I may be wet, but at least it's warm!

The original idea was to have a central wood burner, running radiators for heating.
Then the design of the layout I reached meant that the wood burner would now be at the front, and although it may run a couple of radiators, it was unlikely to reach the back of the boat.
Then I bought the bargain wood burner, which was smaller than I had originally intended, but fits in nicely with the saloon layout, but is unlikely to run more than one radiator.
So I decided that a Propex hot air heater would do nicely for the heating.  I liked the idea of hot air for heating. I don't usually feel the cold, so the heating will be more for airing the place and preventing damp, so hot air heating seemed ideal.
That is the potted history of my heating thinking.

Now I am stopping on the boat occasionally, and now the nights are getting darker I have changed my mind completely.  Saturday night I got to the boat about 9 in the evening and it was dark.  I had no hot water, and the only way of heating (domestic) hot water was by running the engine.  If I get a Propex this will not change.  As I think it is a bit unsociable to run the engine in the dark, I have decided that the heating system will have to heat the water as well.

Luckily when I got the Calorifier from Ely Chandlers, they were out of stock of the single coil, so gave me a twin coil for the same price.

So, after trawling the net, I have an Eberspaher diesel fired heater. My first impression is of a huge cardboard box, but once opened the boiler itself is very small.  However, the remainder of the box is holding a frightening number of pipes, brackets, pipes, clamps, pipes and other unidentifiable bits and pieces. However after only 12 hours of crawlig around the diesel tank, cursing, reaching over and under the silencer, swearing, and grovelling in the bilges, the installation of the boiler in the engine room is complete. Initially I have only got one radiator and the calorifier connected, and, after about half an hour of bleeding (diesel and water), with a roar like a jet turbine, the boiler fired up.  The radiator in the bedroom warmed up in no time, and dripped water from one of the valves, but at least it is warm water.