Heating....

[Beryl]

Hi,

 

Just after a bit of advise really.... I spent my first night on the Promise Sunday and although she is still a work in progress and I expected to ruff it a bit I was totally shock at how cold it was on board...

 

When we have been working on her (Day and Night) she was warm and cosy... But as I found out the heat only seem to get to the upper parts of the boat so it was really cold on the lower half of her (I could see my breath)..

 

She has a Morsoe stove on board, but I am now thinking that this will not be enough on its own..

 

How can I make the heat spread more evenly through the boat? As winter is almost I am planning to just get some gas heaters in for now, but would like something in place for next winter that wont take up too much space, any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance...

 

Beryl

[Richard Lacy]

Get yourself an Eco Fan (just sit it on top of the morso as it is heat powered) and it will distribute the heat through the boat . We were amazed the difference it made on our boat and we gave up any thoughts of additional heating.

[dor]

You don't say how long your boat is, but I find the squirrel on my 50ft boat keeps the boat warm all night with the ecofan spinning away. Bottom vent open about one turn, down to about 3/4 turn when we go tio bed. Burning Excel coal. This is when it is below freezing outside.

 

The other thing, which I keep meaning to get round to, is a bit of 4inch pipe inside a cupboard with a 12V computer fan in it, to draw air down from the ceiling to floor level.

[Beryl]

Thanks Will look at the Eco fans.

 

The Promise is 72ft long, all open plan other than the Bathroom and toilet.

 

The Stove sit in the corner of the front room so the heat tends to move forward in the living area and Galley, but there is a small walk way past the bathroom and toilet to get to the bedroom and the heat do not seem to travel up there either....

 

And no form of heating in the bathroom and toilet...

 

Do you think the Eco fan will be enough to help heat all this? Or should I look maybe at some sort piping to run through out the boat with heated water, like a radiator effect?

 

I like to be very warm....

 

Thanks for you all you help.

 

B

[bottle]

And no form of heating in the bathroom and toilet... 

 

Do you think the Eco fan will be enough to help heat all this?  Or should I look maybe at some sort piping to run through out the boat with heated water, like a radiator effect?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Beryl

 

With that size of boat you will need "central heating" I would think. Does the Morso have a back boiler?

Give it 24hrs and you will have plenty of answers from our "experts".

 

Sounds like you are doing a self build Good luck

[dor]

On a 72ft boat I would think you would need some extra heating.

 

My personal favorite would be an Alde in conjunction with the Squirrel.

 

All the ease, cleanliness and speed of a gas central heating system. Whilst gas can be expensive, much of the laod can be taken by the Squirrel, The Alde can then just be used to top up the heat, or heat the rear of the boat.

 

It is also possible, with bypasses and valves, to do a nifty bit of plumbing and connect a back boiler in the Squirrel to the rads as well.

[stuart]

I've just fitted a morso with a boiler last weekend.

 

The boiler just screws into place inside the stove with 2 pipes that come out the back. You need to check if you have the holes already drilled into the boiler first though - if not it makes things more tricky but you can still do it.

 

Using this and a small central heating pump (I've brought a Jabsco one) you can then pump water through this boiler and into radiators along the length of the boat.

 

Some will say that you dont need the pump (and I've seen working examples of this) but you have to be very careful with the angles of pipework and lengths of pipe runs down the boat.

 

I would expect that you could add central heating to your existing stove for:

 

Each radiator: £30

Plastic pipe work & fittings: £100

Pump: £70

Boiler for stove: £110

 

Plus fitting time!

[John Orentas]

Beryl.

 

I go along with most of what has been said, I like Dor have a 50 foot boat and I find that a wood burning stove is quite adequate. With 70 feet of boat to heat you will need something more, many people get by happily with a largish solid fuel stove and one or two radiators running from it. Others as you will soon be finding out cannot live without a full blown central heating system and the electrical generating capacity of a small town.

 

As your fitting out progresses you will find things get much better, with soft furnishings and with the sheer bulk furniture which acts as a form of heat reservoir.

 

Also use sleeping bags, much better than ordinary bedding.

[DHutch]

Emily anne is about 63ft, and she is heated (minus 10ft of un heated engine room) with a squiral and three rads.

 

Squirall in the Galley, two rads to the front cabin, and a rad to the aft cabin and a calorifyer.

- Works pritty well, galley and bed room can be got upto a nice temp in a few hours, and while the rear cabin (with only one rad, and the other side of the engineroom) is never as warm, we dont often use it, and it quite warm enough with a decent sleeping bag.

 

Also, all our rads and calorifer are on a thermal circulated (somtimes called "gravity fed")

- The rads in the front cabin get going very quickly, 100% reliably

- and the aft rad does warm though evenually, and as soon as the heat get to to the rad and can fall though it and back round, is fine (its just becuase the lead pipe are soo long and flat)

- The (horizontal) calorifer is bit of a bugger, and often requires rebleeding about 3/4times before it will cycal, athough once its working, it will restart fine, or else fitt a vertacal unit!)

 

 

 

Daniel

Edited March 8, 2005 by dhutch

[Tony Ross]

Just a quick post re: the Eco fan. Found this site in Canada which was recommended to me.

 

http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/cf_ecofan.html

 

$89.99 (USD) which with the exchange rate we are now getting equates to about £46.63. Even with a bit of postage and import tax( if you're unlucky) this works out a lot cheaper than you'll find in most chandlers!

 

Hope that's of some help,

 

regards,

 

Tony