Skotl's diesel heater garage install thread

[MysterG]

Seriously tempted to give one of these a try in the garage. Double, uninsulated and at around 3 degrees the other day.
I currently have a 2.5kw fan heater I point in my direction for up to an hour when I first go out there, would one of these be cheaper to run? I guess the bigger heat output would make a difference.

 

[fizzy]

Seriously tempted to give one of these a try in the garage. Double, uninsulated and at around 3 degrees the other day.
I currently have a 2.5kw fan heater I point in my direction for up to an hour when I first go out there, would one of these be cheaper to run? I guess the bigger heat output would make a difference.

Electric 23p per kw/h
Kerosene 4p per kw/h
No contest!

 

[Bullet2012]

Electric 23p per kw/h
Kerosene 4p per kw/h
No contest!

Fair point, but what is the electric use for these units ?

 

[Newlands]

Fair point, but what is the electric use for these units ?

about 5 amps for three minutes on start-up, followed by around 1 amp once it’s running. That’s at 12v, so that’s 60 watts for a very short time and then dropping to 12watts. Not worth worrying about in the grand scheme of things.
the good thing about the fuel use is that you buy it up-front, rather than with, say, a fan heater which drip-feeds the cost onto your electric bill and giving you a shock two months down the line.

 

[MysterG]

Electric 23p per kw/h
Kerosene 4p per kw/h
No contest!

So even on Diesel it would be half (ish) the cost of electrickery?

 

[Morris]

Seriously tempted to give one of these a try in the garage. Double, uninsulated and at around 3 degrees the other day.
I currently have a 2.5kw fan heater I point in my direction for up to an hour when I first go out there, would one of these be cheaper to run? I guess the bigger heat output would make a difference.

This is where my second heater was installed. My workshop/garage is a large single (24 X 13 feet plus an extension "machine shop" ). It was 6 degrees outside, I was basking in 15, more than warm enough.
Do it!

 

[fizzy]

So even on Diesel it would be half (ish) the cost of electrickery?

Don't buy white diesel.
Some garages sell kero at the pump and also sell red.
Red diesel will be hard to get after April.
If you are totally stuck then running on road diesel will work out at about 10p per litre still far cheaper than leccy.
Been warning for years about the folly of wind and solar. Finally starting to bite

 

[Newlands]

If you are totally stuck then running on road diesel will work out at about 10p per litre still far cheaper than leccy.

I guess you mean 10p an hour ??

 

[AVI_8]

Having bought @skotl‘s other heater and now fitted it in my conservatory, I have a wee question. Is there any reason I cannot use a tumble drier insulated vent hose as my heat output hose.

The reason being, the heater is mounted quite high up to keep it next to the exhaust exit point in the conservatory, and I’d like to extend the heat ducting down to floor level, where it should be more effective.

I’ve seen someone fit one of these in a log cabin building, he put insulated car exhaust tape around the exhaust where it went through the building, if you can do this where it goes through the plastic tumble drier vent hose it’ll keep the surface temps down a lot

 

[fizzy]

I guess you mean 10p an hour ??

sorry 10p per kw/h
Still not fully with it

 

[Farside]

 

[500e]

Have 4 friends with these heaters all now run the exhaust through 100 to 150mm close to floor the amount of heat of radiant heat is worth the work one with a. long run of 150mm steel pipe gets a temp close to heater of 45 at the exaust vent end down to 3/4. Make sure it is sealed and vents out doors
We took the 150mm pipe one to bits a week or so ago to have a look . look hardly any carbon a quick brush out about 1/2 an egg cup full a wipe of the glow plug with a 3m green pad and back together
Thanks to all who suggested what I required we have not had any problems with any of those 4 & hope to have the one I was given working soon ordered a new temp probe

 

[mike os]

Question for those that know

What models are thermostatic rather than “heat level “ … want one that I can set a temperature and leave it to sort itself out

 

[gaz1]

here you are

Home

Afterburner home page

afterburner.mrjones.id.au

for parts reference i will give you this as it will name the parts

Chinese Diesel Heater - SPARE PARTS, ADDED EXTRAS & UPGRADES 2.0

Hi everybody, sorry we haven't posted for a while but we are back now with another awesome diesel heater post. We have posted a similar post to this before but this is the upgraded 2.0 version so we have pulled out all the stops to find some awesome stuff for you. So these Chinese Diesel Heaters...

www.vanlifeuksurvivorsguide.co.uk

 

[mike os]

Cheers guys …

 

[m_c]

I'm currently trying to decide whether to buy the Afterburner controller, or make my own, as I want the ability to turn the heater on remotely before I go into the workshop.
If I can turn the heater on before leaving work, that gives it 30 minutes to start warming the workshop up, whereas last winter I had to endure the cold for that first 30-40 minutes it took for the place to start warming up.

Afterburner would be mostly plug and play, but would need a MQTT service setup that I can access via the internet (would probably use MS Azure), whereas if I make my own controller based on an Arduino wifi board, I could use the Arduino Cloud service, which has a very handy app for remote access. Or I wonder if I could run a MQTT broker on an Arduino that the Afterburner could talk to....I'm off to do some googling.

 

[mike os]

Next question … power direct 12v15/20a or with a battery as well?

Is the power off shutdown really an issue? Assuming it’s not a regular occurrence?

 

[jsf55]

I've switched mine off twice by mistake at the power switch, flicked it back on goes into " cool down mode" then it will restart fine, just takes a bit of time

 

[Morris]

I run both mine from power supplies from eBay, 20A from memory. Work great.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

If I have to go out to the cave for any length of time when it's Baltic outside [becoming less often the older I get ] I just go out, fire mine up, then come back inside for 20 mins or so to allow things to warm up a bit.