This past week has been a bit of a marathon challenge to get the new blown air heating system installed. It was always expected to be one of the major jobs and it didn't disapoint!
The biggest challenge was getting the 90mm ducting from the engine bay, where I originally planned to install the heater, to the forecabin, heads and main wardrobe (which we'd casually assumed we'd use as a drying locker)
I rapidly realised my original plan of routing the ducting through the galley was a total non-starter. There just wasn't the space to work in even if there was actually the room for the ducting, which I had my doubts about.
After some scratching of the bonce I realised that it would be far easier to route the ducting under the nav table and into the port side settee lockers. Happily, I also discovered that there was just space to route the ducting underneath the GRP shower tray and toilet plinth.
Two further changes to the original plan ensued. The first was the decision to mount the heater in the port cockpit locker. This avoided all sorts of complications with the exhaust, fresh air intake etc.
The second was to scrap the vent in the wardrobe. This decision was taken psrtly on the grounds that once we'd acquired our lovely new foulies and hung them in the wardrobe along with our going ashore coats we found that everything was jammed in fairly snugly. Wet gear would not have dried out properly like that and indeed would have made any adjacent dry gear damp. It also avoided the neccessity of getting the ducting from port to starboard which was not going to be easy
The heater unit has been temporarily mounted on the cockpit coaming.
In due course, when the locker is fitted out with shelving and what have you, the heater will be moved to a more protected position a little lower down and further outboard.
For now, we'll have to be careful not to bash it with gear
The next major challenge was creating an access from the forward end of the port settee locker into the void beneath the toilet plinth. This was rather too close to the hull for comfort using a 120mm hole saw! (The hole needed to be over-size to accomodate the lagging)
So out came the reciprocating plunge saw. As pictured, I made a cautious start cutting a much smaller hole than I'd need so that I could then assess the position of the hull and the plinth.
It took a whole day to cut the required hole, feed the duct through into the cupboard beneath the heads sink and finally to cut holes through the locker dividers, end and the bulkhead between the saloon and the cockpit locker
It proved easier to remove the screwed down settee bases rather than work through the locker access hatches
I was very pleased to complete this part of the job indeed. How to run the ducting through the saloon had been a nagging worry for some considerable time.
We'll probably have to relocate the No.1 Beer Hold (on the left in the photo) though as even with the lagging the heating duct is likely to warm the locker up. And warm beer is simply not to be contemplated
Then it was time to start fitting the vents
The forecabin and heads vents were relatively easy to install
The only problem with these vents is that they are actually very close together in the cupboard under the sink (on the other side of the bulkhead in the pic) which made the pipework a wee bit tricky to get into place.
The end result was very satisfactory other than that I wished I'd ordered a white vent rather than a black one!
The saloon vent was more of a challenge. This involved routing a duct from the cockpit locker into the engine bay and then forwards to the gap between the navigators seat and the steps.
There was only just enough clearance between the engine water pump and the back of the removable panel but that wasn't the only problem!
I had to move the steps an inch to starboard, slightly offsetting them, in order to make enough space. I then had to cut the corner out of the removable access panel and screw it permanently to the engine bay surround before cutting the hole for the vent.
The duct from this vent goes to a T-piece in the engine bay, the other side of which enters the cockpit locker at the aft end. That branch then divides into a 90mm duct into the aft cabin and a 60mm duct to a vent by the helmsman's feet (no more shall I freeze on a cold night's sail!)
The feed to the engine bay "T" and the duct underneath the nav table meet at a "Y" fitting and thence back to the heater at last.
With interruptions to do things for customers etc., getting the ducting and vents installed took a whole five days to complete. Without interruptions, it would have taken at least three days.
"All" that remained to do was to install the fuel feed and fuel pump, fit the control unit by the switch panels and run the wiring harness to the controller and the batteries! That took another day and a bit
With everything connected up by early this afternoon I was delighted when it fired up. I was less delighted when it shut down again. This process went on, with an error indication of fuel feed problems, until the unit locked out and had to be reset.
After a fair amount of fiddling about, I discovered that one of the short lengths of rubber hose supplied with the kit had a partial blockage which was starving the heater of fuel. With the culprit swapped for a different bit of hose (they supply more than you need) all was well.
I opened a bottle of Doombar and put a beef curry on the stove to celebrate. Very nice too.
The heater works extremely well I must say! There is, as you'd expect, a certain amount of noise from the vents. In "Eco" mode it's considerably quieter than a fan heater although the noise becomes more intrusive in "Normal" and definitely would be annoying for long periods in "High" (or whatever it's called). But once the boat is warm, "Eco" mode seems quite adequate to keep it that way.
The fuel pump ticking is audible in the cabin once the ambient noise level has dropped at night. It will get gagged! What is most impressive compared to most blown air heating systems is that, again in "Eco" mode (I haven't stepped ashore with it on the higher settings) the heater is completely inaudible from the outside.
There's some final tidying up and making fast of ducting and cabling to do on the morrow, along with a major tidy up of the boat interior and cockpit! That aside, it's one of the biggest jobs on the "to do" list done!
The biggest challenge was getting the 90mm ducting from the engine bay, where I originally planned to install the heater, to the forecabin, heads and main wardrobe (which we'd casually assumed we'd use as a drying locker)
I rapidly realised my original plan of routing the ducting through the galley was a total non-starter. There just wasn't the space to work in even if there was actually the room for the ducting, which I had my doubts about.
After some scratching of the bonce I realised that it would be far easier to route the ducting under the nav table and into the port side settee lockers. Happily, I also discovered that there was just space to route the ducting underneath the GRP shower tray and toilet plinth.
Two further changes to the original plan ensued. The first was the decision to mount the heater in the port cockpit locker. This avoided all sorts of complications with the exhaust, fresh air intake etc.
The second was to scrap the vent in the wardrobe. This decision was taken psrtly on the grounds that once we'd acquired our lovely new foulies and hung them in the wardrobe along with our going ashore coats we found that everything was jammed in fairly snugly. Wet gear would not have dried out properly like that and indeed would have made any adjacent dry gear damp. It also avoided the neccessity of getting the ducting from port to starboard which was not going to be easy
The heater unit has been temporarily mounted on the cockpit coaming.In due course, when the locker is fitted out with shelving and what have you, the heater will be moved to a more protected position a little lower down and further outboard.
For now, we'll have to be careful not to bash it with gear
The next major challenge was creating an access from the forward end of the port settee locker into the void beneath the toilet plinth. This was rather too close to the hull for comfort using a 120mm hole saw! (The hole needed to be over-size to accomodate the lagging)
So out came the reciprocating plunge saw. As pictured, I made a cautious start cutting a much smaller hole than I'd need so that I could then assess the position of the hull and the plinth.
It took a whole day to cut the required hole, feed the duct through into the cupboard beneath the heads sink and finally to cut holes through the locker dividers, end and the bulkhead between the saloon and the cockpit locker
It proved easier to remove the screwed down settee bases rather than work through the locker access hatches
I was very pleased to complete this part of the job indeed. How to run the ducting through the saloon had been a nagging worry for some considerable time.
We'll probably have to relocate the No.1 Beer Hold (on the left in the photo) though as even with the lagging the heating duct is likely to warm the locker up. And warm beer is simply not to be contemplated
Then it was time to start fitting the ventsThe forecabin and heads vents were relatively easy to install
The only problem with these vents is that they are actually very close together in the cupboard under the sink (on the other side of the bulkhead in the pic) which made the pipework a wee bit tricky to get into place.
The end result was very satisfactory other than that I wished I'd ordered a white vent rather than a black one!
The saloon vent was more of a challenge. This involved routing a duct from the cockpit locker into the engine bay and then forwards to the gap between the navigators seat and the steps.There was only just enough clearance between the engine water pump and the back of the removable panel but that wasn't the only problem!
I had to move the steps an inch to starboard, slightly offsetting them, in order to make enough space. I then had to cut the corner out of the removable access panel and screw it permanently to the engine bay surround before cutting the hole for the vent.
The duct from this vent goes to a T-piece in the engine bay, the other side of which enters the cockpit locker at the aft end. That branch then divides into a 90mm duct into the aft cabin and a 60mm duct to a vent by the helmsman's feet (no more shall I freeze on a cold night's sail!)
The feed to the engine bay "T" and the duct underneath the nav table meet at a "Y" fitting and thence back to the heater at last.
With interruptions to do things for customers etc., getting the ducting and vents installed took a whole five days to complete. Without interruptions, it would have taken at least three days.
"All" that remained to do was to install the fuel feed and fuel pump, fit the control unit by the switch panels and run the wiring harness to the controller and the batteries! That took another day and a bit
With everything connected up by early this afternoon I was delighted when it fired up. I was less delighted when it shut down again. This process went on, with an error indication of fuel feed problems, until the unit locked out and had to be reset.
After a fair amount of fiddling about, I discovered that one of the short lengths of rubber hose supplied with the kit had a partial blockage which was starving the heater of fuel. With the culprit swapped for a different bit of hose (they supply more than you need) all was well.
I opened a bottle of Doombar and put a beef curry on the stove to celebrate. Very nice too.
The heater works extremely well I must say! There is, as you'd expect, a certain amount of noise from the vents. In "Eco" mode it's considerably quieter than a fan heater although the noise becomes more intrusive in "Normal" and definitely would be annoying for long periods in "High" (or whatever it's called). But once the boat is warm, "Eco" mode seems quite adequate to keep it that way.
The fuel pump ticking is audible in the cabin once the ambient noise level has dropped at night. It will get gagged! What is most impressive compared to most blown air heating systems is that, again in "Eco" mode (I haven't stepped ashore with it on the higher settings) the heater is completely inaudible from the outside.
There's some final tidying up and making fast of ducting and cabling to do on the morrow, along with a major tidy up of the boat interior and cockpit! That aside, it's one of the biggest jobs on the "to do" list done!
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