Tube Heaters

[tripleace]

Thoughts,

Do I purchase 2ft 140 watt tube heaters (qty 3) for my sealine 365

or do I need 4ft 250 watt heats.

What have you lot got and how many etc etc.

Feed up with the cost of a 1k themo fan heater and plan this year to leave heat on at a gentle level.

The dehumidifier needs a little heat to work best.

As always, comments appreciated.

 

[byron]

I use 1 x 60w sharp end cabin 1 x 60w blunt end cabin and a 500w greenhouse heater in the dark bit under the floor boards in the middle cabin but that only comes on if the temp. drops to 5° or below.
I find that adequate. A great place to buy all this sort of gear on line is www.tlc-direct.co.uk

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[Col]

Bit nearer to home for you 2 is "The shop on the bridge" (except it's now on the roundabout ) Junc of Oxford rd + Norcot rd, Tilehurst. very reasonably priced too.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the link Byron, look pretty cheap.

 

[byron]

I've bought quite a few Drachma's worth of gear there lately and have been impressed with their service too. You can email them for tekkie advice, also request (on line) their catalogue, it takes about a week to come through but is well worth the wait.

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[kimhollamby]

Avoid fan heaters at all costs. If fan fails, element can overheat and might cause a fire hazard. Enclosed tube heaters much safer I think.

 

[Guest]

Re: Oil filled rads

just bought a pair of oil filled rads from machinemart. £25 each, small, 450W with termostat and frostguard thing. Very nice looking things. My understanding of the tube heaters is they're permanently on...

 

[jfm]

Re: Tube Heaters/cost of elec

The elec you consume does not depend on the power of your heater, it depends on the temp you want the boat at. We use 4x 500w tube heaters, each with a thermostat set at about 12c, in a 42foot f'line. One is in the engine room. Plus we have a dehumid. But if we had 8 x 500w heaters all set at 12c we would consume the same elec.

Don't worry about the cost of electricity, much better to play safe because if you get damp/mildew the boat gets smelly then it's ruined. If the 4kw is on for 12hrs a day then the elec cost is £200 over 3 months. Someone clever could work out how much £££ you save by reducing the temp from 12c to 10c or 8c or whatever, but the price range is less than £100 so not worth it

 

[byron]

Re: Oil filled rads

Yes Graham you are right tube heaters (unless fitted with a thermostat) are permenantly on. However as they are producing a dry heat this helps toward preventing condensation.

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[adarcy]

Re: Tube Heaters/do you need \'em?

Of course there is no doubt you need a dehumid (we have on that senses the humidity and works is its needed, draining out thro the sink) but do you NEED a source of heat as well?

After all, I don't leave the car heater on overnight or heat the garage. (S coast)
The engine freshwater has antifreeze, I don't care if any bilge stuff freezes ditto the freshwater in the tank, the taps are open and the interior is kept quite dry by the dehumid.

We store ashore always nr Southampton which v rarely gets extreme weather. I can understand if you're upt North or deep inland but, again, I question whether one needs to try and keep the boat warmish overwinter. Seen plenty of boats covered w snow for a time afloat or ashore and hav'nt heard of a lot of probs.

V willing 2 B enlightened

 

[Guest]

Re: Tube Heaters/do you need \'em?

agreed, and all the lorries with massive diesels left outdoors. Over winter I used to simply empty a few cans of cheapy spray in engineroom, same around metally bits in saloon etc, then dehum interior.

 

[Guest]

Re: Tube Heaters/do you need \'em?

ah, but the cheapy dehumids will freeze up if cabin temp gets down to zip, so u do need something as a frostguard.

if we agree on needing a dehumid to stop cabin turning into mushroom farm, then either expensive dehum, or cheapy, plus heater.

As for donkey shop, need to stop raw water side freezing if boat left in water, unless you have seacocks, and can drain it down (personally, I don't).

 

[jfm]

Re: Tube Heaters/do you need \'em?

adarcy, you may be right. I'm not at all sure, but I prefer to keep it warm so any moisture becomes more easily airborne and therefore can be got by the dehumid. But that could be tosh, I'm not sure. (Certainly if there is bilge water then my theory makes that more airborne too, which would be bad. But we keep bilges dry) Analogy with car not the same, you get in it most days and warm it up and dry it off. The boat is left cold for months.

I'm not wurrid about the engines getting cold, it's the soft furnishings and stuff.

 

[Guest]

Re: Tube Heaters/do you need \'em?

A few thoughts from one who hasn't got a boat:

Heaters on their own will keep the water vapourised, so long as there are no temepratures at or below the dew pt temp of the moisture bearing air. Surfaces which conduct heat well to the outside (single glazed windows, metal window runners) would increase chances of condensation on them on inside, so prob not completely solved. Wouldn't soft furnishings become impregnated with (warm) moist air under these conditions? I am not convinced that this would not increase likelihood of fungi. What happens if the heater or elec supply to the heaters fails and nobody realises this for ages? Wouldn't this cause black mould etc.?

I think the right approach is as advised by others is to condense i.e. de-humidify so moisture 'becomes' water and get it out of the boat (sink drain?). Good thing about de-humidifers is they invariably have a fan for drawing moist air into them and drier air out of them. Be aware that the principles of refrigeration/air cooling equipment will also provide a source of heat in a differnt part of the de-hum (oftenn used to warm up the dry air and increase its ability carry moisture back to the dehumidifier from moister parts of the boat). Additionally, water vapour will release (latent) heat (of evaporation) when it condenses, reducing the need to have such powerful heaters to keep the water vapourised.

Care may need to be taken on boats with wooden ineteriors as if the air is too dry, won't it cause wood to shrink/crack? Therefore a humidistat is useful, as is a (cheap) hygrometer (moisture content indicator).

RJMW

 

[Guest]

Re: too dry? + cracking wood

really don't think dehums of type used in boats and sold in B+Q good enuf to crack wood in boats, partly cos they aren't powerful enuf, there's loads of places drier than UK coast where boats are ok (most places probly) and most of the wood isn't wood but plywood so v happy with driness, but wet causes all horrid moisture to sneak, make varnish go white and suchlike.

IMHO easily the best thing for overwinter for tripleace is to

a) get the boat away from sea if at all poss. Off water miles better than on. A mile inshore makes a difference too (viz mouldy seaside cottages etc)

b) take as much linen and mattresses home to superdry centrally heated house, where nobody grow houseplant these days cos heating whacked up and double glazed and no kids have heard of Jack Frost at all.

c) stuff that you can't (be bothered) to take home scrunch up really tight, put in placky bag, or vacuu thing, and jammem in a small cupboard, high up as poss in boat.

 

[tripleace]

The cost of The tube heraters I have on order are £12.00 each.

I was going to put these on a timer so they are not on ALL the time, say over night and an hour or so during the day.

 

[jfm]

Re: Tstat instead of timer?

Tripleace: Surely a thermostat is better, more or less same price and effort as a timer??

 

[byron]

Re: Tstat instead of timer?

I'm with you JFM. What if day time temps drop to below freezing and Tripleace can't get to his boat because the roads are bad.... suspect he'll expect me to go down to his boat and over ride everything, his boat is only about ¼ mile from me by river bit more by road. Yep! Thermostat is better.

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[Scubadoo]

You could buy a plug-in thermostat which would be better I guess.

RM.

 

[tripleace]

Re: Tstat instead of timer?

Hadn't thought of that Bryon.

Maybe its best to just get you to go down each day a switch them on and off when needed


ps do you offer a cleaning servcie as well

(only jokin)