Boilers (was: Residential fridges)

[Ryan Wright]

I changed the subject of this thread - didn't mean to hijack your
fridge thread, Bruce.

On Feb 8, 2008 9:57 PM, Gregory OConnor wrote:
>
> thinking of learning to use the instahot for cleaning and other hot
> water needs between genset runtimes. (I never turned the instahot
> on, dont even know if it runs on inverter ac output??)

It doesn't on my coach, but yours is almost a decade newer so it may
there. I'd imagine it would pull a good bit of current, though.

> I can see that if you WalCamp it would be nice to wake up and take a
> hot shower without starting a genset. Maybe a quick 1/2 hour jump on
> your next days journey prior to taking a shower will give the
> detroit a chance to heat enough water

To be honest this is a rare problem, as I like to shower before bed -
just can't handle climbing into a clean bed if I'm not clean. The hot
water holds for several hours after stopping so I can pull in, have
dinner and take a shower just fine. Where it becomes a problem is when
I stay in one place, without shore power, for a day. I have to kick
the generator on an hour before I want my shower. Now that's only been
a hassle a couple of times but nevertheless, it's something I'd like
to fix.

I'm leaning heavily toward the diesel fired boiler. We stayed with
family a couple of months ago and it was cold - snowed all over us the
last night we were there. I knew the 8V92 would not be happy firing up
in that cold, so I woke up a couple of hours before I wanted to leave,
started the genset, turned the block heater on and went back to bed.
Well, a couple of hours wasn't anywhere near enough. Getting that old
girl to start was difficult and too darn much cranking for my comfort.
A diesel fired boiler could be started when I went to bed the night
before and run all night without annoying me and would heat both my
water and my engine block. We could also use the hydronic heaters
instead of LP on those nights, I'd imagine, not that there's any
reason to avoid LP but if I'm already heating the water with another
fuel, might as well use it. Would be a great boondocking backup if LP
heaters failed or I ran out of propane.

-Ryan
'86 PT-40 8V92