Heating your boat

[Tony Brooks]

51 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

That's very kind of you. 

 

This is what I have:

 

I'd assumed it needed to be an official Alde part?

 

It's a thermostat and pump in one.

 

When I'm away in winter I set the control on the boiler to about 3 and set the thermostat to just above the frost setting.  That way the pump only kicks in when the temperature is low.  When the pump is not running, the boiler mostly runs on the pilot only once the water tank is up to temp.

 

I wouldn't really have a clue how to fit a thermostat like you've posted, or how to fit a seperate pump.  I'd wrongly assumed that there was an Alde unit as a straight swap for mine, but with a programmable timer.

 

 

My boat is 55'.  That means the cabin length is probably between 40-45' once the front and back are excluded.  My stove quite easily heats my whole boat, but it's right slap bang in the middle of my boat.  I've never understood why so many boats have a layout which puts the stove right at one end.

 

The only thing "special" about the Alde thermostat it that it is fitted with an on-off switch for the pump, it's brown instead of white, and it has Alde printed on the face. I bet it you looked at the guts, you would find a well-known maker's brand. Alde just buys them in.

 

Apart from the need to fit a separate on-off switch that could be anywhere really wiring accepted, it is a standard mechanical room thermostat so it is a straight swap for any other thermostat. It is a question of seeing how the connections inside the thermostat (not on the switch) are identified (probably C, NO, NC) and I bet you will find any other thermostat uses the same or very similar identification.

 

The tall Alde are now obsolete and as far as know Alde no longer supply spares, but may be wrong about that.

 

If it is possible to organise a CWF delivery relay from Reading, I will happily get it on the way. I have to go to Oxford soon, so if you are in that area I can drop it off. Once the  fuel thing is over I will deliver if up to about 20 miles.

 

Front and back images

 

It uses 2 x AA or AAA batteries to power itself. Ignore the AC rating, I am sure it will be just fine for an Alde which is what I bought it for.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Tony Brooks

[IanD]

22 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

I have a tall Alde and my experience is that them being expensive is a bit of a myth.  I use my Alde a lot in the morning to give me warmth and hot water.  I get up, put it on, make a cup of tea and go back to bed for about an hour.  Then when I get up properly, the boat is warm and I have hot water for a shower and any washing up.  The heat settings on the boiler go from 1 to 7, but I never put it above 5.  I've discovered that putting it on 7 really goes through the fuel quickly but my rads aren't really any warmer.  I suspect a lot of excess heat is venting through the chimney, if it's set too high.  I reckon that's what a lot of Alde owners have done and they assume it's inefficient.  Including all my cooking, I use around 3 calor bottles a year which is around £90.  If I were able to swap to flogas it would be more like £60.  And I doubt that the combined cost of cooking gas and diesel heating would be much different.

 

There are downsides to gas heating though:

 

1.  You can only store as much as your gas locker will hold.

2.  The effort and the faff of changing the bottles over and lugging them off the boat when returning empties and buy newly filled bottles.

3.  Fire risk (but most boats have gas anyway, so not sure this is a big deal.)

 

Regardless of how much doratheexplorer finds the Alde works for her and how much she actually spends on gas (depends how long you have the heating on for and how warm you like the boat), if you use heating a lot then gas is a lot more expensive than diesel for the same amount of heat.

 

Using £30 for a 13kg  bottle, at 46MJ/kg that's 5p/MJ. Diesel is 37MJ/l, so at 75p/l for heating this is 2p/MJ. According to the manufacturers gas and diesel heaters/boilers are about the same efficiency -- typically 70% -- so heating with 13kg calor bottles costs 2.5x more than heating with diesel, however much you use.

 

Bigger gas bottles will lower the cost but it's still more expensive than diesel -- even with switching to flogas, which is also difficult to find on the canals. LPG is simply more expensive than diesel.

 

In other words, if you don't use it much then heating with gas is OK, but heating with diesel is still a lot cheaper...

[Slim]

11 hours ago, douglasb said:

I get that the stove won't heat the whole boat so you would want radiators in other positions but if you want to heat the bedroom aren't you also (unnecessarily) directly heating the saloon as well if you are using a stove with a back boiler?

 

Basically,yes, but how often would you want a warm bedroom and cool / cold living area. Living on a boat is not the same as living in a house. It's something you have to accept. 

[Slim]

13 minutes ago, IanD said:

Using £30 for a 13kg  bottle,

Happy days 🤑 I seem to remember paying £40+ in a marina in the summer. I shudder to this how much is is now. I will find out at the weekend when I buy a refill (why didn't I do so a couple of weeks ago when I changed over cylinders).

Edited October 7, 2021 by Slim

[IanD]

6 minutes ago, Slim said:

Happy days 🤑 I seem to remember paying £40+ in a marina in the summer. I shudder to this how much is is now. I will find out at the weekend when I buy a refill (why didn't I do so a couple of week when I changed over cylinders).

Most marinas seem to be charging £38-£40 today, I used dora's cost to head off any argument that I was overestimating the cost for gas... 😉

Edited October 7, 2021 by IanD