Winter Enclosure

     Finally, I have the boat winterized and stored for the cold season. Last year, I had the boat stored in an EMT enclosure that was discussed in the beginning of the blog. For heat, I had a single 23,000 BTU convective kerosene heater out there. I'll never do that again!!

     Here's the problem - One of the combustion by-products of kerosene is, of course, water. So, whenever a kerosene heater is running in an enclosed space, the moisture level is driven up. So, let's say I ran the heater for a few hours one evening in the winter, then I shut it off and go inside. Overnight, that water condenses inside the cover, and freezes. The next day, I start the heater again. Now, all the frozen water melts, and rains down from the canvas. And, more water is added to the problem everyday I run the heat.

     So, for this winter, I found a non-functioning oil fired forced hot air furnace on Craigslist, and brought it home. The previous owner had switched to gas when the burner died. I simply removed the burner, cleaned the fan, installed a new pump drive, and replaced the nozzle. It fired right up. I welded up an air plenum out of some scrap aluminum, mounted the furnace on a stone base, and wired it to a cheap thermostat I had laying around.

     The copper fuel line extends to a clean 55 gallon drum, to which I added a filter, vacuum gauge, and tank vent. The drum is at the other end of the enclosure, and is also on a stone base.

     Finally, I routed a flue vent out, with rain cap, through the side of the enclosure.

     And, in the interest of convenience, I added a door to the front.

     Time to get to work..............