Free heating (well, nearly) - I'm not cold here this winter for the first time I can remember...

Update:

Motor oil seems to give more heat at certain settings of the heater but MIGHT have overheated the glow plug which failed in the one heater. I've got one set of gaskets that came with the replacement glow plug, so I'll take a look inside my heater in due course. It seems to be that petrol isn't very good for this application it seems to add more noise than heat.

To do this "burn any liquid you can find" properly I believe the heater needs to have a separated combustion fan and heat exchanger fan and at least an EGT & lambda sensor. These heaters were clearly designed carefully to run off light heating oils of a known viscosity and calorific output and not a post apocalyptic "burn what you can find" world. But they do seem to like vegetable oil, on the one time I've tried it. Currently I've settled on kerosene as being the best basic commercial fuel, partly because I can also use it in my zipro heater and for cleaning parts, but mainly because it's cheaper than diesel and any micro spillage doesn't hang about like with diesel. In short, it's less filthy although I believe, quite toxic.

Thanks for bringing this thread back, I'm hoping that there are other people like me in the Autism community who do this sort of thing will chime in.

Energy is a big issue, when you realise that 1 Kw hour is effectively equal to the fairly hard working of ten subservient human beings for an hour. When you fire up that triton shower you would need at least 110 people pedalling furiously outside to make it work for you, absent of generated "mains" electricity.  

I research both ends of the "free energy" problem, generation though scavenging, or generation though advanced understanding and technology, which Mr Tesla called "harnessing the very wheelwork of nature" It's proving difficult to obtain energy independence, so far...

Running that Chinese diesel heater on the right fuel and getting it down to 5P per kilowatt hour is quite a steal! And using used motor oil as an experimental fuel? That's some next-level resourcefulness. Just remember to prioritize safety and do thorough research, especially after those scary noises at 3:45 AM. Safety first, my friend!  As for plumbing info and implementing a gravity-fed boiler radiator combo, I hope you find some ""proper"" plumbers who can share their knowledge. They might be able to guide you on safely inserting a pre-heater into your central heating circuit. Exploring surplus car parts and finding ways to pre-feed the boiler with heated water definitely shows your determination to maximize efficiency. If you're ever in need of plumbing expertise, you might want to check out https://www.spartamech.co.uk. They could offer some helpful information to fuel your DIY projects.

We were punished for having ambition. While the Dregs of our society ended up getting the upper hand. 

The Underclass were allowed to outbreed us, until they could outvote us. That's why Democracy failed us.

Life in, Northern Ireland, Peacetime simply toed the line of everywhere else. Nationalists are Woke, to the Nth Degree, while Unionists try to Ape America; at every given opportunity. We no longer have sovereignty. 

I always wanted to be a commercial pilot, flying freight or firefighting. Reality and careers teachers thwarted those ambitions initially then skintness and autism played a part in my failure to get it all done, but I gave it 30 years of trying before I acknowledged defeat, and managed to get a Private pilot licence 140 hours or so of flying done and six years of aircraft engineering in first, so I can't complain that anyone "put me off" I just did not have what was required to achieve that dream. Someone FINALLY took pity on me in 2016, but by then I'd put in my thirty years, was realistically to old to ever be employed as a commerical pilot, too skint to be a PPL in my own aeroplane, (and too much of a dickhead to trust myself flying other peoples), so it really was time to let go, and do something else.

I then did drones, until that became simply too much hassle and red tape to keep doing. 

We already had our old boiler replaced with a combi system back when I was trying to "stay in my lane" and I'm well aware that they are tricky things in and of themselves, as for the first few years it failed every winter, and whilst I figured out the issue and potential fix it took three years for B.G to roll out a fix, whilst we paid that contract which prevents me from "interfering", of course....

I've now figured out that the boiler is designed to start up and adapt itself to whatever temperature the incoming water is at, (for obvious reasons) so the only issue now is the added impedance to water flow, that my proposed modification will incur. I suspect this will mean that the correct place to fit a micro boiler is on a radiator circuit actually, rather than in the main C/H feed line. They had trouble with one of the radiators and had to fit isolation valves, in a very convenient place for me, so a DIY job that can be isolated from the main work, to avoid any demarcation conflicts appears doable, but I want a second opinion from someone with some more experience rather than brainfarts like I have, to guide me a bit before I make any mods or addons to our C/H...

I wanted to be a Radio DJ, as a kid. But was pushed from pillar to post by Careers Teachers. 

I didn't have a mentor, in my teenage years, with my father killed in the Troubles when I was 10.

(((they))) are the hideous hidden string pullers who contrive our education system so that finding a plumber who has both wide and deep knowledge is way more difficult than it would have been in the 1930's when we still had the vestiges of a trivium based educational system. Where people were taught and given the tools to "think and learn" rather than "recall and recite". 

Currently I'm attempting to replace the lead acid battery based start up system which I deem to hazardous to have indoors after the last one exploded, rendering my workshop useless for a six month period and changing to a smaller battery has proven to be not reliable enough, to a mains based system using a surplus desktop/tower PC ATX power supply and a 7quid adapter board.  A little more work than a bespoke power supply but much cheaper and if It breaks I just need another junk power supply. 

I was always told to do I.T. but chose radio, then did I.T...

You're one of the wise.  Neither a teacher nor a student - a true being.

The system failed us, but we mustn't fail ourselves.

I was the one who drank the IT Kool-Aid, while those who Studied Engineering won the Lottery of Life.

The Empire preaches Isolationism; while practicing Exceptionalism.

I'm slowly, but surely, getting out of 'Learned Helplessness'. Too long riding pillion, while life passed me by.

However, I'm above ground. The Lord isn't finished with me; yet.

My neighbour has a generator; if push comes to shove, she may teach me how to use it. Again, the Teacher appears when the Students are ready.

Throughout my life, I sought approval; people-pleasing. I was a rat, claiming to do good. But Zaccheus sought to pay back what he plundered four-fold.

I can reveal this now as I believe the all important Watneys party seven can can no longer be bought...

One takes such a can, opens it with the correct tool (which leaves two triangular openings) and dispose of the beer in a suitable fashion.

When the can is quite empty The desintaed operator simply gives it a good long squirt of lighter butane and you hold the can at arms length initially still carefuly upright and then tipping the can horizontal with one of the two triangular apertures lower than the other.

And as soon as the can is horizontal...

....You apply a naked flame!

Every time I have done this, the can leaves my hand and flies across the room with a most satisfying "WHAAANG" sound, and the onlookers are always suitably impressed...

I'm possibly super lucky and if YOU do it you will bleed to death from the metal shrapnel.

But it's an awesome sound...

In my late teens, me and a friend were "carefully" spraying WD40 across to top of a candle.  Wisely, we had the candle on a large dinner plate and were using the long red plastic tube on the can to prevent suck-back and can explosion - we even had a pint of water in case of emergency.

All good fun.  No problem - got bored with that and settled back to watch a film in that room, leaving the candle burning, still safely on the dinner plate, on the carpet....where we were both lying out.

Fast forward about 1 hour, candle was nearly out and making the plate hot......the huge quantity of un-burnt WD40 that had missed the candle and soaked into the carpet  suddenly combusted.   We found ourselves lying in a carpet of fire.

A little bit of safety knowledge is a very dangerous thing in youth !.....and carpets....and petrol.....and WD40......and WW2 ammunition....and spergs.

Sleep well.

I once had a passing requirement for a small fire in my back garden, on boxing day.

I had not had a narrowboat, was very young and had only basic fire making skills which I felt at the time needed to be augmented by the use of a small amount of petrol, which I carefully added to the wood before carefully taking the petrol can a safe distance etc.

Upon returning to the small potential fire I approached form the side cautiously with a long flame.

Nothing happened. 

I gradually got more bold with my attempts to get the petrol to ignite, but it was just too cold. 

Well I got kind of sucked in from the edge, until I was over the fire looking down at the unigniteable petrol when it did in fact decide to ignite! 

Even though I'd used only a sensibly considered starting amount, it went BOOF!! and I lost my eyebrows, some of my front hair, pretty much all of my self confidence, and I gained what appeared to be a facial sunburn, all in a fraction of a second!! 

That petrol stuff is dangerous, I'm surprised they didn't make it illegal...

I visualise you as a UK Ron Swanson.....understated, calm but deadly serious......he very much likes "breakfast foods" too......and keeps a landmine on this desk.

I need to create the illusion of great danger whilst actually being very circumspect where the force goes, I'm well aware. I'm also very good at safely creating that sort of illusion..

I've tried legal and signage, I've tried "nice", now it's time for the military approach. Build a beachhead, and hold it, then expand into and control the surrounding area.

Yes, they might well come back for a second attempt, but with proper signage and giving fair warning, I can then deploy paint, & smoke as well as sound.

Once they get the idea of stay out of my fricking buildings unless you like these things, I believe they will react exactly the same as their opposite numbers in law enforcement when faced with effective opposition in their own game, and go pick on the easier meat..

How much effort and exposure to flying paint would you go through to fick with someones strimmer? I'm pretty sure one of those mines behind a plastic bag of emulsion firing downwards will do the trick quite nicely, I'm pretty sure I can fire it from the side or back as well by placing the sensor or trip wire in the right place.

They come equipped and knowledgeable about all the commercial and common defenses, yes I know. Time to add the unexpected.

I own my Iand & I intend to have the use of it, and since the law will not protect my interests, I need to do it myself.

They are lucky that I am not interested in actually hurting anyone, but unlucky in that I'm not going to take this crap lying down. I'm not above covering them in cat *** of which I have an inexhaustible supply either, if I need to escalate past the paint..

Appearing more unhinged than the opposition is a MAJOR psychological edge. The real trick is to make sure that it's only the appearance, and not your reality. It's much harder than actually being "dangerous to mess with, has the same effect, but no one gets hurt... Been doing it for years. 

If law and order breaks down, of course, psychology won't work as well as actually being "dangerous", which is an entirely different problem and what the military trains you for. That is considerably easier technology to improvise  than protecting your stuff, but in such a situation I will be most likely on some farmland owned by a local criminal enterprise providing electricity and technical services whilst they do the things I'm not so happy to do...  

NO, securing my little bit of wasteground so that I can simply go there and tidy it up without some twats reversing what I've done and adding more mess, has proven to be a more serious problem that I would have believed. They seem to think I am some sort of interloper to "their" area, and need to be thwarted.

That's foreigners for you... (Sometimes! Sometimes they are lovely. But the last batch of foreigners who I once resented, but came to have friends in their community also dislike and complain about the new immigrants from the ex soviet union countries... :c) 

But It's my owned land in my own country of origin.  After waiting a shade under 54 years after I first was told to own property, I bought it with my own gold and some loans from my friends by the skin of my teeth.

I claim the lawful right to clear it up & plant a bloody lawn and put up some sheds and do stuff in them without being opposed. 

And if I'm going to have to enforce it myself, my nine stone weakling, 60 plus year old frame doesn't give me the required gravitas. I have no weight to throw about, so safe deployment of pyrotechnics offers the only viable solution I have come to believe.  

I'll take any alternative ideas or enter into discussion, but I've done an awful lot of that with people already, and no one has actually had any ideas that I have not either tried, or have to discard as excessively dangerous, dependent on psychology that I can't relate to, or some other fatal flaw. 

I deployed a relatively safe and well known sterilising fluid the other day, by means of a misting wand and need to go and check on it's effects. It was a pleasant change to see the usual observers standing just the other sides of my gates trying to look menacing, back off slowly as it dawned on them that I was spraying and getting closer... The psychology will only work though if it actually as violent a defoliant as it was billed to be!

Whatever I do, must look dangerously effective, and create fear uncertainty and doubt as to what they are dealing with.  As well as being legal decent and above all, as non-evil as I can manage. It's all a "game" really, that's why I recommend that book in my profile...

I'd rather be getting on with making the Peltier thing than fighting for some freedom to use my own land of course... 

"Autism, it's what's for breakfast!"

Fun fact for a Tuesday evening.  Aged 9, I visited the WW2 sites of Northern France with my family and found a couple of old cartridges.  Proud and happy, they travelled back to the UK with us.  Soon thereafter, in my back garden, I was very carefully cleaning out and shining my new "finds".....and looked at the pile of green "sand" I had scraped out from the insides.  I wonder what would happen if I put a match to it, I thought.......

At that moment, my respect for the black stuff was seared into my eyes.  All as well - but that moment has definitely "imprinted" in my mind.  Exactly which patio slab I was on, what the weather was, what time of year it was, etc.

The mind is a wonderful thing.

The saltpetre laxative you propose to scare the trespassers.......I have questions, if you will indulge me.

If stage 1 of your cunning plan successfully executes the first time and you successfully scare '7 shades' out of any trespassers by using the mines as proposed (ie with a shotgun blank or sorts)....what then?  I assume they will return again intent on "blowing up" your fuel dump (in my experience, scallywags are actually that dumb - I bet they would waste a box of matches before catching on.) = stage 2.

So that would be [two-:-nil] to the Sperg at that point.

Problem is, what next man?  What is stage 3?

Kids out there these days (and the more seasoned ne'er-do-wells) get properly tooled up these days from what I can gather.  Escalation from the "other side" is a wholly foreseeable outcome if you were to deploy fireworks (literally and metaphorically) at stage 1.

Wise?  I think not - purely in terms of the cartridge blank with 12g of gunpowder lying around on your land.  Kerosene won't blow the face off an inquisitive 7 year old, but a shotgun blank can!

I reckon a creative soul like you could wrestle up a more creative display that could be delivered by your impressively simple trigger line devices.  I reckon you could earn their respect at stages 1 and 2 above with your unquestionable prowess in all matters practical and technological, without the need to resort to black powder.  Red or black Hilti cartridges are fun for thrill-seeking grown-ups with a death wish - but frigging lethal in the hands of adolescents and younger.

Your other aspirational proposition to silo 2.9 million BTU's = I think very wise indeed...in heavy oil format.

God's speed Sperg. = another fine pastry of three words.

NB Terms and Conditions of use regarding this advice are as published and no responsibility, either morally, criminally, religiously or through tort is accepted under UK or international law.  Amen.

Taking a bit of a risk (by my standards) with barrel supported off the ground, and no "bunding" which I don't like, but I draw from the top of the barrel, with a pump on demand, into the smaller heater jerry or tank. So leakage is only possible if the barrel actually fails, which is statistically unlikely. I've a thousand litre "proper" tank in storage waiting to go to my land when I can secure it* so I can take maximum advantage of the pricing that comes when you buy 1000litres at a time.

* I discovered THESE this week, which in conjunction with the correct signage and if employed using the skills the military tried to impart when I was a kid, might well add the security I require...

https://www.henrykrank.com/alarm-mine-h4990/

I've no interest in hurting anyone who tries to steal my stuff, but making them fill their pants, before leaving the scene quickly I can get into...

And only yesterday, I devised a laser toner or vegetable dye filled "bouncing betty" type of DYE mine, propelled upwards by a hilti cartridge, with the payload dispersed with a soda syphon cartridge when the wire goes tight...So one day I might actually be able to own my own minefield! But for now, I can see an alarm mine being exactly what I need to keep my toolshed safe which would mean next year I can restart cleaning up my land. (I have to leave the tools there as parking and unloading is a PITA, including damage to the vehicle happening) Ideally I want to attend by motorcycle and just pick up the tools and work.

people like you are the reason i come here i hope you are storing that kerosene  properly

Evening Sperg.  Delighted that you are evidently "Wombling happy" as always - and with some skill and purpose by the sounds of things.  If you can get the EGR + peltier elements to work reliably, then you are really onto something there.  I'll get the patent forms ready for you!

I'm not a "proper" plumber in any respect, but I do feel reasonably confident that combi boilers are the Devil's work for a man like you!  I think a more simple and disparate traditional "system" boiler with independent hot water storage would represent a more flexible and amenable system for fiddling with in the way you describe.  For instance, solar thermal systems supply their boost via the hot water storage cylinder/tank normally.  I've never come across a pre-boiler feed boosted system before.

Citizen science rocks!  I continue to admire your drive and achievements in that regard.