water heater and an inverter?

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tjc

tjc

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Couple of nights on the pontoon and the hot water is decidedly cool. So run the engine on our, new to us benny 381, to heat the water and let swmbo have a shower. However the calorifier seems to take an age to warm up with the engine on tickover or just above despite the pipes going in being hot.

So with no shore power is it feasible to have a big enough inverter and plug my shorepower into it if the engine is running nad run the immersion?

Probably not I suspect but just a thought
 
a basic imersion heater is 500w - so you'll need a min 600w inverter to run this ... at 12v and 600w (allowing for inefficiencies) it's 50 amps ... so you need a good alternator to stop you draining the battery whilst running it ... theoretically it should work...

It might be easier to just run the engine in gear with a few revs against the mooring warps ... and perhaps run the engine a little more frequently?
 
[So with no shore power is it feasible to have a big enough inverter and plug my shorepower into it if the engine is running nad run the immersion?]



/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Cold Showers Then .. Or a Marina Berth .. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif .. Run ours on fast idle to charge the batteries and get some hot water .. We also use the engine to get to sea .. Then put the sails up ..
 
Most immersion elements are at least 1KW, but with shore power you could run the element from 240v. Having said that, your tank needs to have an element built in, and it may well not be designed for one, which means a new and expensive calorifier.
BTW, run the engine in gear rather than in neutral, the engine prefers it.
 
Fairly poor post of mine.. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I have shorepower and an immersion fitted which works well. The engine heats the water under load but I want a way to heat it when we have been on a pontoon (withou a hookup) for a few days as the engine does a failrly poor job then

Or I could just get a generator I suppose
 
30 mins of engine use should be enough to give you piping hot water.

If you don't have a hook up, do the pontoon have facilities like showers? A lot cheaper than an genny /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
My 381 with an MD22 Volvo works great, half to three quarters of an hour running and piping hot water plus 50 amps in the battery.
Stu
 
There is something squiffy here. Half an hour of engine running should be plenty to heat the water using a calorifier.

Maybe an airlock in the system? You say pipe going in hot, but what about pipe coming out? If it is cold then it's not circulating. It should still be warm albeit not as hot as the input pipe.

An inverter makes no sense really. If you have shorepower, then you just need an AC immersion heater, which most HW tanks are equipped with. Using DC to make AC when you have no genset is not really practical for this situation.
 
[ QUOTE ]
It wasn't a poor post, it just suffered from some dumb answers - hardly your fault /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ] I agree.

What you need is answers from people who have done just what you are asking - not dumb comments from people with far too many posts to be taken seriously!

Search the archives and you will find the answers. One word of caution when running the engine AND turning on the inverter is that the alternator may well be outputting its maximum current for far too long and will overheat. We did just this when motoring for 15 minutes - but wanting to make sure we had showers when we stopped. We have a 750 watt immersion heater and a 2.5KVA inverter but luckily our thermal cutout on the alternator stopped any damage.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It wasn't a poor post, it just suffered from some dumb answers - hardly your fault /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ] I agree.

What you need is answers from people who have done just what you are asking - not dumb comments from people with far too many posts to be taken seriously!

Search the archives and you will find the answers. One word of caution when running the engine AND turning on the inverter is that the alternator may well be outputting its maximum current for far too long and will overheat. We did just this when motoring for 15 minutes - but wanting to make sure we had showers when we stopped. We have a 750 watt immersion heater and a 2.5KVA inverter but luckily our thermal cutout on the alternator stopped any damage.

[/ QUOTE ]

So it was a DUMB answer to suggest Heating Water in a calorifier from an Inverter.
/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
So it was a DUMB answer to suggest Heating Water in a calorifier from an Inverter.

[/ QUOTE ]We heat our water via the inverter and from our large battery bank - BUT - not when the alternator is running.
 
Another thing occurred to me as to why your water is not heating up. Maybe the thermostat is jammed open so the coolant water is never getting that hot. Could be worth checking.
 
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