Eberspacher D5WSC up to the job?

[Sea Dog]

Good of you to share that Simon, I also have a 701 and may go for it.

[dccruiser]

Ref the mobile phone Remote Control for an Eberspacher. I have only had it installed a few days - but it is working really well and I am very happy with it, so I will tell you what I know, but bear in mind anything I say is "work-in-progress".

 

I first looked at the official Eberspacher "EasyStartCall" unit, which costs abouut £300. The supplier told me that my 6 year old Eberspacher D5WSC was too old to work with the EsayStartCall but that "One of our engineers suggested that a non Eberspacher gsm switch is available that will enable you to be able to control the heater remotely. As by putting a 12v feed on the yellow wire on the heater turns it on. Unfortunately we cannot really recommend or supply these but it may be worth looking at."

 

I then got some very helpful advice from the guy whom posts here as "NMEA" who put me onto this http://www.gsmgateopener.com/#!espar-gsm-remote-/c20mm

 

 

 

 

 

It is basically a remotely controlled 12v / 24v switch which can be opened or closed with a text message sent from any mobile. I think the idea started off as a remote control garage door opener, but once on the market the number of uses grew, and it is now being sold as an Eberspacher or Webasto controller. It cost me £60.00 on Ebay and took about 2 hours to fit, connecting up three wires to the Eberspacher 701 controller loom. It only took that long because I chose to add a couple of isolation switches and a red indicator LED to show when the heater unit has an "on" signal being sent to it.

 

It fits alongside the normal 701 controller. Basically an hour before I arrive at the boat I send it a text, the heater turn on, and I arrive at a warm boat. Once on the boat I then turn on the local 701 controller, and switch off the remote control, and run the eberspacher as normal. All it does is tun on and off remotely, but that simple function is very useful. The guy who runs the company, Nigel, is very helpful with his after sales advice, and I understand he is about to bring out an updated unit which allows switching on for preset time intervals, but I don't have more details.

 

Simon

i have just bought a gsm switch of ebay for £42 on auction inc p&p ... it has inputs, outputs and trigger alarms so can be used to switch various relays for the eber and the fridge , as well as text me if the bilge alarm, burgler alarm, smoke alarm etc are triggered.

 

B.T.W i have several of the older eber d5w pre hydronic water heaters with looms pumps and relays if the op chooses to fit a 2nd unit and use one for the rads and one for the calorifiers.

 

Rick

[stagedamager]

Hi Rick.

Many thanks. It's something I hadn't really thought about but it does bring up a question. Would two 5 kw heaters be more efficient than one 10kw heater and split the system???

Dan

[dccruiser]

Hi Rick.

Many thanks. It's something I hadn't really thought about but it does bring up a question. Would two 5 kw heaters be more efficient than one 10kw heater and split the system???

Dan

The efficiency would come from having control over just heating the water or just heating the rads ... in the summer one boiler would hardly be used, also the hot water boiler would only be on to heat the calorifiers, so again not in constant use, also i guess you could have the option to heat one or both tanks depending on your needs.

 

Annother thought is , having two, should one require service or repair, you would have a fallback.

 

Rick

[stagedamager]

I was hoping to find an elusive isolating valve to isolate the rads from the calorifiers. As yet one hasn't been found. Initially that was my cheap option to isolate for just hot water.

[dccruiser]

I was hoping to find an elusive isolating valve to isolate the rads from the calorifiers. As yet one hasn't been found. Initially that was my cheap option to isolate for just hot water.

All you need is a duo valve as used in domestic c/heating, hot water systems, then you could link it to a programmable room thermostat .

 

Rick

 

my system just has a ball valve in the radiator feed pipe which does the same thing manually

Edited January 23, 2015 by dccruiser

[NMEA]

Would two 5 kw heaters be more efficient than one 10kw heater and split the system???

 

Simple answer, No.

[GUMPY]

A calorifier or even two will not sink enough heat to stop an eber cycling, here we have a calorifier and two rads and the system switches to low heat but doesn't shut down even when run for 3-4hours.

The rest of the rads are on TRV as they are in the same area as the stove so are not needed when the stove is on.

[smileypete]

Put it this way, a lot depends on how effective the calorifier coil is at heating the water.

 

One way to find out, with rads off and Eber heating the cal ONLY; when the Eber eventually cycles from low to off, how hot is the contents of the cal from the hot tap?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited January 23, 2015 by smileypete

[bigcol]

Hi Rick.

Many thanks. It's something I hadn't really thought about but it does bring up a question. Would two 5 kw heaters be more efficient than one 10kw heater and split the system???

Dan

Hi Dan if you ever get somone locally that can plumb in a multi fuel stove to rads etc. please let me know.

Either I get a Rayburn or buy a stove with back boiler.

 

To be fair. Our eberspacher 5 since installed has worked well

Pluged into 240v the hot water is always on

The heater 5 kW takes a couple of hours to heat the boat, then another hour and the multifuel stove takes over.

But main problem the bathroom still never gets warm,without a 240 rad on, which we leave on now and pay the electric no mater.

But did think about 2 x 5 kWs myself. But I would like just install a Rayburn which we would love, to heat the boat through it self and the rads all day etc, as it would heat all the boat most of the time, instead of just the multifuel stove heating the salon and kitchen

I think we would be sorted properly then.

But all through my heating woes. This is the best at the moment, if only I could use the stove to heat through rads the whole boat.

 

FEELING WARM.

Edited January 23, 2015 by bigcol

[dccruiser]

Hi Dan if you ever get somone locally that can plumb in a multi fuel stove to rads etc. please let me know.

Either I get a Rayburn or buy a stove with back boiler.

 

To be fair. Our eberspacher 5 since installed has worked well

Pluged into 240v the hot water is always on

The heater 5 kW takes a couple of hours to heat the boat, then another hour and the multifuel stove takes over.

But main problem the bathroom still never gets warm,without a 240 rad on, which we leave on now and pay the electric no mater.

But did think about 2 x 5 kWs myself. But I would like just install a Rayburn which we would love, to heat the boat through it self and the rads all day etc, as it would heat all the boat most of the time, instead of just the multifuel stove heating the salon and kitchen

I think we would be sorted properly then.

But all through my heating woes. This is the best at the moment, if only I could use the stove to heat through rads the whole boat.

 

FEELING WARM.

What are the problems you are encountering or are aware of with using a stove with a backboiler for heating your rads? ... i ask as i am intending to put in a new stove with a backboiler to run my rads as an alternative to the ebby

 

Rick

[NMEA]

A calorifier or even two will not sink enough heat to stop an eber cycling, here we have a calorifier and two rads and the system switches to low heat but doesn't shut down even when run for 3-4hours.

The rest of the rads are on TRV as they are in the same area as the stove so are not needed when the stove is on.

The problem with calorifiers is far more complex than that, A calorifier takes a very large amount of heat from the coolant in the early stages when there is a high temperature differential as water is a very good heat conductor. However as the temperature differential reduces it will take less and less, eventually almost nothing at all. Conversely radiaters never get near the small temperatuure differential and air is a poor conductor of heat. For this reason I don't even take the calorifier into account when calculating the load but use only the radiators. This does lead to slightly longer warn up times but properly done can all but eliminate cycling. By the way, TRVs are an absolute no no with evaporator heaters as they lead to more cycling, great with a PJ but not with evaporator units. It's actually a warranty rejection point if called out and TRVs are found to be installed.

Edited January 23, 2015 by NMEA