Dave S2
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Posts posted by Dave S2
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I don't think it would save anything, you would probably sit there with the front door open letting the heat out.
...and have another pint of aspall cider!
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When my hull was delivered the spray foam was the same thickness as a coat of paint in some places. To start with the company that did it offered to send me some cans of aerosol which I obviously refused. In the end thanks to my hull builder they were pleading with me to come from Wales to respray it as they had stopped getting any work.
Since then I have seen many boats that look to have between 5 and 10mm of foam on the panels, no where near level with the ribs.
The easiest way to check is to drive a pin through a small square of plywood and use that as a depth gauge.
I honestly think insulation should be 50mm thick or even more - we would all save thousands of pounds a year on fuel and the environment too. I read that 100mm spray foam should be used in order to have a temperature controlled room.
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Starter batteries aren't for living off and neither are leisure batteries.
I know a farmer in wales who has a bank of solar panels and 800AH of traction batteries and a diesel generator. he says he has to run genny 2 hours every day. in the summer he can run power tools off the solar battery combination. I believe this all runs his farm and house and there is a large wind turbine that hardly moves too.
I would always specify at least a 5000VA inverter, 1000 plus AH battery bank at 24V and prob 500 W of solar panels or more and a diesel generator. If I had that I'd be laughing - I do have 12V 800AH (Trojan 6V batteries) 3000VA inverter and 2.8Kw petrol generator and no solar panels but it's just enough to run this boat with 4 hours charging per day.
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The Heritage Uno and next 2 models up use a Sterling NuWay ST40 burner.
Heritage reccommends the use of a 0.3 USgallonperhour nozzle. Have used 0.4 but as suggested apparently soots up the unit.
Grande is ST50 i believe
100 watts @ 230V which is not the most efficient when cruising.
200 litres in 2 months we used if not more... heating and cooking on a 70 x 12 boat. should have got the Compact as UNO is definitely rubbish for us, tho compact has 2 burners instead of one for separate heating and cooking. i don't care if it heats while you cook if the oven maxes out and you can't cook on the hob or indeed heat the boat since the 2 systems are connected. Why not get a dedicated cooker and dedicated heating then when one of them breaks you can still eat or be warm? had to install a woodburner anyway. best thing ever!
wish i had full size gas cooker, alde boiler hooked up to engine too, and back boiler on woodburner as backup for heating bedrooms etc cos the UNO plays up all the time. dis diesel is rising all the time... 92p from Pace barge boat and 88p from uxbridge
don't rely on one form of heating get at least 2 and when it gets to -5 you can have them all on at once! - if they work that is.
I am very disgruntled as I just replaced the nozzle and had to work out why it didn't turn on... seems the ceramic spark plugs have to be aligned properly which i have done and feel proud of myself for doing this, BIG BUT just discovered fumes leaking out of the insulation at the top because of a failed gasket which I am going to replace. I have become quite the service technician!
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Nice looking piece of kit. We chose diesel for cooking, although with a Dickinson stove, which is generally a smaller and lot lighter unit than the Heritage -- and a lot less sophisticated, looking at the Heritage blurb.
Single main issue we find is indeed the excess heat and in the summer we use an electric hob and microwave, mostly. If at all possible, I'd try and find someone who has the installation you envisage and see if you can observe it first hand. If you can't, I would certainly go and see one working in a showroom environment and ask to have it put in tickover mode and then have a good feel around it for how much heat it does put out.
Second issue (with the Dickinson) is that it runs in pretty sooty mode if set very low and cleaning it is a dirty hands job. On the plus side, it is however a very simple device. Make sure you check with the one you envisage buying that all the fuel connections and parts for which access is required will be suitably placed when on board and will meet the test requirements. Don't forget you also need to work out how you will secure it ---- it's a big, heavy lump !
I would be tempted to suggest you expand your research to include stoves that require no electrical power. It's always an issue on the boats and one of the pluses that we saw in our stove was the fact it is just a simple gravity feed.
Another point I suggest you consider before you buy are the installation instructions --- particularly with regard to the flue requirements. Seemingly a number of these devices specify a flue length you are just not going to achieve on a narrowboat. While the stove will no doubt work, to a greater or lesser extent, with whatever flue you can manage, it might become an issue if any warranty work is required and the engineer can turn around and say 'incorrectly installed'.
The manufacturers should be able to tell you exactly what the fuel and power consumption ranges are.
Mike.
Heritage are happy to work on bad installs. I know. It's something they really should think about before letting people go and do their own install!
heritage is simple and cheaper because they couldn't be bothered to write the temperature ranges in an obvious scale on the oven dial
100 watts of electrical power for our UNO that's 8 and a bit amp hours at 12VDC. Not great at all for cruising especially including the 230V heating circulation pump at least get a 12VDC circulation pump. The noise is quite loud enough from ours.
gravity fed systems i believe need to be level...
Since it weighs 250 to 300kgs I can't get rid of it nor can I afford to! It looks very nice though so that's a plus!
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Excess heat can be a problem on a narrowboat, in summer, without extra inside heating. Think metal box sitting in sun. We have a solid fuel rayburn but use a gas cooker in the summer.
Sue
Yes but it's the winter that I fear - since i have the damn thing in bits again to change the nozzle myself BECAUSE the service dept is in cornwall and now it needs servicing/fixing. No end of hassle. While I am sitting here with no oven and no central heating I think to myself why oh why didn't i get a bigger wood stove with a back boiler plumbed into the radiators. I also wish I had a full size gas cooker with decent oven, also the oven would heat up in a sensible time or when this breaks which it invariably does once a year We wouldn't be sat here like muppets AND also when we can't get 300 litres of diesel to fill up because the fuel barge won't turn up again I wish I had an LPG system because at least I dont have to take the boat to the shop to get a bottle... having a car helps loads too!
Don't rely on fuel barges. Fill up full in November, our main mistake was not to get 500 litres in November when it turned cold. it wasn't so bad this year because we had a wood burner installed and a portable gas hob.
I presume the temperature issue isn't so bad in a narrowboat.
Do you find the oven temperature maxes out before you get the boat warm and have to open oven door to let heat escape?
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Do you max out the oven temperature because importantly the hob is useless with the burner off? this happens after being on for a couple of hours.
If it would fit at the very least get a heritage Compact. Install the damn thing in the center of the boat too and don't miss out a single part of the electrical or plumbing instructions - the flu can easily be shorter than 4.5 metres our is maybe 1.5 to roof plus a 24" chimney I think.
Also make sure it is double skinned or goodbye paint work on roof and wherever that water flows to drain.
We haven't had a good experience but how ridiculous to not to have a separate oven and heating control which obviously requires a larger unit to fit in 2 burners but at least I wouldn't moan. I think these cost nearly £5000 too.
Good points - the engineers are very nice... so far met 3 of them. Sterling burners are kind but only deal with trade. I now have a new skill. Finally the hot water is amazing and the oven is alright and the heating works but there is just no heat retention in this boat I think.
I will write more when I think of it.
Thanks for your reply Mike.
The salesman tells me the heat insualtion is very good and the summer heat shouldn't be a problem, but he would say that wouldn't he!
With regard to the flue length, I haven't checked but I expect they all specify an impractical length, like the solid fuel stove makers do, but Heritage are advertising the Uno as suitable for a narrowboat.
I asked about reference installations but they were a bit cagey and said they had narrowboat owners who were willing to show them off, but they kept moving around
I think the best thing is to press them on this and see if I can at least get a telephone contact with a satisfied owner. The next best thing will be to visit Heritage, so it looks like a trip to Cornwall is on the cards.Ask them about a boat called Stealth. in a way it's not their fault it was the previous owners who had an obviously small budget but I'm sure they are happy to give us free servicing!
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STOP!!!!!!! think long and hard first. I want to explain my issues to you. then I am going to TRY to call their service department to get them to come and fix ours!!!! AGAIN!
I think the best thing is to press them on this and see if I can at least get a telephone contact with a satisfied owner. The next best thing will be to visit Heritage, so it looks like a trip to Cornwall is on the cards.
range cooking and heating help
in New to Boating?
Posted
Hi there,
What is the manual configuration you speak of?
I have worked out it should use 1.14 litres of diesel per hour but after an hour of heating up to 200 the oven will cool down every 15 minutes or so and the burner will prob come on again for a few minutes after that time cycling roughly like this.
Always have a multifuel burner on board with a backboiler this is a must have for when the range needs servicing or when you run out of diesel and IS nicer. All houses with ranges I am certain have a stove as well! (tho i could be wrong)
I will emphasise just how helpful those guys at Heritage are. I have learnt how to replace the burner nozzle and adjust the electrodes next to them. I am going to learn gasket replacement and removal of hob for clean out, also the bottom of the oven is removable for a hoover or wipe clean if necessary with a wide flat head screwdriver. It is worth knowing because their time is limited and I think they welcome it if you are confident however a full service which involves adjusting the pump pressure... a critical factor, is not something I can yet do or perhaps would be able to do.
If it fits then a Compact would be advantageous over an UNO.