Ex Brummie

We were talking about fans in the cabinet containing an open flued gas fridge.

Any form of artificial draught on an open flued appliance will upset the combustion. The ventilation requirements specified by manufacturers are designed to ensure that the burner can draw its own combustion air for efficient operation. A forced draught below the burner can 'overair' the burner, lifting the flame, and an evacuation fan in the compartment can deprive the burner of combustion air causing a 'dirty' flame. Both conditions are likely to produce excessive CO, the silent killer. If it is a room sealed appliance, then a forced draught would not affect combustion.

A vaporising oil Rayburn would be no good on a boat. The concentric ring burners need to be perfectly horizontal. A pressure jet Rayburn would would work, but needs 240volt and to be well commissioned to stop it burning itself out on diesel.

Apart from the hull wash, you need to take into account the displacement of the paddles. On a 2 man canoe, this is significant, and more noticeable on oars or sculls where there is a distance between the hull and blades.

My comment refers only to the potential heat from a given fuel, not an appliance efficiency rating. The originasl post is all about the property of fuel only.

The comparison of calorific values for various fuels is only a small percentage of the whole picture. What you do with the heat after you have produced it is the defining factor. An Eberspacher/Webasto produces whatever heat the conversion figures give you, but when you throw a large percentage of this out through the flue/exhaust, it becomes meaningless. However, for quick response, it probably beats any other form of heating. A solid fuel stove or dripfeed stove will lose less through the flue as the flue will become a conductor of heat, as will the stove, so litre for litre will be more effective than the pressure jet. This is where Alde boilers fail. There is no way to store and utilise the latent heat that stoves will. If your wood costs you little or nothing, then this has to be the most efficient form of heating, especially if you have a lot of spare time to prepare and store the fuel. If you have to buy wood, then you are probably better off with coal/coke/smokeless as this is more controllable and consistent than wood, and probably as cheap. With current diesel prices, a drip feed is probably as efficient, and the convenience of lack of preparation, storage and dust may give it an advantage.

Ventilation requirements are well specified in various British Standards, and where specified it has to be dedicated ventilation. Adventitious ventilation, (draughts to you and me) is not counted, and many narrowboats have plenty of this. As already stated, draughts can be diverted, and if you have an appliance that draws air(Stove, cooker, boiler etc) if thereis an open path even through a few bends, then it will draw it without draughts. Obviously cabin size also comes into play, as the average yoghurt pot comes nowhere close to a 50ft narrowboat, so the effects of appliances are minimised.

There is another famous bus decapitator in Birmingham at Sandy Lane, Highgate. The road passes over the Grand Union, and under the old GWR main line. The road took out a congested junction for traffic from the Stratford Road returning to Liverpool Street Bus Depot, and was not on any route, but still managed to capture about 4 - 5 buses a year running out of service. I was a driver at the garage in the 70's, and all the running records detailed the in, and out of service routes to be followed. Where there were routes operated by single deckers, an out of service return often bought you back that way. As drivers often covered a multitude of routes on overtime runs away from their usual rota, it was not surprising that accidents occurred.

Pressure jet burners are readily convertible to run on 35 sec. If using a vapourising burner, you need a pot burner (Bubble, Lockgate type) . An Aga wick burner with concentric rings is no good on a boat as it needs to be kept level. Bubble do a small range, it depends how serious pour cooking is.

Saw that one, but time lag is quite short, but like the ebay one that gives two hours. When I can be a***d tospend the time, I'll learn how to copy and paste into posts.

Can't post a link, but scan pneumatic time lag switch on ebay. There is an adjustable one from 1 second to 2 hours, about £13.

Screwfix Flomasta Cylinder stat is adaptable for a pipe.

10 amp switch, according to the full data sheet. Priced cheaper than a normal pipe stat, but would need an enclosure and looks fiddly.

+ 1 for this,

And don't forget to set the correct mode which, if you are controlling the pump on flow temperature, will be cooling.

Same as you put in the engine, it is cheaper than buying the stuff in a bottle for central heating.

What temperature are you measuring? Not a stupid question, as if you measure room temperature, you do not want the pump to switch on unless the water is hot enough to circulate. Once you start pumping, the backboiler temperature can fall quickly, so you need to switch off the pump to allow the water to heat again. Personally, I use a clamp on pipe stat on the boiler flow pipe, with a live feed to the common terminal, and a switched feed from the normally open contact to the pump (then neutral to the pump). Setting the thermostat to 60c-65c means the pump starts to circulate when the boiler reaches 60-65, but cuts out when the temperature falls. You don't want to circulate cold water in the radiators, (or calorifier where you will cool your hot water). Measuring room temperature is pretty pointless, as you won't have your fire lit unless you want it.

Every days a school day. I'll stick to my vaporisers and pressure jets.

Not too familiar with Webasto's, but I doubt if anything designed for a boat or truck would have a modulating burner, so I would think option 2.

I gave up OFTEC when I stopped installing and commissioning. For service and repair I don't need it. I lost one estate contract because of it, but it was no loss after saving £2K pa plus in registration fees, training (?) courses, and not having to put up with a jobsworth inspection ever year and £200 of instruction books every reprint. You Gas guys, I know, put up with an awful lot more once British Gas got their practices under CORGI enshrined in law. Many of my gas cronies have also given up, earning a reasonable amount in their later years from steady plumbing jobs. Chris J, one last thing I meant to advise on; remove the pipe between the toby valve and the pot and make sure it is clean, especially at the 'Tee' into the pot. Last word.

The float control is the control valve, Toby. Your flame is only part way up the pot because you are not getting enough fuel. If you have a partial airlock I know from experience, at such low flows, they never clear, but get worse Your small leak could be affecting the fuel supply and could be contributing to your airlock, your stove only uses about 8cc/min on mid setting and anything that disturbs such a low flow can have a significant effect. After blowing back through the supply pipe to clear any sludge, to re-establish your flow, you may need to suck through. A long piece of clear plastic tube is essential if you don't want a mouthful, or if you have an outboard type priming pump, this can help. Once you get fuel through, run a litre or two through to make sure the flow is sound. I earn my living servicing these type of burners in Rayburns and Agas, and a few local Bubble stoves, so I'm not leading you up any garden paths. They are simple units, and if you do not take shortcuts, and do the simple things right, you will have no more problems.

Your burner is the same as in the bubble stoves. To light mine, I turn on the fuel, remove the catalysers, open the control knob to 6 and watch the fuel come in for 20 secs or so. When it reaches the middle, drop in a piece of rolled up tissue, light that and replace the catalysers and coals. Close the door but leave a small gap. Turn down the knob to 3 and wait until the flame starts to vaporise the fuel (with blue puffs, about 5 mins). Close the door fully and you should see the flame drop slightly and it will turn blue. Adjust to requirement.

If you do not have any leaks outside of the stove, the pot will only fill up to the level in the float valve. Excess can be mopped up with a sponge.

If it is the pot burner I'm thinking it is, you won't have a thermocouple. When Lighting, do you have to hold a button in for a short period of time? If it rums for 20mins, then fuel supply has to be the problem. A thermocouple fault like on Kabolas, would not let you light it to start with and run for 20 mins.

1: Clean the filter by the tank. 2: Bleed the filter after reassembling. 3: Disconnect the oil feed from the float control and check that clean fuel is flowing freely, and for about a minute without interruption. Check that you have no 'up' runs in the fuel supply. If you have you need to re-establish the syphon. 4: Clean the filter on the inlet to the float control. 5: Refit the feed pipe and relight. If your problem still persists; 6: Remove the top of the float control and remove the metering column, clean out the feed slot, remove any debris that may have accumulated. 7: Don't run out of oil. Of all the above, 3 is probably the main cause. I suspect that you have introduced an airlock that allows a small amount of fuel to syphon through, but insufficient to maintain combustion. After this, you will understand your diesel stove much better and be able to appreciate all of its benefits and advantages over solid fuel.