The nice new forced air heaters sound like a blow torch when they fire. They are generally located in the aft locker close to the fuel tank and easy to vent outside. This is also the head of the bed on our Hunter 40. Wakes us up all night. Anyone have quite but effective heat on a big boat?
- Status
heat water instead of air
The same companies that make the forced air systems (that sound like jet engines) also make systems that heat water and circulate it through the cabin in small copper pipes. It takes a bit longer to brng the cabin up to temp but they run much more quietly. The two big drawbacks to the hot water systems are cost (installation ain't pretty) and moisture: the forced air heaters do a better nob of pulling moisture out of the air.
The same companies that make the forced air systems (that sound like jet engines) also make systems that heat water and circulate it through the cabin in small copper pipes. It takes a bit longer to brng the cabin up to temp but they run much more quietly. The two big drawbacks to the hot water systems are cost (installation ain't pretty) and moisture: the forced air heaters do a better nob of pulling moisture out of the air.
Do you own one currently?
Or are you visualizing it keeping you up all night? We live aboard and put a DL5C ( I think, I know it is the size with the 5 in it, 18800 btu) in January. Yes there is some noise associated with it, but we find it completely unintrusive. In anything other than total calm, the drone of the heater actually helps us sleep better, drowning out other people's noisy halyards and icy bumpers slapping the hull. As with everything boats, give and take prevails. The give with the 40 is the noise. The take is how thoroughly it can heat the boat which really has two totally separate areas. The aft cabin does not get heat from any source in the main cabin, unless that source is a mini Chernobyl. In that case, you would be uncomfortably hot in the main cabin. You really would have to put two propane heaters in, one in the aft cabin and one in the main. Then you would have double the install and double the exhaust. I think the best thing to do if the noise is a bother is to go Home Depot and talk to them about serious sound insulation. I would think that you could deaden it significantly if you wanted. We put Reflectix on the transom side of that wall in an attempt to keep heat in the cabin and out of the transom. It seems to have deadened the sound a bit as a nice side benefit. That is my two cents. I saw a forced hot water system installed on a forty. It never worker properly, EVER, the owner said. He converted to the same heater as we have. The problems associated with a leak in the copper tubing containing the hot water is scary to think about. A heat leak in an air duct just means a redirection of the hot air. Hope this helped in some way. Sean s/v Haven
Or are you visualizing it keeping you up all night? We live aboard and put a DL5C ( I think, I know it is the size with the 5 in it, 18800 btu) in January. Yes there is some noise associated with it, but we find it completely unintrusive. In anything other than total calm, the drone of the heater actually helps us sleep better, drowning out other people's noisy halyards and icy bumpers slapping the hull. As with everything boats, give and take prevails. The give with the 40 is the noise. The take is how thoroughly it can heat the boat which really has two totally separate areas. The aft cabin does not get heat from any source in the main cabin, unless that source is a mini Chernobyl. In that case, you would be uncomfortably hot in the main cabin. You really would have to put two propane heaters in, one in the aft cabin and one in the main. Then you would have double the install and double the exhaust. I think the best thing to do if the noise is a bother is to go Home Depot and talk to them about serious sound insulation. I would think that you could deaden it significantly if you wanted. We put Reflectix on the transom side of that wall in an attempt to keep heat in the cabin and out of the transom. It seems to have deadened the sound a bit as a nice side benefit. That is my two cents. I saw a forced hot water system installed on a forty. It never worker properly, EVER, the owner said. He converted to the same heater as we have. The problems associated with a leak in the copper tubing containing the hot water is scary to think about. A heat leak in an air duct just means a redirection of the hot air. Hope this helped in some way. Sean s/v Haven
the leak thing.
You insulate yourself against the problem of leakage by installing a second heat exchanger at the engine. This way, should a leak develop in the heater plumbing, none of the engine coolant is affected. Water heaters are indeed more quiet than forced-ail heaters, but are not exactly silent. We can certainly hear the turbo sound when our Webasto fires up at night, especially in the aft cabin. The main benefits of a water system, in my opinion, are the radiant heat on the sole where the pipes run, plus the ability to heat water for showers while on the hook, and greater diesel/electrical efficiency. The main benefit of the forced air system is that it imports air from outside the boat, making it more effective at drying out the cabin. We heat our 410 with a single radiator in the cabin. The bed in the aft cabin is warmed up by radiant effect. A buddy of mine, by the way, fabricated a towel warmer/dryer in his head by zig-zagging the hot water lines through that area. Oh, by the way #2, another benefit of a hot water system is that the radiator will run off of engine heat while motoring. A nice feature during an all night slog through fog. We installed a toggle so that our system can run off the furnace or the diesel alternately. Having a water system installed is pricy, you can count on upwards of $5000 for a 40+ footer. Lots of plumbing, enough to take a trained installer a full week of labor.
You insulate yourself against the problem of leakage by installing a second heat exchanger at the engine. This way, should a leak develop in the heater plumbing, none of the engine coolant is affected. Water heaters are indeed more quiet than forced-ail heaters, but are not exactly silent. We can certainly hear the turbo sound when our Webasto fires up at night, especially in the aft cabin. The main benefits of a water system, in my opinion, are the radiant heat on the sole where the pipes run, plus the ability to heat water for showers while on the hook, and greater diesel/electrical efficiency. The main benefit of the forced air system is that it imports air from outside the boat, making it more effective at drying out the cabin. We heat our 410 with a single radiator in the cabin. The bed in the aft cabin is warmed up by radiant effect. A buddy of mine, by the way, fabricated a towel warmer/dryer in his head by zig-zagging the hot water lines through that area. Oh, by the way #2, another benefit of a hot water system is that the radiator will run off of engine heat while motoring. A nice feature during an all night slog through fog. We installed a toggle so that our system can run off the furnace or the diesel alternately. Having a water system installed is pricy, you can count on upwards of $5000 for a 40+ footer. Lots of plumbing, enough to take a trained installer a full week of labor.
Noisey Heat
When I first fired up my forced air heater I was concerned about the noise too. Everyone told me that I'd get used to it and the colder it was the faster I'd get used to it. They were right.
When I first fired up my forced air heater I was concerned about the noise too. Everyone told me that I'd get used to it and the colder it was the faster I'd get used to it. They were right.
- Status