How is the heat exchanger plumbed in to the system?

Is it simply taking the cooling water as it is returned to the exhaust
system, if so it may be very slow as this water is a mixture of hot from the
"Block" and cold from the thermostat bypass.

Or is it taking from a take off ports on the engine "Block". This is usually
better but on small engines like the Volvo and Bukh for rapid heat up a
separate 12v pump is needed to assist flow. It can have a thermostat if this
gives better control of heat.

Alec


"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
The AC element on my hot water heater is 1250 watts.

Can you safely draw from an inverter while the engine is running? If I
put in a 1500 watt inverter and used it carefully to only run the water
heater (which would also be getting waste heat from the cooling water
coil) and was sure that my other 12 V loads were minimal at the time,
could I get my hot water tank heated up in the 5 - 10 minutes that I do
with shore power? (It takes motoring half a day to do it with the waste
heat alone from my 20 hp diesel).

Or, will this burn up my little 35 amp alternator? I have a 55 I can put
in but it needs a different voltage regulator.

I would never try to make hot water from the batteries through the
inverter for obvious reasons.

--

Roger Long