This year I have replaced the coal fired "Boatmans Stove" with an automatic Wood Pellet Stove from. This decision was driven by a number of factors including the number of the fatal boat fires over the last few years.
The stove selected is an Artel 6 supplied by Twentieth Centuary Fires in Stockport who also supplied all of the flue parts and an initial supply of pellets along with lots of helpfull advice. The stove has a hopper which holds a couple of days worth of pellets allowing fully automatic operation including a thermostat and timer. The stove takes about 10 minutes to start from cold and then produces upto 6Kw of heat to quickly warm the main cabin in the boat. Once the correct working temperature is reached the stove goes into an "eco" mode and outputs a minimum heat that is more than adequate to keep the boat warm on even the coldest night.
The stove works well and over the recent autum trip has been on most of the day to keep the interior of the boat warm. Pellet consumption for a all day operation (8AM - 1PM) is approximatly one 16Kg bag per 2 to 3 days at a cost of between £4.50 - £7.50 per bag depending on the quantity you buy it in. So a weeks heating is costing around £12-15 when on the move with doors and window often open. Although the stove produces bags of heat the outside of the stove is cool enough to touch without fear of burning, this includes the flue which although too hot to hold comfortably will not burn like the flue from a conventional solid fuel stove. This in turn means that the surrounding tiled area is cool enough to touch and means risk of igniting the wood backing is eliminated. Wood pellet fuel is normally supplied from renewable sources and so is often regarded as being carbon Neutral, great for those of us who want to reduce our "carbon footprint".
The major disadvantage of the stove is the noise of the various fans and flue feed screw. During the day this is aceptable and certainly when cruising is almost unheard. Even with the engine off it is possible to watch television or hold a converation without problem, but when sleeping the noise is distracting and intrusive, although comparable to the noise from an Eberspacher boiler. Another disadvantage is that we can no longer dispose of paper cardboard and wood waste in the fire increasing the amount of rubbish we have to dispose of.
Pellets are supplied in 15/16Kg sausage bags which easy to handle and store (we can fit 15 bags under one half of the bed and a further 5 in the log box) Pellets are made from compressed sawdust and need to be kept dry or they turn back into sawdust. Pellets are availiable mail order with delivery in quantities starting from as low as 15 bags upto a full pallet (66 bags) and prices vary depending on the quatity you order them in, see the link above or http://www.woodpelletsupplies.com/ for examples.
Having used the stove in earnest over the past week (last week of October 2008) with daytime temperatures of 3deg C dropping to below freezing in the evening I can say I am delighted with it and would have no hesitation in recomending the stove to anyone else who is looking for solution for heating the boat.