Two questions about heating while on the water

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Clearly you don’t sail in northern waters. Coming below deck to a Luke warm saloon is awful.

This is cold enough for an Australian lad .

[mako]

@Rohan, I recall that those small Dickinson solid fuel heaters are rated for little sailboats of about 20 feet, so even the manufacturer admits the limitations. If for some reason you really wanted to heat from a wood stove, and could load 1-2 tons of pellets into your hold, then a domestic type of wood stove would be needed. But you'll still be tending to the ashes every 4-6 hours. You wake up in the morning and the boat has icicles hanging from the overhead while your stoke a new fire.

If you really want the wonderful feel and romance of a fire, then go ahead and install it, in ADDITION to the Chinese heater or hydronic or diesel fueled.

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Clearly you don’t sail in northern waters. Coming below deck to a Luke warm saloon is awful.

I can attest that they do as they say when it comes to heating their boat. It was jacket weather INSIDE when we were graciously invited for scones one fall Scottish night

Matt

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Matt Johnson

I can attest that they do as they say when it comes to heating their boat. It was jacket weather INSIDE when we were graciously invited for scones one fall Scottish night

Matt

Wow. Hardcore

[GILow]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

…
I’m thinking of using 120mm fan radiators ( Pc liquid Cooling) as the radiators.

I use heater cores from old commercial vans. Toyota Hiace series III to be precise, as they are by far the easiest to extract from the van. Also, being Toyota, the build quality is top notch.

[Shaneesprit]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I’m trying to decide to use a Chinese warm air diesel heater or a Chinese hydronic diesel heater. Running the 75mm air ducts is turning into a real pain.

I’m thinking of using 120mm fan radiators ( Pc liquid Cooling) as the radiators.

Do you need to duct the heater more than once?
I just put 120mm into the cabin. Expect / Hope it will spread the heat naturally.
If the heater ever works when I need it too.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Rohan

1. When it comes to a dedicated heater, I have considered options and would prefer to install a solid fuel heater. But when I google it, the Dickinson Marine Newport heater (here, or featured in this article here) is the only result I get. So is that really the only choice? It looks like a fine product, but it's dimensions are a little large. It's not very tall or wide, but it sticks out 10" from the wall, which is too much on my boat. I'm not sure there's any good place to put it. I would love a smaller one, if anyone knows about one, please share.

2. Heating with the oven. I know that's not recommended, but how bad is that really? I have a fairly standard Force 10 propane gimbaled oven. Surprisingly just by cooking it heats up the cabin pretty well. Any specific danger of using it as a heater? I'm not worried about carbon monoxide because I have 3 CO detectors which have all been recently replaced.

Diesel air heater just like on my semi trucks draws combustion air from outside and exhausts outside sips diesel I go through about 12 or 13 gallons a year with my 5kw unit on my 30.
Hot air to both ends of main salon and cold return at foot of my quarter berth .
Simple controls

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Sam Woodbridge

Has anyone ran a forced air diesel heater over night? If so what was the power draw?

!

No I don't run it at night when I'm sleeping my goose down is plenty warm but I do turn it on before I get up in the morning
Has well over a dozen settings with my controller running with 20°F outside and 65°F inside I use setting 5 and it uses about .75 amps when running .

[Lepke]

Pellets don't burn well in a wood stove. They tend to smolder unless you have a very high draft. In a pellet stove you have forced draft that has incoming air blowing against the pellets making them burn rapidly.
I have a pellet stove, too, as my main heat. It has a water coil that heats the boiler so I only run a circulation pump and not burn $6 diesel.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Lepke

Pellets don't burn well in a wood stove. They tend to smolder unless you have a very high draft. In a pellet stove you have forced draft that has incoming air blowing against the pellets making them burn rapidly.
I have a pellet stove, too, as my main heat. It has a water coil that heats the boiler so I only run a circulation pump and not burn $6 diesel.

Where you getting $6 diesel these days?

[Windpilot]

Originally Posted by Shaneesprit

Do you need to duct the heater more than once?
I just put 120mm into the cabin. Expect / Hope it will spread the heat naturally.
If the heater ever works when I need it too.

My Chinese diesel heater is in the aft lazzerete on my 41 sailboat.
Draws air from the aft lazzerete, exhausts outside of course.
My 5k unit came with the splitter for two registers, both I kept in aft cabin area. I couldn't really run anything forward to the main cabin or forward cabin and was thinking the distance was way too far to be effective. Lo and behold I was pleasantly surprised how much heat it puts out and it does heat the whole boat. Yes the forward cabin and forward head do get less/take longer but the whole boat gets very comfortable. A strategically placed fan can help.
I wouldn't worry about vent placement at all on a 30 foot boat. Keep it simple is my motto.I can sail with my cockpit fully enclosed, companionway open, heater on and be very comfortable.
This will my 4th coming up winter with it, no issues except I replaced/redid my exhaust last winter with a better quality exhaust hose connecting my eberbacher muffler.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Shaneesprit

Do you need to duct the heater more than once?

I just put 120mm into the cabin. Expect / Hope it will spread the heat naturally.

If the heater ever works when I need it too.

My experience is I need to duct throughout the boat. 4 outlets 9M pipe run. This is based on 4 previous boat installs. In my case 1 act cabin , 2 to saloon , 1 to forward cabin. This handles door closed situations and prevents air movement due to differential temperatures.

[hlev00]

I missed how much cold weather boating you are trying to prepare for. One option for occasional heat when the engine is running is to add a simple automotive type heater with a core and fan. Something like https://www.nautiqueparts.com/produc...e-wrapper-fan/

Obviously it is only of use when the engine is running but could be a simpler install if you only need occasional heat. You wouldn't want to idle the engine just to make heat. If you are trying to heat while at anchor then a diesel heater like and Espar has a lot of advantages.

Harry

[valhalla360]

Will you be at anchor or on a dock with shore power?

We had good luck with an air/con unit that had an electric heat option but obviously, you need to be on shore power.

On our 34ft catamaran, with 10k btu heat, it was fine down to around 30F, then it started losing ground roughly 1 deg for each deg colder it got outside.