heating systems

[regthecat]

Hi All,

 

I am putting together the sped list for a fit out and want to have a programmable/remote controlled heating system installed as well as the traditional burner. Does anyone have any recommendations on suitable systems suitable for a 57ft nb?/

 

Thanks,

 

 

[mrsmelly]

Hi All,

 

I am putting together the sped list for a fit out and want to have a programmable/remote controlled heating system installed as well as the traditional burner. Does anyone have any recommendations on suitable systems suitable for a 57ft nb?/

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

I think you have covered the fact that the only way to heat a narrowboat properly is with a solid fuel stove and you are asking about back up type heating. It will depend on your budget. My favourite was my Hurricane which was awesome till it broke and was going to cost 47 million pounds to replace. I have had most other diesel types including mikuni but have just had fitted a webasto thermo top system which are available cheaper than most and I have had little problem with them over the years on previous boats. Make sure you fit plenty of rads if you go for the webasto type jobbies as otherwise they cycle on/off and get peed off and break.

Other responses will soon be forthcoming and plenty of advice will soon be yours. I believe the gas aldi jobbies are now much better than they used to be but have no personal experience on them I can only add that my findings are of a personal basis having had many systems over many years as a liveaboard and are first hand accounts

[Naughty Cal]

We have a Webasto blown air system. Ours is only a 2kw system as it is a small boat but larger units are available.

 

It was installed when the boat was new in 2003 and has as far as we are aware (we bought the boat in 2008) never been touched. Up until a couple of weeks ago it worked perfectly for all of that time.

 

It is now in bits in the garage awaiting a service kit and new air intake unit. Cost for the bits £225 and it will take an hour or so of messing about to fit it all.

 

Whilst it is out we are also taking the opportunity to replace the warm air ducting and also fit lagging to reduce heat loss in the pipe runs.

[mross]

If you are going for remote control I would recommend an SMS or text messaging system as this is more robust than wi-fi.

[elastic]

I think you have covered the fact that the only way to heat a narrowboat properly is with a solid fuel stove and you are asking about back up type heating. It will depend on your budget.

I know it's not very common around here but I'm doing it just the other way round - my old alde with finn radiators (both sides full length of the boat) heats it perfectly fast and warm by needing never more then a bottle of gas a week (including warm water and cooker) when it's really cold - from my experience that is not much more expensive than buying decent coal for the morso - which I'm using as a backup or for cosy evenings with lighted fire ;-) - the newer alde heaters need even less gas and are getting the fresh air from outside so they seem to be more efficient and saver to use - to me they seem quite more robust and Need less servicing compared to Webasto

[mross]

Do you mean a 13kg bottle every week? that's about £30 isn't it? Maybe a bit less. I think you could heat a boat for less if you used MSF. £8 for 25kg at some marinas.

 

I love my Alde but it chomps gas. My Mikuni seems much cheaper to run.

[elastic]

Do you mean a 13kg bottle every week? that's about £30 isn't it? Maybe a bit less. I think you could heat a boat for less if you used MSF. £8 for 25kg at some marinas.

 

I love my Alde but it chomps gas. My Mikuni seems much cheaper to run.

£25-28 depends on the supplier - but keep in mind that this is including hot water and cooking and only in the coldest weeks of the year - and no ash or cleaning ;-) - so £100/month in Jan/Feb £50 in Nov/Dez/March and about one bottle a month for the rest of the year makes it about £425 for heating, hot water and cooking per year - sure, I could spare about 30-40% by looking for a good bargain for burning material and using the gas only for cooking and hot water (or even 5-10% more by running the engine to heat the calorifier) but for me that would not compensate the loss of comfort - I'd rather take one or two jobs more a year (I'm self employed ...) to earn the money ...

[mross]

£25-28 depends on the supplier - but keep in mind that this is including hot water and cooking and only in the coldest weeks of the year - and no ash or cleaning ;-) - so £100/month in Jan/Feb £50 in Nov/Dez/March and about one bottle a month for the rest of the year makes it about £425 for heating, hot water and cooking per year - sure, I could spare about 30-40% by looking for a good bargain for burning material and using the gas only for cooking and hot water (or even 5-10% more by running the engine to heat the calorifier) but for me that would not compensate the loss of comfort - I'd rather take one or two jobs more a year (I'm self employed ...) to earn the money ...

OK fair enough.

[canals are us?]

Up until a month ago I only had a multifuel stove with backboiler heating 2 rads and calorifier. This works well but I have since added a webasto thermo top C and this heats 3 double rads and one 4ft long single and the calorifier.

 

I find so far in the 3 times I have used the webasto it's very nice to have heat at the press of a button.

 

My usage will be webasto for times of quick heat when coming back from work and spring/autumn when it doesn't warrant lighting the fire.

The sfs will still be the main heat source as like the view of the fire.

 

One thing have the stove in the centre of the boat then no need for backboiler.

 

James

Edited January 4, 2017 by canals are us?

[mrsmelly]

£25-28 depends on the supplier - but keep in mind that this is including hot water and cooking and only in the coldest weeks of the year - and no ash or cleaning ;-) - so £100/month in Jan/Feb £50 in Nov/Dez/March and about one bottle a month for the rest of the year makes it about £425 for heating, hot water and cooking per year - sure, I could spare about 30-40% by looking for a good bargain for burning material and using the gas only for cooking and hot water (or even 5-10% more by running the engine to heat the calorifier) but for me that would not compensate the loss of comfort - I'd rather take one or two jobs more a year (I'm self employed ...) to earn the money ...

 

This sounds better than I thought so lets get this right. The aldi runs 24 hours a day for a full week in cold winter and heats the boat all day and night and hot water and cooking? or do you let it go off during the night and wake up to a freezing boat? How long is the boat did you buy a whole one or a shorter length? I only ask as in future I may consider this method due to ease of maintainance as a back up.

[WotEver]

How long is the boat did you buy a whole one or a shorter length?

 

:lol:

[Robbo]

Propane is nearly twice the BTU of coal per lb. So roughly one bag of coal of 25kg has the same BTU as 1 13kg canister of propane give or take.

[Dave Payne]

There must be something wrong with my alde gas heater, last winter I was going through a bottle a week and that was with me only being on the boat for four out of seven nights, plus in deep winter I struggled to get the boat above 16 degrees.

 

 

This winter with the morso its lovely and snug in here, but then I do burn about 8kg per day and have the fire in 24/7.

 

I would never want to go back to just the gas boiler.

ETD,

 

It's a 57ft with at least 40ft of open space and I have four rads.

[stegra]

Are refillable gas cylinders used on boats very often? The initial outlay is a bit pricey but at the volumes folk seem to be getting through, they'd soon pay off. A quick check is showing LPG on the forecourt at 55p/litre just now. There are approx 2 litres to a kg so that makes 13kg around £14. Here's a company I've bought an under-slung vehicle tank from in the past. They are very knowledgeable and helpful. Link.

[Dave Payne]

You cant fill bottles at road side garages, used to have an lpg car and every garage I used had signage stating this.

[stegra]

You cant fill bottles at road side garages, used to have an lpg car and every garage I used had signage stating this.

 

Aye. I've just been reading about this on another forum. Apparently a lot of people are doing it anyway. Some have a vehicle fitted with a remote set-up so the bottle is inside but the inlet on the outside. A lot are using an adapter and filling regular Calor bottles, which is dangerous because of the risk of overfilling- LPG bottles should only be 80% full to allow the liquid to expand on warming and the bottles designed to be refilled have a safety mechanism to prevent overfilling.. Seems the rural filling stations are less likely to stop you refilling. Some of them will do it for you if the accounts I've just been reading are to be believed.

[Robbo]

Hi All,

 

I am putting together the sped list for a fit out and want to have a programmable/remote controlled heating system installed as well as the traditional burner. Does anyone have any recommendations on suitable systems suitable for a 57ft nb?/

 

Thanks,

 

If you want a system that's more designed for a liveaboard then look at the Bubble PJ. Ive been looking into myself for when I'm ready for that stage of the fitout. The downside is that been 240v they do need a inverter to be on, so you need a decent one that has low consumption. The daily consumption is around the same as a large fridge so you need a decent charging regime during winter if not on shore power.

[ditchcrawler]

For all you who refill your gas bottles at the garage, thinks may soon become much harder for you

 Major petrol station changes to take place with popular fuel being removed from forecourts (msn.com)

[magnetman]

They say 'no longer profitable' I wonder if the insurance companies have sniffed out dodgy refilling and don't like the risk. 

 

Or the holding tanks are getting a bit old and not worth replacing. 

[IanD]

5 minutes ago, magnetman said:

They say 'no longer profitable' I wonder if the insurance companies have sniffed out dodgy refilling and don't like the risk. 

 

Or the holding tanks are getting a bit old and not worth replacing. 

It's just a big drop in demand. This isn't news anyway, that announcement above dates from April 2022...

[magnetman]

I suppose they might be interested in using the space for putting in electric car charging points as well. 

[jonathanA]

and Felix Reeves is a lazy journalist whose articles are simply put utter CRAP - poor click bait even by click bait standards... 

[IanD]

24 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I suppose they might be interested in using the space for putting in electric car charging points as well. 

If you read the linked article -- or many of the others from around the same date -- you wouldn't have to suppose, because that's exactly what the article said...

 

This could be an example of your clairvoyance at work -- but then you'd know for sure wouldn't you?

Edited December 3, 2023 by IanD

[magnetman]

I didn't read it. 

 

The clairvoyance obviously works. 

 

Plus it is pretty obvious !

[Guest]

This will impact on a lot of motorhomers as a significant number use fixed on board LPG tanks which they fill at these pumps. Some though will be able to switch back to reusable cylinders if they use a removable type cylinder.