Paul (nb Waterways Routes) left a comment on yesterday’s post in which he mentioned the amount of heat that can be generated by the Victron inverter/charger which; if excessive; can cause it to shut down.
I’ve already considered disposal of the generated heat and how to utilise it rather than simply disposing of it! The first practical step in my plan occurred two days ago when these two fans purchased on Ebay arrived.
The fan has three wires so the “yellow” wire was ignored and the read & black were connected to a 12v supply to check the fan would operate. This was successful so I then made a fan box on which one of the fans was mounted. The fan box is required because the fan will be blowing air from the inverter compartment through the rear steps and the area under the steps contains the extensions for the bed. Therefore, in order to get maximum coverage for the fan it has to be offset from the stair wall. If this sounds complicated the following photo may assist.
The fan box (bottom arrow) is only 20mm thick but covers the bulk of the side of the step compartment. The extraction fan (top arrow) is mounted on the fan box. The step wall will have numerous holes drilled through it to allow the fan to push air from the inverter compartment through the void under the step.
The air passes through a similar set of holes on the opposite side of the step and into the wet locker. It rises up through the wet locker and exists via a grill in the top of the locker.
The warm air entering the wet locker will be joined by the warm air from the freezer compartment via a vent in the shared partition. All this warm air is supposed to dry wet clothing and footwear. (well that’s the plan)
The second fan will be fitted into the wall of the inverter compartment immediately above the first step (right arrow). It will suck cool air into the compartment.
Richard has been very busy making and fitting the oak trim. The following are a few photos of his work.
Yet more holes for me to plug! 
Andy, Nick and I had a discussion today regarding the location of the various Hurricane heater components. It was decided the remote ON/OFF switch and display would go on the instrument panel and the timer/thermostat will go in the saloon. This is a change and required me to pull out the wiring I had so carefully installed. It was actually damned difficult running the original cables because we are running out of space under the gunwales. Moreover, there are now cabinets that can obstruct the cable’s path. Well the two original cables have now been removed and replaced with a single 5 core cable. Nick has also realised far more wiring is required for the Hurricane when compared with a Webasto or Eberspacher. I hadn’t foreseen there would be remotes for the Hurricane and Victron. As a consequence it meant redesigning the layout of the gauge and instrument panel. It’s going to be a squeeze!
Top – Hurricane remote, Empirbus 8 way switch, Dometic toilet gauge, three small digital gauges mounted vertically (2x diesel & 1x water)
Bottom – Inverter remote, Smartgauge, Solar Controller remote
In order to get them all to fit onto the panel the 12v socket has been relocated to the opposite side of the boat.
Darren is on holiday and Nick isn’t working tomorrow, so it might be an opportune time to catch up on some domestic chores, or even go for a walk!
2 comments :
I’m still worried about the air flow. The Victron unit is designed for airflow going upwards (if it is mounted vertically) and the internal fans drive the air that way if mounted horizontally. Your fan seems to be drawing the air the opposite way. The hot air expelled from the “top” of the Victron unit will be sucked towards its base by your fan, to be drawn back in and heated even more. Not the sort of recycling you want.
It’s not clear from your photos where the cold air comes from to be sucked into the base of the Victron Unit.
You won’t thank me for saying the Victron unit might need turning through 180 degrees so its fan and your fan work together, assuming there’s a source of “cold” air at the other end. Until you’ve tried it under load you won’t know.
Hi Paul,
A trial run of the 240v systems using the inverter is something I discussed with the engineers today. I'll probably run it for 24hours starting tomorrow morning. The idea is to check the temperature plus establish the drain on the battery bank.
Fun times!
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