Heating and hot water

[DaveR]

The Bensham has at the moment :-

 

50 litre single coil tank, with hot water coming off the engine cooling system.

A "Little Hayward" solid fuel stove.

A Mikuni MX51 heater which is disconnected and not working.

 

It will soon be time to decide which way to go - and the options are :-

 

1) Repair the Mikuni, install a separate fuel tank because the Mikuni really doesn't like red.

2) Change out the stove for a Sqirrel with a back boiler, unless anyone knows of this Little Hayward stove and where I can get a back boiler.

 

Both options are going to cost somewhere in the region of £500 - £600.

 

We have found the present 50 litre tank is not big enough, it will be difficult finding somewhere to fit a 100 litre tank as space is at a premium (isnt it always??). The present 50 litre tank is in the engine room. If I go for the Squirrel, is it possible to fit a second 50 litre tank elsewhere on the boat, away from the engine room, and easily connect them both into the hot water system?

 

Your comments and ideas will be appreciated. Thank you

[Guest]

The Bensham has at the moment :-

 

50 litre single coil tank, with hot water coming off the engine cooling system.

A "Little Hayward" solid fuel stove.

A Mikuni MX51 heater which is disconnected and not working.

 

It will soon be time to decide which way to go - and the options are :-

 

1) Repair the Mikuni, install a separate fuel tank because the Mikuni really doesn't like red.

2) Change out the stove for a Sqirrel with a back boiler, unless anyone knows of this Little Hayward stove and where I can get a back boiler.

 

Both options are going to cost somewhere in the region of £500 - £600.

 

We have found the present 50 litre tank is not big enough, it will be difficult finding somewhere to fit a 100 litre tank as space is at a premium (isnt it always??). The present 50 litre tank is in the engine room. If I go for the Squirrel, is it possible to fit a second 50 litre tank elsewhere on the boat, away from the engine room, and easily connect them both into the hot water system?

 

Your comments and ideas will be appreciated. Thank you

 

I am no expert, but would guess that if you use two calorifiers that aren't close coupled, that you could use a change-over valve in the system so that upon exhausting hot water from one, you could switch to the other. If you like your stove and it is in good condition, it may be possible to get a back boiler fabricated. They are quite simple from what I have seen, usually bolting through a couple of holes. I believe stainless steel is the preferred material. It depends on your existing stove really.

[DHutch]

We have have a (50l?) twin coil callofyer. One coil is conected to a take off on the boiler, allowing us to blow wet-steam though it, the other to the central heating loop.

- Central heating loop is powered by a squiral with back boiler, and also has 3 rads on it. Theremosyphon (no pump).

 

Then we also have a Paloma gasheater for the hotwater too.

 

 

When crusing we have unlimted hot water from the boiler, which is cool, as long as we dont go overboard and boil the water in the calloyerfer. (its happened)

- Then when we're not crusing, with switch over to the paloma.

 

The calofyer is a bit of a pain to bleed, so hasnt actaully worked for the last 5/6years. But apprently if i/we ever lived onboard for any time in winter it could be got going, and when bled works quite well of the squral and is cheaper to run.

 

 

Daniel

[GUMPY]

 

1) Repair the Mikuni, install a separate fuel tank because the Mikuni really doesn't like red.

2) Change out the stove for a Sqirrel with a back boiler, unless anyone knows of this Little Hayward stove and where I can get a back boiler.

 

 

My thoughts on this as I have had both are as follows:

 

1: the mikuni should run fine on red I have been doing do for three years and another friend of mine had one for 5 years before that.

I run a mikuni MX40 at present and there are several do and donts with them that are nothing to do with red diesel.

a: be very wary of running them when using a battery charger as some battery chargers will spike to 18v when the glow plug starts (mine does) and this will take out the plug.

b: make sure that you run it for at least an hour after start up as they dont like shutting down and restarting.

c: never run it on a thermostat this can cause it to switch off and on quickly and have the same effect as b:

d: make sure the fuel is filtered and you change the filter also that the heater is installed in accordance with the fuel height recomendations otherwise fuel will syphon into the heater and it wont start.

e: never kill the power to the unit let it finish its purge cycle first.

f: make sure that there is enough heat leak (radiator / towel rail) that the mikuni doent shut down before the water is hot..........this one caught me out at first!

 

 

2: I ran a squirel on a previous boat and it would only just heat a calorifier of water overnight. If you want hot water you have to burn it up which can make the cabin unberably warm.

 

 

J

Personally I have gone for a dual coil calorifier one from the engine one from the mikuni and I have a 1kw immersion heater which is very usefu when on the moorings and I run out of hot water

Edited May 3, 2006 by idleness