Henrietta + her diesel heater
Henrietta only came with an electrical heat source and Andrew knew it was going to be an inefficient and dangerous option while he was living on her and I, visiting. Outside the electric space heaters aboard, Henrietta is equipped with two reverse cycle air conditioning units. These units use sea water in their refrigerant cycle to produce cool air but also, produce heat through a similar process. The down side to these are the units do not produce heat when the sea temperature is below 42 degrees fahrenheit and it was January in New England… Part of the deal he worked out while purchasing our new boat was getting the price knocked down significantly so he could purchase the best diesel heater available on the market.
This is what he purchased:
Make: Eberspaecher
Model: Airtronic D5 12V
Heat Rating: 18,800 BTU
diesel heater kit: https://us.binnacle.com/p10981/ESPAR-Airtronic-D5-Marine-Diesel-Heater-Kit-18,800-BTU/product_info.html
After receiving the heater and final installation in February, it had been almost two weeks without heat for Andrew. During this time I was neither allowed to stay on the boat…nor did I want to.
Diesel heater installation process:
Andrew mounted the heater against the aft bulkhead of the engine compartment and ran three outlets: one to the aft stateroom, one to the salon, and one to the galley directed towards the passageway to the V berth(this last outlet is not yet piped yet as andrew “claims” it'll be done when we redo our galley)
Because the fuel docks were closed during the winter to fill our 400 gallon fuel tanks, the small diesel pump feeding the heater had a tough time pulling a suction from the tanks, so Andrew ran the fuel suction from diesel jerry cans and would refill them on a weekly basis. He did however tee off the fuel tank suction lines and add in an inline filter for a more permanent solution. This fuel pump is mounted at a 45 degree angle and sucks fuel to then push it into the combustion chamber where it ignites to heat up finned elements. The heater blows low temp air over the hot finned elements and wallah! heat!
He piped the exhaust hose up into the settee compartment and outside to an existing hole on the starboard cabin bulkhead. This hole was from an old propane heater that was no longer in use. The thru hull exhaust vent did not fully cover over the existing hole so he made up a CAD drawing and had a custom 316 stainless steel plate bracket manufactured. Now the existing hole was fully covered once he mounted the thru hull exhaust pipe fitting to it. The exhaust pipe carries out high temp combustion air so a fiberglass type sleeve is used to insulate a lot of the heat from whatever the pipe may come in contact with.
He located the thermostat in a convenient location mounted against his liquor locker for easy access. Scrolling through the thermostat menu will show the voltage supplied, maintenance schedules, run time, as well as troubleshooting codes if something goes wrong. Per the manufacturer, Andrew hooked up the heater directly to our 12v house batteries, utilizing an inline fuse rated for the heater and switched through the thermostat. As you may have noticed, michaela didn't write much of this as she was sitting in our warm house in the bathtub and i was using my breath under the covers to keep semi-warm doing the heater installation. It's all good though, I do as my Admiral asks!
— Andrew
Glossary
Bulk head: wall
Aft stateroom: back bedroom
Salon: living room
Galley: kitchen
V berth: small bedroom in front of boat shaped like a V
Settee: couch
Starboard: right side
