Diesel heater for workshop

[eggsarascal]

7 hours ago, scbk said:

I fitted a brand new eberspacher d2 to a van years ago, that thing was about £800! And a fair bit of work to get a feed from the main fuel tank.

 

 

Got one of the cheap chinese heaters for the house, still not got round to doing a proper heating system. Got a woodburner in the lounge but it's not enough when it's sub zero.

Removed a disused vent and put two 4" stainless pipes through the wall for the warm air and return to the heater, and some plastic waste pipe for cables.

Extended the wires on the controller/display so that is inside the house.

The battery is an old lorry battery, 12v 220ah as I have a few lying about. Charger is inside with an extended cable going out.

 

Still needs a bit of fiddling round ie try and insulate the air pipes a bit more.

Tin cans can be used as joiners/adaptors for the 75mm ducting, and to get the exhaust through wood

Fuel tank is 5l but only about 4l is usable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can buy insulated ducting for not a lot of money, recirculating the warm air, as you have is the way to go, makes the heater much more efficient.

[Peasgood]

I got one for my shed, arrived earlier this week and got it fitted and fired up by this morning.

Runs on red and uses very little, been on all day and used a litre maybe. Does throw out nice warm air but my shed is too big for it to ever get hot in there.

Way too much heat goes out through the exhaust and it really needs to go through a household radiator or something to get more out of it.

Shed was 3°C and is now 8°C. Doesn't sound great but it is full of bottles of apple juice which act like a massive thermal sink. Got to warm all them up before it gets warm. Don't really want it too warm but it's too cold to be working in there at the mo.

The problem I have in there is the bottles get very cold during this weather and then when it warms up they get condensation on them. Bloody nightmare trying to get labels to stick onto a wet glass bottle!

[eggsarascal]

2 hours ago, Peasgood said:

I got one for my shed, arrived earlier this week and got it fitted and fired up by this morning.

Runs on red and uses very little, been on all day and used a litre maybe. Does throw out nice warm air but my shed is too big for it to ever get hot in there.

Way too much heat goes out through the exhaust and it really needs to go through a household radiator or something to get more out of it.

Shed was 3°C and is now 8°C. Doesn't sound great but it is full of bottles of apple juice which act like a massive thermal sink. Got to warm all them up before it gets warm. Don't really want it too warm but it's too cold to be working in there at the mo.

The problem I have in there is the bottles get very cold during this weather and then when it warms up they get condensation on them. Bloody nightmare trying to get labels to stick onto a wet glass bottle!

Plenty of videos on YouTube showing heat recovery from the exhaust to heat a radiator.

[Peasgood]

Yeah, I've watched a few. I'd say it was well worth it as there's loads of heat lost.

 

How safe are these things? Are they safe enough to just leave running unattended?

Would like to just leave it running permanently in this weather but don't want to burn my shed down. It is all well assembled and correctly fitted. Nothing combustible near the exhaust etc.

I guess if they aren't safe they wouldn't be aimed at van camping folk.

[Dan Maynard]

I don't think they are aimed at unattended running though.

[Peasgood]

No but if it was me was asleep in the van it may as well be unattended.

[eggsarascal]

I’ve not got one in my present box as I’m waiting for the Hcalory 2kw to come out, although I did read a week or two ago that it isn’t going to happen now. In my last box I ran my Maxpeedingrods day and night all through winter with no issues, as did many other people I know or speak to. I realise they are cheap knockoffs of the German heaters but after all they are night heaters. I’ve often wondered if my insurance would pay out if my box went up in flames due to one of these heaters, I guess I know the answer! I’ve never heard of one going up in flames.

 

Have you got a picture of your setup?

[Peasgood]

On 21/01/2024 at 18:17, eggsarascal said:

Have you got a picture of your setup

[Peasgood]

Wires are a bit scruffy as they are fitted to a spare battery, in the process of running a wire to the next room (where the heat goes) and connect to the battery bank in there. That is charged off solar and runs all the other stuff in there such as lights, pc, printers and labelling machines.

No fuel filter fitted as the one supplied wasn't sealed so no fuel could get through, will fit one when it arrives.

2m exhaust going through a bulkhead/thru-hull fitting. Designed to go through boat hulls and is double skinned. Goes through the door because I didn't want it through the wall, it is an insulated cavity wall with brick on the outside and didn't want to put a hole in it. 2m exhaust should be cool enough by time it gets to the wooden door. There are lots of doors and I don't use this one.

Fittings holding the exhaust were what I had lying around from a previous project involving water pipe.

Hole in wall for heating is just a single block wall into the next room, hole in that doesn't matter to me. Heater the other side of wall from where I would normally be working to give less intrusive noise although with the radio on it's not an issue anyway. Would be different if it was where I wanted to sleep.

Put fitting into top of tank asI reckoned less likely to get leaks than a failing connector in the bottom. It works fine.

[eggsarascal]

15 hours ago, Peasgood said:

Wires are a bit scruffy as they are fitted to a spare battery, in the process of running a wire to the next room (where the heat goes) and connect to the battery bank in there. That is charged off solar and runs all the other stuff in there such as lights, pc, printers and labelling machines.

No fuel filter fitted as the one supplied wasn't sealed so no fuel could get through, will fit one when it arrives.

2m exhaust going through a bulkhead/thru-hull fitting. Designed to go through boat hulls and is double skinned. Goes through the door because I didn't want it through the wall, it is an insulated cavity wall with brick on the outside and didn't want to put a hole in it. 2m exhaust should be cool enough by time it gets to the wooden door. There are lots of doors and I don't use this one.

Fittings holding the exhaust were what I had lying around from a previous project involving water pipe.

Hole in wall for heating is just a single block wall into the next room, hole in that doesn't matter to me. Heater the other side of wall from where I would normally be working to give less intrusive noise although with the radio on it's not an issue anyway. Would be different if it was where I wanted to sleep.

Put fitting into top of tank asI reckoned less likely to get leaks than a failing connector in the bottom. It works fine.

I was wondering what the skin fitting was about, have you thought about ducting the air inlet into the part of the shed you are heating to recirculate the already heated air?