We have an inboard diesel generator which is great and we can run 230volt heaters from that but I don't really want to be running the generator all day when onboard in the winter. So I've just bought a Webasto Thermo Top C 5.2KW mini boiler and I'm shopping for radiators this weekend. That should cover all our bases, I think!


You don't say what kind of boat you have or give any indication of size, whether you live aboard in Scotland or spend the occasional week's holiday onboard in the Med so it's impossible to make any recommendations.
 
Sorry - it's a Nimbus 310 and I cruise all year round but just in the Solent and surrounding area. It's really just to warm the cockpit up and demist the windows when running - happy with a fan heater overnight.

Not looking to spend more than £400 on parts - I can fit it myself.
 
simonfraser said:
If you are fitting a heater to keep the wife happy, get a diesel air heater, works wonders.
Do it once, do it right.
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We're not on the boat long enough to warrant using one to be honest. In a marina the fan heater can run off of shore power overnight so it's really just to get get the boat warm whilst cruising.
 
David2452 said:
And do you have a domestic battery bank consisting of about 4,000 ah to run it for any length of time.:o
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I have a 2.5kw inverter with a dedicated 220ah battery bank. It runs a 1kw fan heater quite easily - drawing around 60 amps when running. It warms the cockpit it under 5 minutes so not an issue.
 
Stats007 said:
I have a 2.5kw inverter with a dedicated 220ah battery bank. It runs a 1kw fan heater quite easily - drawing around 60 amps when running. It warms the cockpit it under 5 minutes so not an issue.
Click to expand...

At 60 amps your batteries will be dead in a few hours. Fan heaters are not the best way to go. Diesel eberspacher is the best solution off grid
 
Thanks but a diesel heater would make more sense than gas.

I've found a number of places that sell ducted heat exchanger fans now anyway.
 
Makes good sense IMO to make use of the hot coolant already prepared by the engine. The link given previously is one, https://www.butlertechnik.com/search/matrix is another supplier of heater matrices with blower.

I'd suggest you ensure a capacity to give enough heat at modest fan speed as a blower going constantly at full blow is no joy to be with. If needed at a later time, an oilburner (Webasto, Eberspächer, Espar, Planar, Chinese NN or other) can be added either to provide hot coolant for the matrix or direct hot air.


A mate recently fitted two 3.8 kW matrices to this 32' mobo, controlled by room temperature thermostats. Plenty, even for winter trolling which he does a lot, especially now when bluefin tuna has returned to our waters after 40 years' absence.
 
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