Heating installation

[Kris9128]

Evening all. I am looking for some advice/guidnace. I am planning on updating the old/tired interior and would like to do something with the hoorible looking heating. I currentoy have a Morso Squirrel with back boiler, feeding 1 radiator at the back of the boat. It may be slow to get up to temperature but definitely works and it does get rather warm in here some days.

My question is..........

Do the 28mm copper pipes need to slowly slope up the full length of the boat (looks horrible) or can i tuck the feed pipe up under the gunwales and T down to the rad, the T down to the return pipe and run that as low as possible. 

I think i remember reading a "How To" where thats what the person did but could be mistaken as i cant find it again. 

I will try and add some pics later as the ones i have appear to be too big to attach. 

 

Thanks, kris

[Tony Brooks]

I think that it should be fine, the longer the upright bit by the stove, the better the circulation is likely to be. Not sure why you need Ts with only one rad though.

[blackrose]

Does the radiator currently get hot? Is the circulation by pump or thermocycling (convection/gravity)? If there's a pump you can more or less do what you want (but there are big disadvantages to a pumped system). If it's thermocycling you may be limited in terms of distance to the rad and pipework configuration.

 

Retake your pictures at a lower resolution and post them because without pictures it's difficult for anyone to know what's what.

Edited February 6 by blackrose

[Jen-in-Wellies]

1 hour ago, Kris9128 said:

can i tuck the feed pipe up under the gunwales and T down to the rad, the T down to the return pipe and run that as low as possible. 

My Morso + thermosyphon back boiler system does a lot of this and works fine. Hot pipe under the gunwale, cold return lower down. Both parallel to the gunwale/floor. The only sloping pipes are behind the stove, going up to gunwale level and back from the lower return, to the base of the back boiler. Mostly hidden by the stove. The important thing is that there is an air vent at the highest point, wherever that happens to be, to prevent air/steam traps forming. I have a calorifier in the circuit too and use finrads.

[Ex Brummie]

2 hours ago, Kris9128 said:

 

My question is..........

Do the 28mm copper pipes need to slowly slope up the full length of the boat (looks horrible) or can i tuck the feed pipe up under the gunwales and T down to the rad, the T down to the return pipe and run that as low as possible. 

 

 

Thanks, kris

This is exactly how mine is plumbed.  If you do need to bleed the system, closing off the return valve brfore opening the radiator bleed achieves the process.

[GUMPY]

Get the brasso out polish the pipe and it will look great. No need to move it then.

[blackrose]

17 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

The important thing is that there is an air vent at the highest point, wherever that happens to be, to prevent air/steam traps forming. I have a calorifier in the circuit too and use finrads.

 

Or if you connect a pipe from the highest point going up to the header tank the whole system should be self bleeding.

Edited February 7 by blackrose

[Jen-in-Wellies]

15 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Or if you connect a pipe from the highest point going up to the header tank the whole system should be self bleeding.

Yes. That's how mine works.

[Tony Brooks]

19 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Or if you connect a pipe from the highest point going up to the header tank the whole system should be self bleeding.

 

3 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Yes. That's how mine works.

 

On mine, it went up and vented through the top corner of the front bulkhead. Fine for a gas or oil fired boiler but could be "interesting" if a stove ran away and boiled.

[blackrose]

7 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Yes. That's how mine works.

 

The only issue I've found with that is that the highest point is also often the hottest point to the header tank will be hot and may emit some steam which isn't really what you want inside a boat. I actually took a hose from the cap of my header tank to a skin fitting high on the cabin side so that any steam goes outside. It looks slightly odd and people often ask what it's for.

[Kris9128]

On 06/02/2024 at 18:16, Tony Brooks said:

I think that it should be fine, the longer the upright bit by the stove, the better the circulation is likely to be. Not sure why you need Ts with only one rad though.

I am planning on adding two smaller rads to the system, 1 in kitchen area and 1 in the office. The large 1 in the bedromm will be replaced with a slighty smaller 1. 

 

Thanks, kris

On 06/02/2024 at 18:46, blackrose said:

Does the radiator currently get hot? Is the circulation by pump or thermocycling (convection/gravity)? If there's a pump you can more or less do what you want (but there are big disadvantages to a pumped system). If it's thermocycling you may be limited in terms of distance to the rad and pipework configuration.

 

Retake your pictures at a lower resolution and post them because without pictures it's difficult for anyone to know what's what.

Hi Blackrose. 

Yes the current rad does get hot as would be expected. 

It is Thermocycling and seems to be working fine, sometimes a bit slow but thats probably down to me not stoking the fire up too much. 

The run from Stove to rad is around 10 metres. 

 

 

Thanks, kris