Cabin Heaters

[Geoff & Gill Lovegrove]

WE have just made the decision on who will build our new boat and one of the big decisions to make is whether we need a cabin heater or not. We will be having Hurricane central heating throughtout a 57ft boat and will be cruising April to Oct approx.

 

Would appreciate comments from anyone with or without a cabin heater. We are thinking of a diesel heater if we go down this route....not solid fuel.

 

Gill Lovegrove

[Richard Bustens]

I doubt you will need one, and if you are not into solid fuel and want a fire for the sake of looking at it i dont think you need to bother.

[dor]

With CH throughout a 57 ft boat, you won't need an additional stove.

 

Whether you want one is a matter for you to decide.

 

I like having the squirrel solid fuel; it gives out a nice heat, is more economical than the gas Alde and looks good, but I don't really need it to keep warm.

[alan_fincher]

Another way of looking at this....

 

If you are looking only at April to October cruising, a well positioned multi-fuelled stove, (towards middle of boat cabin, rather than at one extreme end), would almost certainly provide all the heat you ever need, and you probably could dispense with the central heating.

 

They are not hard to use, and in my view provide a quality of drying heat that you are unlikely to get from radiators.

[Keeping Up]

With CH throughout a 57 ft boat, you won't need an additional stove.

 

Whether you want one is a matter for you to decide.

 

I like having the squirrel solid fuel; it gives out a nice heat, is more economical than the gas Alde and looks good, but I don't really need it to keep warm.

Dor is absolutely right. It's not an essential but I wouldn't be without one. Coming inside after standing in a bitterly cold wind for a few hours, there is NOTHING better than standing in front of a hot glowing stove for a few minutes to thaw (and dry) you out. And when you settle down for the evening, the solid fuel stove makes all the difference; it makes you feel warmer just by looking at it.

 

In mid-winter, running on Gas alone, to keep moderately warm we burn a bottle of gas in under 3 days. With the solid-fuel stove burning as well, the gas C/H gives background warmth down the length of the boat, we keep ultra-warm and cosy, and the gas bottle lasts us over a week. The money saved on gas each week buys us a couple of weeks' worth of smokeless fuel with change for a quick beer in the pub, plus there's the fact that I can only carry 6 days supply of gas but more than a month's worth of solid fuel.

 

Allan

[Pat]

Dor is absolutely right. It's not an essential but I wouldn't be without one. Coming inside after standing in a bitterly cold wind for a few hours, there is NOTHING better than standing in front of a hot glowing stove for a few minutes to thaw (and dry) you out. And when you settle down for the evening, the solid fuel stove makes all the difference; it makes you feel warmer just by looking at it.

 

In mid-winter, running on Gas alone, to keep moderately warm we burn a bottle of gas in under 3 days. With the solid-fuel stove burning as well, the gas C/H gives background warmth down the length of the boat, we keep ultra-warm and cosy, and the gas bottle lasts us over a week. The money saved on gas each week buys us a couple of weeks' worth of smokeless fuel with change for a quick beer in the pub, plus there's the fact that I can only carry 6 days supply of gas but more than a month's worth of solid fuel.

 

Allan

 

I totally agree. My solid fuel stove is the heart of the boat. It is practical and makes it instatly cozy. I like using it at night even in the summer. Open all the windows, burn a few logs, crack a beer with some friends.... Ahhhhh nothing beats it.

[John Orentas]

Yes, I go along with all that has been said, from what we hear on the forum about the reliability of central heating systems you would be well advised to have some form of stand by system.

 

As Alan has says solid fuel stoves act as very good heating / ventilating systems in their own right. Such a unit would go a long way to curing the problems outlined in the parallel thread on dampness.

[DHutch]

If i had a boat with CH, be it gass or diesal, i would also want a solid fuel stove (squiral) ont he livivng room.

- For two reasons, one is i like solid fuel stoves, there just nice things.

- And second, its backup, for if the CH dieds unexpectedly mid-winter.

 

 

Daniel

[Roger Gunkel]

We have lived aboard a wide beam with a full diesel CH system for 18 months but after major problems I have now put in a solid fuel stove which has kept us very comfortable through the heart of the Winter. We don't use the CH system at all now just the water heating. As you will not be using the boat through the winter I would save the £2.5K and spend a few hundred on a stove. We have found the stove cheaper to run, easy to light and keep in, keeps the boat much drier and on our wide beam and heats the boat quicker from cold than the radiators did. It is also wonderful to sit round and it does chestnuts and boils a kettle better than a radiator!

 

We bought our Evergreen stove for £250 plus £100 for a complete installation kit. We were initially doubtful about coal, ash dust etc, but don't find any of it a problem at all.

 

Roger & Claire