----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Skolnick" <[email protected]> I'm in the process of sourcing a small tank so I can run the heater off kerosene periodically to clear the burner. Regardless, a decent fuel filter in line with the heater is important even if not fully sufficient.
Still, the ability to sail my boat year round drives me to low power consumption heat sources like the Webasto. REPLY Running kerosene periodically will not really clear the burner. Soot is essentially pure carbon. Any process of 'burning off' the soot requires much higher heat than normally produced in a correctly burning furnace like Webasto, Espar or Hurricane. Why not simply get a large enough tank to last a while and always run your furnace from it? These furnaces are either spark or glow plug ignition. Diesel engines are compression ignition and develop much higher temps and presssure to fire the lower cetane rated normal diesel fuel. Don't get me wrong. For heat away from the dock nothing beats diesel fired heaters - whatever the brand. But fan and pump driven systems use electrical energy to run. That requires shore power in any case, at least over the long haul. A simple resistive heat element in an oil bath and convection air flow to dissipate the heat is still the least wasteful in terms of converting stored power into heat. Which is why I suggest that good insulation plus oil filled heaters makes for the most cost effective heating for a boat secured for the winter. You added a third component. Namely going sailing in winter. Not really practical inland in Lake Cayuga. Arild _______________________________________________ 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
