Heater

Minus 2 in the workshop this morning. Guess I'll have to put the heater on...

I checked the min/max thermometer in my attached garage workshop (7m x 4.5m) this morning, pavements were white with frost but min temp shown was just a tad under 10 degrees and I've not had any heating on for the best part of a week. It is well insulated, cavity walls with 60mm Celotex insulation and 120mm in roof.

I was in the workshop this morning and had to come inside but for the opposite reason. The forcast today for Sydney is 35 C.

I use a diesel powered heater for my workshop. It will get plenty of use over the coming weeks, we have had relatives staying for a couple of weeks and I have a backlog of work to catch up on.

Chris

Can you explain the diesel powered heater concept to me. Does it create moisture that will rust tools ?

Alan

Alan, the heater I use is an "Erberspacher" (spelling ?) It is a cab heater from a large lorry and works with a fan blowing over the cast burner and due to the air flow I have no condensation worries. It takes in air from outside the garage and also exhausts through the wall. Try Google Erberspacher D5 you may get more idea. Very low fuel consumption means I can afford to put it on an hour before I go out to do any work.

Thanks Chris, this seems like a very efficient means of heating the workshop.

It appears to need around 60W of DC power but what do you reckon your fuel consumption is ?

Can I use house heating oil as the fuel ?

Have you installed it external to the shop and ducted the hot air in ?

Alan

Also available from Mikuni and Webasto ("fuel fired heater". They are basically completely self-contained mini boilers (fan, pump, igniter etc). Sometimes fitted to passenger cars (as well as buses, lorries etc), particularly in colder climes. Diesels reject a lot less heat than petrol engines, so take longer to heat up. Similarly, electric vehicles generate very little heat and it may be a pragmatic solution to fit one or more of them. So you end up with a diesel tank on an electric vehicle....

I think you can get gas ones too. They make caravan water heaters.

Back in the late 1990s my next door neighbour was a BT linesman/installer. His van was amazing, designed, I reckon, by a 3D jig-saw genius! Everything he might need slotted in somewhere, even provision for hand washing.

But here's the 'on-topic' part: one frosty morning, I was awoken by his van making a noise reminiscent of a small jet aircraft warming up for take-off. When I asked him about it, he explained that it was a built-in heater, powered by diesel fuel and programmable. So he didn't need to get up 30 minutes earlier on frosty mornings to scrape the windscreens etc. He could breakfast at leisure and come out of the house to a warmed-up vehicle, start it at the first turn of the key and drive off with fingers & toes as warm as toast!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Alan, the unit is fitted inside the workshop with air inlet and exhaust going through the wall. As swarf mostly has commented it makes a noise like a small jet engine but only on initial fire up to temperature then just the gentle hum of a fan. Yes they run on household heating oil and apparently this suits them better being a cleaner burn. I tend to run mine on red diesel. I ran a Land Rover for over 35 years and had one fitted that was really efficient. Fuel consumption is minimal I use mine around three days a week and use between 5 and 8 gallons of red a year depending on how cold it is. The unit I have is 24 volt running from a transformer. I am in between Lichfield and Burton on Trent you are welcome to take a look if you are local. Chris.

Thanks Chris, this is very useful to know and food for thought.

I currently have a fan heater only and it is wearing the bearings out on the meter so something better needed.

I had a VW 412LE car in the 70's that was fitted with a petrol version of the Eberspacher heater. Fantastic when it worked, quite dangerous to fault-find when it didn't!

It also had a timer button on the dash that gave up to 30 minutes preheat. I finally isolated it from both fuel and power when it developed one leak too many. People were often intrigued why my car had two exhausts - one across the back from the engine, and a tiny one behind the rear wheel for the heater!

Using a vehicle fuel burning heater in the workshop is a very interseting idea. Could you safely convert one off a diesel car or truck into a shop heater or do you need to find a complete self contained box intended for space heating on, for example and boat or a caravan? I presume that a vehicle one would need at least a pump, fuel tank and ignition / thermostat control system added to make a space heater.

Searching Erbbsparcher D5 as advised pulls up a number of comments from boat owners who have found them less than reliable if used continuously for space heating duties. Looks to be a valid concern if re-purposing a vehicle one. For exampleI understand that the ones fitted to L322 Range Rovers are only supposed to be used for 15 to 30 minutes at a time.

Clive.

I have a gas balanced flue wall heater. No fan, no noise, keeps my 12ft * 10 ft man cave really toasty and I suspect mains gas is cheaper than diesel for same energy input. Can't programme it, but put it on whilst having breakfast and the room is soon warm.

Clive, my D5 Eberspacher is an ex vehicle one. I think it came off a prison van and is said to be big enough to heat a small narrow boat. I run it from a barrel of fuel it has a small pump and its electronic brain is 24 volt running off a transformer. No reliability issues as yet in three winters use. The whole thing was given to me and installed by a friend who I have done a lot of machining for, he had got hold of several units. His installation leaves a little to be desired cosmetically but it all works.

I'd like to stay and chat but I'm just off to my basement shop where the temperature is a comfortable 20 - 22 deg C year round.