Fogg 427 Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 Has anyone here installed (or got) a hydronic heating system onboard? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bad Kitty 321 Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 Yep, Eberspacher, wouldn't boat without it. It heat's the hot water cylinder, and pumps thru 3 heater matrix's, 2 single ones in the aft cabins, and a double size one in the saloon. Warms the whole boat in about 20 minutes. In summer you just shut off the heaters & leave it heating the hot water. If you got really creative you can bend up some stainless tube, run it thru that on the way to the heater or hot water cylinder, and have a heated towel rail! The fuel line is about 3mm, uses very little diesel. Like .3ltrs an hour or something. And to heat the water is about 15 minutes, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 Cool. Or rather hot. Do your 3 matrixes (matrices sp?) each have their own fan blower? And individual thermostat? And does yours link to the engine(s) i.e. pre-heat the cold blocks before starting and take heat from the hot blocks when running engines as well as heating? And finally, who installed it? Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bad Kitty 321 Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 43 minutes ago, Fogg said: Cool. Or rather hot. Do your 3 matrixes (matrices sp?) each have their own fan blower? And individual thermostat? And does yours link to the engine(s) i.e. pre-heat the cold blocks before starting and take heat from the hot blocks when running engines as well as heating? And finally, who installed it? Cheers Each little heater has a computer type fan behind it. Switched with high & low blower speed. No thermostat, no concierge either. We don't have ours plumbed into the engines, just simple turn it on if you're cold sort of stuff. Yanmars have to take care of themselves. Westpark Marine Engineering looks after the boat now, they are familiar with them. It's pretty simple stuff though, and Dometic who are the agent may recommend an installer? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 Ok good info thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stray Cat 7 Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 Hi, pretty much ditto what BK said. We did the donkey work ourselves - ran hoses - installed unit and exhaust and fans etc - marine electrician for the wiring and the boys from Aquaplumb to do the diesel connection, valves and initial setup/priming etc. 🤙 All good and luvin’ it!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted October 19, 2020 Author Share Posted October 19, 2020 Thanks. I’ll take a closer look when the boat arrives and I’ve obviously got some time to sort heating before the winter chills kick in. My last heating system was airtropic and it just about worked ok but not suitable for new boat. An extra complication (or maybe a solution?) the new boat has air conditioning running to all 3 cabins so it already has ducting. I wonder if I can somehow reuse that for a heating system...? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jon 412 Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 23 hours ago, Fogg said: An extra complication (or maybe a solution?) the new boat has air conditioning running to all 3 cabins so it already has ducting. I wonder if I can somehow reuse that for a heating system...? We have AC also and use that for heating in winter 3 of our units are reversible, 1 one is cooling only Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted October 21, 2020 Author Share Posted October 21, 2020 Yes I’m curious to find out if my unit is reversible too. All I know is that it’s a Cruisair system factory fitted at new with a digital thermostat control. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bad Kitty 321 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Might be worth checking that out before you add a heating system! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 Hah! Yup. Although....even if it’s reversible it’s still electric so wouldn’t it need the genset running all night? So wouldn’t diesel be quieter & more efficient? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jon 412 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 We don’t run it for long, offshore heading south we just ran the genset when we were cooking dinner maybe an hour With a couple of units going, just to take the chill off cruising around northern nz we may run it during the evening at anchor With the boat closed up, the biggest thing is the boat stays dry so feels warm. If we wake to frost on the decks we just run the coffee machine and heat pump for half an hour. If your down around that crack that splits the country in half or south I’d go for a diesel heater I delivered a big new Swan back from the islands and it had a diesel heater and two days out we lite it, I can see that they are good as this was ducted to all cabins. But personally for me we don’t get cold enough around the gulf and northland And definitely not in Fiji Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stray Cat 7 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Our boat came with two reverse cycle Cruisair air conditioners. The one in the main bridgedeck saloon made itself redundant so we ripped out the unit and all the wire reinforced plastic hoses. This made for a nice easy cavity/conduit to run the hoses for the Hydronics. We have kept the unit in the starboard hull - good to have when in marina attached to Manapouri (or when genset running for charging etc). Winter cruising around the Gulf we run the diesel heater in the morning for an hour or two - and most importantly that blissful hot shower the Hydronic unit provides year round. We did have to upgrade the hot water cylinder to accommodate that. Again in the evening for several hours, because we can - uses very little diesel compared to running genset for similar amount of time. Guess we’re not as hardy as Jon 😉 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jon 412 Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Nothing hard about me But if you already have heat pump and it’s working I’d leave it unless your based south However if one of our units stopped working and I was head to fiordland for a season or two then I’d puta diesel heater in. As for Fuel consumption our genset burns supposedly 1ltr per hour and that’s Charging batteries, heating water, making water, coffee, bread and warming the cabin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 Yes if it turns out our Cruisair really is a heat pump that offers hot & cold we’ll try it for the next 12 months and see how we get on... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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