Adding "hydronic" heat.

[Rosco]

I put hydronic heat in quotes due to the fact that I used coolant off engine rather than the often used and costly diesel fired furnace to create a fantastic source of warm air and hot water. This ain't that.
I have a diesel heater but wanted a passive source of heat while motoring. Up here is BCs waters there is out of necessity abundant motoring due to our protected waterways and other geographic factors. I write this as I could not find anything online but I am a fan of "off engine" heat. Here is what I did. I used what is called a Bus Heater (commonly used in power/work boats).
First photo shows the plumbing and as shown is proper for a my Yanmar 3g 30.
The heat is effective for winter or fall motoring as it keeps the cabin heated in a passive manner. Pictured is my temporary designation on my panel. (Soon to be replaced). #2 and 3 shows my basic heat exchanger which is 3' of heater hose away from my engine. Super simple yet provides another heat source.
So I now have 3 sources:
1. At dock an AC Marine heater
2. Underway with the mentioned off engine hydronic. And
3. Diesel heater for all other occasions as well as above of course.

 

[Loren Beach]

Speaking of engine coolant (hydronic) heat for the boat....
I installed a "Heater Craft" brand of cabin heater over (approx) 15 years ago, Still works like new. Our engine coolant path changed from incorporating a coil inside the factory water heater tank to having the cabin heater in series with it, same loop.
No change in routing for the Betamarine engine package we installed in 2018. It's very satisfying to use all that waste heat from the engine. (There is a surprising amount of waste heat even from a small diesel like ours.)
If anyone is interested I can take some pix of the visible parts of the system. Routing and insulating the hoses is pretty easy, at least it's easy compared to running duct work for a forced air furnace. And hugely less expensive.

A peak at the Heater Craft web site indicates that the heater form factor has changed somewhat, but it looks -functionally - very similar to our model.

I would note that transplanted vehicle/ "bus" heaters were common in the 70's and recall the brand name "Red Dot". They worked the same, but had steel cases and could rust out pretty fast in a salt air environment. Other boaters have asked us if ours is a "Red Dot", and we explain that it is not.

 

[Rosco]

Awesome. Mine is stainless as it was a used but very nice repurposed exchanger from a hydronic system. I got it for free. I was a Beachcomber in my youth and as such was the only heating I was exposed to in reality. When hauling logs 12 months a year these were life savers. Now it grants me super reliable heat all day long with the knowledge that it will always be there.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Awesome. Mine is stainless as it was a used but very nice repurposed exchanger from a hydronic system. I got it for free. I was a Beachcomber in my youth and as such was the only heating I was exposed to in reality. When hauling logs 12 months a year these were life savers. Now it grants me super reliable heat all day long with the knowledge that it will always be there.

Rosco,
Is "Beachcomber" a very specific kind of job? My only association is someone who wanders the beach, picking up shells and driftwood to make knick-knacks. Hauling logs? What kind of vehicle had the heater? As a country bumpkin from Iowa turned New Englander, I have almost no knowledge of trades specific to the great Pacific NorthWest.
Jeff

 

[Rosco]

Rosco,
Is "Beachcomber" a very specific kind of job? My only association is someone who wanders the beach, picking up shells and driftwood to make knick-knacks. Hauling logs? What kind of vehicle had the heater? As a country bumpkin from Iowa turned New Englander, I have almost no knowledge of trades specific to the great Pacific NorthWest.
Jeff

Hey Jeff,
The proper name would be log salvager. I did it during the 80s to pay for university. I would zip around in a heavy 20' boat with 200 dog lines we called them and find various logs, mostly pulp grade and deliver them to a coop for payment. I did it in the Fraser River as it was and still is a delivery river to various mills and timber operations up the river. I learned about tides thoroughly at that time. It was fairly profitable when pulp prices were high. I would collect 80 or so logs per week and net $1500 or so per week. My bus heater was my best friend. You may find Beachcomber reruns on TV or on YouTube as it was very popular at that time as well.

 

[Rosco]

Speaking of engine coolant (hydronic) heat for the boat....
I installed a "Heater Craft" brand of cabin heater over (approx) 15 years ago, Still works like new. Our engine coolant path changed from incorporating a coil inside the factory water heater tank to having the cabin heater in series with it, same loop.
No change in routing for the Betamarine engine package we installed in 2018. It's very satisfying to use all that waste heat from the engine. (There is a surprising amount of waste heat even from a small diesel like ours.)
If anyone is interested I can take some pix of the visible parts of the system. Routing and insulating the hoses is pretty easy, at least it's easy compared to running duct work for a forced air furnace. And hugely less expensive.

A peak at the Heater Craft web site indicates that the heater form factor has changed somewhat, but it looks -functionally - very similar to our model.

I would note that transplanted vehicle/ "bus" heaters were common in the 70's and recall the brand name "Red Dot". They worked the same, but had steel cases and could rust out pretty fast in a salt air environment. Other boaters have asked us if ours is a "Red Dot", and we explain that it is not.

Yes I remember red dot. It took me a few hours but yes I always wanted a new red dot. Mine were always old and rusty but kept me from freezing my butt off.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Hey Jeff,
The proper name would be log salvager. I did it during the 80s to pay for university. I would zip around in a heavy 20' boat with 200 dog lines we called them and find various logs, mostly pulp grade and deliver them to a coop for payment. I did it in the Fraser River as it was and still is a delivery river to various mills and timber operations up the river. I learned about tides thoroughly at that time. It was fairly profitable when pulp prices were high. I would collect 80 or so logs per week and net $1500 or so per week. My bus heater was my best friend. You may find Beachcomber reruns on TV or on YouTube as it was very popular at that time as well.

Thanks Rosco! This is completely new to me. And I'd never heard of the television show. Learning more about the world is one of the great side benefits of this site.

* There's probably a lot of CBC programming I've never heard of, though I am a huge fan of Red Green.

 

[Rosco]

Thanks Rosco! This is completely new to me. And I'd never heard of the television show. Learning more about the world is one of the great side benefits of this site.

* There's probably a lot of CBC programming I've never heard of, though I am a huge fan of Red Green.

That's the show! Molly's Reach is the restaurant in the background and is still in Gibsons BC. Gibsons is very close to Vancouver. It was a fun way to earn money back then.

 

[Rosco]

Speaking of engine coolant (hydronic) heat for the boat....
I installed a "Heater Craft" brand of cabin heater over (approx) 15 years ago, Still works like new. Our engine coolant path changed from incorporating a coil inside the factory water heater tank to having the cabin heater in series with it, same loop.
No change in routing for the Betamarine engine package we installed in 2018. It's very satisfying to use all that waste heat from the engine. (There is a surprising amount of waste heat even from a small diesel like ours.)
If anyone is interested I can take some pix of the visible parts of the system. Routing and insulating the hoses is pretty easy, at least it's easy compared to running duct work for a forced air furnace. And hugely less expensive.

A peak at the Heater Craft web site indicates that the heater form factor has changed somewhat, but it looks -functionally - very similar to our model.

I would note that transplanted vehicle/ "bus" heaters were common in the 70's and recall the brand name "Red Dot". They worked the same, but had steel cases and could rust out pretty fast in a salt air environment. Other boaters have asked us if ours is a "Red Dot", and we explain that it is not.

Hi Loren,
The other benefit is the cooling of coolant in an albeit limited way as the fan is behaving like an automotive fan. I have yet to test at full throttle but will do today and report back.

 

[Rosco]

Hi Loren,
The other benefit is the cooling of coolant in an albeit limited way as the fan is behaving like an automotive fan. I have yet to test at full throttle but will do today and report back.

Cooling issues are resolved now as well. That may be due to a clean loop or a removed blockage but now we run at 140 at 2800 RPM and WOT temp steady at 160. It used to creep up close to 180 so big improvement.

 

[Loren Beach]

The other benefit is the cooling of coolant in an albeit limited way as the fan is behaving like an automotive fan. I have yet to test at full throttle but will do today and report back.

Um. Well. Maybe for about a minute. Remember that your raw water pump is not only needed to push cool outside water thru the Heat Exchanger, but also to next mix that water with the red-hot exhaust gases before they pass thru the muffler and out via the rubber/fabric exhaust hose. Without cooling, that hose will start to burn up rapidly and the muffler will melt.

(Different for a land vehicle with air transfer of heat via a finned radiator. I once drove my car home several miles when the fan in back of the radiator failed on a 90 degree day... by opening all windows wide and running my heater fan on 'high'. Even then, the temp gauge would rise quite a bit every time I stopped at a traffic signal. The trip home was sweaty, to say the least. )