Published on 12, July, 2020
For those who are interested in obtaining heat in a more independent manner than Main "utilities" there is the diesel cab heater as made in china and purchaseable for around £100.
Recommended fuel is road diesel at some stupid price, red diesel at a reduced but still unacceptable price or kerosene which in small amounts is obscenely priced.
I am now in a position to make quantitive and qualitative measurements as I have a second heater installed here in the garage from which I do much of my posting and other activities.
I can also measure outside air temp and indoor temps, and currently my heater is adding ten degrees to my garage where I sit and 5 degrees at the colder draughtier end.
It feeds a huge cardboard tube which both acts as a full length "radiator" and also directs warm air to where I sit for extra comfort. Currently it is running on road diesel whilst I negotiate my next purchase of kerosene.
Yesterday it used about 4 litres running continuously from 12:30 until 02:30. I tend to fire it up at high power initially until the tube gets warm then drop it back to 3/4 power for an hour or so to get some general warmth into the area, then I settle down to half power as soon as I am warm to keep the temps stable.
I eventually managed to get the other heater to swallow waste oil thinned with stale petrol only after I added 7 litres of road diesel to the 13 or so of mixed fuel I had made up already. The down side is that low power operation produces visible blue smoke...
There are two modes of operation thermostat where the heater brings the thermostat temp up then slows itself to suit, or dropper mode, where you control the speed at which the fuel is added and the heater controls it's fan speed. It seems that dropper mode allows you to explore various regimes of combustion, some of which are noticeably more efficient than others.
Future experiments will include more alternative fuelling investigations using the heater in the garden workshop, and developing a way of measuring efficiency between fuels more accurately here, until the weather improves at any rate...
I use one in my 1976 Land Rover to make sure I have a warm vehicle to step in to and keep warm while out. I get the odd fault code due to the fan sticking and I am waiting for new fuel tank due to the old one leaking. Much cheaper than buying an Espacher.
Yay!.....another tinker! Welcome. Your transport / vehicle / temporary office / mule / fortress on wheels / tow truck / soother [delete if you want] sounds flipping wonderful to me.
RE fan sticking - The bearings that are installed are not that great, many replace with better quality such as SKF 625zz or the fan blades could be rubbing on the outer housing, that would be an easy check/fix.