How to heat your Boat, Van, Bus or whatever the hell you decided to travel and life in

[Seeds21]

This is just my advice on how to heat your space and some ideas.

Personally living on sailboats for the last 3 years in the pacific northwest I have had to experiment with a few heating systems so here we go.

Anything Marine heating will also adapt to your Van, Camper, Rv, Or tiny house, School Bus Have yah. You Have a few options Propane, Diesel, or Wood to name the most popular all have advantages or fall backs.

Propane: easy to use, Provides good heat, however if your using a mr heater or heater buddy anything like that make sure to buy the adapters to hook it up to a 20 pound propane tank if your using small 1 pound green bombs it gets expensive really fast. The other problem is unless its a proper heater with an exhaust stack (chimney) installed it makes your living space wet as hell as its main by product is condensation so unless your a fan of wet moldy cushions best to steer clear or it or get an exhaust. In a pinch makes a good temporary heat source.

Diesel: Expensive, Dirty, Can Require a fair bit of tinkering, Provides good heat though. However your first diesel leak or chimney fire will quickly make you reconsider this heat source. That being said the larger dickenson cookstove type heaters would be great in a school bus or a large boat they are the expection to the rule.

Wood: My personal Favorite by far the best its everywhere, In an urban environment there is no shortage of pallets, cut off piles at construction sites and dead fall in parks. Provides great dry heat. Drawback requires a fair bit of work cutting and storage, personally I use rubbermaid toes for storage on deck 2 totes provides about 4 days of heat storage. Anthor good trick is take a few reusable shopping backs to the beach pick up all the driftwood and any sticks etc from the parks works well.

All heating systems should have 12 volt fans, salvaged old computer fans work great or you can pay about 100 bucks and get a heat convection fan that sits on top of the stove and uses the heat to spin. Helps circulate the heat so it doesnt just stay in one area.

There is some ideas for how to heat your space. Heres a few helpful links

http://www.go2marine.com/product/20010F/dickinson-marine-newport-solid-fuel-heater-00-newsf.html

http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/i...Z67l/Ne-67n/Ntk-All_EN/R-I5531783?Ntt=eco+fan



http://dickinsonmarine.com/product_cat/diesel-stoves/



Cheers Captain Shawn

 

[Kim Chee]

There is an adapter available which you can use to re-fill the "1# green bombs" with a larger propane tank.

Yes, re-fill. Don't throw those away, they are refillable!

Scrounge 'em from old camps, the trash and wherever.

 

[wokofshame]

I had a Mr Heater once in a little cabin, and I was petrified of gassing myself with carbon monoxide (a very real fear).
my two cents is, never use any kind of heater in an enclosed space without an exhaust. boost a c0 detector from home depot and install the thing if you have any type of heater that might leak exhaust gases into your living space.

At a place I used to work, two guys went out of a shack where the crew was taking a break to smoke butts. They came back inside after their cigarette and the rest of the crew was passed out from the high c0 levels from a heater.
having smokers on the crew saved everyone's life that night

 

[Hillbilly Castro]

Anyone heat a bus can or rv with wood?