Cabin Heaters

[Bob V.]

Has anyone had experience installing their own cabin heater. I'm thinking of installing an Espar hydronic system with heat exchangers rather than radiators (I think). Any advice?

[Mike Aston]

It produces about 5 KW of heat which is very adequate even for Canada.
One fan is in the lazarette and blows into the salon and the aft cabin. One is installed under the galley sink and also blows into the salon and the third is installed at the bottom of the port locker.
The lazarette fan must get some of its air from outside the boat and reduces the condensation which can be a problem with hydronics systems.
The heater is mounted just inside the port cockpit locker.
The pipes just squeeze through under the floors. I fished a line through using a steel tape measure and then hauled the pipes through after tapering the end of the pipe so that it did not catch anything. The most awkward part was working under the head to get into the forward locker.
Though it has been keeping me comfrotable living aboard in Canada, it is still a work in progress. Main problem is the noise made by the furnace. I mounted it on the aft cabin bulk head, about as close to my ear as I could get. And though it is not loud it is sufficent to keep me awake. The fuel pump is mounted on top of the fuel tank under the bunk and has an enervating ticking noise. SO mount yours somewhere on the hull accessed from one of the aft lockers.
I have thought of remounting the furnace on a shelf on the hull to reduce noise transmission.
The locker in the forward cabin is a bit cramped and I managed to kink one of the hoses. I have now got a source for formed hoses so I hope to cure that problem. The kink was inhibiting fluid flow but I still get a lot of heat out of it. Once I have sorted that out I shall put the water heater in the loop as well.
I recently installed individual thermostats for the fans so I am looking forward to more even heating this year.
Look on Rivermarine.com, go to their heater link and you will find some excellent instructions on installing these systems.
To produce so much heat, they burn a lot of fuel. I have actually run out of fuel while tied up on the dock.

[Bob V.]

Thanks for all the great info. I was beginning to give up on a reply to this question. I assume most owners had the good sense to get such a major piece of equipment installed at the factory. Fortunately I am still waiting for my parts to arrive, so my boiler will be mounted in a way to reduce the noise and I will not put the fuel pump under my bunk. I have fished all of the hose around to the various locations. It was easy once I removed floor panels to get at all those strategically located holes. I plan to use a seperate fuel tank stored in the space next to the rudder stock. The salesman said they run even better on kerosene. If they still sell kerosene in nice metal 5 gal buckets like I used to buy it would fit right in the space.

[Mike Aston]

I assumed you would be getting a kit so I did not mention things like a stainless steel through hull.. I never found a rubber grommet big enough to acomodate the hoses as they pass through the inevitable holes in woodwork. Warren Pandy sent me some large dia spiral cable ducting which probably works better, if a bit ugly.
I was quoted canadian $8,700 for the complete installation so do not feel too foolish about not getting the dealer to do it.
I think I shall follow your example with the cans of kerosene., which means moving the fuel pump to somewhere soundproof.
I saw a nice kick-space heater at the Toronto show. I shall investigate it and see If it can be mounted neatly under the aft starboard seat. and save some clutter under the galley.
BTW. DO not switch the boiler off with the circuit breaker. These units have a shut down cycle so you must switch off with the control switch provided or you will get an awful smell of half burnt diesel and possible damage the heater. (I assume the Espar heater is more or less the same as the Webasto)
At the same show, I saw a combined water heater and hydronics heater. It had a 5 gallon tank and it seemed (just eyeballing it) to be the same proportions as the 11 gallon tank in our boats. Anyone buying a new boat for northern climes should seriously look at factory installing this device instead of the 11 gallon tank.

[Bob V.]

Well it only took me about nine months to complete the installation. That breaks down to about a month spent building glassed in shelves in hard to reach spaces, seven months resting and procrastinating and one month installing the equipment. It's a good thing that I do not have to charge by the hour. I installed all the noisy equipment in the back lazerette and none of it is attached to the bulkhead adjacent to the aft berth. I have one double air handler in the aft lazerette which heats the aft berth way too much which I have since disconnected, the double air handler in the saloon is under the port berth and heats the space well but will need more air coming in so that the fans run more easily and one double on the top shelf of the port cabinet in the V berth that heats the head and the V berth nicely. I intend to reverse the fans on the air handler for the aft berth and pipe the warm air into the saloon via the factory installed AC duct and one more register that I will cut in on the wall behind the refrigerator. I expect this to draw warm air from the saloon into the aft berth. My goal is to keep the saloon where the canine crew sleeps to a higher temperature than the aft berth where we do not require much heat.

I highly recommend this heater to anyone that spends time on their boat in cold weather and to install a whole boat type of system instead of just warming up the saloon. I had gotten used to waking up in a cold damp boat but those days are gone. It does not seem to use all that much electricity and the kerosene which I keep in a five gallon gerry can lasts a long time. The gerry can is vented with a thru hull vent that matches the two that came factory installed and it is right next to them.

Thanks for the good advice Mike.