I did have a drip type "pot" style bulkhead mounted diesel heater that worked fairly well after I got the design bugs worked out of it that caused to go into China Syndrome mode. From the factory the needle valve was mounted right next to the fire box and when the heater got hot the fuel flow would increase!
Once I got the fuel feed valve away from the heater the fuel flow stabilized and the heater work well. We did have to run it fairly hot, it would smoke and make a mess if we tried to throttle it down. It required no electricity to run, but I did use an electric pump for convenience to fill the gravity feed tank from the ship's diesel tank. We had an electric mattress pad that worked wonderfully well (much better than our electric blanket) along with a down comforter. We had the heater on a timer to warm up the berth before bed time and the berth would be warm and dry, really cozy when we climbed in. It would shut off after we got into bed so it only ran for about an hour or so. All this was in Charleston SC. It would regularly get below freezing at night during the coldest part of the winter, but it was not a really frigid place. The biggest problem was condensation, and condensation enabling mold. Bandersnatch is fully insulated so the only problem places were un-insulated places like port lights. These I fitted with gutters and cleaned up the drippings daily. Beating the condensation problem means insulating every surface that can get colder than the dew point. In Jacksonville FL, where we winter now, it gets below freezing only occasionally. We do have a reverse cycle AC and occasionally fire up the genset and use the heat mode to take the early morning chill off our quarters while making breakfast but only run it for a half hour or so but sometimes longer if we need to make water. We do have a big, fluffy, down quilt that keeps us completely warm at night. I have heard from many folks that hydronic heating is the best. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Gloucester MA > But fan and pump driven systems use > electrical energy to run. That requires shore power in any case, at > least over the long haul. _______________________________________________ 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
