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Oil boiler converted from house to boat use?


Titan

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Has anyone tried the above ? Having chatted to a oil boiler servicman today who was open minded he stressed that with trial n error it would be very plausable to achieve. The New Kabola types and poss Hurricane are exactly that an adaptation. He even hinted at types of burners and nozzle for a smaller install, certainly got me thinking.

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Has anyone tried the above ? Having chatted to a oil boiler servicman today who was open minded he stressed that with trial n error it would be very plausable to achieve. The New Kabola types and poss Hurricane are exactly that an adaptation. He even hinted at types of burners and nozzle for a smaller install, certainly got me thinking.

larger Webasto, Mikuni Kabola et al and various makes of domestic boiler, they are all simply pressure jet boilers working on the same principle, get it jetted and adjusted correctly for the fuel being used and it will be fine (working out the jet is the only barrier). Hurricane is a different animal altogether as it works arse about face with pressurised air via a compressor and venturi effect rather than pressurised fuel delivery.

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Has anyone tried the above ? Having chatted to a oil boiler servicman today who was open minded he stressed that with trial n error it would be very plausable to achieve. The New Kabola types and poss Hurricane are exactly that an adaptation. He even hinted at types of burners and nozzle for a smaller install, certainly got me thinking.

 

 

Well having been OFTEC registered in a previous life I suspec all domestic oil boilers are MASSIVE compared to boat oil boilers.

 

No reason not to fit one though, if you have the space and the means to install a flue that complies with installation instructions. Big boats like Humber keels only, I suspect...

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Big boats like Humber keels only, I suspect...

 

Well as it happens we have one of those and were thinking about putting an oil fired boiler in. Have so far been looking at the marine types, but what issues might there be with using a domestic type, aside from size?

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Well having been OFTEC registered in a previous life I suspec all domestic oil boilers are MASSIVE compared to boat oil boilers

Well when I converted my old boiler from domestic to boat use, I had no trouble at all. Dishwashing, laundry, you name it. Still got done just the same. And she's not THAT massive either, when you look around. ?

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Well as it happens we have one of those and were thinking about putting an oil fired boiler in. Have so far been looking at the marine types, but what issues might there be with using a domestic type, aside from size?

Check the power consumption.
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Well as it happens we have one of those and were thinking about putting an oil fired boiler in. Have so far been looking at the marine types, but what issues might there be with using a domestic type, aside from size?

Aside from the constraints you mention, none. Professionally installed and regularly serviced you should get long service, I have never fitted one but do service a few on larger boats, some of the flues are not much larger than the 75mm of larger marine boilers. One point though, you may find the price of a high quality domestic unit is not a huge saving over a properly specified high output (but compact size) marine unit like the Webasto Spheros Thermo 16 to 30 kw units.

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There are quite a lot of mainly larger boats fitted with small house size oil fired boilers. I believe Somy and Grant are popular in barges. There are quite a few that have outputs around 12/15kw. Cheaper to buy than marine units, cheaper parts, and supposedly more reliable.

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Well I've played about a lot with domestic oil burners in my time,Itl be no trouble at all, and forget about running it on kero,plumb it into your gas oil tank,go down on the nozzle and up on the pump pressure and e bay your self a little danesmore 15/ 20 boiler,don't get to excited about nozzle size just adjust the air slide so there's a heat haze from flue, it's all on a thermostat so no problems of anything

Running away ,mock it up in the shed first and try it,up and running for less than £200 ,I've a burner £50 but there's plenty about,

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Well I've played about a lot with domestic oil burners in my time,Itl be no trouble at all, and forget about running it on kero,plumb it into your gas oil tank,go down on the nozzle and up on the pump pressure and e bay your self a little danesmore 15/ 20 boiler,don't get to excited about nozzle size just adjust the air slide so there's a heat haze from flue, it's all on a thermostat so no problems of anything

Running away ,mock it up in the shed first and try it,up and running for less than £200 ,I've a burner £50 but there's plenty about,

 

 

Funny you should say that. I was just musing about how setting up the combustion on a pressure jet oil boiler was quite a critical set of adjustments. Getting the oil pressure correct, along with setting the excess air to keep the emissions within manufacturers specified limits using a gas analyser. Do this, then change the fuel to gas oil and all that careful adjustment goes to the wall.

 

Judging the combustion by looking at the smoke haze is taking us back to the dark ages!

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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Funny you should say that. I was just musing about how setting up the combustion on a pressure jet oil boiler was quite a critical set of adjustments. Getting the oil pressure correct, along with setting the excess air to keep the emissions within manufacturers specified limits using a gas analyser. Do this, then change the fuel to gas oil and all that careful adjustment goes to the wall.

 

Judging the combustion by looking at the smoke haze is taking us back to the dark ages!

 

Probably wot he sed.

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Well buddy,I've made a waste oil boiler,bought a burner from China and run house on it for 3, years combustion chamber and hot tube fitted ensures complete combustion,not a trace of smoke,just a heat haze,

Prior to this I made a domestic kerosine burning boiler ,incorporating 50s/60 water tubes and thimble tubes,put a old danfoss burner in with a 80 us nozzle set it up as discribed in last post, flue gas analyser results were as good as a new condensing boiler,

I'll bet its emissions are better than a VW.

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I've just ripped one out of my ex's boat. It was rotten. Only three years old. Possibly not up to marine standards. Meaning damp environment possibly. It was in the engine room of her wide beam. I had to cut it to bits with a recip saw. My ears are still ringing.

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Waste oil boiler partly done that was 3 yrs ago. ,don't want to get in a slannging match,I'm only sharing my opinion and knowledge ,

we had a waste oil burner in the garage worked well but the license was expensive but still cheaper than paying for kero. the trouble is they are by there nature dirty, as the waste oil holds the carbon and dirt from the engine. ours never produced smoke when warm but no doubt a lot of pollution and nasties went up the chimney, and the beast was a bit of a bugger to clean out to say the least

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I was looking at various options for my Humber barge, It was suggested to me that I modify a household boiler and I did look at some. In the end however I plumped for a Bubble PJ boiler (14.6 Kw). The deciding factors were the approachability and plain common sense information from Bubble and the thickness of the steel and the standard of engineering in its construction. There was very little in it price wise

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I was looking at various options for my Humber barge, It was suggested to me that I modify a household boiler and I did look at some. In the end however I plumped for a Bubble PJ boiler (14.6 Kw). The deciding factors were the approachability and plain common sense information from Bubble and the thickness of the steel and the standard of engineering in its construction. There was very little in it price wise

How do you find the bubble pj with power consumption?

Edited by Robbo
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I was looking at various options for my Humber barge, It was suggested to me that I modify a household boiler and I did look at some. In the end however I plumped for a Bubble PJ boiler (14.6 Kw). The deciding factors were the approachability and plain common sense information from Bubble and the thickness of the steel and the standard of engineering in its construction. There was very little in it price wise

terry does make lovely equipment i love walking around his workshop and his dutch barge is stunning

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I'm on shore power during the winter so that was not an important factor in my choice (although I do have inverter + generator back up in case of power cuts etc.)

I understand it's about 200 watts when actually firing so in normal use at about 25% operation cycle say 50w (plus the circulating pump, the one I use is 33W but again only operates for about 25% of the time) If it is something you really need an accurate figure for I will stick a meter on it and give you an exact reading and the cycling rate for here

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peterboat, Yes, I was very impressed. I went up to have a look on the spur of the moment, when I got there the company was closed for the holidays, however they were there catching up with bits and pieces. When they heard how far I had driven they sat me down made me a cup of tea and answered all my questions. I then got a grand tour and saw all his projects. Being able to see things as a pile of parts, and able to inspect the quality of the hidden bits was invaluable....delightful people.

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I'm on shore power during the winter so that was not an important factor in my choice (although I do have inverter + generator back up in case of power cuts etc.)

I understand it's about 200 watts when actually firing so in normal use at about 25% operation cycle say 50w (plus the circulating pump, the one I use is 33W but again only operates for about 25% of the time) If it is something you really need an accurate figure for I will stick a meter on it and give you an exact reading and the cycling rate for here

It would be handy to know roughly how many ah's it uses on average in a day. I'm looking at one, but the power consumption is putting me off.

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