14th December 2007

Comparison between a Bubble diesel stove and a Becton Bunny solid fuel stove.

When we bought the boat, it was fitted with a very little used Bubble Diesel stove. We lived with the Bubble over the winters of 2005 and 2006. In the late spring of 2007 we replaced the diesel stove with a Becton Bunny solid fuel stove (burns coal and wood).

There were two main reasons for making the change. The first being the preference for sitting in front of a real fire burning real coal and/or logs. The second being the running costs of the diesel stove, especially in view of the up and coming diesel price increases schedule to come into effect in on or around November 2008.

Both the diesel stove and the solid fuel stove were kept running 24/7 with the cabin temperature being around 23C during the day. We live in t-shirts while in the boat - even in the depths of winter.

Running costs:
The Bubble burnt somewhere in the region of one third to one half of a litre of diesel per hour. It was very difficult to know exactly how much was being used as the tank that supplied the stove also supplies the engine. This equates to somewhere between 56 and 84 litres per week. At today’s prices (£0.60 per litre), the weekly running cost for the Bubble was somewhere between £33 and £50. If diesel prices should rise to the £1.00 per litre mark – and they might well do so, the running costs would be somewhere in the region of £56-£84 per week!!

The Becton Bunny is getting through 2.5 to 3 bags of coal per week during the coldest spells. We are currently paying around £7.50 per bag of Taybrite coal. This equates to somewhere between £19 and £23 per week. It should be noted that as well as burning coal, we also burn a small amount of logs as and when we find windfall along the way.

So, on running costs, the solid fuel wins at £19-£23 v £33-£50 per week.

Stove maintenance:
Once lit and settled down, the Bubble was fairly reliable, however, it did need turning off so that the burner pan could be de-coked. We found that we needed to de-coke about once every two weeks or so.
A big advantage with the Bubble was the constant heat output 24 hours a day.

The solid fuel stove requires twice daily ash pan clean out and dumping.
There is much more dust in the cabin from raking and ash pan emptying.
Heat output is very variable. It is not difficult to maintain the required temperature during the day but over night is a different story. We bank the fire up with coal last thing at night. Initially after banking up, the stove cools down and so does the boat. In the middle of the night, the coal is well and truly burning and the stove is hot. Come the early morning, much of the coal has burnt away and the stove has cooled down – it is in the early morning when you really want good heat output so that the boat is warm for getting up. So far, we have not found an answer to this problem of being cool in the morning. On the plus side, it dosen't take very long to heat the boat up again in the morning once more coal is added.

Living with the stoves:
We found the diesel Bubble to be sterile and not much of a pleasure to look at.

We love the solid fuel fire. Sometimes, I spend more time watching the fire than I do the TV (not difficult). Having to empty the ash, storing and handling the dirty bags of coal, find and cut the logs and live with the lack of stable temperature control is all part of the experience and does not bother us one bit.

Apart from the running costs, it all comes down to personal preferences.

For us, there is no way that we would go back to a diesel stove, we love the real fire – even with all of it’s drawbacks. For others, the cleanliness, lack of daily maintenance and stable temperature output 24/7 may well be worth the extra running costs.

For anyone not living aboard or not spending a lot of time in cold weather on their boat, the running cost difference would be insignificant so the lack of maintenance with the diesel stove may well tip the balance strongly in its favour.

Update:

The solid fuel stove heats the whole boat – all 50 internal feet of it. With all the internal doors open, the bedroom which is right up at the bow end is at around 20C while the saloon with the stove is right at the stern end and is at around 23-25C. The same was true for the diesel stove. We have a 3 blade eco fan on top of the stove and it definitely does help move the warm air through the boat.

We have an Alde gas boiler (the tall thin variety) that heats the water and can run the four radiators. We only use it for heating the water now because it uses so much gas when running the radiators. When we first bought the boat and were running the gas heating 24/7 (as well as the Bubble diesel stove) we could easily get through well over a bottle of gas a week!! A 13kg bottle of propane is currently around £18.50. The Alde boiler randomly produces a loud boom type noise when it fires which can be very annoying, especially during the night – have tried to cure it by various adjustments but no joy – it makes the boom noise about once in every ten firings.

Update 15th Jan 2008

Calor gas has just recently gone up to £20:17 for a 13kg bottle.

We have now switched to Stoveglow coal which we can get for £6:05 (nb Gosty Hill). This makes the solid fuel option even better in terms of cost than is outlined above.

Updated running costs based on Stoveglow at £6.05 per 25kg bag:

£15-£18 for coal and £33-£50 for diesel.

Material Copyright © 2007 Ernie Williams
This page last modified on: 8 February, 2008 9:09 AM