Monday 21 November 2011

So diesel heating might not be the demon I thought.

From comments to yesterday's post I learn that diesel heating systems on narrowboats are not really all that bad. And I would be "mad" to discount a boat merely because it had that form of heating. I'm still wary of the noise they make, though. I've moored near boats which emit a constant roaring sound, and I'd feel uncomfortable imposing that on anyone else. Bruce suggests asking to hear the heating fired up on a potential purchase, as some are quieter than others. Hmm.

It widens the field. And we would hardly ever use the CH anyway, relying on the stove and hot water from the calorifier (we haven't even turned on our central heating at home yet).

I intimated yesterday that there was another reason to buy a boat. Here it is. Our daughter and son-in-law need somewhere to live in Milton Keynes next year as that is where Ben will be working. The idea is that I will buy a boat which Ally and Ben will live on for a couple of years while they save enough money for a deposit on a house. Then we'll get the boat back!

They are adamant they'll be OK living aboard. They have been with us on Shadow several times. I have tried very hard to be entirely realistic about the lack of space compared with a house, the need to be economical with water, and the joys of emptying the Elsan.

The two year plan could fit in with my work/retirement plan too.

Now - entirely unrelated to the rest of this post! - here are a couple of photos of Stanton at Fenny Compton Marina last month.


Stanton is a "Large Northwich" motor built by Yarwoods in 1936


(info from A.M. Models)

5 comments:

Neil Corbett said...

We have a stove and an eberspacher, and all I can say is we only ever use the eberspacher if there is insufficient time to light the stove. We like the stove because it is something nice to look at when it is lit, and because it gets the boat a lot warmer than the eberspacher. If I had a choice I'd have the boat with an Alde (much quieter) AND a stove, but if I could have only one, it would have to be the stove.
Plus one thing to remember is that the eber uses diesel and electricity, so you need to think about battery capacity (or shore power) when you use it.

Nev Wells said...

Wood is free and we all like messing with fire.....we only have the stove but it has a back boiler that heats rads in the bedroom and bathroom. we are never cold, well we are when we first h=get aboard but the stove does heat up the boat very quickly and while we wait we light the cooker. Happy hunting....

Halfie said...

Neil, yes, well I'd have expected it to use diesel, but I hadn't considered its electricity consumption. Another minus, then. And you'd prefer an Alde. Hmm. I knew I'd get votes for both!

Nev, one thing I'm not compromising on is the solid fuel stove!

Brian and Diana on NB Harnser said...

I see two major problems with this plan,

1, Finding a residential mooring in MK

2, Getting them out in two years time.

We had an Ebi on our last boat, sounded like a jet engine. A friend had one on his boat and we were both up the Llangollen New years Day 2000 he was moored ahead of us, we both had the heating running and standing by his bow we could hear our heater over the sound of his. It’s down to how well its installed and most are not that well installed.

Halfie said...

Brian, there are residential moorings in MK Marina, which we've already checked out. I agree that it might be difficult to reclaim our boat, but, on the other hand, they might hate it and be only too glad to leave!