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Heating for a Freeman 30


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Hi everyone !! I'm totally new to this so bare with me! And please can any answers be easy to understand, I'm no engineer!

 

So I'm looking at buying a GRP Freeman 30 with centre cockpit. It currently has no heating and I'd really like it to have some as I'm planning on living aboard full time and after 12 hour shifts I'd love to come back to a warm boat!

 

Would someone be able to run me through the different heating options? And rough costs? I've tried to do some research but have found it pretty confusing!

 

From what ive managed to understand, I'm tempted to go for a blown-air diesel heater. I wouldn't feel confident installing it myself, any clue how much it costs to get installed?

 

Thanks so much everyone !

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Not much help I am afraid but I suspect for that type of boat your idea of a warm air diesel burner may be he best option. One thing for sure is that a diesel or multi-fuel stove will require a flue through the roof and I suspect you won't have space for the actual stove. I suspect that your boat will not have much in the way of thermal insulation so fuel costs for living aboard during the winter might be high.

 

How do you get hot water? If its an instant as water heater then fine but if its from the engine you may have to consider an alternative method of water heating so that might suggest a water version of the warm air heater but that would require radiators or such like to heat the boat.

 

 

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Freemans - as the original model - were a lovely boat, usually outboard driven and intended for Thames/ river summer cruising.

Thus it's very difficult to adapt them to todays requirements.

You could fit an ebersplutter type warm air heating system - but you wouldn't have the diesel fuel storage space of the means to generate the electrical poer to run the unit.

 

With such negative comments I'm sure that someone will come along soon to rubbish my comments with a suggestion........

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4 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

Freemans - as the original model - were a lovely boat, usually outboard driven and intended for Thames/ river summer cruising.

Thus it's very difficult to adapt them to todays requirements.

You could fit an ebersplutter type warm air heating system - but you wouldn't have the diesel fuel storage space of the means to generate the electrical poer to run the unit.

 

With such negative comments I'm sure that someone will come along soon to rubbish my comments with a suggestion........

You're not correct re. Freemans being outboard driven. All inboards as far as I'm aware...many petrol but some diesel particularly the larger Freemans like the 30 footer.

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9 minutes ago, Boatless in Bristol said:

You're not correct re. Freemans being outboard driven. All inboards as far as I'm aware...many petrol but some diesel particularly the larger Freemans like the 30 footer.

Yes,inboard driven and also 7'-6"" beam if that is important to you.

A diesel or gas blown air heater (Eberspacher,Webasto or Propex) are the usual heaters fitted to small cruisers.

It must be fitted to comply with BSS rules,and if you are not familiar with them or are not handy yourself then it will have to be fitted by a yard or a tradesman.

Cost,about £600-£800 depending on the model of diesel heater.Propex gas heaters are a bit cheaper£5-600,but are rather heavy on gas use.

There are much cheaper Chinese diesel heaters,but need to be modified to comply with BSS rules.

I would guess 4-5 hours labour to fit a heater.

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I agree with @Boatless in Bristol - I have never seen an outboard powered Freeman of any vintage, and the 30 after-cabin was usually twin engined, which would have been diesels

 

So - I agree with @Tony Brooks blown air is probably a good call - doesn't have to be Eber-splutter or Webasto, there are any number of "unbranded" ones cheap on eBay -- typically <£100 - a tenth the price of a decent brand, although for a liveaboard I would probably look toward quality over price

 

For my MoHo conversion I have bought a Webasto water heater which may be a better option? You can use them with fan-driven heat-exchangers so act as a blown air heater in the winter or use a diverter valve to heat just water in the summer.

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Ignoring the problems with having no insulation and no electricity (if outboard powered) and answering the question :

 

Go for Ebespacher blown air heating with a vent in each 'accomodation area' (eg, rear cabin, saloon, galley, forward cabin)

I have an 8Kw in my GRP cruiser (it is really too big but that causes no problems)

Cost of heater will be around £900-£1000

Cost of installation will be around £1000

 

You can buy reconditioned automotive units units on ebay for £200 but these are not suitable for boat installation and can potentially kill you with CO poisoning.

You can buy 'cheap Chinese' units off ebay, but again check they are electrically programmed for boats and not cars, AND that they have marine exhausts or the can potentially kill you.

 

Many ebay sellers of 'cheap' units say 'suitable for boats' but they are telling Porkies. You need as a minimum a special exhaust (the automotive one has a hole in it allowing CO gas and condensation to drain out under the car - on a boat it just fills the bilges) and the electronics will fail quite quickly.

 

You will need to sort out your electrics mine draws a continuous 10 amps (240 amphours per day)

But you need to sort out other things first.

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tonka said:

https://www.sheridanmarine.com/category/boat-heating

 

These people do heaters as well.

Although I agree that a gas warm air heater is likely to be more compact that a diesel one and thus more suitable for a GRP cruiser I do wonder if the cost of gas for a live aboard would be acceptable. I see one version can be run from the mains as well as gas so if the OP is happy in a marina it may not be a bad way to go, especially as an immersion n the calorifier could be used when on shore power.

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