After installing solar power, the last thing I use shore power for is a 120VAC convecton baseboard at night which does a really good job of keeping the whole cabin (and v-berth) dry year round. I'd like to be free of needing shore power at all, and of course the baseboard doesn't work when I'm anchoring away from the slip. When it gets colder in the winter I'll run my Dickinson Newport more often but in the summer it's probably not cold enough to run it at night (I haven't installed in the chimney on the Newport yet so I don't have experience with it). I'm a liveaboard so I'm generating moisture every night of the year.
My thought to combat moisture in the v-berth was to come up with some clever way to increase air flow. I have a 3" Marinco solar fan in the center hatch just behind the mast in the cabin, but I want to avoid putting a 3" Marinco vent in the middle of my foredeck if possible. What other ways have others worked around this problem?
Some options I have considered:
1) Try to increase airflow through the top-rear of the anchor locker, but I'm concerned about water leaking into the v-berth when the bow goes under in rough seas.
2) Add Ducting and a low-RPM (silent?) 12VDC fan from the closet locker to the starboard cabinet just fast of the bulkhead to push air into the v-berth, and a complimentary one to the port side bulkhead cabinet to take the air out.
3) Just install a 12VDC fan on the top of the starboard closet bulkhead to push air in, without a way for it to come out.
4) Try to figure out some way to generate convection heat from some kind of 12V heat strip or something, one each laid on either side of the v-berth railing. No idea what device or contraption would do this but the aesthetics make sense.
Options #2 and #3 would have the advantage of moving warm air from the Dickinson Newport diesel heater when it is running.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is the theory involved even correct?
My thought to combat moisture in the v-berth was to come up with some clever way to increase air flow. I have a 3" Marinco solar fan in the center hatch just behind the mast in the cabin, but I want to avoid putting a 3" Marinco vent in the middle of my foredeck if possible. What other ways have others worked around this problem?
Some options I have considered:
1) Try to increase airflow through the top-rear of the anchor locker, but I'm concerned about water leaking into the v-berth when the bow goes under in rough seas.
2) Add Ducting and a low-RPM (silent?) 12VDC fan from the closet locker to the starboard cabinet just fast of the bulkhead to push air into the v-berth, and a complimentary one to the port side bulkhead cabinet to take the air out.
3) Just install a 12VDC fan on the top of the starboard closet bulkhead to push air in, without a way for it to come out.
4) Try to figure out some way to generate convection heat from some kind of 12V heat strip or something, one each laid on either side of the v-berth railing. No idea what device or contraption would do this but the aesthetics make sense.
Options #2 and #3 would have the advantage of moving warm air from the Dickinson Newport diesel heater when it is running.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is the theory involved even correct?