Installing boat heating

[LadyPatricia]

Evening All

Looking at getting an eberspacher airtronic D2 12v diesel heating system for Lady Patricia.

1. How easy / hard are they to fit

2. Assuming all goes well how many hours to fit

3. Will this model be up to heating a 24ft boat

Thanks in advance

Steve & Deb

[diesel falcon]

answer to queestions,

1.depends on ducting runs ,and room to mount unit and exhaust,  medium hard

2.2 days, there is a lot of working out where you can route ducts and mount unit and exhaust and fit diesel pick up ect

3.yes ,i ave got one and it roasts a 27 footer!!

[Timbo]

One more question...where can you get one for less than the price of a small house?

[MauriceMynah]

Timbo,

Hove (as in "Brighton & Hove). Small houses are much more expensive there.

[LadyPatricia]

Timbo - what cost for freezing your whatsits off

Seen them online for around £600. We don't like the idea of these portable gas heaters, I know many people use them but I'd constantly be worried about CO as they all say 'do not use in confined areas'.

Steve

[MauriceMynah]

SteveandDeb

You paid £600 to see Timbo's frozen whatsits on line?????

 

I agree with you about the portable gas heaters, the list of dangers and disadvantages is endless!

I used to use one on my old boat, which subsequently suffered very badly from the effects of the condensation the heater produced.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Steve,

 

My advice is to lag the ducts as you install it. rather than trying to do it once installed. I would also used plenty of clips to support the ducting.

 

You might find it beneficial to check out the costs of fitting a silencer on the heater.

 

Regards

Alan

[Oddfellow]

We have just fitted an Webasto Airtop to a 35ft Bourne in private hands. 

 

The job took over 12 hours and the boat already had ducting in place. 

 

We can supply Webasto and Eberspacher units at good prices and can fit too. I would recommend the Webasto currently as the service interval is more favourable as are the prices.

[JawsOrca]

Hi Steve,

 

We (I mean Dave lol) are in the process of installing our webasto unit .. To be honest Dave is struggling a little . although there's lots of directions it's not straight forward and the directions are contradicting. he will get it done but we are estimating close to the 12 hours Andy above mentioned.

 

We went for a Webasto airtop (the base model for our 28ft).. we got ours from JPC direct (see the advert on the page)... He gave me a very good price.. beating everyone else (although I forced him into it a bit!).. The price was the same for either but he suggested the webasto.. I forget why but I trusted him..

 

A word of warning though, you need to be soo careful buying these on the internet (and eberspacer) are many are apparently truck ones which incorrect marine attachments and you may struggle when it comes around the BSC.. so highly recommend you talk to JPC direct they are main dealers for both in the UK and are local to norfolk.. he will only sell you the correct package (or any other boatyard like Freedom of course!).

[Mowjo]

Very good advice there Jaws, and I totally agree with Alan about the lagging, they never did it when it was installed on Crackers, the boat was only 25ft with three outlets, but the one in the toilet and rear cabin were worse than useless and by the time the air had got to them it was cold, in total from the heater to the rear cabin outlet it was only around 12ft, I intended to lag them but it would have meant dismantling half the boat to get to them, so as Alan suggest do it while your fitting it, I'm in the process of taking the heating out of the new boat, it's the original pre propex type and you can't get any parts for it now, plus I don't like gas heating anyway, I won't be replacing it as we never used the heating on Crackers, plus by the time you buy the unit, thermostat and timer it starts to get a bit expensive,

 

Frank,,,

[Mowjo]

Just an Addy but I believe if you fit a truck version on a boat you invalidate the Warranty if it goes wrong, I believe one of the main differences with the marine one is fan speeds, the marine is designed for longer runs so has a higher fan speed, where the truck one is for shortr runs which in turn means it might not have enough puff to heat a boat, looking at prices the heater will cost a third of what you paid for the boat, so you need to work out if the cost will be worth it for the odd weekend here and there, we winter cruise a lot and have never really used heating, we just wrap up warm and wear thermals when we are out plus the kettle is always on and that warms the boat up,,

 

Frank,,,

[ranworthbreeze]

If the boat lends itself to a wet system then this is preferable to a warm air system.

On Narrow boats they tend to be fitted with radiators because of the long corridors, but there could be places that you could fit smaller radiators on a cruiser. 

 

 

Regards

Alan

[Oddfellow]

Wet systems can be fitted to many boats as you can buy slimline radiators that fit in kickspaces and  there are many newer designs that build into skirting boards and such - not that many boats have a skirting board, but such things could be added.

 

You can also fit blower boxes to individual compartments where you can then put a thermostat in each room and control temperature througout the boat. The wet boilers are a comparable price to a warm air one, but then you have the additional cost of the blower units, radiators, running power cables and so on.

 

Fitting a heater is relatively straight forward in principal, but fully appreciating the installation instructions is a different matter. Remember, the further away you are from the heat source, the less air you will get. Generally, you need one non-closable vent (closest to the unit) and all futher ones should be closable so that you have some control to the compartments.

 

As for truck units vs marine, it is possible that the cut-off voltages where the unit ceases to operate might be different as the vehicle may have just one battery for everything, so you don't want to flatten it. Hence, it *might* cut off sooner than a marine one. Truck kits will not have marine parts in them and so installing these without the correct parts will fail a BSS.

[Revilo]

Any thought on what a 4KW Panda Generator would cost to install on a boat with a 240v ring main for shore power already in place?

[Oddfellow]

I think the simple answer is no. We really would need to take a look.

 

The fact that a ring main is already in place isn't hugely significant (is it really a ring main rather than a radial circuit?). You would need a new selector switch to swap between shore and generator too.

 

These units are hardly small or light and require raw water feeds and exhausts meaning the vessel has to be slipped or craned. Many vessels are also simply unlikely to have space to fit one without reconfiguring the existing equipment - we even had to move things on a recent boat to fit a battery charger!