GOLIATH – BIG BOAT, SMALL CHALLENGE

GOLIATH – BIG BOAT, SMALL CHALLENGE

Meet Goliath and her owner Rupert. Goliath is Rupert’s brainchild/project/labour-of-love/work in progress, started 8 years ago and built keel up from flat steel. Something of an eclectic living space (you’ll never find another like her) she has forward and aft cabins, a main saloon midships, and two loos-cum-shower spaces.
The challenge for Rupert was how could he practically but cost effectively heat this myriad of small spaces. The simple answer was Infra Red panels and heating bars from Kiasa.

THE NEED FOR LATERAL THINKING
Like most barges and houseboats Goliath has a central wood-burner which keeps the main saloon toasty – but wood burners take time to fire up and generate warmth. Rupert didn’t want to run a conventional heating system as boilers and radiators are expensive, take time to install, and work out costly to run. Given that for the majority of the year Goliath is moored-up and connected to mains power from the shore, Rupert wanted a ‘plug and play’ solution and opted for a combination of panels and heating bars.

GREAT SPATIAL AWARENESS
A major benefit for Rupert, a jobbing actor who is often shooting on location or at various studios with very early starts, is that Kiasa’s heating solution of programmable smart heaters means different ‘spaces’ on Goliath can be ‘turned on’ and heated as and when required using his mobile phone. On cold dark winter mornings he can wake up to instant heat in his bedroom and go next door to a pre-
warmed shower cubicle. At weekends, after a Sunday pint at his local, he can turn on the heating on his way back and start cooking lunch in the warmth while the log-burner gets going. ‘I don’t need to heat the whole boat,’ he says. ‘I can turn on instant heat space-by-space as needed.’

AN ELEGANTLY COST-EFFECTIVE, SOLUTION
Life as a jobbing actor means continuity of work can be uncertain – therefore money is never far from Rupert’s mind. ‘I actively see Kiasa Infra Red heaters as saving me money,’ he says. ‘I easily installed them myself by simply hanging them on the wall and plugging them in. I never feel that I’m wasting heat. And I really like the ergonomic unintrusive design. By being able to heat Goliath in such a clever fashion for a few pence per hour, Infra Red has provided me with an elegantly cost-effective solution.’

Everything completely ship shape!