Great Lakes and Wintering in the Water?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by SURV69

Thus far, at 0 degrees it takes 250 watts plus a 125 watt heat lamp to maintain about 35-36 degrees in the bilge, while a 400 watt and a 750 watt(the 750 setting of a 750-1500 watt heater), to maintain mid 60's at 0 degrees outside.

I keep a constant watch on the receptacles & plugs.

In the rare instance when I run two heaters at 750, with the 250 watt and heat lamp, no recepacles or plugs feel warm(feels cool). At 1500 watt, with a 750 watt, the 250 watt and the 125 watt heat lamp, I begin to feel warmth on my plug and use that limit for very short periods of time .... 15 - 20 minutes, and the plug does not heat ... it's cool.

I generally use 400 or 750 watts to warm(actually to slowly cool) with on-off timers at half hour intervals. I then use the 250 watt, heat lamp and the 400 watt to heat the bilge at night ... all on timers that run during the off times of the other set of heaters.

Next morn, I am sleeping very comfortably under my 0-30 sleeping bag. The boat is about 54 degrees when it's down to about 20 outside and about 40 degrees when it's 0 outside.

Then I use the two 750's off timer, with the 250 watt and the 400 watt ... no heat lamp. until the boat heats to about 50-52 degrees(about half hour), when I then go to 250 watt, 2 750 watts and the heat lamp til the boat hits into the 60's(takes about an hour or so more at 0 degrees).

Power outage is always possible, but my boat is small for it's length and the dock is about 2 feet wide total ... actually, maybe not quite 2 feet wide. In all seriousness I doubt I'd want to fool around with a generator. A small efficient wood burner or diezel heater would be nice ... maybe being in Carolina would be nicer...

I'm impressed, you are getting by with such little heating. It probably helps you have a fairly small area to heat but that's still a very small amount of heating.

We wintered in Georgia a few years back with a 10k btu built in heat plus a 1500w portable and below around 25f, the interior temp went down 1 degree for each degree it got colder outside. It was a Gemini Catamaran so a lot more interior space to heat and not very good insulation value compared to your boat.

I would be nervous letting the engine room get so close to freezing. In a power outage, it wouldn't take long for the engine room to drop below freezing.

[SURV69]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Congratulations! That's a good result.

I've been on board, too, and it takes me 3000 watts of electric heat to keep just the salon and main cabin (rest of the boat is closed off) at 20C when it's a few degrees above freezing. If it were 0F like what you are having (brrr!), I could not keep the boat much above 10C, I think, with this amount of heat. I would have to add my 10 kilowatts of diesel hydronic heating, which is not working at the moment. But I have not only a big volume of interior to heat, but also a lot of ventilation through six large dorades. I am tempted from time to time to block them off to stop the cold wind from whistling in through them, but then I think about CO2 buildup and risk of CO wafting in from somewhere and I stop myself.


I would add some kind of diesel heater, if I were you. You could incur a lot of freeze damage if your power went out.


Good luck and have a good winter.

Since my heat is electric, the first thing I did was block the Dorades.

My setees are both blocked off and my boat either looks like Superman's Ice Cave(roll foam in the cabin), or tin-foil city(Refletix in the foreberth).

I've opened up my bilge and heat it separately at a lower temp than the boat(I target 36-40 degrees. I'm considering putting duck cloth fairly tight over the cabin & companionway. Right now I have a sunbrella type tent over the companionway. I have also put my batter boards away and replaced them with 3/4" foam batter boards, with another sunbrella type double thickness cloth on the outside of my companionway for just a little more insulation from any blowing winds.

Under the galley and hanging locker, I put R20 insulation against the hull to keep that cold at bay.

I'm contemplating making a door(out of foam), to cut off the foreberth(about 30% of the space being heated), during the day and address that area only an hour or two before going to bed.

I'm quite satisfied with the results, but fear any long-term loss of electric .... something more than 4 or 5 hours begins putting the bilge below 32 and the cabin around 40 ... bring on the sun!

I've been timing my heat losses, but relegating the results to memory .... not smart. I wish I could find my laser thermometer ...

[Seymore]

When I wintered on the south shore of Lake Ontario for a few years, following advice from experienced people, I installed thin logs around my wooden boat to protect the waterline from ice damage. The water did not freeze over, but there were ice floes.

[SURV69]

Spring is in the air ... I have survived winter on a boat.

I haven't just survived, I have just had the best winter I've ever had in 68 years.

In northern Ohio, the really cold weather lasted about 3 weeks, with each, a month or so of roughly 30+ degrees. Very very nice, and cozy winter.

I missed my electrical availability in that I have run about 2500+ amps a couple of times. Still 1500 watts in two heaters was usually too hot.

In general 1900 watts was my target on the coldest days. If I used a toaster, coffeemaker or toaster oven, I always reduced my wattage by 750 watts. When I turn on my computer, I reduced 750 watts, but only through the "surge", period.

I think the best things I did was to fit a well fitting 3/4 inch foam to separate off the quarterberths and a 3/4 inch foam companionway door(?). I took the three portions(like batterboards), and taped them so I could actually fold the doorway ... as long as I had hold of any part, the wind wouldn't take it.

I wish I had tried this 10 years ago.

Now I have to figure out what to do this summer .... BTW, I'm looking at a Coronado 35 ... much more foam board next year?

[Strypes]

Terrific!