abe313
Newbie
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2018
- Messages
- 1
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- M.V. Lovecraft
- Vessel Make
- 1985 40' Kha Shing Sundeck
Hi All,
We are in need of some direction regarding heating our boat.
We just purchased a 40ft Kha Shing sundeck trawler. We liveaboard in Seattle so heat is very important in the winter time.
The boat is equipped with an older Epar D4 diesel forced air heater (The orange one). The heater does not work at the moment and the service tech said that he would not work on diesel heaters of that era because they are unsafe to repair and put back into service.
We are currently using space heaters to keep the boat warm. We are on 30a shore power so that limits what we can do electricity wise. That being said, we are planning on converting to 50a 125/250 to better meet our electricity needs. We will be converting to 50a regardless of what heating option we decide on.
The electrician has told us that a very good way to go is to install 3 electric wall heaters on our boat similar to the King Pic-a-watt heaters when we do the conversion. one in the V-Birth, one in the main salon and one in our aft cabin to meet our heating needs. This would require a fair amount of retrofitting and cutting of our new boat in order to install these heaters, not to mention the $800-$1000 cost of the heaters themselves.
The other idea is to use the existing duct work that is in the boat and just replace the Espar heater with another diesel forced air heater. I've heard vary degrees of cost for a new Diesel heater. from $3500 for a new heater to $2000.
My biggest question is, in the long run, would it be better cost wise to run. Diesel heat or run electric?
We do have a generator so i believe we would be able to run both types of systems while on the hook. Although i'm sure running a genset at night would suck for sleeping.
Are there any other options to reuse the existing duct system besides diesel? Electric furnace maybe?
Thank you for any thoughts or guidence.
Abe
We are in need of some direction regarding heating our boat.
We just purchased a 40ft Kha Shing sundeck trawler. We liveaboard in Seattle so heat is very important in the winter time.
The boat is equipped with an older Epar D4 diesel forced air heater (The orange one). The heater does not work at the moment and the service tech said that he would not work on diesel heaters of that era because they are unsafe to repair and put back into service.
We are currently using space heaters to keep the boat warm. We are on 30a shore power so that limits what we can do electricity wise. That being said, we are planning on converting to 50a 125/250 to better meet our electricity needs. We will be converting to 50a regardless of what heating option we decide on.
The electrician has told us that a very good way to go is to install 3 electric wall heaters on our boat similar to the King Pic-a-watt heaters when we do the conversion. one in the V-Birth, one in the main salon and one in our aft cabin to meet our heating needs. This would require a fair amount of retrofitting and cutting of our new boat in order to install these heaters, not to mention the $800-$1000 cost of the heaters themselves.
The other idea is to use the existing duct work that is in the boat and just replace the Espar heater with another diesel forced air heater. I've heard vary degrees of cost for a new Diesel heater. from $3500 for a new heater to $2000.
My biggest question is, in the long run, would it be better cost wise to run. Diesel heat or run electric?
We do have a generator so i believe we would be able to run both types of systems while on the hook. Although i'm sure running a genset at night would suck for sleeping.
Are there any other options to reuse the existing duct system besides diesel? Electric furnace maybe?
Thank you for any thoughts or guidence.
Abe