Hot Water (from Watermaker Posts)

[sv_makai]

We have an Isotherm hotwater heater heated both by the port engine engine and 120. It keeps the water hot. Starts at 180 degrees and cools from there. In a 4-5 day passage we almost always have had the run the engine for charging so we get hot water as aby product. A well insulated heater makes a difference in the time hot water will last.

We just came in from a month on anchor in laguna Grande, Ven. We didn't start the engine for weeks at a time. For the most part the water in the tanks was tepid after the a few days. With the high temps we didn't mind the cooler water.

We are able to use the invertor to heat the water but rarely do. For the most part it hasn't been a problem. But occasionally the Admiral want hot water and we will run the engine.

Since we will be adding wind gen we will probably heat the water more often with AC, but right now it is not bad.

[Strygaldwir]

Bil;

Thanks alot for the info. I guess I will switch the waterheater from the shore panel to the inverter.

Thanks,

Keith

Regarding the hot water, has anyone used passive solar for heating water on board? If you have this huge water maker, it makes sense that you should have all of the luxuries that go with it.

[sv_makai]

I looked into but the array needed to make hot via a solar collector is very large for a boat. It is cheaper and easier to power the heater by diesel or solar electricity.

We figured that we would run the engine enough or use the invertor to heat water that the cost wasn't justified. Not to mention the spce requirements.

Though we have been looking into a mirrored array that uses a tube cut in half to focus the light into a heating element. It will be a while before anything serious other than reading.

That sounds promising. I hope you post if you find out any good info on that.
As for the passive solar, I had considered buiding a 4 gallon unit. Our hot water consumption is minimal enough that 4 gallons would be sufficient. The space, and I may be underestimating it, would be about the size of a 120 watt panel. I have read some on building these units for off the grid homes, and a scaled down panel seemed practical. Were you looking at commercially available panels, or dd you consider home brew?

[sv_makai]

We are looking into both. but because of the unquie requirements and sizes on a boat a home built may be the way to go. It has to withstand Caribe sun and winds along with passagemaking

One of the big difficulties is I don't want to give up solar elec space as it is more useful. Second is what ever is built has to look like it was designed with the boat.

But we have plenty of time to read and learn out here.

[Jon D]

Kai Nui once whispered in the wind:
Regarding the hot water, has anyone used passive solar for heating water on board? If you have this huge water maker, it makes sense that you should have all of the luxuries that go with it.

Not the exact answer but I hooked up a Xantrex charge diverter to my KISS wind generator and once house bank is charged it diverts the output to a 12V coil in the water heater. You replace the std 110V element with one that does both 110 and 12v. Pretty neat and optimizes the output of the wind generator.

Here's the link for the controller

http://www.svhotwire.com/pages/produ...ntr/trace.html


Here's the link for the divert load.
http://www.svhotwire.com/divert_loads.html

[Jentine]

Why go to the extremes in the Caribbean to make hot water. Lay a black hose or bag in the sun for a few hours and the water will burn the most toughened skin. Solar hot water is a no brainer.