Diesel parking heater

By the way, I also ordered this one for $55 shipped after a link was posted on another forum.

Diesel Air Heater 12V 5KW for Efficient Heating - Compact Design, Remote Control, Lcd Display, Single Outlet, and Silencer for Rvs, Trucks, Boats, and More Black

i have not received it yet. It will not have all the features of the Hcalory. It cost me $88 so far to buy a sufficient 12v power supply, a cord, and a 90⁰ elbow for the exhaust. The power supply should be at least 15 amps. I went 30.

It was so inexpensive I just bought it to play around with. I might make an exhaust hole in the garage to use it for when I'm working on cars or whatever. I can set it up for emergency heat for the house.
 
Noooooo! So close! I checked it this morning at 47.5 hours and the heater was out of fuel. The shop had cooled to around 60⁰ so it had to be a very short time. I'm guessing it went 47 hours.

The temperature outside varied from low 30's to mid 40's over that time frame. Pretty mild winter temperatures.

The upcoming 10 days will be considerably cooler. I'm positive the fuel usage will go up.

Pretty cool test. In the next couple weeks I'll have a 15L tank on it, combined with the 6L tank. Should run a while on that.
 
I started my next test. I'm running my "shop away" program. The set point is 45⁰.

When I go out to the shop I'll switch to the "shop" program to kick up the heat while I work. I'll most likely do an hour or more per day over the next two days.

I don't think that the fuel consumption will be a lot lower. It seems that the heater likes to coast at a very low level. It will be interesting to see how it runs at such low temperatures.


When I'm warming up the shop from 45⁰ to 65⁰, I may fire up the big radiant heaters to help raise the temperature faster. Those heaters cost $0.43 an hour. On average, I only use those a couple times a week for an hour or less.
 
Do you have a picture of the vented pipe on the outside? I am curious how this vents.

Thank you for offering another solution.

Joe
 
jarhead said:
Do you have a picture of the vented pipe on the outside? I am curious how this vents.

Thank you for offering another solution.

Joe
Click to expand...
I'll try to get you a picture of how I did it. It's a mud pit back there today. In a week I'll be able to walk freely on the ice.
 
The shop hasn't gotten much below 55⁰ for hours. The machines are holding too much heat. I'm thinking my away temperature should be closer to 50⁰.
 
Yesterday it took the diesel heater 3 hours to raise the temperature 10⁰ on a 25⁰ windy day. The shop is 420 sq ft. It was comfortable most of that time but it is what it is.

Today I'm trying something different. I'm running the two radiant heaters at both ends of my shop while running the diesel heater. The thermometer at the far end read 47⁰ to start. At 45 minutes it says 55⁰.

That is a huge improvement and it only cost $0.43.

The diesel heater cost $5-$6 to maintain 60⁰ for 2 days on the warmer 30's and 40's days. That's outstanding. It seems not quite up to the task of raising the temperature of so much thermal mass over and over.

I honestly have not decided how I'm going to run the system yet. When I set my heater at 55⁰ last night, it had an ambient temperature of 56⁰ this morning. In reality that was 47⁰ to 50⁰ throughout the shop. It had not run all night while dropping that 10⁰.
 
This is my secondary tank.

20250104_132551.jpg

My hope is to install a check valve in the original tank line and a T so i can keep both hooked up at all times. The new tank will have a valve and an inline filter before it goes through the wall next to the outside wall, then around to the T inside the heater.

I will have 5.5 gallons or 21 liters. That should run a full 5 days for the time I'm gone during the weeks I'm traveling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top