How do you make your boat warm in the mornings?

[tomandsophie]

We have a Morso Squirrel stove, and it's lovely and toasty and warm in the evenings while we're keeping it nicely stoked up, but even when I bank it up in the evening it doesn't give off enough heat to keep it warm for the morning.

I bought a little 400w halogen heater with the intention of using that in the morning, but it drains the batteries too quickly.

Any suggestions anybody?

Bear in mind that we have no money to install central heating, so it's gotta be something quick and easy!

Perhaps a portable gas heater?

[Alastair]

Your situation is exactly why I like diesel stoves - as an adjunct to solid fuel. for the solid fuel stove to be decently warm in the morning, I had to bank it up with too much fuel overnight, so the boat was roasting.

 

Unless you have some other heating system - you will have to put up with cold mornings, thats part of boating. Invest in warm dressing gowns - and hang them near the stove or radiator.

[nbtafelberg]

I have a squirrel with radiators and a pump it works brilliantly and keeps us warm all night.

 

 

It may be your squirrel has a back boiler in which case you could run some rads and a pump...

[dor]

I am surprised that you can't get your squirrel to keep the boat warm (although you do need to use coal).

 

If it is particularly cold, I put on a decent shovelful of Excel nuts at night, top vent fully closed, bottom vent about half to three-quarters open, and my ecofan is still merrily whizzing round in the morning.

 

If you find the stove is too hot early on, check that the vents do close properly - a number of squirrels have slightly out of alignment threads which leaves the vent more open than it appears.

[tomandsophie]

Interesting - I had heard that when burning coal you should keep the top vent fully open to burn off the gases.

We do have a back boiler, pump, and three radiators, but the rads don't get hot. They get warm, but not hot. I think there must be something wrong. I have bled the whole system time and time again, but to no avail.

[stuart]

Interesting - I had heard that when burning coal you should keep the top vent fully open to burn off the gases.

We do have a back boiler, pump, and three radiators, but the rads don't get hot. They get warm, but not hot. I think there must be something wrong. I have bled the whole system time and time again, but to no avail.

 

As I mentioned on previous threads about this subject, perhaps your pump is going to fast? You need to slow it down with some resistors (cheap). I'm sure one of the electrically minded people on here will give you guidance to this.

[nbtafelberg]

Aha

 

You could try turning the pump round. I did and even though its pumping the wrong way it works brilliantly.

[Big COL]

Interesting - I had heard that when burning coal you should keep the top vent fully open to burn off the gases.

We do have a back boiler, pump, and three radiators, but the rads don't get hot. They get warm, but not hot. I think there must be something wrong. I have bled the whole system time and time again, but to no avail.

 

Tomandsophie

 

One of the main problems with back boilers on boats is they are relatively small. Generally the water flows through to quickly to allow a reasonable heat transfer. One way to help this problem is to control the circulating pump with a pipe thermostat, situated as close to the boiler outlet as you can get(within 5') this will allow the water to sit in the boiler and heat up to the temperature that the pipe stat is set at, this is usually around 70c, the pump will then run until the water temp drops below 70c, the pump will then stop and allow the boiler to heat the water up again. Doing this will cause the pump to stop and start and send surges of hot water around the system.

To reduce the frequency of these surges it is advisable to slow the pump down. To do this you will need to buy a 20ohm wire wound variable resistor connect this in series with the + feed to the pump. Start by setting the slide on the resistor, at about halfway if this does not slow the pump enough then increase the resistance by moving the slide further up the resistor. You can use all of the 20ohms, at this setting the pump will be running slowly. do not go greater than 20ohms.

Edited November 7, 2005 by Big COL

[dor]

Interesting - I had heard that when burning coal you should keep the top vent fully open to burn off the gases.

 

Very interesting: I understood that the top vent should be used when burnng wood, to help keep the glass clean.

 

I find with coal it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference - the door still soots up, but it is much much easier to control on just the bottom vent with the top one firmly closed.

[Keeping Up]

Very interesting: I understood that the top vent should be used when burnng wood, to help keep the glass clean.

 

I find with coal it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference - the door still soots up, but it is much much easier to control on just the bottom vent with the top one firmly closed.

As far as I know the side-effect of keeping the glass clean is an unintended bonus. I have often been told that a wood fire needs the air to be supplied from above (which is why a bonfire can be placed directly on the ground) but that a coal fire needs the air to be supplied from below - hence the need for two vents.

 

The instructions for my own stove, which has just one vent, state that to burn wood effectively the grate must be removed so that the base of the fire is below the vent, but for coal the grate is required. This seems to support the previous statement.

[anhar]

A very low wattage mains voltage heater may be the answer.

 

Have a look at these, there are three models but even the largest one is only 135w, much less than your 400w heater, so your batteries might cope. They're quite cheap too.

 

http://www.ekmpowershop.com/ekmps/shops/al...T&productid=938

 

You could possibly fit a time switch that turns it on an hour or two before you get up if you don't want to leave it on all night.

 

regards

Steve

[ChrisPy]

A very low wattage mains voltage heater may be the answer.

 

Have a look at these, there are three models but even the largest one is only 135w, much less than your 400w heater, so your batteries might cope. They're quite cheap too.

 

http://www.ekmpowershop.com/ekmps/shops/al...T&productid=938

 

You could possibly fit a time switch that turns it on an hour or two before you get up if you don't want to leave it on all night.

 

regards

Steve

a lot easier to use a 150W light bulb. It gives out 150W of heat. Maybe paint it black so it doesn't keep you awake.

 

seriously, 135W of heat isn't going to keep your toes very warm.

[John Orentas]

One way or another all solid fuel stoves can be made to stay lit all night, keep on experimenting with it. I did know someone who had a similar problem to yours, when he had to fit ventilation to comply with the BS standards that cured the problem.

[matt]

Fuel type matters I find - Taybrites seem to burn for a long time - Anthracite no so well as I find it requires more air.

 

Have you tried different types?

[tomandsophie]

If it is particularly cold, I put on a decent shovelful of Excel nuts at night, top vent fully closed, bottom vent about half to three-quarters open, and my ecofan is still merrily whizzing round in the morning.

 

So would you recommend getting an Ecofan? Still not sure about spending the £80 - £100 without testing one out first.

 

I do think that the resistor to get the pump running slower sounds like a good idea - is it easy to wire up? Where can I buy one?

 

Also, if I want to turn the pump around, does that mean I have to drain my system first? That would be very difficult! Or would it work just to switch the negative and positive wires around to make it run the opposite way?

[dor]

The ecofan seems to work for me (I was fairly sceptical before getting one) and others have said it makes a difference.

 

You could try putting a light bulb in series with the pump first to see if it makes a difference (I assume it is 12V). A 20watt bulbe has a resistance of about 7 ohms and a 10 watt bulb about 14 ohms. Just try is for a day or two to see if it makes a difference. Wire it in series.

 

If your pump is centrifugal, which is fairly likely, then reversing the electrical connections wont work. You have to turn the pump round, so inlet becomes outlet etc. As the only way I can see this making a difference is by slowing down the water flow, I would go for slowing the pump down with a resistance first.

[tomandsophie]

You could try putting a light bulb in series with the pump first to see if it makes a difference (I assume it is 12V). A 20watt bulbe has a resistance of about 7 ohms and a 10 watt bulb about 14 ohms. Just try is for a day or two to see if it makes a difference. Wire it in series.

 

So I guess I'll try a 10 watt 12 volt bulb in series seeing as that has the same effect as a resistor.

Thanks for the advice. We'll soon see...

[Richard Bustens]

Will that not just knock down the circuit to 6v?

Would it not be better to use a rheostat so you can controle the speed.

Edited November 8, 2005 by Richard Bustens

[dor]

Will that not just knock down the circuit to 6v?

 

Depends on the resistance of the pump Richard.

 

If the pump is the same resistance as the bulb, then the nominal 12 volts will be split to give 6 volts across both items, But if the pump is say 42 ohms, it would give 3 volts across the 10 watt bulb and 9 volts across the pump.

 

My suggestion was based on the sort of resistance suggested in an earlier post.

 

I quite often use a light bulb as a readily available resistance - for example I use one in series with a four-cell battery holder to recharge nicads from my 12 volts. The light bulb cuts the current down to a level that is acceptable to the batteries - so is probably dropping the voltage across the batteries to about the right figure.

[bottle]

Will that not just knock down the circuit to 6v?

Would it not be better to use a rheostat so you can controle the speed.

 

Richard you are probably right but I think this is to be a temporary measure to see if Tom and Sophie can get warm.

[Richard Bustens]

Well they will be able to huddle round the bulb for a bit of heat

[dor]

Well they will be able to huddle round the bulb for a bit of heat biggrin.gif

 

Good thinking Richard! they could use it to keep their toes warm!

[Big COL]

Slowing the pump will help , but you are only doing half the job. The pump still needs to be controlled by a pipe stat. Pipe stats are easy to fit they only clamp on to the pipe.

[DHutch]

Somone shoot me down if im wrong, but why does the speed of cirulation make any diffrence at all?

- Surely in terms of best heat transfer, its better for the circulation to be as high as possable?

 

 

Daniel

[tomandsophie]

Sorry, should have said before - we have a pipe stat on there. It is set (I think) to around 60 degrees. After a lot of trial and error we found that to be the temp just before the water in the back boiler starts to boil and push coolant out of the system. The stat works a treat but the radiators still don't get really warm. Will try slowing the pump down next...