Interested in a discussion oriented towards people who are looking to
live aboard, of ways to safely heat a cruising sailboat at dockside.

SH

wrote:
Interested in a discussion oriented towards people who are looking to
live aboard, of ways to safely heat a cruising sailboat at dockside.

SH

At dockside, absolutely no question, electric heaters, with hot
water tank and a wood stove for back up in the event of power
failure. I would burn commercial firelogs in the stove when
neccessary, and keep my rear wheel drive cargo van back end full of
them for ballast on slippery roads. I would want a tiny woodstove,
and would cut up the firelogs to suit it's capacity using a coping saw.

Hot water in a well insulated tank could provide a little heat while
the wood stove got roaring, and you always want lots of electric hot
water for almost all of life's little luxuries, like showers, tea,
soup, clean clothes, etc.

The option to use engine heat for hot water and heating is not the
best use for the engine unless at sea and in need of motive power.

Besides, the noise of an engine rumbling all winter would cause
trouble with the locals, including me.

Terry K

wrote:
Interested in a discussion oriented towards people who are looking to
live aboard, of ways to safely heat a cruising sailboat at dockside.

SH

The boat I sail on (50ft. LOA) has small central heating radiators, just
like the ones you have at home, with a hot fresh water system, heated from
an Eberspacher hot water heater (very tiny). The system is fully
programmable, and although we don't live aboard in the winter, she's as warm
as toast when we are working on her. Keeping the heat on 2 hrs and off
4hrs, night and day, seems to cost very little, and the batteries are kept
charged by the marina's supply thru an auto charger.

So far, no problems. This is the 4th year since installation.

Dennis.

A reverse cycle heat pump is the least trouble, but only good until
the water temps drops below 38F or so. I built a gizmo that allowed
me to run it all winter, but it wasn't very energy efficient. Its main
advantage is that you aren't tripping over electric spece heaters
all the time. We have an Espar diesel forced-air furnace for when it gets
colder or when we are away from the dock.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Interested in a discussion oriented towards people who are looking to
live aboard, of ways to safely heat a cruising sailboat at dockside.

SH

Hello SH,

We lived on our boat in the Seattle area for 2 years. Heating was a real
challenge as we had a 15amp dock. The refrigerator and hot water heater
would cycle at random times so we had a little portable electric heater that
we could set on low and put it on a 20' extension cord. We had a diesel
stove in the forward down galley which worked great for the front half of
the boat. It burned about 1 gal a day.

We had a free-standing fireplace in the up main Saloon, and we burned presto
logs. Incidently, we had to break off sections and found a claw hammer did
that easy enough.

The down aft stateroom was the biggest problem. We would drag our little
electric heater down there but it was pretty nippy when we hit the sack. The
second winter I discovered a god send for the master stateroom. An electric
blanket. It was toasty, drew minimal current, and we did not have problems
with condensation on the bottom side of the mattress.

I always thought the solution would be a Espar diesel forced-air furnace as
one respondent noted. In any case winter will be here soon. Have fun...dave

How do the forced air units compare with the hot water ?

Thank you,
Courtney

Doug Dotson wrote:
A reverse cycle heat pump is the least trouble, but only good until
the water temps drops below 38F or so. I built a gizmo that allowed
me to run it all winter, but it wasn't very energy efficient. Its main
advantage is that you aren't tripping over electric spece heaters
all the time. We have an Espar diesel forced-air furnace for when it gets
colder or when we are away from the dock.

wrote in message
oups.com...

Interested in a discussion oriented towards people who are looking to
live aboard, of ways to safely heat a cruising sailboat at dockside.

SH

Courtney Thomas wrote:
How do the forced air units compare with the hot water ?

Thank you,
Courtney

I would guess that pumping hot water at low pressure through radiators and
associated piping requires a lot less power than forced-air blowing. At
least, that is our experience, and the heat is much more evenly distributed.
Also, those areas which didn't need heat were simply turned off, or the
radiator stat was turned low to suit the environment/occupants. The system
is silent, which makes for peace and quiet. Drilling through bulkheads etc.
is a darned sight easier when the holes are merely 1" dia. or less, against
the 3"-4" holes required for air tubing. Quickly drying wet clothing and
washed items is an absolute godsend, and this alone makes up for any
disadvantages of hot water heating.

The heating unit is very quick to achieve operating temperature, and for
cold the system started to be effective in about 15 minutes. If an en-suite
radiator is inadvertently left full on, the heads would become a sauna!

Although diesel-fired, our boat seemed to survive the winter on very little
fuel, admittedly, we had 2 * 60 gallon tanks, but the guage never seemed to
move much over winter.

I am completely sold on this form of heating against the forced-air systems.


Dennis.

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 09:55:54 GMT, "Dennis Pogson"
wrote:

Courtney Thomas wrote:
How do the forced air units compare with the hot water ?

Thank you,
Courtney

I would guess that pumping hot water at low pressure through radiators and
associated piping requires a lot less power than forced-air blowing. At
least, that is our experience, and the heat is much more evenly distributed.
Also, those areas which didn't need heat were simply turned off, or the
radiator stat was turned low to suit the environment/occupants. The system
is silent, which makes for peace and quiet. Drilling through bulkheads etc.
is a darned sight easier when the holes are merely 1" dia. or less, against
the 3"-4" holes required for air tubing. Quickly drying wet clothing and
washed items is an absolute godsend, and this alone makes up for any
disadvantages of hot water heating.

The heating unit is very quick to achieve operating temperature, and for
cold the system started to be effective in about 15 minutes. If an en-suite
radiator is inadvertently left full on, the heads would become a sauna!

Although diesel-fired, our boat seemed to survive the winter on very little
fuel, admittedly, we had 2 * 60 gallon tanks, but the guage never seemed to
move much over winter.

I am completely sold on this form of heating against the forced-air systems.


Dennis.

Interesting observations. In countries where the need is for heating
only, nobody uses blown air. It's noisy, and its dirty.

But when the need is for cooling, circulating water systems are not so
popular.

As soon as I typed this I realised that when computer suites need
cooling, the system chosen is often circulating water chillers.
So even where cooling/heating systems are needed, there is room for
circulating water, seems to me.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:03:13 GMT,
Brian Whatcott wrote:
On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 09:55:54 GMT, "Dennis Pogson"
wrote:

Courtney Thomas wrote:
How do the forced air units compare with the hot water ?

Thank you,
Courtney

I would guess that pumping hot water at low pressure through radiators and
associated piping requires a lot less power than forced-air blowing. At
least, that is our experience, and the heat is much more evenly distributed.
Also, those areas which didn't need heat were simply turned off, or the
radiator stat was turned low to suit the environment/occupants. The system
is silent, which makes for peace and quiet. Drilling through bulkheads etc.
is a darned sight easier when the holes are merely 1" dia. or less, against
the 3"-4" holes required for air tubing. Quickly drying wet clothing and
washed items is an absolute godsend, and this alone makes up for any
disadvantages of hot water heating.

The heating unit is very quick to achieve operating temperature, and for
cold the system started to be effective in about 15 minutes. If an en-suite
radiator is inadvertently left full on, the heads would become a sauna!

Although diesel-fired, our boat seemed to survive the winter on very little
fuel, admittedly, we had 2 * 60 gallon tanks, but the guage never seemed to
move much over winter.

I am completely sold on this form of heating against the forced-air systems.


Dennis.

Interesting observations. In countries where the need is for heating
only, nobody uses blown air. It's noisy, and its dirty.

But when the need is for cooling, circulating water systems are not so
popular.

As soon as I typed this I realised that when computer suites need
cooling, the system chosen is often circulating water chillers.
So even where cooling/heating systems are needed, there is room for
circulating water, seems to me.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK



Forced air also has some advantages. If your recirculating water heating
system springs a leak, it's a mess, and may even damage other systems.
If the forced air system leaks, then all it takes is a bit of duct tape
to fix, if you want to bother. No need to bleed air out of it either,
although that can also be avoided with a decent design in the water circ
system.

--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
Strip Mining Prevents Forest Fires.

Jim Richardson wrote:
On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:03:13 GMT,
Brian Whatcott wrote:
On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 09:55:54 GMT, "Dennis Pogson"
wrote:

Courtney Thomas wrote:
How do the forced air units compare with the hot water ?

Thank you,
Courtney

I would guess that pumping hot water at low pressure through
radiators and associated piping requires a lot less power than
forced-air blowing. At least, that is our experience, and the heat
is much more evenly distributed. Also, those areas which didn't
need heat were simply turned off, or the radiator stat was turned
low to suit the environment/occupants. The system is silent, which
makes for peace and quiet. Drilling through bulkheads etc. is a
darned sight easier when the holes are merely 1" dia. or less,
against the 3"-4" holes required for air tubing. Quickly drying wet
clothing and washed items is an absolute godsend, and this alone
makes up for any disadvantages of hot water heating.

The heating unit is very quick to achieve operating temperature,
and for cold the system started to be effective in about 15
minutes. If an en-suite radiator is inadvertently left full on, the
heads would become a sauna!

Although diesel-fired, our boat seemed to survive the winter on
very little fuel, admittedly, we had 2 * 60 gallon tanks, but the
guage never seemed to move much over winter.

I am completely sold on this form of heating against the forced-air
systems.


Dennis.

Interesting observations. In countries where the need is for heating
only, nobody uses blown air. It's noisy, and its dirty.

But when the need is for cooling, circulating water systems are not
so popular.

As soon as I typed this I realised that when computer suites need
cooling, the system chosen is often circulating water chillers.
So even where cooling/heating systems are needed, there is room for
circulating water, seems to me.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK



Forced air also has some advantages. If your recirculating water
heating system springs a leak, it's a mess, and may even damage other
systems. If the forced air system leaks, then all it takes is a bit
of duct tape to fix, if you want to bother. No need to bleed air out
of it either, although that can also be avoided with a decent design
in the water circ system.

Since all the tubing is in under the sole, a leak (we have never experienced
one!), simply goes into the bilge. The observations re forced air cooling
would only apply if some form of air conditioner was in use, since the air
outside a boat in hot weather may not be all that cooler than the inside
air.

The tubing is unlike any other I have seen on boats, thick-walled and black
in colour, and with patent fittings/joints, which seem to be absolutely
foolproof.

I guess technology moves on, and we all have to try to keep abreast of it.
Last years' fittings are out of date in no time at all.


Dennis.