Central Heating on a Boat

[Mark raig]

Hi All
I live on a narrow boat and am going to but a multifuel woodburning stove with back boiler on it in the next few weeks. It is 30 000 btu output on the boiler. It will heat a 18" * 30" hot water cylinder indirect DHW is pressure fed no header tank with a presure relief valve. I intend to run 2 * 3000 btu radiators 1 * 1500 btu radators wold Ideally like to run on gravity system but due to limited height of boat not sure this would be an option the other alternative would be a pumped 12 volt system but then i would need to be able to source a 12 volt central heating pump and 12 volt 3 way valve. Any ideas as to whewre to source these or could someone help with the design of a gravity fed system

Cheers in advance

 

[ecowarm]

I hope your not near anyone when it goes bang!
You can't put a solid fuel boiler into a unvented hot water cylinder.
even on a boat.
unless you are 50 miles from land, or another boat.

 

[REDSAW]

as for the pump, you can use a 12v to 230v inverter

 

[Mark raig]

right im going to have to change to a vented hot wated tank mad a blender valve to preveent scalding at the taps

 

[ecowarm]

are you not having a generator on board?

 

[Mark raig]

Im trying to keep electrical use down to a minimum which is why if possible I would have liked to go for a gravity system. But I a can live with a Inverter if I have to run off the batteries. The boats was allready fitted out with a unveted system on it just an Imersion hearted for when connected to 240 volt mains at a marina, and a seconday coil of the engine and a primary coil of a erbusbager marine heater which is to unrealiable.

 

[stevetheplumber]

Im trying to keep electrical use down to a minimum which is why if possible I would have liked to go for a gravity system. But I a can live with a Inverter if I have to run off the batteries. The boats was allready fitted out with a unveted system on it just an Imersion hearted for when connected to 240 volt mains at a marina, and a seconday coil of the engine and a primary coil of a erbusbager marine heater which is to unrealiable.

the eberspacher shouldnt be unreliable usually work for years probably needs a good decoke you can add 12volt fancoils to the eberspacher to give heating as it incorperates a pump
you could use the solid fuel on a gravity system provided the cylinder is higher than the boiler and you would need to run it like old bungalows were piped with the flow at high level and the return dropping below the boiler and coming back up to the return tapping use swept tees on fow and returns to each rad obiously it will be a one pipe sytem there was a name for this set up but for the life of me i cant remember it you will need to have the heder tank up above everything in your case it may need to be up on top of the cabin
one other thing you may not be aware of is you cant use a level on a boat

 

[justlead1]

Hi, Its important to think your proposal through. The primary safety feature of solid fuel systems is the fact that in the event of overheating, a hot tap can be turned on to evacuate the access heat. However with a boat, it is often the case that the water is stored and pumped through the system. Once empty, this facility fails to work as it is not topped up by a main supply. Good Luck