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Heating a houseboat: what matters with stoves, diesel heaters and flues
Short answer
On a houseboat the heating often runs all winter, in a tight space of timber and plastic.
Professional fitting, a sound flue to the outside, clearance from anything that burns,
a carbon monoxide alarm and servicing you can prove are the core of staying safe.
Live aboard on a canal or river, or use the boat through the winter, and you are heating for months, which makes the heating the most important system on board. The usual choices are solid fuel stoves for wood or pellets, diesel heaters for warm air or hot water, gas heaters, and electric heating off shore power. Each has its weak spot: for the stove, the heat and the flue through the roof; for the diesel heater, the exhaust outlet and the fuel line; for gas, tightness; for electricity, the constant load on the cable. Gas and shore power have pages of their own, so this one is about stoves and diesel.
Most fires and poisonings come back to the same faults. A stove with too little clearance from a timber wall or with no fireproof hearth beneath it. A flue whose passage through the roof is not insulated, heating the surrounding wood for hours. A diesel heater exhaust too close to a hatch or to the combustion air intake, so that fumes are drawn back inside. And too little fresh air, because in winter everything is shut tight. Carbon monoxide has no smell, and in a small cabin it takes very little to become dangerous while you sleep.
Have the stove and the diesel heater fitted or checked by a competent installer and keep the paperwork. Sweep the flue and clean the stove regularly, have the diesel heater serviced to the maker's schedule and write down the date. Fit a smoke alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm, keep an extinguisher within reach, and leave the ventilation openings clear even when there is a draught. Do not leave a stove burning with nobody aboard. After any fire, the first questions are about the state of the installation, and a properly fitted, serviced system with records stands on far firmer ground than something home made.
Worth remembering
Fitting
by a competent installer, with clearances and an insulated flue
Alarms
smoke and carbon monoxide, close to the berths
Heating that runs all winter needs fitting and servicing you can prove.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Can I fit a wood burner in a houseboat?
Whether and how depends on the build of the boat and often on the rules of the mooring or marina. Check first and have a competent installer fit or inspect it, with proper clearances, a fireproof hearth and an insulated flue collar.
Do I need a carbon monoxide alarm?
With any heater that burns fuel it is strongly advisable. Carbon monoxide has no smell and builds up fast in a small sleeping cabin. Fit the alarm close to where people sleep.
What should I check in my policy?
Look at how fire is dealt with and what the wording expects of you in terms of installation and maintenance. Then make sure you can show both, with the installer's paperwork and a record of servicing.
Related
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