Vayu Restoration

Staying Warm
By Capt. Wayne Canning, AMS


As it starts to get colder it is time to think about tuning up the heating system. And time for some guerrilla boat repair. Although I have a reverse cycle AC unit I always end up dragging out the little electric space heaters. The AC unit will keep up with the needed heat but it freezes up when the water I am floating in gets too cold, which of course is when I need the most heat. I got over this in the past by sticking a little 1500 watt space heater in the cabinet with the AC unit. I never felt this was really safe and those little heaters really use a lot of electric. My power bill just about doubles in the winter. Now being a cheap ass sailor this just did not sit well with me.
Time for some creative thinking. The AC unit works by taking heat out of the water as it runs through the heat exchanger tubes. Problem is when the water temp gets close to freezing the water just freezes as it goes thru the exchanger tubes, then the unit shuts down and I get cold, and I do not like being cold. I had tried last year, some of that heat tape you wrap around pipes to prevent freezing but it did not help at all. This year I thought I would try one of those point of use instant water heaters. Sounded like a good idea but it would not make it past the cheap ass sailor test, in other words it cost too much. Even a used one was $150 on EBay. I would not mind spending this if I knew it would work but I did not know if it would work. A lot to spend on something that may or may not work.
As I was looking in the isles of the home impairment store looking at water heaters I saw you could buy a 1500 watt heater element for $12.00. Hmmm not a bad starting price I thought. I figured I could screw this into the end of a pipe and let the water flow past the element just before it went into the AC heat exchanger tubes. I got the element went over to the pipe section and put together a little unit to heat the water. Not perfect as the threads for the heater element do not match pipe thread, but they are close enough that some 5200 will stop the small leaks. ( I did say this was guerrilla boat repair) I used galvanize pipe as this is a proto type and if it works I will replace that with bronze pipe (I know famous last words!). No point in spending the big bucks if I end up throwing it out. Additionally I wired the element to come on when the pump comes on, so it only runs when water is flowing. No need for thermostat or anything. Keep it simple I say, besides less work!
I installed my little "Rube Goldberg" instant water heater today and although it is not really cold yet it did raise the water temp by about 10 degrees. This will be fine assuming I am still floating in liquid water! If the water is frozen I should not be here anyway! Assuming the salt water will freeze at 28 degrees this unit should keep it at 38. I would think that would be good enough. I do not think the water gets much colder than in the 40's here. The surface will freeze on really cold days but melts with daylight. Time will tell as I have to wait till the dead of winter to know for sure. I will report back here the results next year but I am optimistic.