Best alternative to woodburner/hot air heater for heating?

[Tony Brooks]

Ref. charging the batteries with a generator. If the generator has a 12V "battery charging" output it is likely to be of very limited power and probably not regulated, so you run the risk of damaging the batteries, and you need to run for a long, long time. Ignore such outputs and use the generator to power a normal battery charger.

[Peugeot 106]

We have a Dickinson Propane Furnace. Expensive to buy and run but a lovely convenient beautifully made piece of kit for holiday cruisers on a small boat . The editor from Waterways World saw us using it and took photos for an article but I don’t think he ever wrote it. You can see the flame and it’s very cosy without all the mess and hassle of a wood burner. We have a Moro’s squirrel at home that we light every night so aren’t anti wood burners but I don’t think they are suitable for a small boat.

loads of boats and log cabins across the pond use Dickinsons. Maybe gas is cheaper and the exchange rate for purchase doesn’t help. We bought it from USA when the was a deal on. 

all the gas consumption figures are on the catalogue so you can work it out. It’s easy to install and balanced flue so quite safe

For what we use it for it’s brilliant and we can just quickly light it for an hour when we get back from the pub or while we have a shower

Anyway it’s an option and if you sell up it’s easy enough to take to your next boat

[ditchcrawler]

13 hours ago, pebble77 said:

I have a webasto installed that came with the boat but the electrician said it's a powerful one and solar will not run it this time of year.

Solar will run very little this time of the year, especially if it has a couple of inches of snow on it, Its dark at 4pm. Your 2 best bets would be to improve your electrical system, batteries, charging so you can power it or take a winter mooring in a marina with electric power. I would suggest probably the latter.

[magnetman]

17 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

We have a Dickinson Propane Furnace. Expensive to buy and run but a lovely convenient beautifully made piece of kit for holiday cruisers on a small boat . The editor from Waterways World saw us using it and took photos for an article but I don’t think he ever wrote it. You can see the flame and it’s very cosy without all the mess and hassle of a wood burner. We have a Moro’s squirrel at home that we light every night so aren’t anti wood burners but I don’t think they are suitable for a small boat.

loads of boats and log cabins across the pond use Dickinsons. Maybe gas is cheaper and the exchange rate for purchase doesn’t help. We bought it from USA when the was a deal on. 

all the gas consumption figures are on the catalogue so you can work it out. It’s easy to install and balanced flue so quite safe

For what we use it for it’s brilliant and we can just quickly light it for an hour when we get back from the pub or while we have a shower

Anyway it’s an option and if you sell up it’s easy enough to take to your next boat

 

I've got a Cosy Cabin heater which is similar. Basically a cooker ring in an elaborate stainless steel housing with a one inch flue so that it does not cause condensation. 

 

A flued gas heater might be alright. Propane is expensive in this country though Also if importing its worth being cautious about the regulator / jet pressure as it is not the same as here. 

 

Another nice but very rare one was the little bulkhead mounted wood burner made by Newport. Very small logs ! 

 

Overall wood is the best thing because of availability. 

 

Refleks diesel heaters also quite good. 

 

 

[Peugeot 106]

6 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 

I've got a Cosy Cabin heater which is similar. Basically a cooker ring in an elaborate stainless steel housing with a one inch flue so that it does not cause condensation. 

 

A flued gas heater might be alright. Propane is expensive in this country though Also if importing its worth being cautious about the regulator / jet pressure as it is not the same as here. 

 

Another nice but very rare one was the little bulkhead mounted wood burner made by Newport. Very small logs ! 

 

Overall wood is the best thing because of availability. 

 

Refleks diesel heaters also quite good. 

 

 

The Cozy Heater is similar and also very nice but I don’t think balanced flue which may be a no no these days. Everybody is getting very jumpy about carbon monoxide poisoning even in homeopathy doses. You could use an inverted flower pot and flue on your cooker ring to get the same effect! You will need a lot of ventilation which could negate some of the benefits

i don’t think it’s permissible to even install a non balanced  flue water heater now though you can replace an existing one eg Paloma

Our Dickinson furnace  was approved by BSS and our safety examiner and is balanced flue

i also checked with the manufacturer and Corgi installer and a normal regulator is fine and it works very well

all the Dickinson heaters are well made and good looking

It does have its benefits if you can afford it. (a bit like the whole narrowboat experience!)

 

Gone are the days when you sat in a haze of  fumes with a pint and whisky wondering why you felt so soporific. Tilley lamp, paraffin heater, Electrolux gas fridge, pipe, fags, badly running solid fuel stove............

 

Look out for incoming. “it never did me any harm”

 

 

[magnetman]

I would never be without the wood burner. Its going now and cooked my breakfast. Various different woods in the pleasure garden but obvious access to wood is not always available. 

 

Interesting point about the flues. Curiously when this boat had the BS inspection there were no heating appliances. I don't know where they went. 

 

Do have CO alarms with the digital display. 

 

Heating is only really needed for 6 months so it seems logical to have portable removable appliances particularly on smaller boats. 

 

 

 

 

[wakey_wake]

On 23/11/2023 at 11:05, magnetman said:

Interesting point about the flues. Curiously when this boat had the BS inspection there were no heating appliances. I don't know where they went. 

Is there a line of products for filling the holes left when flue'd appliances are removed? Something that's not too troublesome to reverse? 😛

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, wakey_wake said:

filling the holes left when flue'd appliances are removed

 

Welding a plate over the hole.

 

 

1 minute ago, wakey_wake said:

Something that's not too troublesome to reverse? 😛

 

Anglegrinder to remove the plate.

[magnetman]

There is nothing illegal about having a hole in the top of the boat. 

[Tony Brooks]

You could cut a couple of metal disks, drill a hole through the middle and put gasket material under the top one. Then you have a giant pot mender as we used to be able to get.