Installing Heaters

[cravewaves]

Hi, has anyone installed a small heater for the cockpit and cabin?  Is the process very involved? I am trying to get our boat in early this year, since we got a late start last year, but have no idea if we'll be warm enough temperature wise.  I was reading in one the boating mags we get and there was an article there, but in our engine area, there is very little space, and trying to move around in it is delicate.

Thanks.

[Captains Call]

My 94 265 Has a small heater installed in the cabin. It is mounted into the front compartment in the v berth/dinette near the floor. I have not looked at it too close since it was installed when i bought the boat. If i was to guess it is a small ceramic or oil type heater witha fan built in. This thing turns the boat into an oven!!! We ran at the LOTO Spring Harbor Hop/Poker Run last spring where it was 34 at night and 50 during the day. We slept onboard. Left the cabin door open and had the full camper top up. Everyone came on our boat for drinks and to stay warm at night. If i am not mistaken I think the mfr name was heat devil or something similar. I will try and check next time i go to the boat. It is one of the best options you could have in my mind if you boat where it gets cold!! Hope that helps!!

[cravewaves]

Thank you Captains Call. I would appreciate it if you could find the name for me.

[Talon]

Pickup a copy of this months Boating magazine - the one with the Rinker 390 on the cover. They have a high level article about installing cockpit heaters that run off the engine. Well, the engine coolant or water really. It will give you a good idea of whats involved and some websites to checkout. Not extremely difficult for your average handyman (person)

[Captains Call]

No problem, If i work hrd enough i may make it to the boat tomorrow if there is any daylight left. If i have my digital with me i'll try and snap a pic or 2. It is really a neat set up.

[merwin10]

What or more correctly when do you want heat? There are two methods I have used in the past one is a engine heater uses the engine coolant for the heat source, much like your car does. However it meas that the engine needs to run to be warm. These are great for the cockpit area in the fall and spring.

Next if you want heat when the engines are off,the best solution is an Air conditioning unit with a heating coil. We installed one on the 290 and it keeps us cool in the summer heat and warm in the fall and spring! We ducked the AC/heat to the v-berth, galley area and aft sleeping area. There are a few tricks to this so if you are interested contact me!

Now as for being warm when at anchor without a genset or shore power that is very difficult. About the only way is to get up at night and run a engine to warm it up and use a bus heater.

They do make camping heaters that run off propane or gasoline however I don't recommend them. First of all they are a fire hazard! Second, they tend to eat up all the oxygen in a closed in environment. You could end up going to sleep forever! Body heat is better and more fun!

So there is my two cents worth!

Mike -  

[Captains Call]

I went out to the boat today with the digital and got some pice of the heater. I will post them when i get home tonight.

[Talon]

Now that's service!

[Captains Call]

Here are the pics...
Sorry for the quality.. If you can't read it the mfr appears to be Sunova. Model appears to be heat devil.
Left knob is the thermostat. Right knob controls fan speed and the fan only option.
It states on the bottom "The advanced ceramic heater"
I have no idea if this is a marine specific designed heater or just a glorified space heater the previous owners installed. All i know is it works very well. However, i do treat is as if it was a space heater- monitor entire time it is on and never leave sight of the boat while it is running. That's my little disclaimer when it comes to my boat I am overly protective!!!

[Captains Call]

Here is inside the storage area under the ft v berth cushion. It shows a little about how it is mounted. It is plugged into an extra outlet the prev owner had wired there.



Hope this helps. Hopefully someone on here has done this project themselves and may have some more info for you.

As far as the placement, I think they installed in the perfect spot. With the v berth made up the heat distributes perfectly between the v berth, aft cabin, and cockpit if the cabin door is open.

[Talon]

Is that shag carpet in the first pic :P

[Captains Call]

Well..... Kind of I guess. I have those old throw rugs all over the cabin sole. Looks pretty ugly but it's cheap protection. Never thought of it as shag, thats kinda funny. Mabye i should splurge and get some nice orange or brown shag throw rugs and a few disco lights for a theme????????

[cravewaves]

Captains Call, thank you for your really quick reply. I appreciate it as well as the pics.  I am going to see if I can talk the "Captain" into something like that. Thanks  again.

Talon, I saw that article, but being the sort that has no mechanical expertise, it was as if I was reading in a foreign language. I read most of the articles in the various boating mags I get, but not all make sense to me. Also since relatively new to this kind of boating, I know I can't absorb it all in one day, though I have tried...LOL

Merwin thank your for your help as well. As soon as I find out if I can get my "Captain" to consider anything I will ask for assistance, since its great to find a site where there are others with the same boat type.

Thanks again all.

[Captains Call]

It was no problem. Gave me a good reason to go visit the boat plus it was a nice day and i was able to open the hatches for a while and air out the cabin. I searched online trying to find the heater that i have but all i could find was info on a Winnebago rv model named the sunova.

I like this style of heater beacuse you don't have to run the engine to heat the boat. I usually use it with shorepower. I have not tried running it off the inverter while on the hook but it should work ok as long as i don't keep it on too long and run the batteries down!!

Good luck!!

[merwin10]

Ceramic Heater run off the battery! There is no dought that one could run a ceramic heater off an inverter. However, not for long!  Most heaters of this type are 1000 Watts at 120 volts, or about 8.3 amps. Roughly translated that is about 90 Amps at 12 volts. Figuring the the efficiency factors in. So you want to run it for 10 hours, that is 900 amp/hours. Since you never want to discharge a battery more than 60% that means you need a 1500 amp hour battery.

Lets look at an Optima 31M marine battery, probably one of the best deep cycle batteries it is rated at 75 amp hours. So you would only need 20 of them (1500/75=20) to run the heater for 10 hours. So lets step up to a 8D largest lead acid battery available they normally run around 250 to 275 amp hours (1500/275=5.45) so all you would need is 6 of them.

As you can see although yes the heater can run off the inverter but to run all night like you might want, 10 hours. The battery size is way out of line!

Now before anyone jumps on me for not taking into consideration duty cycle and true losses due to resistive, inductive loads, line losses, efficiency, other dc loads, and charge times. I am just speaking in general terms here. The idea is to show why battery powered heaters via inverters; volts, amps, watts; are not a realistic solution.

Mike -