"Squirreling in" for the winter

[jbrem003]

Okay, round two - now that i've successfully got running water in the boat (thanks guys!) I'm now looking to heat so that I can keep myself warm and not find myself single come January when my girlfriend comes to visit!

For quick reference, the boat is the Trojan TriCabin 1984. It has the original Reverse cycle cooling/heating units with the analog controls for "Run" and "Start" etc... The forward unit seems to be out of coolant and only blows air around and the rear unit works just fine.

I've looked into a lot of different options but I'm realizing that since i have gasoline powered Crusaders onboard, my options are quite limited.

The water temp for now is fine in the area (floating around 58 degrees according to the battery park bouy on south Manhattan,) and I anticipate the reverse cycles will cover me for the next two months at least, but i'm looking to perform whatever economical and intelligent preparations I can.

As always, budget is a limiting factor, but if i'm looking to spend $600 to wrap the boat and whatever it would cost to oil heat the boat off shore power (heard this can rack up the price tags fast,) then i'm able to justify spending a little more now to make it worthwhile in the long run.

So here's the questions:

1.) Has anyone here undertaken insulating their trojan? I've found some decent tutorials and am in the middle of remodeling the aft cabin, so that room seems like a good place to start. http://www.frugal-mariner.com/Insulating.html

2.) Has anyone had any luck with Nest or Ecobee thermostat upgrades to these systems? I used to be a smarthome programmer and have siri and my smartphone attached to a small server on the boat that feeds control and temperature/humidity data to me, I would love to use this information to automate the heating/cooling plans for the boat.

3.) With a giant gas tank under the bed and 99% of the time staying on shore power, what would you recommend for a heating upgrade to the boat for when the water temp drops below efficiency for the reverse cycle systems?

Thanks again in advance!

-J

[comodave]

You might look into shrink wrapping the boat for insulation. It will keep a lot of the blowing air out of the boat and help shed snow if you do get snow. You can install a frame with a storm door for easy access.

[larryeddington]

1 find the leaks in the HVAC system. Most "techs" will say I can fill it up for $xxx or you cand spend $xxxxx to try and find leak. Easy for me I used to have a HVAC business, but a good tech can find the leak and repair it. Of course when the water gets too cold no or very little heat. Most will tell you that water temp below 40 deg won't produce heat. It has been my experience that for sure my tri-cabin heats at around 40 my home heatpump system provides good heat down to about 30 deg air temp then needs auxiliary heat. Our boat systems do not have aux heat so I would use the oil type heaters from dLonghi only in the living areas, not below decks. Coupled with a quality designed bilge heater.

Regarding water temp, does your water body freeze over if not then it is above 32 deg and give it a try.

[vabeach1234]

Place an electric blanket under the v-berth cushions, not on top of you. This heats up the bed better as it keeps the cold from coming up from underneath from the cold compartments below.