Comfort add-ons & their cost???

deaglan1

Continuing with my many questions as a newbie, could anyone enlighten me on the following topics:

My potential boat is under 30 ft and has shore power.

Lets say I would in time like to upgrade my boat to have the following:

Hot Water
Heating
Watch TV or use a laptop regularly or listen to a radio regularly


I hear the words Calorifier, Eberspacher or pot boiler, Inverter/Solar Panels being mentioned all the time.

Could anyone advise on what they have done or have had done by professionals for these add-on features (oh, & the little issue of costs!!!).

Thanks again for reading this.

fergal.b

A calorifier "about €400 for a 30 litre tank" uses hot water from the engine to heat the water in the tank you will also need a water holding tank and a pressurised pump system for it to work.

Eberspacher "€1000 plus fitting" is a diesel powered hot air heater it can run of the main tank or have it's own, a 2kw would do a 30 foot boat. You can see the fitting of one in my link.

Pot belly stove burns coal or wood and is more suited to a barge.

Inverters convert 12v to 240v and are ok for small stuff like a TV or computer anything with a big draw will drain your batteries very fast. Solar panels, unless you are going to cover the boat in them they are only a trickle charge to keep your batteries toped up or to charge your phone.

Powercity do a walker TV with built in dvd and Saorview that will run on 12v or 240v I use a cromecast and my phone as a hotspot for Netflix and Spotify, if you wanted you could fit a car radio.



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deaglan1

Thanks Fergal, you're a mine of good information and sensible talk.

Ferris

There are cheaper options than Eberspacher and Webasto (who were done by the EU for price fixing recently).

Planar are Russian diesel heaters and seem good but there are chinese copies of Eberspachers which are supposedly okay. The chinese copies are a fraction of the cost (~150eur). Spare parts may be an issue but at that price it'd be cheaper to buy a new one rather than fix.

fergal.b

There is also an Irish company "Autoterm" http://autotermireland.ie/car-van-commercial-air-heater-kits/air-2d-heaters/ that supply and fit marine heaters I think around €550 for the heater and they should have a safety sticker. The Chinese ones are a great price and seem to do the job but I have yet to hear if there would be a problem with insurance if one was to cause damage to your boat or the boats next to you, I do know insurance companies like to find any way to get out of a claim so might be worth keeping in mind.






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Donie75

Autoterm Ireland seem to be selling the Planar Heaters. A friend ordered off them last year and the kits they were selling were not comparable to the kits direct from Planar. Basically, they were charging extra for some parts that were in the kit from Planar.