Pellet heat for homely boat

Boating is a popular pastime and an emerging trend is retrofitting vessels into a holiday home on water. Irrespective if the vessel is permanently docked at quayside or not, a key challenge for those who wish to have year round use of it in northern climates is space heating. With on-board space  a major constraint, installing a pellet boiler seems a less obvious choice. Not for Swedish do-it-yourself boat enthusiast Lars Brinck.

– After a decade of using a makeshift solar thermal and heat pump solution that never really worked properly, it was time to find something better now that we have come so far in our renovations that we can use the boat properly as a holiday home, explained Lars Brinck.

The boat is docked in south central Stockholm in an expansive residential area only a few minutes walk from the nearest metro station.

– We have a wood stove in the living room area, which is fine when we’re on-board but not when we’re away, explained Brinck.

After conducting some research he came across a compact new pellet boiler model from Swedish manufacturer Ulma AB.

– We sometimes used pellets in the stove but it struck me that maybe we could fit a pellet boiler to replace the heat pump, he said.

Fit being the operative word on account of the narrow door openings below deck. Weighing in at 150 kg, the “Mini Eco” compact boiler measured just 52 x 96 x 66 cm and so could be installed below deck with a few mm to spare. The burner has an output of 8 to 25 kW and is self-modulating in five output levels and the boiler has a 50 litre ash pan.

– The boiler is connected to the existing buffer tank. The major work we had was replacing the entire original cast-iron piping to the radiators, a job we had to do regardless of the heating solution, said Brinck.

5187/AS