Heating Option

[crowra]

My wife and I anchored in the Corsica River last weekend. It was chilly at night and morning. Fortunately, I have my 'furnace' to snuggle up to and keep me warm when sleeping. We have AC/heat onboard but the reverse valve is stuck and only provides cold air -- which is fine since that's what we need 95% of the time. To heat the boat, we have an electric space heater but that draws a huge load (1500 watts) and requires the gen to be running unless we want to drain our house batteries in no time. We discovered a propane heater made by Coleman -- Catalytic Heater -- which cranks out a comfortable 3000 BTUs. A <less than> $3.00 can of propane lasts seven hours. That's some cheap and quiet heat! We have two onboard and honestly could probably get by with one. The unit does not produce a flame and appears to be the safest, cheapest, quietest (a word?) heater on the market.

[ScubaPete]

What type of AC/heater/thermostat do you have? Some controls are programmable to function only on AC, or only on heat, and on auto heat or cool. Perhaps your thermostat may need to be reprogrammed for the heat function to work.
Either way, you will have to have your generator running or be hooked to shore power for the heat pump to work.

[crowra]

We have an 'old' thermostat. It is not programmable in any way. There isn't even a temperature setting. It is either on or off, heat or AC, high or low fan. Either way, I was offering up a heating option that is quiet (no need to run the gen) and dirt cheap when on the hook. I know some folks are nervous about using propane on board a boat but these are the 16 oz. camping propane tanks and the heater has no open flame.

[Halcyon]

The Coleman doesn't produce carbon monoxide? How far does it need to be kept away from flamables?

[Russell]

I think someone from Florida posted on here a few years ago about having the reversing valve stuck because he never used the unit for heating. He recommended that you run both AC and heat from time to time to keep the valve from sticking in one position.

[bccanucker]

We also have a portable propane heater. It is a Mr. Heater "Buddy" heater. We have it hooked up to a 20lb tank. (It's outside the heating area). It has a low oxygen shut off and tip over shut off. It has 2 settings, 4,000 and 9,000 BTU.
We got this because our diesel fired forced air Webasto is just way too noisy

[crowra]

@Halycon: I'm by far no expert and that's my disclaimer. Catalytic Heaters don't actually "burn", they induce a heat-producing catalytic reaction, and thus, don't produce carbon monoxide. They do, however, consume oxygen. We have three CO detectors and our boat is definitely not air tight (not to mention traffic opening and closing doors). As for distance from flammables, we treat it like an electric space heater -- keep a safe distance from anything you don't want to burst into flames, melt, warp, etc. That being said, it doesn't get so hot that you couldn't accidentally bump into it and get burned.
@Bccanukcer: Thanks for the suggestion! Tapping off our 'outside the heating area' 20 lb. propane would be nice.

[ScubaPete]

I too am no expert, but I do believe catalytic heaters produce carbon monoxide (CO). However their main concern is oxygen (O2) depletion. The level of CO produced will reach a steady state that appears to be below critical levels, but only because (in closed room tests) the normal concentration of O2 decreased from ~21% to ~9%. The summary and link to this document are posted below.

http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia05/os/co03.pdf

The following is a summary of CPSC staff’s findings on the testing of the catalytic heater:
· The peak CO concentration ranged from 68 ppm to 125 ppm and the steady state CO
concentration ranged from 67 ppm to 109 ppm. Assuming a limited exposure time of up to 6.5
hours at these CO concentrations, the catalytic heater does not appear to pose a serious CO hazard
to healthy adults when the CO concentration is considered by itself.
· When the catalytic heater was operated in a closed room (ACH ~ 0), the oxygen was depleted
from an ambient concentration of 20.9 percent to 8.8 percent. Because the catalytic heater can
deplete the O2 concentration to such low levels, the heater poses a serious risk of hypoxia. The
degree of hypoxia is further exacerbated by the moderate CO concentration and by an increase in
the carbon dioxide concentration that accompanied the depletion of oxygen.
· As the oxygen decreased in the chamber, the catalytic heater became less effective at converting
the propane and oxygen to carbon dioxide and water vapor. This was reflected by an increase in
the hydrocarbon concentration in the chamber, which ranged from 1,050 ppm to 13,440 ppm (5 to
64 percent of the lower explosion limit of propane in air). The unreacted propane further
increases the degree of hypoxia.

[crowra]

So I'm thinking it may be time to invest in a canary. Or at least crack a window or door. I do appreciate the stats and any safety advise. Neither my wife or I want to end up as a 'statistic'.

[Russell]

If you have a small amount of ventilation you need not be overly concerned. This test showed the catalytic heater produced almost no CO. When there is not enough oxygen around for complete combustion you can get carbon monoxide instead of carbon dioxide (CO2). So to push it to extremes they ran the heater in a closed space and showed they still did not get significant production of CO even though the oxygen was consumed and reduced to low levels. In a tent which these camp heaters were designed for the oxygen would never be depleted but a boat can be sealed up pretty tight so leave a portal cracked open if your boat is air tight.

[Carl]

I use one of these coleman heaters spring and fall when fishing. I only use it in the cockpit, not down below. Its never completely closed up, so its only to knock the chill off which it does a very good job. I have never used it when sleeping, I have the reverse cycle for that.

[crowra]

Carl: We would never use it while sleeping. I have my 'furnace' to snuggle up to underneath a stack of blankets and comforters.