I'm not an overly defensive person, but my SibLim thread has been well and truly hi-jacked here. Seriously though, the issue of heaters on small boats and small heaters on boats, is an interesting and important debate the is worthy of its own thread. With a bit of judicious copy and pasting, I have started a new post and hope that people will now contribute to it here.
On 5 June 2017 Graeme Kenyon wrote:
Up the creek here where I live, right now at the start of winter, the potential for condensation is quite remarkable. You can imagine, at low tide, snugged down in the bottom of the creek bed, what it can be like on a cold night when the mist and fog comes rolling in. The first few mornings, the deck head was dripping wet everywhere. My pot-boiling cooking habits adding to the problem no doubt. (How was the galley ventilated in Badger?)
Currently I just run a small portable dehumidifier up in the forepeak (takes out over a litre of water per night, circulates and warms the air slightly too) while I consider what to do with this boat which has no insulation. The dehumidifier has, for the present, solved the problem completely and perfectly, but at 220 watts it is hardly a solution for coastal cruising. (By the way, I tried one of those tiny little ultra-low-wattage ones you can buy at Noel Leemings, but it proved to be useless.)
I would love to fit one of those extremely compact “Little Cracker” combustion stoves which have such a good reputation, but that is well down on the list at present, due to cost, and the need for some major changes to the interior accommodation layout.
Now, I noticed something interesting on this boat: the previous owner had stuck some sort of felt-like material on parts of the deck head and around hatches etc. I ripped most of it off, suspicious of what might have been underneath it. The bits that remain, while surrounded with condensation-prone painted surface, are always completely dry. Perhaps that had been the original purpose of the stuff. I don’t know what it is, some kind of synthetic quite thin layer with a fabric backing easily glued in place. I can’t say I like it much, but it simply does not seem to attract any condensation even when surrounding areas are drenched. It might be worth considering as an alternative to panels with air-gaps behind, or sheets of foam – the reason being, it requires only a pair of scissors and a tube of contact adhesive to fit, and takes up no space. It is white in colour, and although I did not like it when I first saw it, I am now having second thoughts. Does anyone know what this stuff is?
On 5 June 2017 David Thatcher wrote
A lot of boats in New Zealand have similar fabric glued into the interior. One brand was known as Frontrunner and available in a variety of colours. Often used in fibreglass boats to quickly cover up the ugly fibreglass interior hull surface. Condensation forms on a hard surface which is has been cooled from the outside. The fabric hull liner acts I think as a very thin layer of insulation . The fabric can often become mouldy though. You are right about the generation of cooking steam in the boat. If we are doing any kind of cooking which involves the use of boiling water I try to remember to close the curtain to the aft cabin to keep the steam out of there. The other thing which produces water vapour seems to be us when we breathe. I have always wanted a small wood stove in 'Footprints' but have never got beyond talking about it. A woodburner is very good at drying the interior of a boat as it produces dry heat without producing any water vapour.
On 6 June 2017, Graeme Kenyone quoted and wrote:
David Thatcher wrote:
One brand was known as Frontrunner and available in a variety of colours. The fabric can often become mouldy though.
Thanks David. I might see if I can source a bit of this stuff and give it a proper trial. The stuff I had was white and I noticed it was very clean, but if mold did prove to be a problem it would only take a few seconds to rip out. The other downside is that while it might tidy up a GRP interior it is no improvement to the looks of a plywood deck head - and "cover up" materials are not always a good idea. That said, a good place to try it might be under the deck up in the fore peak, I will see if I can get some, and report back.
On 6 June 2017 Annie Hill quoted and wrote:
Graeme Kenyon wrote:
(How was the galley ventilated in Badger?)
We had a dorade vent over the galley, two opening ports (useless when it was raining) and, of course, the wonderful, completely underrated pram hood at the after end of the cabin. This was just brilliant for exhausting steam from the galley and I will definitely be fitting one to SibLim, if only for ventilation.
I would love to fit one of those extremely compact “Little Cracker” combustion stoves which have such a good reputation, but that is well down on the list at present, due to cost, and the need for some major changes to the interior accommodation layout.
There are even smaller stoves than the Little Cracker available, if you rummage around on the Internet. I'd sourced a wonderful one, but the guy who made them couldn't afford the rent on his big shed. Chris on PassePatu said he'd buy one if the guy started making them again: maybe I can tell him there are now three definite buyers? On the other hand, as I'm sure you know how to weld, I'm sure you could easily knock on up like I had on Fantail out of some 6 or 8" 'rectangular' section steel pipe. But if you're going to live on board, you need to have a proper heater - apart from anything else, it's not good for you to live in a cold, damp space. There are also diesel and kero ones available, with chimneys.
I am now having second thoughts. Does anyone know what this stuff is?
Don't forget that it might not be that easy to clean - you create more grime living on board than just sailing at weekends!
On 20 June 2017 Graeme Kenyon quoted and wrote:
Annie Hill wrote:There are even smaller stoves than the Little Cracker available, if you rummage around on the Internet. I'd sourced a wonderful one, but the guy who made them couldn't afford the rent on his big shed. Chris on PassePatu said he'd buy one if the guy started making them again: maybe I can tell him there are now three definite buyers? On the other hand, as I'm sure you know how to weld, I'm sure you could easily knock on up like I had on Fantail out of some 6 or 8" 'rectangular' section steel pipe. But if you're going to live on board, you need to have a proper heater - apart from anything else, it's not good for you to live in a cold, damp space. There are also diesel and kero ones available, with chimneys.
I can't find an existing thread on heating stoves, maybe it would be worth to start one. I would certainly be interested in more details on the little stove Annie sourced - maybe more than three other members out there too.
Back in the 1870s a friend used my workshop to weld up a little barrel stove for his boat - it was made from circular section steel pipe. It put out a fierce amount of heat. We then reconditioned an old wood stove - and this lead to a small business reconditioning Shacklock and Champion coal/wood ranges which I carried on for a few years, and for a time I had the patterns and made up few Dover stoves (a little range on legs.) I also rebuilt more than one Champion "Runlight" - a tiny wood stove with oven, designed for caravans.They were all good and put out lots of heat - but all were what I would call "old generation" stoves - that is, not airtight. They work fine as long as you keep feeding them with coal or small pieces of wood - too hot for a small boat some of the time - and could not handle slow burning a decent lump of wood for long periods. The "modern" airtight domestic wood burners are much better in this respect, but I have had no experience with small ones, though I have heard that the "Little Cracker" is very good. I notice that Roger Scott's Shoestring has got one too. If there is a smaller one that is just as good, I would be very interested indeed. I would like to know more about the llittle home-made stove on Fantail too.
Just for interest, I might add that I am cheating at the moment by running off the national grid. I purchased a plain, simple electric panel heater - cheap, it just looks like two square feet of particle board painted with white undercoat, but you plug it in and it heats up. It was just the right size for a cupboard door so it is installed permanently and takes up no space. Since it is rated at only 400 watts I thought it might just take the edge off a cold night - but in fact it makes my little cabin warm enough that I have to get up in the night to switch it off - I wish I had paid a few dollars more and bought the version which has a thermostat. I mention that in case anyone living in a marina is interested. The point being, a massive amount of heat is not necessary - less is more. The "Little Cracker" is rated at 6.5 Kw on softwood - I don't know how that compares with my 400 watt heating panel.
Once off the grid, I will be very interested in knowing if there is a small wood stove capable of slow burning.
On 20 June 2017 David Thatcher quoted and wrote:
Graeme Kenyon wrote:
The point being, a massive amount of heat is not necessary - less is more. The "Little Cracker" is rated at 6.5 Kw on softwood - I don't know how that compares with my 400 watt heating panel.
Once off the grid, I will be very interested in knowing if there is a small wood stove capable of slow burning.
As mentioned previously I have always wanted a small wood stove on Footprints to allow more winter cruising. Part of the problem is that I don't quite know where to put a flue where it is not going to interfere in some way with deck functions. But when we do spend cooler nights on Footprints we light up our rather wonderful looking oil light which lives in the saloon above the dinette. Even though the flame on this is very small it does a wonderful job of heating the cabin while it is burning. So, as Graeme has pointed out a massive amount of heat is not required to heat a small space such as a boat cabin. A wood fire though would be a lot better because it produces a drying heat, and when the fire eventually goes out there is still residual heat in the body of the stove so it will continue warming for some hours.
On 21 June 2017 Paul Thompson quoted and wrote:
David Thatcher wrote:
Graeme Kenyon wrote:
The point being, a massive amount of heat is not necessary - less is more. The "Little Cracker" is rated at 6.5 Kw on softwood - I don't know how that compares with my 400 watt heating panel.
Once off the grid, I will be very interested in knowing if there is a small wood stove capable of slow burning.
While not a wood burning stove, I do have a Refleks M66 diesel heater onboard LC and it has been most satisfactory. Uses about 2lts over 24 hours and keeps LC toastie. I start it up when I come onboard and shut it down when I leave. Cannot believe that I sailed for so many years without one.
On 21 June 2017 Mark Thomasson wrote:
Beware of 'slow burning' with wood stoves, once thought a good thing. It in fact leads to poor combustion, so wasteful as well as potentially producing carbon monoxide.