Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:08pm

we have a webasto central heating boiler and a twin coil calorifier which is piped up as per specification. when our engine is running we have hot water. can we get central heating from nthis means? If so, what do we need to do to acquire heating? thanks

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:05am

Dear David, unfortunately there seems to be as many different ways of installing engine & central heating derived hot water "as per specification" as there are boat fitters. I will assume a twin coil calorifier. One for the engine and the other for the Webasto, if yours is a single coil with valves (or not!) then what I say may be a little more effective. If your Webasto controls allow you to run the Webasto without it firing up then simply turn it on this setting, but I rather doubt you can. If you could the water pump in the Webasto would have pumped central heating water through the calorifier where it would have picked up heat from the hot water. This would then be circulated through the radiators. However I doubt they would ever get much more than just warm - good for dumping engine heat if the skin tank is a bit undersized but only marginally effective for heating - but only experience will tell. It seems that the water pump is bolted on the outside of at least some Webastos so it should be possible to get at the pumps connectors and switch it via an external switch, but neither myself nor the magazine can take any responsibility if you do this. Otherwise fit a suitable pump, that allows water free flow when it is not working, in the "hot water out" pipe of the Webasto, but I suspect the cost of such a pump may put you off. Tony Brooks