Wow, great move for ya! On heating, Moisture is a major concern. Not only from the Rain / mold Effect, but also because high levels of moisture take additional energy to warm.
I have seen folks try and use the Propane heaters; forget it. Way too much moisture, plus they will kill you if they are night just right. Another group I know of used the built in electric heaters. They were ok, but the cost was high and again they had moisture issues. Plus, it is at times hard to find a larger then 30A feed. Key to controlling moisture is exchanging inside and outside air. If one has a strong enough heating source (ala a hydronic heater), it can work well just relying on the natural air leaks in most boats, or by opening a small hatch or port. We have a diesel fired Dickinson stove, and find it the ideal solution. It burns about 1 to 1.5 gal / day, provides cooking as well as heat. But most important, because if consumes inside air for the burning, it naturally forces dry outside air to be brought in. They drying effect is not be to under sold; without exception other live aboards we have know are so impressed at how dry our 50 year old wood boat is in the middle of the winter! If I were fitting out new, I would install one of those wall mounted diesel heaters. http://www.dickinsonmarine.com/heatersmain.html Issue with you will be moving heat from one end of the boat to another, but perhaps some fans can help. Dickinson also had the ability to add heating coils in the stoves / heaters. This can be used to heat water, and/or install a Red Dot type heater some distance away. Of course using pumps as needed. Best of luck! -al- _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
