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Light bulb in Engine Bay for Storage


BlitzedVLX

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This year we will be keeping our boat in my 50x30 Morton Building that has electric. We have wintereized the boat as usual, but this year since we have access to electric we are wanting to put a light bulb in the engine bay for the nights it gets really cold. Is there a certain type of bulb that I should purchase along with a housing? I dont plan on connecting it to a thermostat, simply plug it in when temps will be lower than 30 here in IL.

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in uk i use a small tube heater runs 40 watts they use them in greenhouses we have it connected to a stat i cover complete engine area with a reflective multi foil blanket we use this product here to insulate walls its called triiso super 10 quilt that keeps engine area insulated but if temp drops really low stat kicks small heater on tonight its 2 degrees so heater will be on till the insulated area lifts alittle then off she goes i originally thought about a small heat bulb but opted for this instead after seeing one installed in my boiler cupboard at our holiday home it gets prety cold there sometimes minus 10 and our heat exchanger todate has never suffered cracking so on my boat in garage the same system works well maybe an alternative

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i do winterise and have done this for past 10 seasons however that is my choice as a garage with a boat sitting in it all winter with a vent from the fuel tank to outside of craft then electric door operates light switches on mmh so as i said i do it its my choice however i am not suggesting others should

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belt and braces for me but others have asked me that question before just something i feel comfy with a little extra protection if it was needed

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i do winterise and have done this for past 10 seasons however that is my choice as a garage with a boat sitting in it all winter with a vent from the fuel tank to outside of craft then electric door operates light switches on mmh so as i said i do it its my choice however i am not suggesting others should

we do crazy things

I use a solared-powered 3" dc bilge fan to suck air in under my boat cover thru a 3 " vent hose leading outside the cover which has 2 taylor air vents installed, one at each peak. The fan comes on here in Hawaii at 1900 until 2000 and again in the morning at 0800-0900. That is when the temp difference between what's under the cover to the outside temp is the largest, I think...The cover puffs up, kinda cool. This prevents raining under the cover, that I proved, which sucks if any of you suffer from it. I lift the engine cover up a few inches too and that helps it as well. I'm still playing with the dc timer and how to maximize power/vent periods. It sure would be cool if a simple control system did all the start-stop work depending on delta T and available power. Good project for an enterprizing type, perhaps. Till then back to the drawing board.

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we do crazy things

I use a solared-powered 3" dc bilge fan to suck air in under my boat cover thru a 3 " vent hose leading outside the cover which has 2 taylor air vents installed, one at each peak. The fan comes on here in Hawaii at 1900 until 2000 and again in the morning at 0800-0900. That is when the temp difference between what's under the cover to the outside temp is the largest, I think...The cover puffs up, kinda cool. This prevents raining under the cover, that I proved, which sucks if any of you suffer from it. I lift the engine cover up a few inches too and that helps it as well. I'm still playing with the dc timer and how to maximize power/vent periods. It sure would be cool if a simple control system did all the start-stop work depending on delta T and available power. Good project for an enterprizing type, perhaps. Till then back to the drawing board.

Wow!! Can you put up pics of that when you have a chance?

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stupid question.... If you've winterized what is the need for the light bulb in the engine bay?

Just added precaution. We never had the luxury of storing the boat in place with electric and now that we do we want to take advantage of it. The xtreme heaters look great but since we winterize I feel that it would be overkill. I was thinking of placing a drop light with 70w bulb under the vdrive and another drop light in the back under the engine bay. I would only turn the lights on when the forecast is below 30F, which wouldnt be often. I have read that others use a magentic block heater, heating blanket or even christmas lights.

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If you want to use the electric for something useful then buy a battery maintainer and plug that in. For heat, either buy a bilge safe heater or forget about it. Most lightbulbs don't give off any heat anymore anyways (just try finding a bulb that works in an easy bake oven these days). It is below 30 degrees here between Nov and April, the boat will be fine ;)

Edited by oldjeep
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This is what I use for cold nights on my lift. Works fine, never touching anything. I mount it so it is shining up at the oil pan area. I don't keep one over winter storage.

Any electrical device has a chance of failure and I know of three caused from battery tenders non from a light bulb. Like anything do it wrong and you likely stand a chance of a problem. But a light not resting on anything? :dontknow: JMHO.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clamp-On-Shop-Work-Light-Lamp-6ft-Cord-UL-listed-100W-includes-60-watt-bulb-/121098866049?hash=item1c320e0d81:g:F7cAAMXQQUpRBZgH

Edited by Sixball
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Just added precaution. We never had the luxury of storing the boat in place with electric and now that we do we want to take advantage of it. The xtreme heaters look great but since we winterize I feel that it would be overkill. I was thinking of placing a drop light with 70w bulb under the vdrive and another drop light in the back under the engine bay. I would only turn the lights on when the forecast is below 30F, which wouldnt be often. I have read that others use a magentic block heater, heating blanket or even christmas lights.

So the bilge heater is overkill to use it in the way & purpose it was designed to be used??? What kind of rationale is that?

If a light bulb pops, your boat will burn. Not likely, but not unheard of either. More likely it will just burn out & not give you any protection at all. Bilge heaters are designed to be in a marine bilge, ie; no spark, only heat to 40 degrees, etc.

Block heaters are designed to keep the oil at temperature & offer no protection to any of the areas of the engine that have water in it, ie; engine water pump, raw water pump, mufflers, shower valve, etc. A bilge heater will protect those too.

Heating blanket & Christmas lights in a bilge with fuel vapors sound like a fire hazard to me.

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I used a 60W light bulb under the oil pan last year, but I'm thinking about one or two 12" dehumidifier rods this year. It's a much more elegant solution without the fear of it burning out on the wrong night. We usually only have a handful of freezing nights here, and I'm too lazy to drain the heat exchanger.

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That's what I'm trying to figure out. I found one that is 32W, so it might do for me. Since a 60W bulb is also making light, you don't get the full 60W as heat anyway.

I think we have two rods under the piano. I'll steal one of them and do some testing.

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Have you ever grabbed a light bulb? They probably get much hotter than one of these rods.

Yea, I know better than to do that.

I have touched a bilge heater & there is no risk there.

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I'm too lazy to post photos tonight, but I measured several heat sources with my HF infrared thermometer gun. The piano has two 3' rods underneath, and I can't quite make out the wattage, but they are both 135*F at the center when on. The one under the keyboard is mounted in clips that hold it about 1/4" from the wood panel. Since it has been there since 1989, I'm guessing that it is not a hazard to the panel or the house in general. I can't read the roll mark on them to see what wattage they are.

So then I measured a 60W incandescent bulb and got 178*F with the IR gun touching the bulb. Next, I measured a 26W helical compact fluorescent bulb and got an astonishing 213*F. Hmmmmm. So I measured one of the "burnt out" ones in my shop and got 312*F when I carefully aimed the gun at the orange glow at the base of the lamp. The CF bulbs have heaters to excite the plasma, but the heaters don't use much power. I could touch the glass helix part of the bulb since it was only about 75*F or so.

The lesson here so far is that it's not just about the temperature, it's about the radiated power. That burnt out CF bulb is not going to heat anything substantial, even though it is hot. I think I'll order two 12" heater sticks and see what kind of temperature rise I get under the engine when I put them under the hood. I want to get some for my milling machine anyway, so I can use them either way.

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i am still with the earlier question of "why"? if you have winterized, why are you worried? If you have not winterized, a light build won't help.

In my case, the answer is that I only get a handful of nights that I have to worry about, and they are not necessarily all in a row. I have half-closed cooling with 50/50 antifreeze, so it's not about the block or heater, but I don't want to dump the exchanger and manifolds.

And as for the light bulb, I used one last year and measured the engine and heat exchanger at about 60*F when the shop was right at 32*F inside. 25 to 30 degree rise is way more margin than I need, and it's simple to do. The engine hood provides enough insulation to get plenty of heat built up in the engine, oil, and water.

The only thing I don't like about the bulb is the 1100 hour life expectancy.

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