All things Heating

[psychfeld]

I'm trying to find out what is a more feasible way to incorporate an efficient heat source in a catamaran. I'm going to be circumnavigating with whichever cat I buy and there don't seem to be many with existing heat. So I will probably be installing something aftermarket.

I'd like to find out what anyone's experience has been with whatever heat source they've been using. I have used a small West Marine space heater in my small sailboat in the Seattle winters. They suck a tremendous amount of power for the heat provided. I would like a heat source that could work independent of shore power.

I don't seem to find any threads on CF searching for heater or heating systems, maybe I am not searching properly.

Thanks!

[Cheechako]

Well, Forced air ducted diesel is the way to go for a hard to heat space like a cat. Webasto is my favorite. It aint cheap and requires maintenance.
But if you are sailing lower lattitudes. I'm not sure you need heat. You might consider just heating the main salon for simplicity.

[Oliver L.]

Hi Psychfeld,

we had the same problem with the boat we bought - no heat, no a/c. I installed five fan coils, a double compressor system for heating and cooling under shore power or generator, and a small Webasto Diesel heater for heating at anchor. Works like a charm, doesn't draw much and is very quiet. See the photo...

Oliver

[psychfeld]

Yes, I was certainly thinking I should consider partitioning the area to heat. It does seem reasonable that diesel might be the logical energy source.

[hpeer]

We have installed Espar D4 heaters in each boat.

We live every other week on the big boat last two winters. Kept us good to 0F.

[Littlechay]

One of these Kabola jobs or any domestic pressure jet boiler and radiators. There is Catana parked alongside us with a system like this and it works well.

Webasto is OK if you feed it very clean and pre-warmed fuel. If the fuel temperature is close to 0 Centigrade they tend to produce a lot of carbon in the combustion chamber which eventually clogs it and stops it firing. It's a fairly easy strip down to clean but if you are going high latitude get used to it. Chuck he boat electronics and put in the control board for a truck which burns the thing hotter and helps with the sooting up.

Refleks (my choice) - choose a suitable model with an indirect hot water heating coil, circulate the water to radiators using one of those little solar heating pumps that run of 9 to 36Vdc. Very little power drain with these pumps. You can also put a heat exchanger on the calorifer circuit on the engines and heat the water with the engines when they are running.

Bake bread daily

[Paul L]

Forced air heating (Espar or Webasto) would require a lot of large and difficult to run ducting. Hard enough on a mono. A piped coolant system with radiators would be much easier to install, take up less space, supply hot water and be easier to create effective zones. ITR has some interesting systems, along with Webasto and Espar.

Littlechay
Which Refleks models were you referring to?

[Skip JayR]

Originally Posted by psychfeld

I'm trying to find out what is a more feasible way to incorporate an efficient heat source in a catamaran. I'm going to be circumnavigating with whichever cat I buy and there don't seem to be many with existing heat. So I will probably be installing something aftermarket.

I'd like to find out what anyone's experience has been with whatever heat source they've been using. I have used a small West Marine space heater in my small sailboat in the Seattle winters. They suck a tremendous amount of power for the heat provided. I would like a heat source that could work independent of shore power.

I don't seem to find any threads on CF searching for heater or heating systems, maybe I am not searching properly.

Thanks!

As multihull's biggest enemy is weight, neither for a cat nor a trimaran it makes sense to have huge water tanks.

Such tanks same need lots of energy to be heated linked with a hot/cold water pump. So nowadays you use a water maker which can cover the daily amount of water in a small tank.

I have learnt from the "tiny home movement", people who have same problem as boaters on multihullers, that a gas therme is the most efficient way.

Here an example from a tiny home house... I have noticed from other boaters, that they use such systems on board, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVgSKzRwTBA

And with propane you same can hvae a heating stove...
http://www.go2marine.com/category/14...t-heaters.html


The benefit is: you have for cooking + hot water (inclusive deck shower/bathroom) + cabin heating the same source of energy: propane. Most efficient in my understanding.

You can reduce the amount of solar panels focussing on the energy you need for electric devices.... and you dont need a generator or running your diesel engine (e.g. some use hot water exchange system from the cooling system of the engine).

But maybe I am wrong... I am in midth the process of my own plans for buying a Trimaran. So simiarly to you such questions come accross my own path. - Maybe there is a more eco-friendly solution than using propane ?

Some boaters go the more radically way to use "black bags" as "solar shower". So long you dont have big crews, 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms to service this might work as well. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PePTfpVsCQM

[GILow]

There are a couple of threads on heating systems that I have posted to. I wish I knew how to link them here using the iPhone app but I can't figure it out. Anyway if I were to sum up what I learned from them it is that diesel hydronic is a great option but make sure you buy a powerful enough diesel heater. The basic models seem to range from about 2kW to nearly 20kW. That's a huge difference. Mostly those who have the smaller models say they are under powered even for a monohull. I'm putting in a 5kW based on simple tests using an oil filled column heater at the pen. You could easily and cheaply do a similar experiment if you have access to shore power on your boat.

Matt


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Littlechay
Which Refleks models were you referring to?

Any of them Paul; you can have a coil added almost all of their models (if not all).

--
Chris
Tweed's World | A high latitude sailor preparing for tropical cruising

[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Well, Forced air ducted diesel is the way to go for a hard to heat space like a cat. Webasto is my favorite. It aint cheap and requires maintenance.
But if you are sailing lower lattitudes. I'm not sure you need heat. You might consider just heating the main salon for simplicity.

+1 for forced air diesel heating.

We have an espar similar to webasto. They're originally designed for heating layed up buses in sub zero conditions. German made.

The espar uses approx an 1/8 gall / hour.

We tend to run ours as night approaches. We also heat our hot water with it. So its dinner followed by a shower. We rarely run it more than 2 hours at a time.

In the morning we'll often fire it up before we get out of bed. Again we rarely run it more than a couple of hours.

We carry 165 gallons of diesel so we could run it all day if we wanted.

You need to keep the maintenance up. Basically you need to chimney sweep the igniter chamber. I do that every 10 hours. Takes me 20 minutes from start to tools packed up.

I cant think of any other viable options that are as convenient and cost effective. Propane might work but it would need to be forced air.

I do like those little pot belly stoves some people have. Not sure where you would store all the fuel.

We also have foam pads for our hatches and ports. You lose a lot of heat from any windows.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[GILow]

Here's a thread with some great ideas from people who have done it, as against people like me who are planning to do it.


http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-149641.html

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Littlechay

Any of them Paul; you can have a coil added almost all of their models (if not all).
....

It isn't that clear from their website http://www.refleks-olieovne.dk/defau...agenumber=1561

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by Paul L

It isn't that clear from their website Oil Stoves - Refleks Olieovne A-S - Ringe

True but it's in the small print, for example .

and quote "Type 66MK
A handy and economical model with a specially plane grinded hot plate of cast iron.
Type 66MK can also be delivered with copper coil for central heating system."

You can download the catalogue from here which gives some more info.

I have used three different sizes with coils and seen many more installations in high latitude boats where the Refleks is almost ubiquitous.

--
Chris
Tweed's World | A high latitude sailor preparing for tropical cruising

[newhaul]

I'm looking at Wallis diesel heat for my boat I like the specs but no direct experience
Wallas Heater | Boat | Stoves | Cooking Equipment | ScanMarineUSA.com | Wallas Heater | Boat | Stoves | Cooking Equipment | ScanMarineUSA.com