Some people are heating their house with diesel heaters.
Chinese Diesel Heater
- Thread starter spader
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Won't the perceived benefits be obviated by the transport costs of the Chinese diesel?
I feel they are over priced now. They used to sell for around £100, but with everyone taking the bandwagon since the electricity & gas price mad hikes.
Plus I feel it is too fiddly and a bit dangerous device to have indoors. And the instaltion is not tidy or simple with cables from power supply, and exhaust pipes running around and must vent out through wall etc.
If anything goes wrong, life is at risk. Always must check everything is perfect - cumbustion, exhaust fumes and the device. And is Diesel not going to be phased out soon too?
I just bought a halogen heater from Amazon for £20. It arrived and works great - cheap heater, hassle free, and mind at peace using fuel based heater maintenance time and energy doing the other work. Electricity, whatever energy one uses, it would be costly unless it is wind turbine or solar energy, which have drawbacks themselves. Nothing is perfect.
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As mentioned else where, I've been quite interested in one of these, at least as a cheap way to put some heat in my outdoor workshop, during the winter. Well, I finally bought one. This one for £67.49, 8Kw.
I mounted it in a corner of my big workbench, blowing its exhaust out through the back wall. It included one of the better controllers, plus a remote control. The controller, has I eventually discovered, included a temperature sensor and thermostatic control. Very effective, apart from the fact, the stat could only turn the heater down to minimum output, rather than off. The other option is to simply set it to a preset power/heat output level.
On full output, the hot output duct quickly becomes hot enough to burn the skin of your hand.
So I'm quite pleased with my buy.
My outdoor workshop, is an extension on the back of my garage, open to the garage. Rather than attempt to heat the entire space, I've added some curtains between the two, to at least retain the heat.
I'm no looking for a cheaper source of fuel for it, than diesel. I read some people run them on kero/heating oil, but where to source that from, at heating oil prices?
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Some of the cheaper ones might burn old engine oil, but this may require a license.
Red diesel?
As per the thread title,
Chinese diesel?
Chinese diesel?
I'll have to check how available it is.
In areas where oil based house heating is often used LPG is seen as a lot more expensive. View from some years ago but probably still true. Down to heating oil prices? - pass. The oil can be ordered and delivered but 500L min of late.
Another factor using heating oil for whole house but probably applies to all. They need servicing, wire brush on parts etc and settings checked. If not they have been known to cause house fires - usually in the loft. I do know some one who had that experience.
They sell them as 5kw-8kw, but they won't be that. As I understand it they are a copy of the eberspacher d4, which is 4kw.
Legally you can run them on red diesel for domestic heating, to get a delivery you would need a tank and 500l minimum order. Some places have red diesel on a pump but often not much cheaper than white.
Bought some recently and it was about 79p a litre
I've found a possible solution for the cheaper fuel for the heater - Jet A1.
I've tried numerous potential sources, for red diesel and drawn a complete blank, likewise trying to get kero/heating oil. One place I found, with a yard pump, wanted much more for kero, than the white diesel I put in my car. Then I read that jet fuel, is almost the same as kero, and some people burn that, quite successfully, in these heaters. There was also mention of using free Jet fuel, drained from tanks, as a free source.
So I looked up my local aero club, a couple of miles away. They had their fuel prices on their website, 94p per litre for Jet A1, and enquired via email to their flight desk, if I could drive over, and fill a container. The reply came back soon after - no problem at all, it's self-service, just call at the flight desk, and let them know, before filling up.
I've tried numerous potential sources, for red diesel and drawn a complete blank, likewise trying to get kero/heating oil. One place I found, with a yard pump, wanted much more for kero, than the white diesel I put in my car. Then I read that jet fuel, is almost the same as kero, and some people burn that, quite successfully, in these heaters. There was also mention of using free Jet fuel, drained from tanks, as a free source.
So I looked up my local aero club, a couple of miles away. They had their fuel prices on their website, 94p per litre for Jet A1, and enquired via email to their flight desk, if I could drive over, and fill a container. The reply came back soon after - no problem at all, it's self-service, just call at the flight desk, and let them know, before filling up.
I've tried local marinas - no luck.
I now have 20L of Jet A1, collected from my local aero club, for 94p per litre. After several burning sessions, and several ignition sessions, I find it works just fine. Many others complain about the ticking noise of the pump, I find it sort of reassuring, but I think it may seem quieter, on the Jet A1.
One issue I have found with the CDH, is with its temperature control. Mine includes a room temperature sensor, built into the control panel, and the option to control on heat output, or on sensed room temperature. I run it on the latter, and what it does is run on max output, until the room (my workshop) is to temperature, then it ramps down to minimum output. The minimum output, can still be too much heat input, and a waste of fuel, the only fix, to turn it off for a while, then back on when the space cools. One button is used for both on and off, if it's off, press, and it turns on, if it's on, it turns on....
One solution, I found, uses two W1209 Temperature Controller device modules, wired with their relay contacts in parallel. One unit set to trigger on temperature fall, to turn the CDH on, the second to turn it off, on temperature rise, each set with a hysteresis of 0.1C, so that they switch on, then quite quickly back off again. Recreating a button push, followed by release, as the CDH responds to the demand.
I have the pair of W1209 modules wired up, and working just fine on the bench, next trick is to connect them to the heater control and test them in earnest. An obvious issue, is the CDH missing relay pulses, and getting out of sync with the button presses, but I'll soon find out. Another is that if a temperature adjustment is needed, BOTH, units need to be adjusted - for instance the on module at 16C, the off module operating at 18C.
The W1209 cost around £2 each, runs on 12v, and is very configurable, with a 3 digit temperature display, set; +, and - buttons.
details are here - https://protosupplies.com/product/w1209-temperature-controller-module/
but they can be sourced much cheaper, for other suppliers..
One issue I have found with the CDH, is with its temperature control. Mine includes a room temperature sensor, built into the control panel, and the option to control on heat output, or on sensed room temperature. I run it on the latter, and what it does is run on max output, until the room (my workshop) is to temperature, then it ramps down to minimum output. The minimum output, can still be too much heat input, and a waste of fuel, the only fix, to turn it off for a while, then back on when the space cools. One button is used for both on and off, if it's off, press, and it turns on, if it's on, it turns on....
One solution, I found, uses two W1209 Temperature Controller device modules, wired with their relay contacts in parallel. One unit set to trigger on temperature fall, to turn the CDH on, the second to turn it off, on temperature rise, each set with a hysteresis of 0.1C, so that they switch on, then quite quickly back off again. Recreating a button push, followed by release, as the CDH responds to the demand.
I have the pair of W1209 modules wired up, and working just fine on the bench, next trick is to connect them to the heater control and test them in earnest. An obvious issue, is the CDH missing relay pulses, and getting out of sync with the button presses, but I'll soon find out. Another is that if a temperature adjustment is needed, BOTH, units need to be adjusted - for instance the on module at 16C, the off module operating at 18C.
The W1209 cost around £2 each, runs on 12v, and is very configurable, with a 3 digit temperature display, set; +, and - buttons.
details are here - https://protosupplies.com/product/w1209-temperature-controller-module/
but they can be sourced much cheaper, for other suppliers..
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