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Shop heating

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Joules:
I’ve been testing one of these for a couple of months now in my workshop.  They are pretty safe as long as you follow the installation guide.  The pump is a dosing pump, not gravity fed,  so can’t run away, any electrical or cpu failure just kills or stalls the pump, the glow plug manages about 100w enough to vaporise the diesel, but not enough to heat the alloy casting of the heater.  As to the heat out the exhaust, once you are upto temperature and the thing throttles back, the temp falls away and you can hold the silencer.   I am still waiting for the unit to soot up and fail, parts are cheap and the heater mesh can be fabricated.   I run red diesel and for a 2kw unit it costs me less than £1.00 a day for heating.  I use the heater 6-7 days a week for 8-10hrs a day.  I did insulate the workshop roof and door with silvered insulation from Screwfix and this made a huge difference.  I only need 10℃ To be able to work, but the added benefit is, the heater has dropped the moisture that was present in the shop.

I might add, DON’T drill a hole in the tank to fit one of the fuel fittings.  Drill the tank lid and pass the fuel line though and add a clunk to sit at the bottom of the tank.  My tank is fitted so it stand vertical, I have x2 20ltr Jerry cans for fuel and decant into a portable 10ltr can.  It’s easier to fill the heater tank, just use a funnel.

Joules:
Something to think about if you are installing one of these in a shed.  The exhaust pipe does get hot, around 260℃+ hot.  I made a through wall fitting, as I already had the hole !!!  if you pay careful attention to the supplied air filter, it actually doesn't filter.  My idea was to combine the exhaust out, add some filtering and give the air coming in a bit of preheat.  You need to get some separation between the intake and exhaust to stop it pulling fumes back into the combustion chamber.  The through wall fitting could be as simple as a bean tin with the ends removed, just get some seperation around the exhaust.

My air filter is 3D printed frame with a stainless mesh welded into the print.  This is bolted to the outside of the through wall fitting.  The internal end of the fitting is glued in with JB Weld, the external plate is a free floating close fit, lets things expand and condensation to drain out of the pipe as it is at a very slight angle.  I used copper pipe to extend the exhaust and add a right angle so the exhaust is angled down.

This is the clunk I made from a bit of brass bar, slit it to make a collet, then one of the supplied pipe clamps can fix it to the end of the pipe after you have threaded it through the cap.  Final picture is my fuel setup, this is about 2weeks heating, one week in the tank and another fill in the can below.  I pick up 40ltrs a month depending on how cold the weather is, if it's mild the tank can do 10 days worth of heating.

These heaters share a lot of similarities to model jet turbine engines, the rpm and power output are much reduced but actually firing and running these engines is almost identical and cannot function accuratly without an ECU.

shipto:
Nicely set up  :thumbup:
I found a place to get the red diesel today and paid £16 for 20 litres, not sure how that compares to others around the country but I am happy at that.
The exhaust heat is one of the things that annoys me about this thing and as I said in origional post I would like to harvest this heat somehow but thats another thread  :D

Joules:
Shipto, you are chasing diminishing returns trying to capture that waste heat.  The exhaust system needs to be hot to get rid of moisture and combustion products.  If you pull too much heat from the exhaust combustion products will condense and choke the exhaust.   That is what I am watching for when the heater ramps down to idle running.   The shutdown sequence ramps up the heater and switches on the glow plug to de-coke the mesh and plug for next run.

Our local Morrisons has a gas oil pump (red diesel)

awemawson:
Pop along with your can and I'll flog you some red diesel - I keep a bowser with 1000 litres of the stuff  :clap:

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