Good day all, I have an inboard 350 mag Mercruiser engine with raw water cooling. I would like to add a hot water shower to my boat using the configuration in the image below. I have a 60L tank in my boat which I fill up with fresh water before hitting the water. I would like to heat the water in the tank using a closed loop system with a heat exchanger I designed. I do not wish to convert my raw water engine cooling system to a closed loop system as I live in South Africa and sourcing systems and parts is a real hassle.
I am having trouble finding resources on hot to connect such a system to engine hot water. For supplying pressure to the shower nozzle, I make use af a seaflo pump with pressure shutoff functionality. For circulating the fress water through the heat exchanger I will make use of a small pump, slowly moving water through the heat exhanger. Flow of hot raw water will be controlled by an electrically operated solenoid valve. I would also like to be able to fill the tank with raw hot water if needed by making use of a 3 way valve. The reaon for all the electric components is that I would like to be able to regulate the temperature of the freshwater in the tank using a temperature controller.
The problem I have is that I am unsure on how to connect the system to the raw hot water flow coming from engine. My understanding is that the hot water supply should be connected before the thermostat, but where exactly I am uncertain about. The return of the raw water should the be connected to the drain plug of the water pump at the low pressure side , ensuring a pressure difference for the flow of raw water. When using the bypass to the tank, will this greatly affect the cooling of the engine as water is being 'lost' to tank. Also would there be any problem in cooling of engine if the solenoid valve is closed during normal closed loop cooling, like decrease in pump effectiveness due to closed of pipe(closed solenoid valve) in low pressure drain port.
Thank you for your time.
I am having trouble finding resources on hot to connect such a system to engine hot water. For supplying pressure to the shower nozzle, I make use af a seaflo pump with pressure shutoff functionality. For circulating the fress water through the heat exchanger I will make use of a small pump, slowly moving water through the heat exhanger. Flow of hot raw water will be controlled by an electrically operated solenoid valve. I would also like to be able to fill the tank with raw hot water if needed by making use of a 3 way valve. The reaon for all the electric components is that I would like to be able to regulate the temperature of the freshwater in the tank using a temperature controller.
The problem I have is that I am unsure on how to connect the system to the raw hot water flow coming from engine. My understanding is that the hot water supply should be connected before the thermostat, but where exactly I am uncertain about. The return of the raw water should the be connected to the drain plug of the water pump at the low pressure side , ensuring a pressure difference for the flow of raw water. When using the bypass to the tank, will this greatly affect the cooling of the engine as water is being 'lost' to tank. Also would there be any problem in cooling of engine if the solenoid valve is closed during normal closed loop cooling, like decrease in pump effectiveness due to closed of pipe(closed solenoid valve) in low pressure drain port.
Thank you for your time.
