Office Diesel Heater Install

[Morris]

Just out of curiosity I have just put a thermocouple onto the exhaust of my workshop heater (it's been running flat out for an hour+). It shows 238degrees C. The colours on the pipe would tend to back this up, on the bend it is dark straw, the rest is light straw.
It's not accurate but it's a good indication.

 

[Kayos]

Just out of curiosity I have just put a thermocouple onto the exhaust of my workshop heater (it's been running flat out for an hour+). It shows 238degrees C. The colours on the pipe would tend to back this up, on the bend it is dark straw, the rest is light straw.
It's not accurate but it's a good indication.

According to certain responses on here, my office should have been reduced to ash weeks ago

I have used an IR thermometer as I don't have a thermocouple probe and I couldn't get anything like 500, even at the outlet

 

[JOEPRO]

I'm also disappointed that our resident safety officers didn't ask about the power supply yet....

These tend to be bare conductors including 230v



Eg another members install - not mine, showing how this connects

Which chinese Diesel Heater to get?

no low level or you will over heat it i see so many stuck high think what happens with lcds and it does happen with any pcb board they over heat everything is affected with them solder diodes and capacitors all over heating due to heat

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[Morris]

I put mine in an insulated enclosure. I add cooling vents.

 

[JOEPRO]

I put mine in an insulated enclosure. I add cooling vents.

Pics or it didn't happen

 

[jmp49]

I have 3 diesel heater installs, two fixed ones covering the workshops because freezing would be bad for some of the machines in there and I've never found time to finish a decent rocket stove install safely to run the underfloor heating in the slab, one is so old it has the oval clone of the original webasto style lcd control that in my head I put in a couple of years back but checking it was 2018. Damn time flies...

But here's a picture of my exhaust from the temporary setup I've since disassembled. Its been outside for a week in the garden where I tossed it in disgust so the colours have faded.
Note this was isolated with proper heatproof isolant, and had a larger security gap than pictured in the op's post and melted a stool stood away from it. Ive had my homemade woodburner flue systems certified a few times by the assesors and signed off understand statutory requirements for that ie isolation required & air gap to flamable objects and ran the heaters for years, thats my only claim to expertise.

I wonder however if different kw diesel heaters have different temperature exhausts, because they're all the same innnards, just the seller turns the diesel up to get more heat output from the same design. My shed installs are both 4kw and this was a 8kw unit, because it doesnt look straw yellow for the first 50cm or so of the exhaust, and when I lobbed it, it was even more distinct.

I'm not calling into question anyones competences, just, my post was exactly how it went down. And threads about heaters are read and copied by people without expertise, so your install may be safe, but the next person, with a different set of parameters might be in the crap. So I feel its ts always worth posting from experience. Even if that does leave you open to being called a armchair google expert by people who have no idea of your background or situations.
Take this as you will but this and the original post I made when the insults started flying were both made with good intentions.

 

[jmp49]

I'm also disappointed that our resident safety officers didn't ask about the power supply yet....

These tend to be bare conductors including 230v



Eg another members install - not mine, showing how this connects

View attachment 475907

Which chinese Diesel Heater to get?

no low level or you will over heat it i see so many stuck high think what happens with lcds and it does happen with any pcb board they over heat everything is affected with them solder diodes and capacitors all over heating due to heat

www.mig-welding.co.uk

lol I run my original one on a (10A) cb psu with the wires twisted round the banana plugs.

 

[Morris]

Pics or it didn't happen

This is the one in wifey's craft room. Happy now

 

[JOEPRO]

This is the one in wifey's craft room. Happy now
View attachment 475920

Questions

What's the extension lead for? Is it fully uncoiled- hard to see photo.

Does it have RCD protection?

Is it used to plug in this power supply?

What amp fuse is in the plug to PSU?

How are the cables (230v & 12v) carried through the plastic casing?

Is there any means of overheating protection within the enclosure?

 

[jmp49]

On heater installs, this is the stuart warner petrol heater as fitted OEM by VW of America to the Type2 vw bus back in the day. It has a tiny mechanical fuel pump with fixed fuel injection quantity driven from the blower shaft end, and a set of mechanical points off a cam on the end of the fan blower shaft that fires a normal 12v electrical coil connected to a ignition plug on the chamber on the left. The whole lot lives under the floorpan just in front of the rightmost rear wheel not far from where the fuel tank lives, and the system plumbs into the van's exhaust & fuel systems. There's a thermo switched relay that lives up front in the cab with a basic knob to adjust cut in/out temperature and a on off switch that cuts power to the ignition coil and fan blower motor which also stops the fuel pumping, but still in two minds as if to fit it for authenticity to my t2b camper when its restored, or fit a chinese diesel heater with a separate kero tank because its safer and just keep this as a interesting thing to pass on...

Ive had it running on the bench, but it set fire to itself briefly when it was switched off, which is a bit unsettling for something you are going to sleep over.

 

[Morris]

Questions

What's the extension lead for? Is it fully uncoiled- hard to see photo.

It's the supply, the nearest socket is the other side of the room. Yes, it's fully uncoiled.

Does it have RCD protection?

No.

Is it used to plug in this power supply?

Yes

What amp fuse is in the plug to PSU?

5A

How are the cables (230v & 12v) carried through the plastic casing?

They are glanded in, single conductors inside.

Is there any means of overheating protection within the enclosure?

Built into the PSU. It gets nowhere near to warm.
I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition

 

[JOEPRO]

@Morris

It was a pee take and I appreciate the thorough answers All joking aside the ventilated enclosure is a good idea I must get one for mine.

The PSU that is, not the heater!

 

[Morrisman]

Just a thought, but if the exhaust is getting as hot as some have measured, why isn’t that bit kept inside the workshop, and not let out through the wall until the temp has dropped markably?

A straight run of corrugated pipe along the wall would be adding more heat inside the workshop, so when it goes outside it’s barely 100° or so.

Someone I read about installed a log burner in their workshop, and had the flue running diagonally all the way across one wall, before it went outside, to grab the maximum heat from the whole thing.

 

[Morris]

@JOEPRO pee take accepted and approved. My last line said it all

 

[voipio]

I have 3 diesel heater installs, two fixed ones covering the workshops because freezing would be bad for some of the machines in there and I've never found time to finish a decent rocket stove install safely to run the underfloor heating in the slab, one is so old it has the oval clone of the original webasto style lcd control that in my head I put in a couple of years back but checking it was 2018. Damn time flies...

But here's a picture of my exhaust from the temporary setup I've since disassembled. Its been outside for a week in the garden where I tossed it in disgust so the colours have faded.
Note this was isolated with proper heatproof isolant, and had a larger security gap than pictured in the op's post and melted a stool stood away from it. Ive had my homemade woodburner flue systems certified a few times by the assesors and signed off understand statutory requirements for that ie isolation required & air gap to flamable objects and ran the heaters for years, thats my only claim to expertise.

I wonder however if different kw diesel heaters have different temperature exhausts, because they're all the same innnards, just the seller turns the diesel up to get more heat output from the same design. My shed installs are both 4kw and this was a 8kw unit, because it doesnt look straw yellow for the first 50cm or so of the exhaust, and when I lobbed it, it was even more distinct.
View attachment 475917
I'm not calling into question anyones competences, just, my post was exactly how it went down. And threads about heaters are read and copied by people without expertise, so your install may be safe, but the next person, with a different set of parameters might be in the crap. So I feel its ts always worth posting from experience. Even if that does leave you open to being called a armchair google expert by people who have no idea of your background or situations.
Take this as you will but this and the original post I made when the insults started flying were both made with good intentions.

Yikes, I'd better keep stools away from my soldering iron, then!!!

 

[fizzy]

For various reasons I've gone this route for my garden office

Same style I had in the Disco, I wanted self contained to make install cheaper

Wrapped the exhaust in 300 degc heat wrap, highest I've seen the burner is 205

View attachment 475412

Additional bit of wood is due to floor not being finished

View attachment 475413

Bit of finishing to do on the wall, but it's been on every day this week without issue

View attachment 475414

Exhaust is at cat height and there is a direct correlation between me having a quiet life and the cat not getting burned

View attachment 475416

Running on kero, will strip it down once the weather warms up to see how it's doing internally

I have run one on Kero for over 5000 hours no problem. Just don't let it throttle up and down. Better running it flat out then knocking it off to keep soot down. I suspect it won't be a problem with kero anyway. And the pumps are fine on kero as well.

 

[fizzy]

I would invert that air intake though - driven rain will get in and pool in the pipe.

 

[fizzy]

I have 3 diesel heater installs, two fixed ones covering the workshops because freezing would be bad for some of the machines in there and I've never found time to finish a decent rocket stove install safely to run the underfloor heating in the slab, one is so old it has the oval clone of the original webasto style lcd control that in my head I put in a couple of years back but checking it was 2018. Damn time flies...

But here's a picture of my exhaust from the temporary setup I've since disassembled. Its been outside for a week in the garden where I tossed it in disgust so the colours have faded.
Note this was isolated with proper heatproof isolant, and had a larger security gap than pictured in the op's post and melted a stool stood away from it. Ive had my homemade woodburner flue systems certified a few times by the assesors and signed off understand statutory requirements for that ie isolation required & air gap to flamable objects and ran the heaters for years, thats my only claim to expertise.

I wonder however if different kw diesel heaters have different temperature exhausts, because they're all the same innnards, just the seller turns the diesel up to get more heat output from the same design. My shed installs are both 4kw and this was a 8kw unit, because it doesnt look straw yellow for the first 50cm or so of the exhaust, and when I lobbed it, it was even more distinct.
View attachment 475917
I'm not calling into question anyones competences, just, my post was exactly how it went down. And threads about heaters are read and copied by people without expertise, so your install may be safe, but the next person, with a different set of parameters might be in the crap. So I feel its ts always worth posting from experience. Even if that does leave you open to being called a armchair google expert by people who have no idea of your background or situations.
Take this as you will but this and the original post I made when the insults started flying were both made with good intentions.

There are 2 different sizes - one is slightly bigger than the other. The 8kw one is actually 4kw! Some people sell them as a 6kw and a few others will sell them as a 4kw. The smaller one is usually labelled as 4kw but probably 2 or 3kw. They are Chinese!

 

[Gragson]

Any links to a decent DH?
I may have to join the club

 

[steve t]

Just got this off vevor for my camper 80 euro. Be prepared for questions.