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Electric heating?

basalt

By basalt
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basalt Explorer

basalt

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Hi

We've gone halves with my wife's parents on a 20ft springer that needs a bit of work. We've no heating on there at the moment and that's something we want to sort out fairly soon.

 

Trouble is we've hit a disagreement over how to heat - I've been looking at taking out one of the bed/seats and putting in a solid fuel stove - most likely a pipsqueak but they're getting bothered about the idea of loosing one of the beds and drilling a hole in the roof saying it'll make it harder to sell and someone might get burnt on a stove ( which is why I'd put a guard around it anyhow ).

 

Their suggestion is getting a halogen caravan heater. I might be biased but I can't see being a good option - Ok so it's cheap and quick but firstly they're radiative so you'd have to be sat in front of it to feel the proper benefit and seconds if my back of the envelope scribblings are correct we'd also get only 3 hours out of the battery - fine if we're moored near an electric point and don't mind trailing a cable to the boat but at guest moorings in town we wouldn't have that option.

 

We've got an outboard motor that's not going to allow us to charge on the move and personally I wouldn't want to trust a gas heater in a confined space.

 

Any opinions?

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PhilR Experienced

PhilR

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Posted

Hi

We've gone halves with my wife's parents on a 20ft springer that needs a bit of work. We've no heating on there at the moment and that's something we want to sort out fairly soon.

 

Trouble is we've hit a disagreement over how to heat - I've been looking at taking out one of the bed/seats and putting in a solid fuel stove - most likely a pipsqueak but they're getting bothered about the idea of loosing one of the beds and drilling a hole in the roof saying it'll make it harder to sell and someone might get burnt on a stove ( which is why I'd put a guard around it anyhow ).

 

Their suggestion is getting a halogen caravan heater. I might be biased but I can't see being a good option - Ok so it's cheap and quick but firstly they're radiative so you'd have to be sat in front of it to feel the proper benefit and seconds if my back of the envelope scribblings are correct we'd also get only 3 hours out of the battery - fine if we're moored near an electric point and don't mind trailing a cable to the boat but at guest moorings in town we wouldn't have that option.

 

We've got an outboard motor that's not going to allow us to charge on the move and personally I wouldn't want to trust a gas heater in a confined space.

 

Any opinions?

I think you already know the answer, but are struggling to convince relatives who live in cloud cuckoo land?

 

Electric heating is out of the question IMHO. A properly installed solid fuel stove would be best. The alternatives would be a diesel or gas unit which would be more expensive to install.

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Guest

Guest

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Forget the electric and go for solid fuel. We had one of those electric heaters you describe, in one of our previous boats, which we ran off a genny. Though better than nothing, it was inefficient and expensive to run.

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Grace and Favour Veteran II

Grace and Favour

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Honestly - electric heating is a no-no.... you would likely trash your batteries (and I do mean trash them) in days .

 

It can be no coincidence that the vast majority of narrowboats rely upon solid fuel stoves - (and correctly installing a stove & flue will not devalue your boat)

 

But please make sure the stove IS installed correctly

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sueb Veteran II

sueb

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Forget the electric and go for solid fuel. We had one of those electric heaters you describe, in one of our previous boats, which we ran off a genny. Though better than nothing, it was inefficient and expensive to run.

So no heat after 8pm when you turned your genny off unless you had suficient power in your batteries.

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Guest

Guest

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Why? As you are already aware, Sue, the 8pm - 8am rule only applies when in earshot of others.

 

quote C&RT "Please don’t use electricity generators, including the boat's engine between 8pm and 8am unless you are moored completely out of earshot of other people." (my italics.)

 

But of course I would never run my genny to annoy anybody at any time of day or night.

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Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

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Might have a look at the wall mounted diesel stoves available.

This would be my choice as well - http://www.dickinsonmarine.com

 

Forget about electric heating from the battery's, they won't last 3 hours / it will be more like 20 minutes.

 

If your looking for something quick and cheap before you get something in long term then a paraffin heater may be the best solution.

Edited by Robbo
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Arthur Brown Influencer

Arthur Brown

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1Kw will not be enough, but that 1Kw will consume about 90 amps. That needs fat wire and an expensive inverter, once the energy has left the battery it's gone til you spend 12 hours connected to the mains.

 

A properly installed burner heater will allow you to carry fuel for a hundred hours without undue expense or inconvenience.

 

May I suggest that a solid fuel heater is the cheapest option and that a diesel heater (Eberspacher, Webasto or Mikuni as examples) would be the most convenient and space saving choice. Remembering that most diesel heaters use electricity for pumps and fans, it must be your choice of heater.

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Naughty Cal Veteran II

Naughty Cal

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1Kw will not be enough, but that 1Kw will consume about 90 amps. That needs fat wire and an expensive inverter, once the energy has left the battery it's gone til you spend 12 hours connected to the mains.

 

A properly installed burner heater will allow you to carry fuel for a hundred hours without undue expense or inconvenience.

 

May I suggest that a solid fuel heater is the cheapest option and that a diesel heater (Eberspacher, Webasto or Mikuni as examples) would be the most convenient and space saving choice. Remembering that most diesel heaters use electricity for pumps and fans, it must be your choice of heater.

They dont use very much power to run the fans though. We run a 2kw Webasto on our 25ft boat. It needs good voltage to start the unit up for the first couple of minutes or so but then settles down to use about 3 amps per hour to run the fans and fuel pump. Hardly worth worrying about. Of course you do need to replace that power into the batteries be that by running the engine, solar or battery charger and shore power.

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bottle Veteran II

bottle

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There is only one form of heating the OP can use and that is solid fuel.

 

He has no way of charging his batteries, he has an outboard, unless he gets a generator and charger.

 

At the moment this boat is only a 'day boat'

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Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

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There is only one form of heating the OP can use and that is solid fuel.

 

He has no way of charging his batteries, he has an outboard, unless he gets a generator and charger.

 

At the moment this boat is only a 'day boat'

 

But his family not too keen on removing one of the bed/seats, so a bulkhead or engine diesel room heater may be a good solution.

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Guest

Guest

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But his family not too keen on removing one of the bed/seats, so a bulkhead or engine diesel room heater may be a good solution.

Might be a good option. One thing I do know is that electric heating, if viable, will cost a fortune to run.

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drunkensailor Collaborator

drunkensailor

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I'm taking it's just a holiday boat. Are you really going to use it in the winter?

I think it's perfectly reasonable not to have a heater on a 20ft boat if you're only using it in the summer, and it frees up a loat of space.

If you've a mooring with electricity, a 2kw fan heater will have that boat roasting if you plan to visit in winter.

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Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

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By the number of recommendations can I take it the problem of diesel heaters failing on gasoil has gone away?

 

It was the suphur content that was the main issue. They ran on DERV fine. As red diesel is now up to the same standard as derv, it's only the colour thats now different.

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Naughty Cal Veteran II

Naughty Cal

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Don't forget you could gain by moving your toasty warm batteries into the cabin where they would keep you nice and warm by vigorously shedding their active material!

By the number of recommendations can I take it the problem of diesel heaters failing on gasoil has gone away?

Not had a problem running ours on any diesel.

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