Thursday 21 February 2013

Success at last!

Hold your breath now! Eberspacher finally burst into life with clouds of white smoke. Lots of it. Hmm! I thought, this is never going to be acceptable to the neighbours. The radiator/calorifier water started to warm up. The Eberspacher was working. Even the hot water was starting to warm up, so the calorifier system was working OK.
There were clouds of white smoke passing the galley window...
After a few minutes the amount of smoke lessened and by the time the water was hot enough to do the washing-up, there was no smoke at all. I had to put my hand over the exhaust to check it was still fired up. Phew! Peace withe the neighbours (and the environment) will prevail. Oh, by the way - it is OK to breathe now!

Thursday 14 February 2013

Slow progress over the winter months

I write this just as the sun has started to shine! It has rained or snowed for ages now and what with the short days progress has been slow. In my last blog I show that I have fitted the Eberspacher unit into the stern area. I did change the orientation of the pump to lower the overall profile of the unit. Once the weather got really bad I moved inside.
The electrics area was a bit of a mess. It used the old type of car fuses - with the ceramic middle and the two caps joined by the fusible element. The contacts of these had deteriorated over time and this was leading to problems. The whole of the old fuse system was updated, the wiring sorted out (well it was better than it was before!) and all the fuses are now numbered and their circuits recorded.
The 12V comes in at the bottom and each fuse feeds only one item. This makes fault-finding much easier!

Over several visits, usually during foul weather I have made a very small radiator for the bathroom! I have made it out of copper pipe and pipe fittings, soldered and painted. Here it is!
It is connected into the return of the calorifier hot water system. I have yet to consider how I am going to connect radiator(s) to the system but have put in isolator valves and an electric 3 way valve in readiness.
The next move is to try and fire up the Eberspacher! Watch this space (but don't hold your breath)!