Hydronic Heaters

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 9:27 pm

Any one have any experience with them? i was looking into them for my buddies boat and was wondering if anyone ever used them? the application will be using a hot water heater tank as the water source at about 120F

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... 8&id=48295

just caught my interest and was wondering how good/bad this idea would be?

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 9:35 pm

the link wont post properly for some reason....

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 11:30 pm

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... 8&id=48295

I can't see it being very efficient , there made to work off the engines not a hot water heater , you will need to add a pump also . a lot of money for a small amount of heat , your BTUs will be limited to the wattage of you water heater ,

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:17 am

This idea was my buddies, it just caught my curriocity, if you read the description it actually states that you can use it along with a standard water heater, technically i dont see how it would be any different from the engine heat since both the temperatures should be around the 170 range however yes, a pump will be required.

the max outbut is well over 20k BTU, thats what caught our eye really but that would deffinately depend on how hot the water actually is.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:26 am

You will not be able to get 20k BTU out of the heater with your water heater no mater how hot it can get the water . It is limited by how much power the water heater has . a 5100 BTU heater is 1500 watts (12 amps ) . So lets say your water heater is a 12 amp unit , with no heat loss you may get 5100 BTU out of that heater , of course it would be less with the heat loss of the pluming . Now if you had a 50 amp water heater then you would get your 20k .

Real world what would happen is you would get some heat when you first turn it on ( with fully heated water heater) then some warm to cool air after it ran awhile , and your hot water won't be to hot as the heater will draw all the heat out of the water.

Commissionpoint · Post by **Commissionpoint** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:12 pm

I suppose it really depends on how cold it is outside and how much cabin space you have that you are trying to heat, but Trojans for instance, don't have a whole lot of insulation. So not only do you need to have a decent source of heat, but it has to be basically continuous to make up for what is constantly being lost out the non insulated glass, the hull, and the deck. Anything with a long(ish) recovery time isn't going to work very well.

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 3:05 pm

Thanks for the input, this was planned for a 34ft silverton that has even less insulation then my trojan

it was just an idea that sparked some interest but now i see that it is inpractical...