I've had a 5kw diesel heater in my basement and plumped into heavily insulated 3 inch round pipes to distribute the forced hot air throughout the house for 2 years. The house is an oil fired hot water heating system. The fuel feed is plumped into my furnace oil tank and it burns strictly that. The exhaust is plumbed into the furnace flue. It runs pretty much 24hours a day all winter and it manages to keep a 2 story house at 20 degrees Celsius with the aid of 2 oil filled heaters at the extreme ends of the house. My heating costs including electricity for the oil filled heaters is EASILY 1/6 what heating my house conventionally would cost. I purchased 2 more units and will be installing another one in tandem to lessen the burden on my original unit. I installed an electric domestic water heater and it's been 2 years since the furnace has run any amount of time to do anything but ensure all it's bits and pieces work and stay exercised.... 😎
Awesome ! I love the ingenuity ! My furnace is a high efficiency natural gas into with plastic exhaust... I could plumb into my hot water heater exhaust through.
@@loweredexpectations4927 yes that would be good, there are also a few guys that run an extra long run of exhaust pipe as a heat exchanger before its vented getting quite a bit more heat out of the exhaust gasses.
@@terrysobkowich2084 I have just purchased 16 feet of exhaust and plan on doing some tests really soon ... pushing the limits of this to see what is and isn't possible. Should be interesting.
Something I find useful to keep in mind when comparing the two: -40, 0, 20, 100 Equal, freeze, comfortable, boil -40, 32, 68, 212 You'll notice that C makes a lot more logical sense than F.
@@zacharymorris9917 Yeah... the only one of those I didn't know for sure was the 68.... still if I used approximate numbers, a LOT more people would be critical / angry about my inaccuracy. I use google to help me, when I remember, haha.
@loweredexpectations4927 it could be much worse. I reverse engineer computer code for American vehicles (and everything else). Everything pretty much has to be done 4 or more times. Once in the control units native output and native scale (European/Asian terminology with metric numbers), once in EU/Asia end-user native output in metric scale (my personal preference), once in the end-user native output in SAE scale and finally in the control units native output in SAE scale. A particularly egregious example I worked on today was a 16bit control unit with non-16bit maps in ECT sensor input voltage which has to be normalized for the internal voltage divider, then normalized for sensor non-linearity, then converted to raw sensor ohms, then temp Kelvin, then temp Celsius, and finally temp Fahrenheit. All this just to convert the OBD queried coolant temp voltage to a gauge temperature output. I have no clue why they don't use temperature in the code instead of voltage.
@@zacharymorris9917 HAHA.... wow.. That to me is insanity. I'm glad there are people out there like you that do this sort of thing, because I'd still be living in a cave making fire by rubbing sticks together.
Thank you for the research and data collection. I appreciate all your efforts and the transparent sharing of results. I've now purchased a maXpeedingrods 5KW unit for about $150usd. Has the upgraded pump and lines included. By the way, "The key to happiness is lowered expectations", a saying I've used for a lifetime. Keep up the great work
I watched a video the other day with the quieter pump... not sure if that is the upgrade you are talking about, but it made a HUGE difference in sound. $150 US seems like a lot... it must be one of those fancy ones in the case ? Keep your expectations low !
@@loweredexpectations4927 One of my heaters came with a rubber enclosure which completely encases the fuel pump, and I think it actually makes it louder. I just wrap the pump in a folded up towel and wedge it into the enclosure and it's more or less silent.
I'm glad you're doing this research on my behalf and saving me the trouble! These are all questions I've wondered about, but you are actually answering the questions like a true Canadian man of science (tm). 👍🧐 Edit: The accidental shutting off and doors opening, etc., only make this experiment more realistic. This is what would happen to any normal person in real life. Good for you for leaving that in.
I have 4 of these heaters...love them. 2 still in the box for emergengy use. I can say this for sure...I can keep my hands in the output heat on the "5K" I cannot keep them there on the "8K" without getting burned. I'll have to check the temps this weekend to be sure. Good video.
They are great little units ! I now have an experimental one, one in my truck one in my buddies 4Runner and my wheelbarrow heater. Some 5kw heaters, marked as 8kw over fuel slightly to get more heat. When you do the math, based on fuel consumption, the theoretical max is only about 6.3kw if your pump is running at 8hz.
@@loweredexpectations4927 I had the same with my first heater, "8k" with a ridiculous (unlabeled) fuel pump that dumped fuel until it overheated, then dialed itself back to cool, then dumped fuel again, rinse and repeat. Thought it was normal. Unsurprisingly, it sooted up within a few weeks of use. Thankfully I was burning decade-old diesel and the pump clogged in short order, leading to a new pump and me figuring out the old one had been overfueling. Not sure I would have ever figured it out if I wasn't running such degraded diesel.
I can totally feel you on this one. In my recent tests I had so many things go wrong that I had to redo the video several times. I appreciate how you didn't just start over and shoot for one solid good test. #TH-camLife lol
I think it is a good ideal to pipe the heat into your basement like you did because the water pipes come into the house in the basement. For one thing, your water pipes would freeze if you tried to pipe the heat into your bedroom or in your computer room for example, instead of the basement. The basement would eventually and quickly fall below freezing if you only heated the room upstairs and you would be in a hell of a pinch with a plumbing disaster of broken fresh water pipes. Your water pipes are the first consideration you need to remember in a heat outage situation otherwise you will learn it the hard way.
Absolutely... If you think the heat is going to be out for more than a few hours, you need to start thinking about pipes freezing. It makes a real mess if they burst.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Depends, where you live. In an area with wooden housing it's just work and a bit drywall to replace, which is easy and cheap. In an area with pipes inside brick walls, it may ruin you literally. The ancestors did leave the piping outside the walls - water pipes and electricity were mostly retrofitted anyhow - not elegant, but easy to repair. We hide it in the wall now for 3 or 4 generations - and if the house is empty in cold winters, it turns into a ruin. Stupid progress, if you ask me.
Yes, I have some tests panned soon to collect this heat, and I might get around to calculating the lost heat.... it's somewhat tricky to do, but I think I can make it happen.
david mcluckie has done videos measuring the heat output and air volume and comparing it to the theoretical energy content of diesel. A 5kW unit running at 5.5Hz has a theoretical output of 4.67kW at 100% efficiency. He measured the actual output as 3.42kW. Actual efficiency varies primarily by speed, and ranges from 73% to 95% (the heaters are more efficient at lower speeds because the heat energy gets to dwell around the heat exchanger longer and less heat is going out the exhaust). So, up to 1kW is going out the exhaust. I have a video on my channel where I've set up a 10 foot exhaust tube as a heat exchanger, and the exhaust is leaving the house 2f above room temperature.
@@WaffleStaffel I freaking love Dave, haha. You see his new waste oil burner ? I have a strong feeling he's going to crack the code... in a roundabout sort of way.
LiFePoH4 batteries can not be charged at such a low temp. Usually, anything below 0C/32F will cause damage, so they shut off charging and/or discharge.
You say this is not a real life situation........I would call having a house at 12c when my wife came home, there would be a real life situation. On watching more of the video I see you sort of had a plan. You should be proud of me, I watched the whole video and had to use a Celsius to Fahrenheit chart to follow along as I wrote this comment. The battery issue is something I found out while hunting and leaving my phone out of my pocket in 19 degree weather (that would be -7 for you people from Canadia) This was such a good video that I will subscribe just to see if you make a video about your divorce
LOL... yes, when she comes home to 12C, that's real. I really thought I did a good job converting to F, but I guess I missed some. Editing was completed past 2am, haha. Oops. "This was such a good video that I will subscribe just to see if you make a video about your divorce" 🤣 Fair enough.
Very nice test! And, very nice cat :D Great job as usual, thank you! PS 11-12 C was the normal temperature in my lab in winter, before I had my diesel heater set up. A game changer, for sure!
I have one as well. bought it last year just to play with. when it was REALLY cold outside i would run it in my 2 car garage in the evenings. My office is right above the garage and the floor gets cold. push button, wait an hour... toasty foots. i have the heater in my garage, but I have a nice chrome "thru the garage door" port for the exhaust and a 6 foot exhaust extension (and of course a few CO detectors).
Nice ! I chose my heater location for convenience, but it is directly below my bedroom, so the floor gets toasty ... I know just what you mean. Yes... CO detectors are a must.
I have an 8K vevor heating my two story 1200sqf home with a similar setup (heater outside and air recirculated) Its keeping my home in the 70F range with outside temps around 20F. I typically run it at level 5 and bump it up to 9 -10 for awhile if it drops below 65F. When the outside temp gets above 30F I can run it at level 1-2. I use dc 12v auto switching power supply with a UPS battery for backup.
Awesome. Some newer heaters (vevor bluetooth) have a thermostatic control where the respond to temp change, and a company in the US called Bureck, makes a thermostat that works for most old heaters. (if you haven't seen my videos on that)
Im planning on using one and capturing the heat from the exhaust via steam radiator. I also will install a catalytic converter. Going from 1in to 2in cat back to 1 so we will see how it goes! I also got a 4 outlet hose model to try to disperse the heat more evenly.
Capturing as much heat as you can from the exhaust is a good idea... as long as you are thoughtful about the design. Water will form from condensation, so this needs to have a way to drain off. I'm not sure how well (or poorly) a cat will work at these low temperatures. I know they need to be hot in a car for them to work.
@@loweredexpectations4927 that's very true. If I was to live where it gets cold often I'd put a couple in there to get it heated then switch to one to maintain. But I'm in Pensacola FL so our average is around 50 in the winter with a handful of days around 30.
I heat my whole house with one of these diesel heaters positioned inside, on the ground floor (exhaust out). Its a 1930s house in the UK. As you say, you need to leave doors open in areas you want to heat. We primarily live upstairs and the heat tends to stay up there and keeps rooms at a steady 23 degrees. The holy grail though, is a burner you can full take apart and replace the hidden gauze. It would need a complete rethink of its construction but I'm convinced the gauze could be replaced with carbon felt (welding mat).
Having them inside saves a lot of hassle, as long as you do it safely. You can buy the gauze, so some of them must have a way to do it, but all I have seen are spot welded in. Are you having issues with them getting gummed up ?
Thanks for the comment. What would be the benefit of this ? I have preheated my "fuel" when burning waste oil (experiments) but didn't use the exhaust, as it gets very hot and boils off the fuel causing uneven feeding issues. Oh... I miss read and see you said "to warm up oil" .. not sure for what purpose ?
Thank for actually circulating the house air instead of heating cold air....I never understand why people heat up the coldest air instead of circulating! Fun test. I actually bought a low cost one from vevor as emergency heat for my house to use like this. Sitting new ready to use.
At these temperatures, it would do almost nothing if I didn't recirculate... It is a huge waste to pull in outside air. Yes, they are a great backup as they can be run on a 12V battery if the power is out ... that's the most likely scenario for most people.
good video. I use a cd to warm 2 rooms in my solid wall 1890 brick house. work well, also got open fies when needed. Just a bit of advice for your batteries, put them on a cinder block like your heater, and maybe insulate them as well
I have experienced this exact scenario. Central gas furnace fan failed. Outside temperatures from 45F down to 35F. I set the heater up in the laundry room and vented the exhaust out a window that I plugged up with rockwool insulation. It kept 2 stories, 1700sqft at around 65-63F.
Awesome.... You need to be able to react. Those who panic or call for help in these situations, will be in a while lot more trouble than those who take action. My girlfriend got a flat tire, of the side of a highway, at -20C (-4F) in a snowstorm. She called AMA as she is a member, and there was a 16 hour minimum wait time... Good luck surviving for 16 hours in that. She called me, and I went and took care of it.
The scenario you did here is exactly how it happened in real life for me. Heat was on, everything fine, smelled a faint burning electric smell. An hour later i notice the temperature was down to 67 from 71. Good to run these realistic scenarios!
I have a 2 floor, 3 bedroom house in New England and I've been heating the house (closed off unnecessary rooms) for the last month with a 5k. Last night it got down to -15c and was 17.5c inside when I woke up.
@@loweredexpectations4927 (I'm a bachelor so I can get away with it being a little cooler 😆) but that's also on low! So $4/day to heat a house(ish) in New England... Not bad!
All of the little interruptions make it more realistic, rarely ever does something like this go perfect for me. It is good to know it could keep things warm, hopefully you don't have plumbing in exterior walls... some older houses do which of course means it needs to stay warmer.
Yeah... I thought of just getting to the facts, and I know some will be / are annoyed by this video... but this is how it really happens. I have redone most of my plumbing in PEX, so it's more resilient to freezing... and also, no plumbing in outside walls.
@@loweredexpectations4927 I once took a shortcut thru Calgary. I ending up meeting my hot wife. Never knew there were hot women in Calgary but who knew?
i wondered how efficient this would be if it was mounted inside the house and with the exhaust going though a longer path before exiting or maybe through a radiator (heat exchange) like they have in a car to extract that heat into the house before exiting the house. could hook up a large PC fan to the radiator(heat exchange) and see if you could get the exhaust down to safer levels and extract as much out of it before it goes outside. the only thing i read on that is that you want to make sure when the exhaust gases condense that it can leak the (toxic) water outside and not pool. might be something to increase the efficiency in how much heat you extract from the total combustion of the fuel.
Yes, ideally you want to get all of the heat you can and exhaust only room temp gasses. Mounting the heater inside takes a lot more forethought, preparation and attention to detail. You need to make sure not to have any exhaust or diesel fumes in your living space, and also make sure not to burn anything with the exhaust. I have 16 feet of pipe that I will be experimenting with in the near future. The exhaust condensation can be acidic, (like orange juice) but only toxic if your heater is running very poorly. I may or may not install this in my house for some tests, the main purpose will be to see how the pipe affects the performance and reliability of the heater, and if collecting heat with just pipe is reasonably feasible.
Great video! Do these heaters melt if the power gets cut off abruptly? I’m running mine off a led power supply and am worried that if it fails or during a power outage if I would damage it?
The heater itself doesn't melt, the risk is to the ECU (small printed circuit board mounted on top the heater intake end) if the heater cannot complete the cooling cycle and cool the heat exchanger, the ECU can become overheated from the residual heat held in the metal body of the heater, causing damage to the circuitry.
Like Start says ... The heater itself won't melt, but the electronica can become damaged. I have had this happen at least 10 times with no immediate ECU failure, and I have had a heater shut off because the ECU got so hot... I have had an ECU fail... but I don't think it was heat related. You should take measures to try to avoid complete power loss during operation. If the battery dies, the ECU will detect low voltage, generally shut down and run the fan.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Hi Joel, I'm curious if you ever tried testing some of that self adhesive heat shielding on the bottom of an ECU case? It seems the vast majority of time folks will be operating one of these heaters is because it's cold without a heater running! I bet a small piece of that shielding covering the bottom of the ECU box would provide sufficient protection for the ECU from the ambient heat of the heat exchanger, especially in a cold environment? may be a nice little insurance policy for folks that don't have a ready made battery buffer for unexpected outages?
@@StratOvation It fairly certain it wouldn't hurt. I honestly don't think that this is a serious problem. If the heater is literally unplugged, everything will stop running... obviously. However, if the battery drops to 8V, the heater will shut the pump off and keep the fan running on low. The body of the heater is generally only around 200C, 250 max, so even with zero air flow, I don't realistically see it damaging anything.
We live in Calgary as well LOL Your house was built in 1965 we replaced all the windows some double some triple if and when you replace your windows go triple, As my wife likes to sleep with the window open yes even last week with the polar vortex and our triple bedroom window opened every night and closed in the morning and had hardly any frost on it in the morning. The only windows that frosted were the bathroom and the back door. Replacing the windows eliminated the drafts and the house feels warmer. We have a cat as well but we never let her outside as we had several cats die from going outside over the years (Not freezing to death) Lead acid batteries can stay fully charged all the time just using a trickle charger.
Hey ! Fellow Calgarian ! Hopefully, some day I am able to afford new windows. We will see how this whole TH-cam thing goes, haha. Our cat only goes out on a leash, unless it is so cold that he will run back in, haha. I generally keep my lead acid batteries on a trickle charger, but I currently have more projects on the go and need more chargers, haha.
They are not all the same, and yours may or may not have this info... The fact that yours goes 1-10 means it's likely not the same as mine. The way mine works is once the heater is powered on, I can press my OK button to scroll through voltage, heat setting and exchanger temperature. On mine, if you press and hold ok it will change from level to target temperature.
Gonna help you here.. i heat my cabin with one of these. The unit is completely indoors. The ONLY thing connected to outside is the exhaust. The exhaust goes through a 2 inch hole with exhaust wrap filling the gap. The air is therefore reheating room air as it passes through.. the battery and its charger are warm. The intake air and fuel are warm. When outside is -5C it keeps 1000 ft2 warm at its lowest setting. The hardest part was how to fuel without spilling. The exhaust runs 1 meter slightly down hill the whole way with a fan on it to grab every little btu. No carbon issues.. no restart issues. No way the battery lasts more than 8 hours (heater on high) without charger/maintainer on it.
Hcalory has a larger unit they sell. They label it as an 8kw. But probably over rated. They do drive a higher pump rate and its a bit over an inch longer if I remember correctly. Dont know solid details on it. Just know of it.
I am heating my house with a diesel heater this winter, it is the least expensive way for me to heat it. My propane furnace would be $1,200 for winter, my 24K mini split heats for $800 for the season, the diesel heats in WI a leaky old 1,500 sq ft farmhouse for $100-150/month. I have 2 of them so I can run them both when it get below zero. Store barrels of off-road diesel at $3.33/gallon. Uses a gallon on low for a day when it is 30's F, 2 gallons a day on high. Don't need to use both very often, couple of times a winter. I exhaust them through a window with a 2 x 3 with holes in them. Next I will add a cast iron radiator to the exhaust to double the heat output with the blower pointed at the radiator to blow it around.
Awesome !! The radiator will lower your bill even further ! I have heard of several people using off road diesel or home heating oil in large storage tanks. Do you have a minimum order for fuel ? Many places here is $400 - 800 minimum. The climate that I live in means that our heating bill is well over $400 a month, burning natural gas. If I were to actually keep my house at a reasonable temperature, it could cost me $800 - 1200 per month in diesel.
@@loweredexpectations4927 150 gallons, so I picked up 10 plastic 15-gallon barrels for free from a farmer needing to get rid of them. I can move them with a dolly, have several in the basement.
Great video and good to know it will at least keep things decently above freezing! I loved that outro too! I also feel like the not perfect situation is exactly how things would actually go too.
Good job Question is where did you find that control that gives you all the information. I have heater for from different suppliers but not have seen that one. Last one was VEVOR w/Bluetooth but no display on the remote. Thanks
My heater is from Vevor ... It is the Blue controller with Blue digits on the screen. It originally came as an all in one unit in a metal case and I removed it. Although this controller shows you are few "extra" things, it is pretty basic and doesn't have a clock or many other features.
Great videos on these heaters!, In Ontario myself and would like to give a thumbs up to you. I run my heater from a deep cycle lead acid battery which you will find does not loose as much energy when at -20C. A good video to create as a followup to this emergency heat video could be a test of common batteries people may have laying around their house/garage and the run times you could expect to get from a RV vs a good car battery vs say a jet-ski / lawn tractor battery. Keep up the good content!!
For those old sliders, there is a strip called 'mole hair' that helps seal the window against the frame. It does wear out over time, so replacing the mole hair strips will improve the performance of those windows. If you don't plan on replacing the windows anytime soon, then replacing the mole hair strips will be your most affordable way to go. They come on a roll, and is a plastic strip with a kind of furry material on it. On your windows, each piece of aluminum will have a channel where the mole hair strip goes into. Slide out the old one, clean the tracks and put in a new one.
using aluminium, the second best heat conductor after copper, as a window material is the first time it took the wrong turn. sliding windows are another one. sliding works only with gaps. gaps are nowhere near airtight. and there goes the heat...
@@casemodder89 Haha... yes... You can tell when houses were built in time or areas when energy costs were ridiculously low ! ... Who needs insulation !! 400,000 BTU heater and leave it running !! haha.
I actually really like the drywall piece in place of a window thing, brilliant, no hole drilling in the wall like everyone else does. I will keep this in mind. I am however lucky as I have a fireplace that I can put the heater in and vent the exhaust up the chimney.
Your cats response reminds me of a cat we used to have. He ran out on the porch when we opened the door. Then when he saw the snow he slammed on the brakes, turned around and ran back in the house.
Excellent video! I loved the authenticity, and the "let's see what happens" attitude.. That being said, I have a couple of comments about the "experiment".. First, you have to consider a couple of factors.. 1) There is a factor of heating a building.. I don't know what the technical term for it is, but it's basically the boundary layer. No matter what the construction methodology is, the interior of a dwelling is heated to what the thermostat calls for.. IE, if the thermostat is set for 20 C , then all the interior surfaces ( walls, windows, etc.), are at 20 C ... No matter what the construction is ( 2 x 4 , 2 X 6, concrete, or whatever, there's a point in the insulation, where the limit of thermal barrier is balanced. Yeah, I haven't described that correctly, but I think you must know what I mean. 2) Everything in the building is, for lack of a better term, a heat sink. If you were to take everything in your home, and weigh it, what would you have as a total weight? IMHO, it'd be at least three thousand pounds. That makes it a different kettle of fish to determine how much heat it takes to raise the temperature inside. You not only have to raise the temperature of the air, but you also have to raise the temperature of everything in the air. I built a 220 Sq Ft workshop ( fully insulated ), inside a 1,000 sq ft Quonset hut. I noticed ( as I use a Diesel heater), that it warmed up quickly when I first constructed it (empty).. After I put in all the benches, and tool boxes ( approx 2,000 pounds), I noticed that it "held" heat better ( overnight ), but was slower to heat up from cold. The energy required to heat a couple of thousand pounds of metal is significantly different than the energy required to just heat an empty space. 3) As far as the battery supply is concerned, I use a programmable power supply, it's hooked up to a deep cycle battery, so that there is no chance of a "power failure " shut down. It also makes the battery's life expectancy optimal.
Thanks for your detailed comment. I appreciate it. I totally get what you are saying about the boundary layer. The reality is that the heater heats the air, and all of the surfaces of your house are heat sinks, pulling that heat out of your house. The higher R value of your insulation, wall material etc... the less heat energy will pass through a wall. I'm reading "2" now and you mention what I said above, haha. This is very true.... The more stuff you have, the longer it will take for temperature to change, up or down. The stuff in your house will however, reach equilibrium with the air temp, and stop absorbing energy. The walls ceiling and outer floor (basement) are sinking / transfering heat to the outside and will continue to do so. The rate depends, again, on R value as well as temperature differential. Yes, having a battery backup that is always being topped up is smart. Trying to figure all of this out after a power failure is going to be a problem, haha .
The 2,5 and 8kw claims are just basically the pump settings in the secret menu. You can choose or change the pump output from between 16ml, 22ml, and 28ml giving you your 2-8kw
There is some truth to what you are saying, but you also need to increase air to keep CO at a reasonable level. In a "8kw" heater with a 22ml pump, you can feed the heater too much fuel (not enough air to compensate) A 28 ml pump at 7hz will consume about 7.1 litres = approximately 7kw not 8kw.
Fun video. Stop being so hard on yourself! At least you have the courage to do it, screw it up and still post for all the world to see. If any us cared ? We be watching another channel likely called " high" expectations 🤔🤣 You teach us lil nuggets in every video, don't stop. 🙏👌
I run 3 of these heaters, one to keep my garage warm and two to heat the lower level of my 1975 updated tri level home. Works good, got down to 27F last knight and on level 3 the temp inside was 68.7
im on individual tanks that i top off every day after work, i have been using about 10 gallons a week at 3.49 a gallon. tomorrow will be coldest day of year (19F) so we will see how it goes. @@loweredexpectations4927
I've got 2 in my basement now. They are keeping it warm. I need to build my custom heater with max output. Bigger pump for more power. Might camp out in the trailer next winter. Should be fun. Lol
Yes I use a 5K to heat my single wide 1,100 ft² with a ceilings vaulted when the weather is in the negative here in the States negative 20 wind chill factor it will keep the house at 59 Fahrenheit it is a 1990 with 2x4 walls it's my only source of heat because I'm in the deep south and it only gets cold here 2 weeks out of the year
Thanks for doing this test - I think it is great that these heaters can most likely keep your house from freezing up in a power outage or furnace problem. I have been impressed with mine but do wish they did actually make a larger unit that was twice the power of the 5KW. AND all the things that happened to you during the test would be worse for most everyone else, even the "typewriter geniuses" that haven't tried any of it.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, it appears that a single one of these heaters, even when not terribly well implemented, would stop you from completely freezing for many hours.... -21 C is no joke. Haha... Yes... I purposely took risks as I know that I'm able to deal with it if need be, and because this wasn't a real life or death situation.
I think what you are asking is if you can set up two heaters and run a 2 into 1 exhaust. No, this would not be enough flow and both heaters would create a lot of soot and CO.
In many climates they are perfectly suitable. I have heard from lots of people in Germany, for example, saying they use these. Not so great for most of Canada.
btw the control units of these heaters are not weather proof, having it outside can cause damage. generally id recommend mounting it indoor and exhaust out the building/box/vehicle.
Funny that you ask that.... One of the things I didn't think of right away. No... even at -40C ... also -40F ... It looked like it may be a bit jelly, but my heater had no issues consuming it.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Great thanks for the reply! I have one that just gelled off last weekend. I’m thawing it out and will be running anti gell additives when the temp gets below -15 from now on. The -48 was a bit much I guess lol
I wonder what would happen if hypothetically ran out of gas for home furnace but fan still worked and you could blow deisel heater into the room with the cold air return on home. Just run furnace fan to circulate heat
That's some next level hypotheticals ... It would have to work right ! ... the heat would be distributed more evenly so you might want to close vents in some areas... but it should work. The trick would be to do it in a safe way.
This is actually my plan c. Blast heat from the CD into the furnace plenum. My furnace has a heat operated blower fan. When it gets so hot, the fan kicks on and sends heat into the rest of the house. My furnace is a Yukon eagle wood gas combination. So this would be a third source of heat using the furnace with a generator.
@@jcbowden2604 I've always wanted to have a watercooled generator with a water cooled exhaust as well, so that the generator makes power and heats up coolant to heat your house while also making power.
I'm sure it didn't make me colder... I don't know about being warm, haha. I can tell you that breathing -18C air into your lungs during physical exertion, is NOT a good idea. It took me most of the week for my lungs to recover. Wow... You keep your house at 11C ! Mine is at 16 throughout the day and I have two hoodies on with the hoods up, haha. I have been thinking about getting new windows and siding for years... but never had the extra money.
@loweredexpectations4927 lowest we went was -19 a few years back and you are right it ain't much fun. Best thing we did was have external insulation fitted - nice and cosy in the winter and really helps to keep the house cool in the summer.......in the years we actually get a summer that is
I totally agree with you. Somebody tested the 8kW to be 4kW! The actual 4kW outputs 3kW and 2kW outputs 1.8kW. I spent some time digging into this. The Chinese are quoting the calorific energy output. That is if the diesel heater would burn the fuel like human stomach, it would output such and such kW but in reality, diesel heater is not a human stomach and the efficiency is not 100%. I’m sitting on the fence when it comes to the fuel line. I have seen videos about it (the green one) degrading to bits after a year later. Some have demonstrated it to be acting like a shock absorber counteracting the pump’s effort to pump the fuel successfully to the heater. I will wait for your definitive myth buster fuel line / pump rant video to come out. I have a suggestion for the smoke problem at the start of the heater, provided the battery voltage is within acceptable range. If you find out how many seconds or minutes can be passed (tolerated by the ECU) without the fuel pump working, you can then use this time to let the glow plug glow really hot, only then after this time turn on the pump via an inline / series switch or cheap time delay module. It will ignite instantly and probably there will be no smoke at the exhaust.
Yes, part of it is about using diesel energy to calculate output, and part of it is marketing.... When you have a 5 litre Mustang, it's not really a 5L engine ... it is 4.98 or 5.01 ... but that doesn't well well. When you buy a 8kw generator, that is 8kw peak power, and it will maintain 5 kw. They advertise it as 8 because if only one other company does, and you don't you won't sell any generators. As for the fuel line debate, there is lots of anecdotal "evidence" supporting the idea that soft absorbs power from the pump. The easiest way to dispute this is to point out that high end companies like Webasto and Eberspacher use inline fuel dampers. Google search "diesel heater fuel damper". It would be very odd for these companies to use rigid line to allow for better fuel delivery, and then use a device designed to remote pulsing, to smoothen out fuel delivery. I plan on pushing the limits and hopefully causing a failure, so we can see how much is too much, but in a real world application, the real reason to use rigid line is for abrasion resistance, less likely to kink or pinch and smaller cross section clears bubbles faster. Your no smoke solution could work.... delaying the pump coule be tricky as you would have to mimic the pump resistance during that time, so the ECU didn't fault out. Have a timer and two position relay that switched between a resistor and the fuel pump, haha. I have a video coming real soon where I run my heater without an ECU at all ... It was pretty fun ! Currently heating my house with it !
Haha... well, they work great, they are just not 8kw. Altho someone has commented on this video claiming their Vevor 8kw heater burns 5 gallons a day.... I can tell if they are just trolling me or not.
Yes... it shouldn't be a problem. They require about 10 amps on start up and just a few amps (3-4) once up and running. The power consumption is very low. About 50 watts.
Hey Joel, I just bought the Hcalory heater SS2. Upon arrival the controller malfunctioned, so i reached out for a replacement; I also ordered the rotary style controller. To my surprise it worked off the same motherboard, except for one issue, it burned more fuel. I tired this twice same fuel consumption. At this point I can conclude that these controller's (across the board) operate different. What are your thoughts? May add the original burn hotter while saving fuel.
So the same ECU with a different controller burn more fuel ? That is strange. To me this indicates that your particular ECU is set up to work with digital or analogue, perhaps ? The digital controller is basically a keyboard for the ECU, that is the computer... So hooking up a different keyboard shouldn't give it different controls .... However... If they have the ECU set up to detect if the signal is digital or analogue, it may run a separate program when the rotary controller is plugged in ?
I would install the heater inside and run as long an exhaust as possible to recover lost heat inside the home. You could even use an old iron radiator. And of coarse make sure your exhaust is well sealed and has a accidental touch protection shield so you don't burn yourself. The kits usually include one splitter so heat can be ducked to two areas or in two direction. You should have no issues with a decent setup in a 1500 sf 1970's house to maintain or even recover warmth at -20, A fully charged RV battery should hold up for a few days in an emergency. Although in Canada we have had times where the emergency situations were weeks. So having a few batteries always ready and lots of fuel on stand by is a good idea. Especially when we live next door to one of the worst countries on earth and who could knock out the powergrid anytime.
Yeah. This was set up for the video, and to test a worst case scenario. If it were to be installed permanently, I'd probably try to use my water heater exhaust vent, to get rid of the exhaust. Cheers
It's dropped to -8c here now at work we have 1 permanently plumbed in as recommended and has been running for a few weeks now and had to get a second going today 🥶 after seeing your video running 1 shut in your garage we just set one up in the middle of the work shop before anyone says I'm going to die we have drafts all over and the sliding garage door is always open at least 1ft we have had problems with them shutting down from low V we use car batteries with a charger that has to be turned off at night and the batteries are not liking it so I'm going to try a Xbox 360 power supply
You're going to die !!! haha. Staying warm... it's a struggle. It's a good idea to have a CO detector, but as I have shown ... it's pretty relatively safe if the heater is running well.
does it have any consequence if the heater is installed on its side? i was thinking of getting a heater for my shed - but i would like the exhaust and intake air to go in through the wall instead of the floor
On most heaters, this will be fine. All of the heaters that I have owned can be put on one side, however, only on one side. The answer to this isn't "yes" or "no" because not all burn chambers are made exactly the same. There is a tiny hole (3mm) close to where the fuel enters the chamber called the flame initiation hole (I think) It is there to allow air into the glow plug are on start up. This hole can be in different places, and if you tip the heater with that hole facing down, diesel will pour out instead of going into the burn chamber, making a mess and potentially being dangerous. To see this hole you need to remove the fan housing from the chamber and inspect the chamber. I have had a few people ask about this, So I think I will make a video detailing it.
Yes, this would be better for sure. Ideally you want to capture as much heat as possible. My setup is quick and dirty. WIth the heater inside, it gets a little more complicated, especially for a temporary install / unit that will not be staying in place. You don't want diesel fumes or exhaust gasses in your house, and when the heater isn't running, you want to be able to close the window to stop heat from escaping. "Permanent" connections are much easier to make secure when compared to something that will be installed and removed frequently.
Absolutely. That requires a little more planning and care, but it would be much better. My heater gets used for experiments and it is not really practical to install it on my house.
Mount the unit inside. It is more efficient, you are not heating the outside air as it blows across heat chamber. Easier to heat 15⁰ air over -20⁰ air. Your battery will also be warm and last longer. You will also have a smaller hole for your exhaust pipe than for air going into heated area
Yes, this would be much more efficient. The reason why I mount my heater outside is because I do test videos. My heater gets removed and disassembled frequently. As I mentioned in the video, this is almost a worst case scenario.
I ran hard line and soft line there is no difference my heater has been running on soft line for 3 years now a not a single problem. Opened it up last summer thinking il give it a clean and it was spotless
Yeah.... all lies from the big soft line corporations 🤔 🤣 I know who you work for... Tygon ! Haha. Glad to hear your heater is working well and thanks for confirming this one step further.
I recently bought a Vevor 8KW unit and had it running flat out in my garage for 6 days. Here's what I found. Fuel consumption was ~5 US gallons a day, which implies it is putting out ~8KW (~27,000 BTU). However, that includes the waste heat going out the exhaust, which knocks down the actual hot air output down by likely around 2KW giving it a realistic hot air only output of maybe 6 KW ( 20,500 BTU). Also, I did run mine indoors with the exhaust venting indoors as well and I noticed zero exhaust smell for the whole run.
WHAT ? You burnt 5 gallons in 24 hours ? Do you mean 5 gallons in 6 days ? Are you sure about your numbers. None of this makes sense to me and I'm really confused. My "8kw" heater burns about 12 gallons in 6 days (144 hours) Even more confusing because I'm converting everything from litres, haha. I'm trying to do the math now to figure out what you pump would have to do to be able to burn this much fuel.... I can't tell if I'm being trolled or not... You vented your exhaust inside for 6 days ? I have vented my exhaust inside for testing, but this is extremely reckless if true. If you are not sleeping in there, likely not a big deal, but not smelling anything doesn't mean it is safe. It is an indicator, to some extent, but not a guarantee.
@@loweredexpectations4927 MY Vevor 8KW burns about 5 gallons (~19 liters) of fuel every 24 hours when on setting 10. In 6 days it used about 30 gallons (~114 liters) of fuel in total. I'm in the upper midwest and have been in this - 10 to - 30F with 20 to 40 MPH winds arctic blast run since my heater showed up and I have had it running at max output nonstop since the day it arrived. As for venting the exhaust inside. What do you think those big diesel and propane-burning jet/torpedo and radiant heaters do?
@@tcmtech7515 Are you able to send me a link to the heater that you got ? You are in the US midwest ? If you are really burning that much fuel, then yeah.... I have two "8kw" vevor heaters and they do not burn that much fuel and are not capable of burning that much fuel due to air flow restrictions. Those torpedo heaters are recommended for ventilated areas construction sites... I have worked with them (massive industrial units) and although they won't kill you in a day, the VOC is a concern. Tuned properly they work well but again, they get out of tune easily. I have tested the exhaust on these heaters, and it is actually very clean, when everything is going well. It takes about 30 seconds for things to go from really clean to deadly fumes, and in an enclosed area, you can reach deadly levels of CO in less than 10 minutes.... I know this from testing indoors. At the very least you want a few CO meters.
@@loweredexpectations4927 The Vevor I got is the basic unit on Amazon. Right now it's selling for $89. (Cant link on YT or my posts automatically get deleted by their censorship bots) I am aware of the concerns with CO and the like, however, with these little units, it's really unlikely they will produce so much CO so fast that theyd make any sort of garage dangerous to be in.
That's a good way to look at it, yes.... Especially because the most likely scenario is that your heat stops working because the power went out. A large battery or battery bank charged by solar would be ideal... and kept in a warm place.
just watched your video.......sighs........Enjoyed the adventure, keep up the good work......i knew your cat was planning to box your nose.....i donr think quasar like very much you keeping the heat off....he knew..he knew
I wish i could get cheaper diesel but i cant so im still running my house on wood and electric. But my workshop with 2 vevor 8kw is nice and toasty quick. Love them.
@@loweredexpectations4927 i have two oven, Norwegian made. From Jøtul. One is called Bjørn (bear) and can take wood that are 60-65 cm long. That is in my living room and it can crank out about 11kw so my living room is always nice and warm and sometimes sweaty. Haha. In the basement i have a Jøtul wich are decorated with Mooses on the side, it also can take same length of wood and can do 8kw. The main thing i have discovered during the years is the importance of the hatch inside the metal tube from the oven to the pipe . I can turn that almost blocking all hot air from entering the pipe and therefore the heat gets stuck inside the oven and heat that up even more and i use a floor fan directly on it to blow away the hot air around the oven and my house is warm immideately. So its like the top of a can with a small cut off and you can have it all the way open or gradually as you like more closed after the fire has started for real. The bear oven also are decorated with the head of the bear on the sides. Very cool ovens and i have them because they heat up quick,and can take massive sizes of logs.
@@loweredexpectations4927 well, after you hit a million subscribers just let me know and I will ship the coolest ovens for you. Here they are cheap and many dumb people buy new oven that are "clean burning" and have more fires in their chimney than ever before. And the old ovens are either thrown away or sold for nothing. But for ovens in my mind most important is the hatch in the metal tube from the oven holding back the heat inside the oven.
that ok I will try to install it in my motorhome + install an extra rad ,in the spring wen it gets little warmer then I will let you know how it work out
In case, power outages last for several days, one might consider having a catalytic propane heater and and some propane in storage. Better two of them, one for your piping, one for your living area. Battery dependent solutions require an auxiliary gasoline generator - you'd probably need that one anyhow for the rest of your issuses in this case, but i wouldn't rely on a small engine generator, that's safely stowed away for emergency and therefore rarely used, because it will fail, when needed. First with carburator issues and second with demagnetized ignition magnets. To get that solved, you'd probably then won't have the means or the time. Just saying - and only really important, if you'd expect life- or pipe threatening temperatures.
I do have actually have a gas generator, but I only run them if totally necessary. A 4000w in my truck that gets used often for my job. I think a few small solar panels to keep your batteries up would be smart... You only need a fairly small amount of power to top up batteries, if just using one of these heaters.
@@loweredexpectations4927 My experience is different. But it was with old style lead batteries. These won't get fully charged during winter season anyhow, if you're living, where it tends to be overcast in winter. And that state of half charged kills this sort of battery anyhow. Had 700 watt solar - did hardly get enough energy to use one 5 watt Led light for the evening and a 12V water pump, when needed. That means - not a chance of getting enough battery charge to fire up such a heater. So - maybe 10KW at your roof may give you enough diffuse light charge, but not a small installation of ~ 1KW If it's sunny in winter - sure, will work. But that's not typical for the northern half of Germany. You hardly ever have some sunny hours in winter. That used to be so in Southern Bavaria. Bright sunlight after the snowstorms. I loved that. Got worse there too in the last decades. Yea, my gas generators always work, if i have them in regular use. But how many people have that? Most have one sitting around for emergencies - if the ever thought about preparing for such stuff, which is rare anyhow - and then it fails miserably and gouvernment has to send help, because either the water pump against flooding is without power or the house is going to freeze into an economical ruin, because - no power, no heating. That's, why i mentioned catalytic heaters. They don't need any power exept a bottle of Propane. I forgot one point: Almost everybody has a car around, which is perfect for charging your batteries, but in my experience, people don't even think about that handy generator - and therefore don't have enough cable around to use it, when the emergency happens.
Looks like propane or kerosene would be a better option bc you get all the BTUs without wasting the BTUs to exhaust. I guess you would get more condensation but with such a large area I don’t think it would really matter. You wouldn’t need electricity as well but fuel might cost a bit more
Propane can usually be used indoors safely, but the instructions will almost always tell you not to run them in a confined space without proper ventilation. Kerosene heaters are basically the same deal but worse as they tend to vent VOC even of the CO isn't deadly. A properly working diesel heater could be run inside the same as a kerosene heater, or you can burn kerosene in your diesel heater. I have tested mine in an enclosed space and the fumes are "safe". Safe in quotes as any small change and it could get deadly in minutes. I grew up with a wood furnace, I think that is ideal as you can burn just about anything and even if the power is out you still have heat. For a space where I'm sleeping... I'm not running anything that is vented indoors... not happening.
You're talking about 13:34 ? ... That was because the battery voltage was too low on my Li Ion battery... It tried to start once and failed (glow plug couldn't get hot enough is my guess) . So when it started up the second time, not only was it starting with a bunch of extra fuel, but also pretty low power to the plug and fan.
Do you have the fan on your central air system? I wonder how much a difference that would make? Also in Canada you can run “farm fuel” since it is not used on the roads. Maybe save 20% on it.
I do yes. I had actually recorded a long rant about using this and having it circulate the air more evenly, but the video was already pretty long, so I didn't use it. I feel like the overall temperature would be lower with the fan on. Without the fan on, there will be pockets of hotter and colder air... like how I showed around the living room window. These pockets of cooler air likely keep the air in much of the house warmer, and mixing all of the air up would lower the overall temperature.
@@loweredexpectations4927 would raise the “over all temp” but you wouldn’t have areas with higher temp differential. Would be interesting to do that experiment over again. Get the house up to temp and then kick the heater on and have heat circulate with the furnace fan. Big thing is not opening and closing doors. Grew up in a 1960’s house in Calgary in Hasboro. Anyway, thanks for the videos, nice to see someone going through the ins and outs of these Chinese heaters.
@@gordon6029 You just reminded me of growing up on the east coast and being taught very quickly that going in and out in the winter was only done when it was out of necessity, and we were often reminded that we weren't heating the outside, haha. We had wood heat, but a 80 year old house, at the time.... so literally horse hair plaster walls and basically no insulation. "CLOSE THE DOOR ! WE'RE NOT PAYING TO HEAT THE OUTSIDE!!" my mother would say.
Awesome ! Thanks for sharing I guess this differs from one part of the world to the other. Here Natural gas is much cheaper, but this is a good backup.
-18C, ? did you miss the -45C last week in AB :) As far as the vid goes, lol it happens, I just did a vid on modifying surplus rental scooter batteries , it also had its challenges...and i had never edited before. take care.
@@terrysobkowich2084 Right on. I'm guessing they have a pretty decent capacity. I watched some of your video last night but got side tracked doing other things. It's pretty hard for me to say on taks ... Any time I go to TH-cam I get this nagging feeling like I need to check for new comments, check my analytics... then I get reminded that I'm supposed to be editing a video or that I need to shoot a missing clip, haha. Just went and finished watching.
That would be better, but it takes a little more time and forethought. You don't want to get exhaust or diesel fumes in your house, and you need to vent the exhaust outside safely. Also, when the heater is installed on the outside, I can close the window in the inside if I run out of fuel or if the heater fails. With it on the inside, I would need to remove the heater from it's position to close the window. To make things worse, the frost / ice that forms around windows means that the insert I made was frozen in place. I would have destroyed it trying to remove it.
It is possible but not without a lot of fuss. With a little tinkering, you could make it work, but if you had a 5kw ECU, each heater would be running 2.5 kw as it is the fuel input that determines the heat output. This is grossly simplified, that that's the basics. The pumps are generally 22ml pumps, so if you had a 44ml pump you could run two heaters with one. The largest I have seen is a 28ml. You can also run the pump faster, but generally the fastest you can run us 8hz and the normal setting is about 5hz There are other issues, but this is just a few of the issues.
For an average burner like the Beckett Oil Burner Chassis models AF and AFG, a typical BTU output can vary widely based on the specific settings. However, as a general reference, a burner consuming 1 gallon of fuel oil per hour (GPH) typically produces about 140,000 BTUs per hour. Since these burners can operate within a range of 0.40 to 3.00 GPH, the BTU output would vary accordingly, usually between 56,000 BTUs (for 0.40 GPH) and 420,000 BTUs (for 3.00 GPH). For the most accurate figure, it's best to refer to the specific model's documentation or consult with the manufacturer. 420,000 BTUs per hour converts to approximately 123.09 kilowatts. This is significantly more than the 8 kilowatts output of an 8000W diesel air heater.
Could we stick to one unit please, haha... wow. 1 litre of diesel is pretty close to 10hwh. The pump on an 8kw heater pumps .022ml per pulse. The pump can cycle at a maximum rate of 8hz (8x per seconds) .022 x8 = .176 lm per second x 60 = 10.56 ml per minute x 60 = 633.60 per hour. So that's .634 litres ... that also means 6.34 KWH max However, that is the theoretical kwh and the reality is, the fan can't force enough air though at 5000 RPM to burn that much fuel. If you run your pump at 8hz, your heater will make a LOT of black smoke and shut down pretty quickly, after it fills with carbon.
Respect for doing all the testing work. But letting the heater heat up outside air that is -20C and putting it outside were it's -20C really throws away a lot of heating potential. Try circulating the inside air and putting the heater inside with just the exhaust outside or even try recovering exhaust heat through a radiator. I hope you will also do a best scenario situation. Heating just the living room/ kitchen with circulating air.
Thanks for the comment. I think there is a misunderstanding. I am recirculating air from inside my house. At 18:04 you can see I'm warming my hands on the hot air vent, and the air inlet is off to my right. Perhaps my explanation of my cardboard baffle is the confusion... this just makes the air come in slightly lower, so that the hot air isn't sucked directly back into the inlet.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Ok sorry I missed that. Well with -20 30C difference is pretty good then! I wonder how hot it would get when outside it was like 0C
@@socialhostage8534 I suspect that it would keep it around 18C ... but that is more or less of a guess. I may be able to do more of this type of testing this winter, but I'm not sure.
Actually until last year you were correct there were no 8kw heaters but david Mc luckie in Scotland UK actually got his hands on one and tested it , they hadnt been produced until 2023 but they do exist and they are much bigger than the 5kw diesel heater, so to say there are no 8kw heaters isnt exactly true anymore. if your shopping for a 5kw heater and it says 8kw its probably not true. unless the cost is sky high because the 8kw is a lot more expensive. Try circulation of the inside air through the heater it really helps to heat the house up.
Yes, I have seen that video and will address that in my rant video, haha. I believe it is actually about 6kw (from my understanding) but it is different. I will get into this in my video, but yes, this is correct, there is a larger heater available now.
Around 8 liters is not just under 2 gallons. To me this would be equivalent to about 3.5 KW. Given your dimensions? 24×36 times 2 story house. Which would suggest just under 7,000 btu/hr (input) at about 80-90% efficiency, so say 3.5 btu/hr/ft²
No, 8 liters is not just under two gallons. Making intros and outros is the hardest part of making a video. A lot of older Canadians often refer to anything resembling 4 liter container as a gallon. Gallon of milk, gallon of paint, gallon of paint thinner... The fuel consumption testing that I have done does show that the actual heat created should be around 3.4 or 3.5 kw.
The heater should be inside of the house and exhaust need to be utilized by having some kind of very efficient heat exchanger to air or water, because an enormous amount of energy are lost through the exhaust
Absolutely. It is much more efficient to have the heater inside. It is almost a great idea to collect all of the heat from the exhaust so there is no waste. Doing that is much more complicated and involves mitigating safety risks. The setup I used for this video takes about 2 minutes to set up and keeps the smell of diesel and exhaust gases outside. It is a compromise.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Hi Joel, something that fits in with the description has been around and common for more than 10 years, you might have heard of the Ctek brand, they have done it for a long time.
I believe half of the heat goes out the exhaust.. i run the exhaust into the attic not outside..you would be amaised how much better the house heats up when you heat the attic..the exhaust exits the gable end vents and not down into the house
It's a considering amount, but it's not half. I think on a 5kw unit on max heat, you lose about 1 kw out the exhaust. I have thought of venting into the attic of my garage... not sure how sage it is.
instead of a battery, have you thought of using a SuperCapacitor such as 6X Maxwell 3000f = 500f at 16v, and use a simple automatic charger on it. No more cold weather bad-battery, and loads of current available .. and they never wear out .
I have looked into super caps years ago, and they are awesome, but I don't have time for another side project. I tend to get totally obsessed about things I get into, and my whole channel would be about super caps, for 2 years, haha.
How that ”guard” sounds at 26:25 is just not possible to replicate for someone not born in the US or Canada. Love it!
HAHA... nice. That is a good "guard".
I believe this video was done right because it was an imperfect scenario. Things never go perfectly in an emergency situation .
That's a good point. Thanks.
I've had a 5kw diesel heater in my basement and plumped into heavily insulated 3 inch round pipes to distribute the forced hot air throughout the house for 2 years. The house is an oil fired hot water heating system. The fuel feed is plumped into my furnace oil tank and it burns strictly that. The exhaust is plumbed into the furnace flue. It runs pretty much 24hours a day all winter and it manages to keep a 2 story house at 20 degrees Celsius with the aid of 2 oil filled heaters at the extreme ends of the house. My heating costs including electricity for the oil filled heaters is EASILY 1/6 what heating my house conventionally would cost. I purchased 2 more units and will be installing another one in tandem to lessen the burden on my original unit. I installed an electric domestic water heater and it's been 2 years since the furnace has run any amount of time to do anything but ensure all it's bits and pieces work and stay exercised.... 😎
Awesome ! I love the ingenuity ! My furnace is a high efficiency natural gas into with plastic exhaust... I could plumb into my hot water heater exhaust through.
@@loweredexpectations4927 yes that would be good, there are also a few guys that run an extra long run of exhaust pipe as a heat exchanger before its vented getting quite a bit more heat out of the exhaust gasses.
@@terrysobkowich2084 I have just purchased 16 feet of exhaust and plan on doing some tests really soon ... pushing the limits of this to see what is and isn't possible. Should be interesting.
Thanks from us "Merican's" for throwing the Fahrenheit conversion on the screen little more often. keep it up.
Haha... I really did try. This video was a little rushed and I finished editing at 2 am, so I guess I missed a few.
Something I find useful to keep in mind when comparing the two:
-40, 0, 20, 100
Equal, freeze, comfortable, boil
-40, 32, 68, 212
You'll notice that C makes a lot more logical sense than F.
@@zacharymorris9917 Yeah... the only one of those I didn't know for sure was the 68.... still if I used approximate numbers, a LOT more people would be critical / angry about my inaccuracy. I use google to help me, when I remember, haha.
@loweredexpectations4927 it could be much worse. I reverse engineer computer code for American vehicles (and everything else). Everything pretty much has to be done 4 or more times. Once in the control units native output and native scale (European/Asian terminology with metric numbers), once in EU/Asia end-user native output in metric scale (my personal preference), once in the end-user native output in SAE scale and finally in the control units native output in SAE scale.
A particularly egregious example I worked on today was a 16bit control unit with non-16bit maps in ECT sensor input voltage which has to be normalized for the internal voltage divider, then normalized for sensor non-linearity, then converted to raw sensor ohms, then temp Kelvin, then temp Celsius, and finally temp Fahrenheit.
All this just to convert the OBD queried coolant temp voltage to a gauge temperature output. I have no clue why they don't use temperature in the code instead of voltage.
@@zacharymorris9917 HAHA.... wow.. That to me is insanity. I'm glad there are people out there like you that do this sort of thing, because I'd still be living in a cave making fire by rubbing sticks together.
Thank you for the research and data collection. I appreciate all your efforts and the transparent sharing of results. I've now purchased a
maXpeedingrods 5KW unit for about $150usd. Has the upgraded pump and lines included. By the way, "The key to happiness is lowered expectations", a saying I've used for a lifetime. Keep up the great work
I watched a video the other day with the quieter pump... not sure if that is the upgrade you are talking about, but it made a HUGE difference in sound.
$150 US seems like a lot... it must be one of those fancy ones in the case ?
Keep your expectations low !
@@loweredexpectations4927 One of my heaters came with a rubber enclosure which completely encases the fuel pump, and I think it actually makes it louder. I just wrap the pump in a folded up towel and wedge it into the enclosure and it's more or less silent.
Heater ended up being DOA. @@loweredexpectations4927
I'm glad you're doing this research on my behalf and saving me the trouble! These are all questions I've wondered about, but you are actually answering the questions like a true Canadian man of science (tm). 👍🧐
Edit: The accidental shutting off and doors opening, etc., only make this experiment more realistic. This is what would happen to any normal person in real life. Good for you for leaving that in.
Thanks for the comment ! I thought this was a good representation of real life 👍
I have 4 of these heaters...love them. 2 still in the box for emergengy use. I can say this for sure...I can keep my hands in the output heat on the "5K" I cannot keep them there on the "8K" without getting burned. I'll have to check the temps this weekend to be sure. Good video.
They are great little units ! I now have an experimental one, one in my truck one in my buddies 4Runner and my wheelbarrow heater.
Some 5kw heaters, marked as 8kw over fuel slightly to get more heat. When you do the math, based on fuel consumption, the theoretical max is only about 6.3kw if your pump is running at 8hz.
I have two in my cabin. It's regularly gets -20F and it take the nip off, but I can't say warm...
@@NeverTakeNoCut-offs It depends an awful lot on your specific situation, eh. Change one or two variables and you get completely different results.
@@loweredexpectations4927 I had the same with my first heater, "8k" with a ridiculous (unlabeled) fuel pump that dumped fuel until it overheated, then dialed itself back to cool, then dumped fuel again, rinse and repeat. Thought it was normal. Unsurprisingly, it sooted up within a few weeks of use. Thankfully I was burning decade-old diesel and the pump clogged in short order, leading to a new pump and me figuring out the old one had been overfueling. Not sure I would have ever figured it out if I wasn't running such degraded diesel.
@@iguanamoat Haha... Sometimes the universe is looking out for you eh. They do make larger displacement pumps, so that must have been. Interesting.
Your answering everyone's comments has not gone unnoticed! Subscribed!
I do my best. Thanks for your support !
I can totally feel you on this one. In my recent tests I had so many things go wrong that I had to redo the video several times. I appreciate how you didn't just start over and shoot for one solid good test. #TH-camLife lol
Haha... things only a TH-camr will understand !
I have an 8kw Maxpeedingrod heater running in my basement. Upgraded to the pump with the built-in filter and everything works great.
That's great. Do you use it as your main heating source ?
It runs 24/7, I have wood heat also. Keeps the basement at a nice temperature.
I think it is a good ideal to pipe the heat into your basement like you did because the water pipes come into the house in the basement. For one thing, your water pipes would freeze if you tried to pipe the heat into your bedroom or in your computer room for example, instead of the basement. The basement would eventually and quickly fall below freezing if you only heated the room upstairs and you would be in a hell of a pinch with a plumbing disaster of broken fresh water pipes.
Your water pipes are the first consideration you need to remember in a heat outage situation otherwise you will learn it the hard way.
Absolutely... If you think the heat is going to be out for more than a few hours, you need to start thinking about pipes freezing. It makes a real mess if they burst.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Depends, where you live.
In an area with wooden housing it's just work and a bit drywall to replace, which is easy and cheap.
In an area with pipes inside brick walls, it may ruin you literally.
The ancestors did leave the piping outside the walls - water pipes and electricity were mostly retrofitted anyhow - not elegant, but easy to repair. We hide it in the wall now for 3 or 4 generations - and if the house is empty in cold winters, it turns into a ruin. Stupid progress, if you ask me.
It would be interesting to know how much heat goes out the exhaust tube vs how much useable heat goes into the house.
Yes, I have some tests panned soon to collect this heat, and I might get around to calculating the lost heat.... it's somewhat tricky to do, but I think I can make it happen.
david mcluckie has done videos measuring the heat output and air volume and comparing it to the theoretical energy content of diesel. A 5kW unit running at 5.5Hz has a theoretical output of 4.67kW at 100% efficiency. He measured the actual output as 3.42kW. Actual efficiency varies primarily by speed, and ranges from 73% to 95% (the heaters are more efficient at lower speeds because the heat energy gets to dwell around the heat exchanger longer and less heat is going out the exhaust). So, up to 1kW is going out the exhaust. I have a video on my channel where I've set up a 10 foot exhaust tube as a heat exchanger, and the exhaust is leaving the house 2f above room temperature.
@@WaffleStaffel I freaking love Dave, haha. You see his new waste oil burner ? I have a strong feeling he's going to crack the code... in a roundabout sort of way.
@@WaffleStaffel Thanks. I'll check out his channel.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Haven't seen it, I'll have to check it out, thanks.
LiFePoH4 batteries can not be charged at such a low temp. Usually, anything below 0C/32F will cause damage, so they shut off charging and/or discharge.
Thanks.
You say this is not a real life situation........I would call having a house at 12c when my wife came home, there would be a real life situation. On watching more of the video I see you sort of had a plan. You should be proud of me, I watched the whole video and had to use a Celsius to Fahrenheit chart to follow along as I wrote this comment. The battery issue is something I found out while hunting and leaving my phone out of my pocket in 19 degree weather (that would be -7 for you people from Canadia) This was such a good video that I will subscribe just to see if you make a video about your divorce
LOL... yes, when she comes home to 12C, that's real.
I really thought I did a good job converting to F, but I guess I missed some. Editing was completed past 2am, haha. Oops.
"This was such a good video that I will subscribe just to see if you make a video about your divorce" 🤣 Fair enough.
Absolutely stellar!!!! Your passion is endemic. @@loweredexpectations4927
Very nice test! And, very nice cat :D Great job as usual, thank you!
PS 11-12 C was the normal temperature in my lab in winter, before I had my diesel heater set up. A game changer, for sure!
Being cold sucks ... I'm glad you have a heater now !!
I have one as well. bought it last year just to play with. when it was REALLY cold outside i would run it in my 2 car garage in the evenings. My office is right above the garage and the floor gets cold. push button, wait an hour... toasty foots. i have the heater in my garage, but I have a nice chrome "thru the garage door" port for the exhaust and a 6 foot exhaust extension (and of course a few CO detectors).
Nice ! I chose my heater location for convenience, but it is directly below my bedroom, so the floor gets toasty ... I know just what you mean.
Yes... CO detectors are a must.
I have an 8K vevor heating my two story 1200sqf home with a similar setup (heater outside and air recirculated) Its keeping my home in the 70F range with outside temps around 20F. I typically run it at level 5 and bump it up to 9 -10 for awhile if it drops below 65F. When the outside temp gets above 30F I can run it at level 1-2. I use dc 12v auto switching power supply with a UPS battery for backup.
Awesome. Some newer heaters (vevor bluetooth) have a thermostatic control where the respond to temp change, and a company in the US called Bureck, makes a thermostat that works for most old heaters. (if you haven't seen my videos on that)
The more you abuse your heater the better value they seem to be. Great show, keep it up!!!
This poor heater has taken so much abuse !!
Good combo of information and humor... liking it.... Keep it up!
Thanks !! I appreciate the comment.
Im planning on using one and capturing the heat from the exhaust via steam radiator. I also will install a catalytic converter. Going from 1in to 2in cat back to 1 so we will see how it goes! I also got a 4 outlet hose model to try to disperse the heat more evenly.
Capturing as much heat as you can from the exhaust is a good idea... as long as you are thoughtful about the design. Water will form from condensation, so this needs to have a way to drain off.
I'm not sure how well (or poorly) a cat will work at these low temperatures. I know they need to be hot in a car for them to work.
I heat my small shop 10x25 with the sivel heater 5-8kw. I keep a fan going circulating the air and makes a huge difference on heating efficiency.
Right on. I was able to keep my 24x26 garage reasonably warm last year with a 5kw unit... but it has to run on max, non stop.
@@loweredexpectations4927 that's very true. If I was to live where it gets cold often I'd put a couple in there to get it heated then switch to one to maintain. But I'm in Pensacola FL so our average is around 50 in the winter with a handful of days around 30.
@@MrTaylorfenoglio Yes, that makes a big difference, haha.
I heat my whole house with one of these diesel heaters positioned inside, on the ground floor (exhaust out). Its a 1930s house in the UK. As you say, you need to leave doors open in areas you want to heat. We primarily live upstairs and the heat tends to stay up there and keeps rooms at a steady 23 degrees. The holy grail though, is a burner you can full take apart and replace the hidden gauze. It would need a complete rethink of its construction but I'm convinced the gauze could be replaced with carbon felt (welding mat).
Having them inside saves a lot of hassle, as long as you do it safely.
You can buy the gauze, so some of them must have a way to do it, but all I have seen are spot welded in. Are you having issues with them getting gummed up ?
You can wrap a thin Copper tubing around the exhaust pipe to warm up oil
Thanks for the comment. What would be the benefit of this ? I have preheated my "fuel" when burning waste oil (experiments) but didn't use the exhaust, as it gets very hot and boils off the fuel causing uneven feeding issues.
Oh... I miss read and see you said "to warm up oil" .. not sure for what purpose ?
Thank for actually circulating the house air instead of heating cold air....I never understand why people heat up the coldest air instead of circulating! Fun test.
I actually bought a low cost one from vevor as emergency heat for my house to use like this. Sitting new ready to use.
At these temperatures, it would do almost nothing if I didn't recirculate... It is a huge waste to pull in outside air.
Yes, they are a great backup as they can be run on a 12V battery if the power is out ... that's the most likely scenario for most people.
Not to mention the fact that would be pushing the hot air out through the cracks without having a proper return.
@@FaithwalkerTodd True.
good video. I use a cd to warm 2 rooms in my solid wall 1890 brick house. work well, also got open fies when needed. Just a bit of advice for your batteries, put them on a cinder block like your heater, and maybe insulate them as well
Thanks for the comment / advice. Ooooo 1890 wow. The city where I live was only named in about 1880, haha.
Nice! Same here - in Calgary in a 2x4 house
Built back in the day when energy was cheap, haha... Yikes !
@@loweredexpectations4927 deer run area
by chance?
@@lm1584 Nope. Dover.
I have experienced this exact scenario. Central gas furnace fan failed. Outside temperatures from 45F down to 35F. I set the heater up in the laundry room and vented the exhaust out a window that I plugged up with rockwool insulation. It kept 2 stories, 1700sqft at around 65-63F.
Awesome.... You need to be able to react. Those who panic or call for help in these situations, will be in a while lot more trouble than those who take action.
My girlfriend got a flat tire, of the side of a highway, at -20C (-4F) in a snowstorm. She called AMA as she is a member, and there was a 16 hour minimum wait time... Good luck surviving for 16 hours in that. She called me, and I went and took care of it.
The scenario you did here is exactly how it happened in real life for me. Heat was on, everything fine, smelled a faint burning electric smell. An hour later i notice the temperature was down to 67 from 71. Good to run these realistic scenarios!
@@10thAveFreezeOut Haha... that's good to know ! A few people gave me a hard time about the way I did it, but I wanted to keep it realistic.
It's ok sir, we all had lowered expectations so none of the issues really affected your video...
Perfect ! My plan worked.
I have a 2 floor, 3 bedroom house in New England and I've been heating the house (closed off unnecessary rooms) for the last month with a 5k. Last night it got down to -15c and was 17.5c inside when I woke up.
Awesome ! Thanks for sharing. 17.5 is relative comfort.
@@loweredexpectations4927 (I'm a bachelor so I can get away with it being a little cooler 😆) but that's also on low! So $4/day to heat a house(ish) in New England... Not bad!
I don't have much to say about this video, except it was another good one. Stay warm Joel.
Thanks Wallace ! Staying warm is a challenge.
All of the little interruptions make it more realistic, rarely ever does something like this go perfect for me. It is good to know it could keep things warm, hopefully you don't have plumbing in exterior walls... some older houses do which of course means it needs to stay warmer.
Yeah... I thought of just getting to the facts, and I know some will be / are annoyed by this video... but this is how it really happens.
I have redone most of my plumbing in PEX, so it's more resilient to freezing... and also, no plumbing in outside walls.
@@loweredexpectations4927 I once took a shortcut thru Calgary. I ending up meeting my hot wife. Never knew there were hot women in Calgary but who knew?
@@NeverTakeNoCut-offs HAHA ! Well done. You showed up, took the only hot woman and left... No wonder we have such a shortage ... that keeps happening.
@@loweredexpectations4927 She said Calgary guys were weird. We honeymooned up at the Rimrock. Love Alberta
@@NeverTakeNoCut-offs Haha... I can't disagree with her. I am not from Calgary, but I fit in.
i wondered how efficient this would be if it was mounted inside the house and with the exhaust going though a longer path before exiting or maybe through a radiator (heat exchange) like they have in a car to extract that heat into the house before exiting the house. could hook up a large PC fan to the radiator(heat exchange) and see if you could get the exhaust down to safer levels and extract as much out of it before it goes outside. the only thing i read on that is that you want to make sure when the exhaust gases condense that it can leak the (toxic) water outside and not pool. might be something to increase the efficiency in how much heat you extract from the total combustion of the fuel.
Yes, ideally you want to get all of the heat you can and exhaust only room temp gasses.
Mounting the heater inside takes a lot more forethought, preparation and attention to detail. You need to make sure not to have any exhaust or diesel fumes in your living space, and also make sure not to burn anything with the exhaust.
I have 16 feet of pipe that I will be experimenting with in the near future. The exhaust condensation can be acidic, (like orange juice) but only toxic if your heater is running very poorly.
I may or may not install this in my house for some tests, the main purpose will be to see how the pipe affects the performance and reliability of the heater, and if collecting heat with just pipe is reasonably feasible.
The heater hates the outside as much as we do
@@davidstevens7809 Haha, I don't blame it one bit !
I use a 20l fuel tank for my heater in my garage so I don't have to fill it as much. I took funnel out and drilled a hole in the cap.
Nice ! Going out in the cold at 3 am to fill your tank, in -30C weather SUCKS !! haha.
Great video! Do these heaters melt if the power gets cut off abruptly? I’m running mine off a led power supply and am worried that if it fails or during a power outage if I would damage it?
The heater itself doesn't melt, the risk is to the ECU (small printed circuit board mounted on top the heater intake end) if the heater cannot complete the cooling cycle and cool the heat exchanger, the ECU can become overheated from the residual heat held in the metal body of the heater, causing damage to the circuitry.
Like Start says ... The heater itself won't melt, but the electronica can become damaged. I have had this happen at least 10 times with no immediate ECU failure, and I have had a heater shut off because the ECU got so hot...
I have had an ECU fail... but I don't think it was heat related. You should take measures to try to avoid complete power loss during operation. If the battery dies, the ECU will detect low voltage, generally shut down and run the fan.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Hi Joel, I'm curious if you ever tried testing some of that self adhesive heat shielding on the bottom of an ECU case? It seems the vast majority of time folks will be operating one of these heaters is because it's cold without a heater running! I bet a small piece of that shielding covering the bottom of the ECU box would provide sufficient protection for the ECU from the ambient heat of the heat exchanger, especially in a cold environment? may be a nice little insurance policy for folks that don't have a ready made battery buffer for unexpected outages?
@@StratOvation It fairly certain it wouldn't hurt. I honestly don't think that this is a serious problem.
If the heater is literally unplugged, everything will stop running... obviously. However, if the battery drops to 8V, the heater will shut the pump off and keep the fan running on low.
The body of the heater is generally only around 200C, 250 max, so even with zero air flow, I don't realistically see it damaging anything.
Thanks for your insights guys!
We live in Calgary as well LOL Your house was built in 1965 we replaced all the windows some double some triple if and when you replace your windows go triple, As my wife likes to sleep with the window open yes even last week with the polar vortex and our triple bedroom window opened every night and closed in the morning and had hardly any frost on it in the morning. The only windows that frosted were the bathroom and the back door. Replacing the windows eliminated the drafts and the house feels warmer. We have a cat as well but we never let her outside as we had several cats die from going outside over the years (Not freezing to death) Lead acid batteries can stay fully charged all the time just using a trickle charger.
Hey ! Fellow Calgarian !
Hopefully, some day I am able to afford new windows. We will see how this whole TH-cam thing goes, haha.
Our cat only goes out on a leash, unless it is so cold that he will run back in, haha. I generally keep my lead acid batteries on a trickle charger, but I currently have more projects on the go and need more chargers, haha.
How do you see the core temp from your fob? I just fired up my new cdh and mine goes 1-10 but I haven't seen any info on my screen
They are not all the same, and yours may or may not have this info... The fact that yours goes 1-10 means it's likely not the same as mine.
The way mine works is once the heater is powered on, I can press my OK button to scroll through voltage, heat setting and exchanger temperature.
On mine, if you press and hold ok it will change from level to target temperature.
Gonna help you here.. i heat my cabin with one of these. The unit is completely indoors. The ONLY thing connected to outside is the exhaust. The exhaust goes through a 2 inch hole with exhaust wrap filling the gap. The air is therefore reheating room air as it passes through.. the battery and its charger are warm. The intake air and fuel are warm. When outside is -5C it keeps 1000 ft2 warm at its lowest setting. The hardest part was how to fuel without spilling. The exhaust runs 1 meter slightly down hill the whole way with a fan on it to grab every little btu. No carbon issues.. no restart issues. No way the battery lasts more than 8 hours (heater on high) without charger/maintainer on it.
Thanks for the tips !
Hcalory has a larger unit they sell. They label it as an 8kw. But probably over rated. They do drive a higher pump rate and its a bit over an inch longer if I remember correctly. Dont know solid details on it. Just know of it.
Yeah. I will be talking about that in an upcoming rant. I is apparently about 6kw. I have seen it on Dave McLuckie's channel.
@@loweredexpectations4927 I think that is where I may have seen it. Just remember seeing it was somewhat different.
I am heating my house with a diesel heater this winter, it is the least expensive way for me to heat it. My propane furnace would be $1,200 for winter, my 24K mini split heats for $800 for the season, the diesel heats in WI a leaky old 1,500 sq ft farmhouse for $100-150/month. I have 2 of them so I can run them both when it get below zero. Store barrels of off-road diesel at $3.33/gallon. Uses a gallon on low for a day when it is 30's F, 2 gallons a day on high. Don't need to use both very often, couple of times a winter. I exhaust them through a window with a 2 x 3 with holes in them. Next I will add a cast iron radiator to the exhaust to double the heat output with the blower pointed at the radiator to blow it around.
Awesome !! The radiator will lower your bill even further ! I have heard of several people using off road diesel or home heating oil in large storage tanks. Do you have a minimum order for fuel ? Many places here is $400 - 800 minimum.
The climate that I live in means that our heating bill is well over $400 a month, burning natural gas. If I were to actually keep my house at a reasonable temperature, it could cost me $800 - 1200 per month in diesel.
@@loweredexpectations4927 150 gallons, so I picked up 10 plastic 15-gallon barrels for free from a farmer needing to get rid of them. I can move them with a dolly, have several in the basement.
@@loweredexpectations4927 th-cam.com/video/6WrCJcfICF4/w-d-xo.html Diesel heater upgade 200% more efficient
@@scottc8152 Awesome !
Always great information and plenty of entertainment. Thanks Joel!
Thanks ! I appreciate your comment and you helping out in the comment section🤟
Great video and good to know it will at least keep things decently above freezing!
I loved that outro too! I also feel like the not perfect situation is exactly how things would actually go too.
Yeah... things always work out well if you take time to edit out all the stuff that went wrong... I decided to leave it all in, haha.
Good job
Question is where did you find that control that gives you all the information. I have heater for from different suppliers but not have seen that one. Last one was VEVOR w/Bluetooth but no display on the remote. Thanks
My heater is from Vevor ... It is the Blue controller with Blue digits on the screen. It originally came as an all in one unit in a metal case and I removed it.
Although this controller shows you are few "extra" things, it is pretty basic and doesn't have a clock or many other features.
Great videos on these heaters!, In Ontario myself and would like to give a thumbs up to you. I run my heater from a deep cycle lead acid battery which you will find does not loose as much energy when at -20C. A good video to create as a followup to this emergency heat video could be a test of common batteries people may have laying around their house/garage and the run times you could expect to get from a RV vs a good car battery vs say a jet-ski / lawn tractor battery. Keep up the good content!!
Thanks for the comment and suggestion ! Stay warm.
For those old sliders, there is a strip called 'mole hair' that helps seal the window against the frame. It does wear out over time, so replacing the mole hair strips will improve the performance of those windows. If you don't plan on replacing the windows anytime soon, then replacing the mole hair strips will be your most affordable way to go.
They come on a roll, and is a plastic strip with a kind of furry material on it. On your windows, each piece of aluminum will have a channel where the mole hair strip goes into. Slide out the old one, clean the tracks and put in a new one.
Thanks for the tips ... I did notice a bunch of that stuff is worn out or missing.
I can't afford windows, that's for sure, so that's a better option.
using aluminium, the second best heat conductor after copper, as a window material is the first time it took the wrong turn.
sliding windows are another one. sliding works only with gaps. gaps are nowhere near airtight. and there goes the heat...
@@casemodder89 I completely agree, but having grown up in home that similar type of windows, I've learned to deal with the short comings.
@@casemodder89 Haha... yes... You can tell when houses were built in time or areas when energy costs were ridiculously low ! ... Who needs insulation !! 400,000 BTU heater and leave it running !! haha.
Would a "sand battery" on the exhaust add more heat to the house?
Yes... if the sand was in the house. Any sort of exchanger for the exhaust would scavenge some heat.
Great video, I don't have a cold air return on mine it wasn't doing to good this morning it was -3 Fahrenheit so I will be putting one on tomorrow.
Yes, the cold air return makes a HUGE difference.
I actually really like the drywall piece in place of a window thing, brilliant, no hole drilling in the wall like everyone else does. I will keep this in mind. I am however lucky as I have a fireplace that I can put the heater in and vent the exhaust up the chimney.
I would love it if I had a fireplace ! That would be great. The drywall gets the job done👍
Your cats response reminds me of a cat we used to have. He ran out on the porch when we opened the door. Then when he saw the snow he slammed on the brakes, turned around and ran back in the house.
Yeah ... He thinks he wants to be outside really bad... but once that cold hits him... he has a change of heart. Poor guy, haha.
Excellent video! I loved the authenticity, and the "let's see what happens" attitude.. That being said, I have a couple of comments about the "experiment".. First, you have to consider a couple of factors..
1) There is a factor of heating a building.. I don't know what the technical term for it is, but it's basically the boundary layer. No matter what the construction methodology is, the interior of a dwelling is heated to what the thermostat calls for.. IE, if the thermostat is set for 20 C , then all the interior surfaces ( walls, windows, etc.), are at 20 C ... No matter what the construction is ( 2 x 4 , 2 X 6, concrete, or whatever, there's a point in the insulation, where the limit of thermal barrier is balanced. Yeah, I haven't described that correctly, but I think you must know what I mean.
2) Everything in the building is, for lack of a better term, a heat sink. If you were to take everything in your home, and weigh it, what would you have as a total weight? IMHO, it'd be at least three thousand pounds. That makes it a different kettle of fish to determine how much heat it takes to raise the temperature inside. You not only have to raise the temperature of the air, but you also have to raise the temperature of everything in the air. I built a 220 Sq Ft workshop ( fully insulated ), inside a 1,000 sq ft Quonset hut. I noticed ( as I use a Diesel heater), that it warmed up quickly when I first constructed it (empty).. After I put in all the benches, and tool boxes ( approx 2,000 pounds), I noticed that it "held" heat better ( overnight ), but was slower to heat up from cold. The energy required to heat a couple of thousand pounds of metal is significantly different than the energy required to just heat an empty space.
3) As far as the battery supply is concerned, I use a programmable power supply, it's hooked up to a deep cycle battery, so that there is no chance of a "power failure " shut down. It also makes the battery's life expectancy optimal.
Thanks for your detailed comment. I appreciate it.
I totally get what you are saying about the boundary layer. The reality is that the heater heats the air, and all of the surfaces of your house are heat sinks, pulling that heat out of your house. The higher R value of your insulation, wall material etc... the less heat energy will pass through a wall.
I'm reading "2" now and you mention what I said above, haha. This is very true.... The more stuff you have, the longer it will take for temperature to change, up or down. The stuff in your house will however, reach equilibrium with the air temp, and stop absorbing energy. The walls ceiling and outer floor (basement) are sinking / transfering heat to the outside and will continue to do so. The rate depends, again, on R value as well as temperature differential.
Yes, having a battery backup that is always being topped up is smart. Trying to figure all of this out after a power failure is going to be a problem, haha .
The 2,5 and 8kw claims are just basically the pump settings in the secret menu. You can choose or change the pump output from between 16ml, 22ml, and 28ml giving you your 2-8kw
There is some truth to what you are saying, but you also need to increase air to keep CO at a reasonable level. In a "8kw" heater with a 22ml pump, you can feed the heater too much fuel (not enough air to compensate)
A 28 ml pump at 7hz will consume about 7.1 litres = approximately 7kw not 8kw.
Fun video. Stop being so hard on yourself! At least you have the courage to do it, screw it up and still post for all the world to see. If any us cared ? We be watching another channel likely called " high" expectations 🤔🤣 You teach us lil nuggets in every video, don't stop. 🙏👌
Haha... thanks ! I'm going to start high expectations and just play Jamaican music all the time with a haze in the background, haha.
I run 3 of these heaters, one to keep my garage warm and two to heat the lower level of my 1975 updated tri level home. Works good, got down to 27F last knight and on level 3 the temp inside was 68.7
Wow.... that's a lot of heaters ! Do you have a large fuel storage tank or individual tanks ?
im on individual tanks that i top off every day after work, i have been using about 10 gallons a week at 3.49 a gallon. tomorrow will be coldest day of year (19F) so we will see how it goes. @@loweredexpectations4927
I've got 2 in my basement now. They are keeping it warm. I need to build my custom heater with max output. Bigger pump for more power. Might camp out in the trailer next winter. Should be fun. Lol
th-cam.com/video/SAV11yp33Cw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=LhV3RKu0IoHGUBrZ
I just watched your two new videos. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this is.
Yes I use a 5K to heat my single wide 1,100 ft² with a ceilings vaulted when the weather is in the negative here in the States negative 20 wind chill factor it will keep the house at 59 Fahrenheit it is a 1990 with 2x4 walls it's my only source of heat because I'm in the deep south and it only gets cold here 2 weeks out of the year
I bet it's nice and warm at the peak of the vaulted ceiling ! Glad to hear you're staying warm ! Being cold sucks.
Great video 👍 Thank you from Sweden
Stay warm ! Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for doing this test - I think it is great that these heaters can most likely keep your house from freezing up in a power outage or furnace problem. I have been impressed with mine but do wish they did actually make a larger unit that was twice the power of the 5KW. AND all the things that happened to you during the test would be worse for most everyone else, even the "typewriter geniuses" that haven't tried any of it.
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, it appears that a single one of these heaters, even when not terribly well implemented, would stop you from completely freezing for many hours.... -21 C is no joke.
Haha... Yes... I purposely took risks as I know that I'm able to deal with it if need be, and because this wasn't a real life or death situation.
Way Upstate NY just below the Canadian border, we've had a mild winter so far, this week finally in the -18C range over night.
@@TheCutter123 We have experienced a warm winter so far too... now we are paying for it !
Do you think that you can run dual diesel heaters that are connected to exhaust out port of the same exhaust port?
I think what you are asking is if you can set up two heaters and run a 2 into 1 exhaust.
No, this would not be enough flow and both heaters would create a lot of soot and CO.
@@loweredexpectations4927 yes that is what I am asking. Ok good to know. I'll have to come up with a different plan. Thank you.
th-cam.com/video/SAV11yp33Cw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=LhV3RKu0IoHGUBrZ
I'm doing it off the same power supply. Both exhaust into a 5" chimney hole.
@@kirkwalsh1932 You setup works much better than mine !
I use one of these heaters in my home, works great and its cheap to run
In many climates they are perfectly suitable. I have heard from lots of people in Germany, for example, saying they use these. Not so great for most of Canada.
btw the control units of these heaters are not weather proof, having it outside can cause damage. generally id recommend mounting it indoor and exhaust out the building/box/vehicle.
Absolutely... Not at all weather tight or even spill proof.
Have ever had issues with the fuel gelling?
Funny that you ask that.... One of the things I didn't think of right away. No... even at -40C ... also -40F ... It looked like it may be a bit jelly, but my heater had no issues consuming it.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Great thanks for the reply! I have one that just gelled off last weekend. I’m thawing it out and will be running anti gell additives when the temp gets below -15 from now on. The -48 was a bit much I guess lol
@@caryreed1563 Haha... yeah, -48 is cold ! ... Luckily it's an easy problem to solve with an additive.
Untreated #2 diesel starts gelling at around -15°F.
@@markcoyle8003 I’m pretty sure that’s what I ended up with. I have since thawed it out and treated it
I wonder what would happen if hypothetically ran out of gas for home furnace but fan still worked and you could blow deisel heater into the room with the cold air return on home. Just run furnace fan to circulate heat
That's some next level hypotheticals ...
It would have to work right ! ... the heat would be distributed more evenly so you might want to close vents in some areas... but it should work. The trick would be to do it in a safe way.
This is actually my plan c. Blast heat from the CD into the furnace plenum. My furnace has a heat operated blower fan. When it gets so hot, the fan kicks on and sends heat into the rest of the house.
My furnace is a Yukon eagle wood gas combination. So this would be a third source of heat using the furnace with a generator.
@@jcbowden2604 I've always wanted to have a watercooled generator with a water cooled exhaust as well, so that the generator makes power and heats up coolant to heat your house while also making power.
All that running about for the video did a lot to keep you warm ;
I'm sure it didn't make me colder... I don't know about being warm, haha. I can tell you that breathing -18C air into your lungs during physical exertion, is NOT a good idea. It took me most of the week for my lungs to recover.
Wow... You keep your house at 11C ! Mine is at 16 throughout the day and I have two hoodies on with the hoods up, haha.
I have been thinking about getting new windows and siding for years... but never had the extra money.
@loweredexpectations4927
lowest we went was -19 a few years back and you are right it ain't much fun. Best thing we did was have external insulation fitted - nice and cosy in the winter and really helps to keep the house cool in the summer.......in the years we actually get a summer that is
@@bigoldgrizzly Nice.
I totally agree with you. Somebody tested the 8kW to be 4kW! The actual 4kW outputs 3kW and 2kW outputs 1.8kW. I spent some time digging into this. The Chinese are quoting the calorific energy output. That is if the diesel heater would burn the fuel like human stomach, it would output such and such kW but in reality, diesel heater is not a human stomach and the efficiency is not 100%.
I’m sitting on the fence when it comes to the fuel line. I have seen videos about it (the green one) degrading to bits after a year later. Some have demonstrated it to be acting like a shock absorber counteracting the pump’s effort to pump the fuel successfully to the heater. I will wait for your definitive myth buster fuel line / pump rant video to come out.
I have a suggestion for the smoke problem at the start of the heater, provided the battery voltage is within acceptable range. If you find out how many seconds or minutes can be passed (tolerated by the ECU) without the fuel pump working, you can then use this time to let the glow plug glow really hot, only then after this time turn on the pump via an inline / series switch or cheap time delay module. It will ignite instantly and probably there will be no smoke at the exhaust.
Yes, part of it is about using diesel energy to calculate output, and part of it is marketing.... When you have a 5 litre Mustang, it's not really a 5L engine ... it is 4.98 or 5.01 ... but that doesn't well well.
When you buy a 8kw generator, that is 8kw peak power, and it will maintain 5 kw. They advertise it as 8 because if only one other company does, and you don't you won't sell any generators.
As for the fuel line debate, there is lots of anecdotal "evidence" supporting the idea that soft absorbs power from the pump. The easiest way to dispute this is to point out that high end companies like Webasto and Eberspacher use inline fuel dampers. Google search "diesel heater fuel damper".
It would be very odd for these companies to use rigid line to allow for better fuel delivery, and then use a device designed to remote pulsing, to smoothen out fuel delivery.
I plan on pushing the limits and hopefully causing a failure, so we can see how much is too much, but in a real world application, the real reason to use rigid line is for abrasion resistance, less likely to kink or pinch and smaller cross section clears bubbles faster.
Your no smoke solution could work.... delaying the pump coule be tricky as you would have to mimic the pump resistance during that time, so the ECU didn't fault out. Have a timer and two position relay that switched between a resistor and the fuel pump, haha.
I have a video coming real soon where I run my heater without an ECU at all ... It was pretty fun ! Currently heating my house with it !
I got a "not-8KW" heater because they were sold out of the 5KW heaters. 😁
Haha... well, they work great, they are just not 8kw. Altho someone has commented on this video claiming their Vevor 8kw heater burns 5 gallons a day.... I can tell if they are just trolling me or not.
I’m curious how well or if one of these heaters will run on a ups power supply being charged by a battery tender?
Yes... it shouldn't be a problem. They require about 10 amps on start up and just a few amps (3-4) once up and running. The power consumption is very low. About 50 watts.
Put the heater and battery inside and make a sand battery around exhaust pipe
That is a good idea.
Hey Joel, I just bought the Hcalory heater SS2. Upon arrival the controller malfunctioned, so i reached out for a replacement; I also ordered the rotary style controller. To my surprise it worked off the same motherboard, except for one issue, it burned more fuel. I tired this twice same fuel consumption. At this point I can conclude that these controller's (across the board) operate different. What are your thoughts? May add the original burn hotter while saving fuel.
So the same ECU with a different controller burn more fuel ? That is strange.
To me this indicates that your particular ECU is set up to work with digital or analogue, perhaps ? The digital controller is basically a keyboard for the ECU, that is the computer... So hooking up a different keyboard shouldn't give it different controls ....
However... If they have the ECU set up to detect if the signal is digital or analogue, it may run a separate program when the rotary controller is plugged in ?
@loweredexpectations4927 I'd like to discuss more in-depth by email. Guarantee info.
I would install the heater inside and run as long an exhaust as possible to recover lost heat inside the home. You could even use an old iron radiator. And of coarse make sure your exhaust is well sealed and has a accidental touch protection shield so you don't burn yourself.
The kits usually include one splitter so heat can be ducked to two areas or in two direction.
You should have no issues with a decent setup in a 1500 sf 1970's house to maintain or even recover warmth at -20,
A fully charged RV battery should hold up for a few days in an emergency.
Although in Canada we have had times where the emergency situations were weeks.
So having a few batteries always ready and lots of fuel on stand by is a good idea.
Especially when we live next door to one of the worst countries on earth and who could knock out the powergrid anytime.
Yeah. This was set up for the video, and to test a worst case scenario. If it were to be installed permanently, I'd probably try to use my water heater exhaust vent, to get rid of the exhaust.
Cheers
So I use RoyPow 120 to 12v converter they say 180w 15amp never failed me yet it if you access to house power Amazon 49 dollars.
Awesome... that would be good for tests. If the power goes out you're going to want a battery, though.
Yes I run mine with a power station with RoyPow hooked to it you would need to keep the power station warm works well for me
It's dropped to -8c here now at work we have 1 permanently plumbed in as recommended and has been running for a few weeks now and had to get a second going today 🥶 after seeing your video running 1 shut in your garage we just set one up in the middle of the work shop before anyone says I'm going to die we have drafts all over and the sliding garage door is always open at least 1ft we have had problems with them shutting down from low V we use car batteries with a charger that has to be turned off at night and the batteries are not liking it so I'm going to try a Xbox 360 power supply
You're going to die !!! haha.
Staying warm... it's a struggle. It's a good idea to have a CO detector, but as I have shown ... it's pretty relatively safe if the heater is running well.
does it have any consequence if the heater is installed on its side? i was thinking of getting a heater for my shed - but i would like the exhaust and intake air to go in through the wall instead of the floor
On most heaters, this will be fine. All of the heaters that I have owned can be put on one side, however, only on one side.
The answer to this isn't "yes" or "no" because not all burn chambers are made exactly the same. There is a tiny hole (3mm) close to where the fuel enters the chamber called the flame initiation hole (I think) It is there to allow air into the glow plug are on start up.
This hole can be in different places, and if you tip the heater with that hole facing down, diesel will pour out instead of going into the burn chamber, making a mess and potentially being dangerous.
To see this hole you need to remove the fan housing from the chamber and inspect the chamber. I have had a few people ask about this, So I think I will make a video detailing it.
great thankyou for the heads up - i am looking forward to that video 😀@@loweredexpectations4927
Thank you for sharing . This was very informative during these cold days
Thanks for your comment. It is appreciated.
I’d think having the hole unit inside and exhaust out along with the air intake because you are loosing heat on both ends of the 3 inch hose
Yes, this would be better for sure. Ideally you want to capture as much heat as possible. My setup is quick and dirty.
WIth the heater inside, it gets a little more complicated, especially for a temporary install / unit that will not be staying in place. You don't want diesel fumes or exhaust gasses in your house, and when the heater isn't running, you want to be able to close the window to stop heat from escaping.
"Permanent" connections are much easier to make secure when compared to something that will be installed and removed frequently.
Having heater in house instead of outside would be more efficient no? One small hole for exhaust only
Absolutely. That requires a little more planning and care, but it would be much better.
My heater gets used for experiments and it is not really practical to install it on my house.
Mount the unit inside. It is more efficient, you are not heating the outside air as it blows across heat chamber. Easier to heat 15⁰ air over -20⁰ air. Your battery will also be warm and last longer.
You will also have a smaller hole for your exhaust pipe than for air going into heated area
Yes, this would be much more efficient. The reason why I mount my heater outside is because I do test videos. My heater gets removed and disassembled frequently.
As I mentioned in the video, this is almost a worst case scenario.
I ran hard line and soft line there is no difference my heater has been running on soft line for 3 years now a not a single problem. Opened it up last summer thinking il give it a clean and it was spotless
Yeah.... all lies from the big soft line corporations 🤔 🤣 I know who you work for... Tygon ! Haha.
Glad to hear your heater is working well and thanks for confirming this one step further.
yes but u had it i the bassment what would it be like runnig thro your (lets just call the bassment floor 0,) first floor
Yes... this was intended to be more or less a worst case scenario for this size house, but that would have made it warmer on the upper level.
I recently bought a Vevor 8KW unit and had it running flat out in my garage for 6 days.
Here's what I found.
Fuel consumption was ~5 US gallons a day, which implies it is putting out ~8KW (~27,000 BTU).
However, that includes the waste heat going out the exhaust, which knocks down the actual hot air output down by likely around 2KW giving it a realistic hot air only output of maybe 6 KW ( 20,500 BTU).
Also, I did run mine indoors with the exhaust venting indoors as well and I noticed zero exhaust smell for the whole run.
WHAT ? You burnt 5 gallons in 24 hours ? Do you mean 5 gallons in 6 days ?
Are you sure about your numbers. None of this makes sense to me and I'm really confused. My "8kw" heater burns about 12 gallons in 6 days (144 hours) Even more confusing because I'm converting everything from litres, haha.
I'm trying to do the math now to figure out what you pump would have to do to be able to burn this much fuel....
I can't tell if I'm being trolled or not... You vented your exhaust inside for 6 days ? I have vented my exhaust inside for testing, but this is extremely reckless if true. If you are not sleeping in there, likely not a big deal, but not smelling anything doesn't mean it is safe. It is an indicator, to some extent, but not a guarantee.
@@loweredexpectations4927 MY Vevor 8KW burns about 5 gallons (~19 liters) of fuel every 24 hours when on setting 10.
In 6 days it used about 30 gallons (~114 liters) of fuel in total.
I'm in the upper midwest and have been in this - 10 to - 30F with 20 to 40 MPH winds arctic blast run since my heater showed up and I have had it running at max output nonstop since the day it arrived.
As for venting the exhaust inside. What do you think those big diesel and propane-burning jet/torpedo and radiant heaters do?
@@tcmtech7515 Are you able to send me a link to the heater that you got ? You are in the US midwest ?
If you are really burning that much fuel, then yeah.... I have two "8kw" vevor heaters and they do not burn that much fuel and are not capable of burning that much fuel due to air flow restrictions.
Those torpedo heaters are recommended for ventilated areas construction sites... I have worked with them (massive industrial units) and although they won't kill you in a day, the VOC is a concern. Tuned properly they work well but again, they get out of tune easily.
I have tested the exhaust on these heaters, and it is actually very clean, when everything is going well. It takes about 30 seconds for things to go from really clean to deadly fumes, and in an enclosed area, you can reach deadly levels of CO in less than 10 minutes.... I know this from testing indoors. At the very least you want a few CO meters.
@@loweredexpectations4927 The Vevor I got is the basic unit on Amazon. Right now it's selling for $89. (Cant link on YT or my posts automatically get deleted by their censorship bots)
I am aware of the concerns with CO and the like, however, with these little units, it's really unlikely they will produce so much CO so fast that theyd make any sort of garage dangerous to be in.
So this experiment shows us that the battery is as important as the heater itself in an extreme cold situation!
That's a good way to look at it, yes.... Especially because the most likely scenario is that your heat stops working because the power went out.
A large battery or battery bank charged by solar would be ideal... and kept in a warm place.
10:30 don’t keep lithium batteries outside in the cold!!!
@@Weldoholic Thanks for the tip ! haha.
@@loweredexpectations4927 no problem 😂 they don’t even like to be charged below certain temps just be careful and read the manuals on them!
@@Weldoholic Yes... they can be quite problematic in the cold !
just watched your video.......sighs........Enjoyed the adventure, keep up the good work......i knew your cat was planning to box your nose.....i donr think quasar like very much you keeping the heat off....he knew..he knew
Haha... Thanks for your support ! You are right... Quasar likes to spend a lot of time laying on the heat registers... so he was not at all impressed.
I wish i could get cheaper diesel but i cant so im still running my house on wood and electric. But my workshop with 2 vevor 8kw is nice and toasty quick. Love them.
I grew up with wood heat till I was 18. What sort of wood heat do you have, a fireplace, furnace or forced air furnace?
@@loweredexpectations4927 i have two oven, Norwegian made. From Jøtul.
One is called Bjørn (bear) and can take wood that are 60-65 cm long. That is in my living room and it can crank out about 11kw so my living room is always nice and warm and sometimes sweaty. Haha.
In the basement i have a Jøtul wich are decorated with Mooses on the side, it also can take same length of wood and can do 8kw.
The main thing i have discovered during the years is the importance of the hatch inside the metal tube from the oven to the pipe . I can turn that almost blocking all hot air from entering the pipe and therefore the heat gets stuck inside the oven and heat that up even more and i use a floor fan directly on it to blow away the hot air around the oven and my house is warm immideately. So its like the top of a can with a small cut off and you can have it all the way open or gradually as you like more closed after the fire has started for real.
The bear oven also are decorated with the head of the bear on the sides. Very cool ovens and i have them because they heat up quick,and can take massive sizes of logs.
@@RIMHQ-YT Very cool ! I don't have anything like that here. All boring.
@@loweredexpectations4927 well, after you hit a million subscribers just let me know and I will ship the coolest ovens for you. Here they are cheap and many dumb people buy new oven that are "clean burning" and have more fires in their chimney than ever before. And the old ovens are either thrown away or sold for nothing. But for ovens in my mind most important is the hatch in the metal tube from the oven holding back the heat inside the oven.
@@RIMHQ-YT Yes... they sell for a lot of money here. You should start an export business, haha.
did you try using espar hydronic coolant heater for the truck
No... I don't have that kind of money laying around. I would love to try one, or even the Chinese versions... but I have too many projects on the go.
that ok
I will try to install it in my motorhome + install an extra rad ,in the spring wen it gets little warmer
then I will let you know how it work out
In case, power outages last for several days, one might consider having a catalytic propane heater and and some propane in storage.
Better two of them, one for your piping, one for your living area.
Battery dependent solutions require an auxiliary gasoline generator - you'd probably need that one anyhow for the rest of your issuses in this case, but i wouldn't rely on a small engine generator, that's safely stowed away for emergency and therefore rarely used, because it will fail, when needed. First with carburator issues and second with demagnetized ignition magnets.
To get that solved, you'd probably then won't have the means or the time.
Just saying - and only really important, if you'd expect life- or pipe threatening temperatures.
I do have actually have a gas generator, but I only run them if totally necessary. A 4000w in my truck that gets used often for my job.
I think a few small solar panels to keep your batteries up would be smart... You only need a fairly small amount of power to top up batteries, if just using one of these heaters.
@@loweredexpectations4927
My experience is different. But it was with old style lead batteries. These won't get fully charged during winter season anyhow, if you're living, where it tends to be overcast in winter.
And that state of half charged kills this sort of battery anyhow. Had 700 watt solar - did hardly get enough energy to use one 5 watt Led light for the evening and a 12V water pump, when needed. That means - not a chance of getting enough battery charge to fire up such a heater.
So - maybe 10KW at your roof may give you enough diffuse light charge, but not a small installation of ~ 1KW
If it's sunny in winter - sure, will work. But that's not typical for the northern half of Germany. You hardly ever have some sunny hours in winter. That used to be so in Southern Bavaria. Bright sunlight after the snowstorms. I loved that.
Got worse there too in the last decades.
Yea, my gas generators always work, if i have them in regular use.
But how many people have that?
Most have one sitting around for emergencies - if the ever thought about preparing for such stuff, which is rare anyhow - and then it fails miserably and gouvernment has to send help, because either the water pump against flooding is without power or the house is going to freeze into an economical ruin, because - no power, no heating.
That's, why i mentioned catalytic heaters. They don't need any power exept a bottle of Propane.
I forgot one point: Almost everybody has a car around, which is perfect for charging your batteries, but in my experience, people don't even think about that handy generator - and therefore don't have enough cable around to use it, when the emergency happens.
Looks like propane or kerosene would be a better option bc you get all the BTUs without wasting the BTUs to exhaust. I guess you would get more condensation but with such a large area I don’t think it would really matter. You wouldn’t need electricity as well but fuel might cost a bit more
Propane can usually be used indoors safely, but the instructions will almost always tell you not to run them in a confined space without proper ventilation.
Kerosene heaters are basically the same deal but worse as they tend to vent VOC even of the CO isn't deadly.
A properly working diesel heater could be run inside the same as a kerosene heater, or you can burn kerosene in your diesel heater. I have tested mine in an enclosed space and the fumes are "safe". Safe in quotes as any small change and it could get deadly in minutes.
I grew up with a wood furnace, I think that is ideal as you can burn just about anything and even if the power is out you still have heat.
For a space where I'm sleeping... I'm not running anything that is vented indoors... not happening.
Haha...no point in saying to come to Australia mate, ya missus gonna be really pissed off when we experiment....LOL, great video! 👍
HAHA ! She rarely gets pissed off... but I like to at least try to be thoughtful.
Too much smoke at startup. Time to replace the burner screen?
You're talking about 13:34 ? ... That was because the battery voltage was too low on my Li Ion battery... It tried to start once and failed (glow plug couldn't get hot enough is my guess) . So when it started up the second time, not only was it starting with a bunch of extra fuel, but also pretty low power to the plug and fan.
Do you have the fan on your central air system? I wonder how much a difference that would make? Also in Canada you can run “farm fuel” since it is not used on the roads. Maybe save 20% on it.
I do yes. I had actually recorded a long rant about using this and having it circulate the air more evenly, but the video was already pretty long, so I didn't use it.
I feel like the overall temperature would be lower with the fan on. Without the fan on, there will be pockets of hotter and colder air... like how I showed around the living room window. These pockets of cooler air likely keep the air in much of the house warmer, and mixing all of the air up would lower the overall temperature.
@@loweredexpectations4927 would raise the “over all temp” but you wouldn’t have areas with higher temp differential. Would be interesting to do that experiment over again. Get the house up to temp and then kick the heater on and have heat circulate with the furnace fan. Big thing is not opening and closing doors. Grew up in a 1960’s house in Calgary in Hasboro. Anyway, thanks for the videos, nice to see someone going through the ins and outs of these Chinese heaters.
@@gordon6029 You just reminded me of growing up on the east coast and being taught very quickly that going in and out in the winter was only done when it was out of necessity, and we were often reminded that we weren't heating the outside, haha.
We had wood heat, but a 80 year old house, at the time.... so literally horse hair plaster walls and basically no insulation. "CLOSE THE DOOR ! WE'RE NOT PAYING TO HEAT THE OUTSIDE!!" my mother would say.
The BMS in a Lithium will prevent charging below 0°c. In other term at 0°c you can't charge at all.
That's kinda what I suspected ... I have had a few people tell me otherwise, but I gotta assume that there's some built in protection.
Used a 5kw to heat my house for over five years,, cheep reliable heat on tap,, cheeper than gas or electric heating 😊
Awesome ! Thanks for sharing I guess this differs from one part of the world to the other. Here Natural gas is much cheaper, but this is a good backup.
-18C, ? did you miss the -45C last week in AB :) As far as the vid goes, lol it happens, I just did a vid on modifying surplus rental scooter batteries , it also had its challenges...and i had never edited before. take care.
Haha... the videos are about a week behind... this was Monday or Tuesday before it really got cold. Editing video.... what a pain in the a$$
@@loweredexpectations4927 Jesus,it never occurred to me to mention.......I use those surplus scooter batteries to power my own chineese diesel heater.
@@terrysobkowich2084 Right on. I'm guessing they have a pretty decent capacity. I watched some of your video last night but got side tracked doing other things. It's pretty hard for me to say on taks ... Any time I go to TH-cam I get this nagging feeling like I need to check for new comments, check my analytics... then I get reminded that I'm supposed to be editing a video or that I need to shoot a missing clip, haha.
Just went and finished watching.
My Brother, not sure if anyone else mentioned this but... why didn't you just have everything on the inside and vent the exhaust out the window?
That would be better, but it takes a little more time and forethought. You don't want to get exhaust or diesel fumes in your house, and you need to vent the exhaust outside safely.
Also, when the heater is installed on the outside, I can close the window in the inside if I run out of fuel or if the heater fails. With it on the inside, I would need to remove the heater from it's position to close the window. To make things worse, the frost / ice that forms around windows means that the insert I made was frozen in place. I would have destroyed it trying to remove it.
Can you run 2 diesel heaters with one pump
It is possible but not without a lot of fuss.
With a little tinkering, you could make it work, but if you had a 5kw ECU, each heater would be running 2.5 kw as it is the fuel input that determines the heat output. This is grossly simplified, that that's the basics.
The pumps are generally 22ml pumps, so if you had a 44ml pump you could run two heaters with one. The largest I have seen is a 28ml. You can also run the pump faster, but generally the fastest you can run us 8hz and the normal setting is about 5hz
There are other issues, but this is just a few of the issues.
For an average burner like the Beckett Oil Burner Chassis models AF and AFG, a typical BTU output can vary widely based on the specific settings. However, as a general reference, a burner consuming 1 gallon of fuel oil per hour (GPH) typically produces about 140,000 BTUs per hour. Since these burners can operate within a range of 0.40 to 3.00 GPH, the BTU output would vary accordingly, usually between 56,000 BTUs (for 0.40 GPH) and 420,000 BTUs (for 3.00 GPH). For the most accurate figure, it's best to refer to the specific model's documentation or consult with the manufacturer. 420,000 BTUs per hour converts to approximately 123.09 kilowatts. This is significantly more than the 8 kilowatts output of an 8000W diesel air heater.
Could we stick to one unit please, haha... wow.
1 litre of diesel is pretty close to 10hwh.
The pump on an 8kw heater pumps .022ml per pulse.
The pump can cycle at a maximum rate of 8hz (8x per seconds)
.022 x8 = .176 lm per second x 60 = 10.56 ml per minute x 60 = 633.60 per hour.
So that's .634 litres ... that also means 6.34 KWH max
However, that is the theoretical kwh and the reality is, the fan can't force enough air though at 5000 RPM to burn that much fuel. If you run your pump at 8hz, your heater will make a LOT of black smoke and shut down pretty quickly, after it fills with carbon.
all those numbers area for a beckett burner...to compare what you would need in a small diesel heater .it was an ai output @@loweredexpectations4927
Yes, I think it's due to the controller. I just asked Joel to review my findings
Respect for doing all the testing work. But letting the heater heat up outside air that is -20C and putting it outside were it's -20C really throws away a lot of heating potential. Try circulating the inside air and putting the heater inside with just the exhaust outside or even try recovering exhaust heat through a radiator. I hope you will also do a best scenario situation. Heating just the living room/ kitchen with circulating air.
Thanks for the comment.
I think there is a misunderstanding. I am recirculating air from inside my house. At 18:04 you can see I'm warming my hands on the hot air vent, and the air inlet is off to my right.
Perhaps my explanation of my cardboard baffle is the confusion... this just makes the air come in slightly lower, so that the hot air isn't sucked directly back into the inlet.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Ok sorry I missed that. Well with -20 30C difference is pretty good then! I wonder how hot it would get when outside it was like 0C
@@socialhostage8534 I suspect that it would keep it around 18C ... but that is more or less of a guess. I may be able to do more of this type of testing this winter, but I'm not sure.
Actually until last year you were correct there were no 8kw heaters but david Mc luckie in Scotland UK actually got his hands on one and tested it , they hadnt been produced until 2023 but they do exist and they are much bigger than the 5kw diesel heater, so to say there are no 8kw heaters isnt exactly true anymore. if your shopping for a 5kw heater and it says 8kw its probably not true. unless the cost is sky high because the 8kw is a lot more expensive.
Try circulation of the inside air through the heater it really helps to heat the house up.
Yes, I have seen that video and will address that in my rant video, haha. I believe it is actually about 6kw (from my understanding) but it is different. I will get into this in my video, but yes, this is correct, there is a larger heater available now.
Around 8 liters is not just under 2 gallons. To me this would be equivalent to about 3.5 KW.
Given your dimensions? 24×36 times 2 story house. Which would suggest just under 7,000 btu/hr (input) at about 80-90% efficiency, so say 3.5 btu/hr/ft²
No, 8 liters is not just under two gallons. Making intros and outros is the hardest part of making a video. A lot of older Canadians often refer to anything resembling 4 liter container as a gallon. Gallon of milk, gallon of paint, gallon of paint thinner...
The fuel consumption testing that I have done does show that the actual heat created should be around 3.4 or 3.5 kw.
The heater should be inside of the house and exhaust need to be utilized by having some kind of very efficient heat exchanger to air or water, because an enormous amount of energy are lost through the exhaust
Absolutely. It is much more efficient to have the heater inside. It is almost a great idea to collect all of the heat from the exhaust so there is no waste. Doing that is much more complicated and involves mitigating safety risks.
The setup I used for this video takes about 2 minutes to set up and keeps the smell of diesel and exhaust gases outside. It is a compromise.
I just got a 5 A 12 V smart charger from Amazon with temperature monitoring wint/summer modes
Interesting. I didn't know that was a thing.
@@loweredexpectations4927 me either, nexpeak NC 101 it works with standard, agm and gel batteries.
@@loweredexpectations4927 Hi Joel, something that fits in with the description has been around and common for more than 10 years, you might have heard of the Ctek brand, they have done it for a long time.
I believe half of the heat goes out the exhaust.. i run the exhaust into the attic not outside..you would be amaised how much better the house heats up when you heat the attic..the exhaust exits the gable end vents and not down into the house
It's a considering amount, but it's not half. I think on a 5kw unit on max heat, you lose about 1 kw out the exhaust.
I have thought of venting into the attic of my garage... not sure how sage it is.
instead of a battery, have you thought of using a SuperCapacitor such as 6X Maxwell 3000f = 500f at 16v, and use a simple automatic charger on it. No more cold weather bad-battery, and loads of current available .. and they never wear out .
I have looked into super caps years ago, and they are awesome, but I don't have time for another side project. I tend to get totally obsessed about things I get into, and my whole channel would be about super caps, for 2 years, haha.