Fast & Cheap Hot Water in our Campervan! - Part 2 (with Bobil Vans Kit) | Transit Van Conversion E38
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2023
- This time we're plumbing in our campervan hot water system using the Bobil Vans heat exchanger kit, so we have fast (and cheap!) hot water for our shower!
With this kit we can heat our water using the hot air from our Chinese diesel heater, or from solar using any excess charge once our batteries are topped up. Or just from driving down the road too!
In part 1 we setup the Bobil Air Xchange for a quick trial run, now it's time to get it all connected up to the shower and see how fast it can heat the water...and how cheaply. We spent some time putting it to the test!
Thanks for watching! Any comments or questions? Let us know below!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Products used in this video (includes affiliate links *):
↠ Bobil Air Xchange - www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-p...
↠ Bobil Solar Element Upgrade Kit - www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-p...
↠ 85L Water Tank - www.directwatertanks.co.uk/85...
↠ Shurflo Trailking 7 Pump - geni.us/FvjF (Amazon)
↠ Seaflo Accumulator - geni.us/ApQGZ11 (Amazon)
↠ Pipe Cutters - geni.us/VVEId (Amazon)
↠ Holesaw Kit - geni.us/Vz37a5 (Amazon)
↠ Victron Lynx Distributor - geni.us/BRX0 (Amazon)
↠ Blue Sea Fuse Hub - geni.us/FnTn (Amazon)
↠ DC Amp Clamp Multimeter - geni.us/AtpImBc (Amazon)
↠ Blue Sea 6006 Battery Switch - geni.us/KNpAfSd (Amazon)
↠ Wire Strippers - geni.us/9v1Bs (Amazon)
↠ Bosch Cordless Drill - geni.us/jFvH (Amazon)
↠ Bosch Cordless Jigsaw - geni.us/4Lvq7 (Amazon)
↠ Thermo Van Liner (for insulating the tank) - ebay.us/M8URnV
↠ Adhesive Lined Heat Shrink - ebay.us/Ap6huk
↠ Heat Shrink Crimp Terminals - ebay.us/dQYD0Q
↠ Wire/Cable - mostly from ebay.us/WtL24D and www.12voltplanet.co.uk/cable....
↠ Nylon P Clips - ebay.us/beXZQr
↠ Heater Air Vent (flat) - ebay.us/BCnP4P
John Guest 12mm Fittings:
↠ Pipe inserts - geni.us/BhqP5V1 (Amazon)
↠ Elbows - geni.us/j8GXAWE (Amazon)
↠ Shut-off taps - geni.us/mDVQn (Amazon)
↠ John Guest Release Tools (makes getting the pipes on and off easier!) - geni.us/fWg0s30 (Amazon)
↠ Everything else! - ebay.us/ngauL6
* Disclaimer: Some of the links above may be affiliate links. If you choose to click on them we may earn a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support Us
------------------
If you're enjoying our videos and would like to say thanks you can buy us a tea or coffee here!
☕️ www.buymeacoffee.com/selfbuil...
Resources
------------------
You can download our diagrams and power audit spreadsheet here:
↠ www.buymeacoffee.com/selfbuil...
🚐 Follow Us
------------------
🔔 Subscribe on RUclips: ruclips.net/user/selfbuiltst...
↠ Follow us on Instagram: / selfbuiltstories
↠ See our full van conversion playlist: • Transit Van Conversion
Filmed with:
↠ Sony ZV1 - geni.us/LW73Jx (Amazon)
↠ GoPro Hero 8 - geni.us/PsIIH9 (Amazon)
↠ Zhiyun Crane M2 - geni.us/WhUBT7I (Amazon)
↠ Rode VideoMicro - geni.us/tzPbJ (Amazon)
* Disclaimer: Some of the links above may be affiliate links. If you choose to click on them we may earn a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
***************************************************************************************
All our videos are for entertainment and show our process of converting our campervan. They're not intended to be tutorials and we may make mistakes along the way, so always do your own research and if in doubt about anything then make sure to get advice from a suitable professional
***************************************************************************************
#vanconversion #campervanconversion #vanlifeuk
All the different bits of kit and products we used in the video should be linked in the description, thanks for watching! 🙂
This is turning out to be the BEST van build on RUclips. Congratulations guys.
Wow, thank you very much, glad you're enjoying it 😀👍
I totally agree 100%
@@jasonbillington3923 Thank you! :)
I agree too! It's all the attention to detail. I don't think anyone matches. 🎉well done guys
@@leviripley Thanks a lot! 🙂
Best and most meticulous van build on RUclips. Also entertaining to watch you two work as a team.
Thanks a lot! We have a rule that we both have to work on each project 🙂
Your heating graph is brilliant and hysterical at the same time. It shows the level of detail you go to on the build and putting the work in now means you understand how to get the best out of your system. Good on you and thanks for continuing to take the time to share your build.
Haha cheers, I do like a good spreadsheet! (Tim). Was quite fun testing it out so much, and quite useful too knowing what the sweet spot is. You're welcome and thanks for continuing to watch 😀👍
This has to be the most complex plumbing setup I have seen thus far and the most detailed build altogether.😯👍
Its a good thing you filmed all this, since your heirs and successors will need the videos to be able to comprehend the complexity and service the setup. 🤣
I really would love to see your finished van live and in color! 🤩
Stay safe and best regards from across the pond. 🚐☁🍀
Haha cheers, we don't find it so bad though now that we've put it together. Mostly just an off-the-shelf kit, the complex part was fitting it all in the cupboard! 😛 Yeah see you at a camper festival at some point, hope your van is coming along nicely 🙂👍
This is the most complicated and FANTASTIC van I've seen converted on RUclips. What an amazing job you've both done. A masterclass in van building :)
Thanks again Pete! A bit complicated to build but it was worth it we reckon, really enjoying using it! 😀
i think NASA would be proud of your build :) love the team work in all your vids
Haha cheers, we like a bit of a technical challenge 😀
Some great spreadsheet work there!
Haha cheers, do love a good spreadsheet! 😛
Such meticulous attention to detail - love it. I'm installing my Bobil system at the moment though I have the hybrid system - the one with the boiler. The recirculating shower looks like it's a brain melting exercise.
Thanks! And yeah we'd have seriously considered that one if we weren't going for the recirculating setup. You're right it's definitely a brain melting exercise, been there a few times 😅😅 But a fun challenge as well, hopefully it'll be worth it!
@@SelfBuiltStories Safe travels!
Thank you! 😀👍
Becoming my favorite van build ever. Your wife. Does she have a sister? What a lucky guy you are.
Haha thanks, glad you're enjoying it 😀👍
the level of work thats gone into these overhead storage units is superb,the quality of your build is amazing ,have seen work by proffessional joiners that dosnt come close to this ,by far the best van build on you tube by a mile
Thank you very much much! They did take a long time, we've learnt that the wood working always ends up more involved than you imagine when everything has to be custom made for the van. Very happy with the result though! 🙂
Another very well thought out install you two just keep raising the bar on van builds, nothing is rushed so much care is put into the project you are working on well done 👏 👏,
Thank you very much! 😊
Wow really impressive guys
Cheers! 🙂
That spreadsheet solved the UK energy crisis
Haha, it was pretty cool to see how cheap it is to run 😀
excellent, you doing nice job keep it up. I will be amazing when you finish it👍👍😎😎😎😎😎😎
Thank you very much! 🙂👍
They finished it earlier last month I think. Probably too busy having fun travelling to video edit and upload. The vids are great though.
Cheers, yep we have a bit of a backlog to edit, catching up... Slowly 😛👍
Nice to see you again! 😊
Cheers! 😁
Excellent work. Very thorough and detailed.
Thanks a lot! 😀
Once again your videos have been amazing. I have the same bobil van setup and I have just got the heating element / solar heating setup. Took me a while to realise that if your not using the diesel heater then you have to drop the air temperature setting down on the display so that air temp relay comes on. Silly me. Took me a day and a half to realise that is what I was missing.
Thanks again for your awesome videos. They have massively helped me.
You're welcome, glad they helped! Yeah that part was a bit confusing with all the different relays! We actually wired it differently so we can have the element on without the air temperature relay needing being on, for that reason that we might want to use the element without the heater. So our element will come on as long as the second switch and water temperature relay is on which has been working well for us. The only thing is that the circulation pump doesn't come on with it that way so the temperature reading is a bit delayed, might adapt it to have the pump come on as well at some point 😛 Happy New Year! 🥳
That does make sense now that I think about it. I don't really need the pump on when just the heating element is on, I'm just wasting power there. I like your idea of having the air relay out of the equation in this scenario and the pump off. I actually will change my wiring to do the same.
Thanks again. And happy new year to you both and many happy van adventures 😃
@@17bArawata No problem, you're welcome! 🙂
The results are amazing. Hot water is next on my. list of things to do in my van.
Yeah we were really happy with how efficiently we can heat a tank, and it was definitely a big upgrade to be able to have a shower in the van. Good luck with yours! 👍
You are both are extremely good people! Because of that I'll write in my native language.
Kocham was!!! Jesteście światłem, życiem w internecie pośród tylu bezwartościowych treści.
Absolutnie was kocham ❤
POLAND ❤ loves You guys ❤️
Dzięki za miłe słowa 😊 ❤️
@@SelfBuiltStories 😲😲😲😲😲
@@humandisorder3962 😁
Absolutely amazing. the build has had a lot of love and hard workmanship put into it. Amazing wiring also.
Thanks! It's working out really well so far 😀
Interesting to know the capitol outlay for this system, and the payback time. Looks to work very efficiently tho,! 👏👍
Yeah we're really happy with how efficiently it heats up, and having used it for a few months now haven't had any issues. The kit we have is their Air Xchange so you can see all the details and specs here: www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-page/bobil-air-xchange, and we have the optional solaris upgrade too 👍
this is well tidy
Cheers 😛
OMG. You two nail it every video!!. I get so excited when a new video comes online. The level of detail and team work is amazing. Great job!!
Haha cheers! Hope you continue to enjoy the videos 😊
Brilliant. Job well done
Thanks a lot! 🙂
Another amazing build with such amazing attention to detail, great work!
Thank you very much! 😊
Exactly the same as mine, I never fitted a vent inside our shower. Just got the maxx fan outside the door. Shower curtain and porta potty for us, no sliding door. Good job guys
Thanks! Yeah we've found the maxxfan is enough so far 👍
You guys are MAD (in a good way)! I thought I was particular!
Haha thanks... I think 😅
Great video!!! Thank you for sharing your hard work!
You're welcome, thanks for watching! 😊
I’ve only just found your channel, hats off to you, excellent fitting and explanation of what you were doing. Happy New Year to you both. 🍷🍷🍷
Thank you very much, and Happy New Year to you too! 🥳
Congratulations the van is looking fantastic
Thanks a lot! 👍
Glad to see more videos. Happy you are both back at it. ;-)
Cheers! We actually finished up everything we needed a little while ago and hit the road, now working through the backlog of videos to edit, slowly catching up 🙂
Well done guys, awesome vid
Thanks!
Love what you have done guys. We have a Truma 14 L gas/240v hot water unit. Works well and supplies enough t for 2 for on/off showers as we only have 170L of on board water. Love your ‘drying room’ idea. May have to look into that for our shower. Just home after 5 weeks off grid out to Simpson Desert and then Northern Queensland.
Cheers :) Yeah we're happy we have the drying room, used it for my sodden shoes the other day and worked a treat! And cool hope you had a great trip!
Awesome work guys! I have a 240V AC/12VDC water heater (Duoetto MK2) in my Ford Transit and have connected the the 12V up so I can heat it from Solar when the batteries are at 95% SOC plus when I drive by using an ignition source, relay and a spare 60A terminal on the CCP. Works a charm and puts no additional load on the house batteries.
Cheers, and awesome sounds good. Yeah ours heats up when driving too as we have the DC-DC charger hooked up, it's great to be able to get hot water for effectively free isn't it 😀👍
Very good data i can start my system now guys
Haha cool, good luck 👍
i´m nerding out so hard on the diagrams excel sheets drawings
Haha cheers, we like a good diagram and spreadsheet 😛
Yaaayyyyy always puts a smile on my face to see your new video pop up.
I got my bed lift fully working n finished my pressurised hot water (electric 220v 800watt). Its one of the bobil van kits. I haven't done my deisel heater yet so haven't attempted to heat from that yet
Cheers as always! That's cool, so you have it lift up for a seating area underneath? And yeah the pressurised bobil kit looks nice, we'd have considered that one if we weren't going down the recirculating route. Good luck with the heater! 😀
@SelfBuiltStories yeah exactly. A bench n table underneath it after the bed rises. Bed works fine. Need to build bench now.
That's exactly why I didn't go recirculating shower. Couldn't think of a way to clean it. In hindsight..I think you picked the better option. I've a 100l tank..n I only get 3 showers from it. You made a great call
Ah cool, being able to sit and have the back doors completely open will be nice for you in the Summer then 👍🙂 And yeah it's crazy how much water is actually used for normal life, being in a van definitely makes you much more aware and considerate of it. We've been using the shower (non-recirculating) for a couple of months now, and the thing that forces us to go back to civilisation first is having to find somewhere to offload the grey water. Looking forward to having it recirculating as it'll extend how long we can be off-grid by quite a bit we reckon. But every setup has pros and cons, we have the complexity of building it and the maintenance in keeping it working too 😛
Great video 👍
Cheers 😀
Nice meeting you yesterday. Sorry you had to put up with our shoddy Spoons experience!
Haha it does the job! Nice meeting you too, good luck with the rest of your build 😀👍🚐
I came across you guys and have flown through your build vlogs. Awesome van build, some great ideas for a build I want to do in the nest 6 months.
You should write your own manual and sell it, there's so many bits i just love. The sliding bed is so good, I want a fixed bed but worried about losing usable space, this is perfect.
looking forward to the next vlog.
Thank you very much, and glad it's given you some ideas! 🙂 We have thought about writing some bits either on a blog or an ebook at some point when we have a bit more time, we'll see! And we do love the bed, we had the same thought that we didn't want to lose half the van to a permanently fixed bed, but also didn't want it to be a super faff every day dismantling all our bench seats etc to make it up. Very happy with the compromise we have and the half size bed is still usable to chill out on during the day too, Abi is using it like that right now 😀
my hot water system consists of a 15l black tub and sunshine haha. Seems the tech has come along somewhat!
Aint nothing wrong with that if it works! Can still market it as a solar powered hot water kit 😛
I read that sailors on warships were once allowed 1 bucket of fresh water per day far washing themselves and some of their clothing.
Interesting, hopefully not sea water 😁
In full friction fit pvc fittings, those inserts are a requirement and stop the pipe getting squished over time and give a solid backing to the pipe while the teeth bite into it. without them there is a very high chance your fittings will leak! Good choice fitting them!!
Yeah we decided to put them on every connection hot and cold, not the cheapest things but worth it for peace of mind! 👍
At max power you're using 400ml/h of diesel so about 15MJ (4.2kW). You're adding 2.3MJ in 18 minutes (7.5MJ/h or 2.1kW of heat).
That gives an efficiency of 50%, not bad considering the small heat exchanger and the heat lost in the exhaust. Also you get some heat inside the shower through the vent.
For reference a tankless non-condensing gas heater is 80-90% efficient being bulkier, having more complete combustion, with a larger heat exchanger and running all the exhaust through it.
Would be nice to compare it to a hydronic system as this seems much cheaper
Thanks for the comment! Interesting to look at it from the raw efficiency point of view like that, cheers. Yeah it's a great bit of kit for the size and is more than practical enough for us in the van, and the excess 'wasted' heat is really useful too. In fact just now we've been drying out all our clothes after a walk in this miserable weather, very handy! And yeah that would be a cool comparison 👍
Wow you guys ate doing great !!! Erm I'd check your fittings on hot side ,quite reg , or change them out !!!! Remember when temperature changes ,so does the structure of materials !!! Id be quite dubious about push fittings on hot side
Cheers! And we're fairly confident in them to be honest, all the pipes and fittings are rated to 70+C and we've used the inserts in every join so hopefully they should keep their shape. But yep we'll keep an eye on them 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories cool 😎 obs done ya research , new rechnology advances all the time , still nice rig !!!
We do like to research 😀 Thanks!
Very interesting way to heat water! I was thinking that possibly a good way to heat things in some cases, especially being in Arizona at this time, is the sun. Even places not like Arizona can get a good enough amount of sun for heating.
I saw a guy that has a tube about 5 feet long and in Arizona, he'll just lay it next to the camper after filling it with water.
Also, I really like bread and would consider baking bread with a solar oven, as well as heating water with solar power. In addition, I wonder if there's a way to transfer solar as heat directly in some way, maybe with mirror concentrating the beams into a window possibly. Maybe put a piece of metal inside the van and it can heat up with the sun heat. Of course, usually solar isn't as powerful in winter when it is needed most for heat.
Yeah we've seen things like that, low tech is often best if it works for you. In the UK relying on the sun for hot water would probably mean cold showers most of the year though 😅 We do have an electric element in the tank as well so we can use solar to heat the water with that for free, when the sun does come out! 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Ah, i c
☀️😎
Quite impressed with your demonstration of the water heater through the diesel heater especially your wiring diagram, would it be possible to download this design much appreciated
Regards russell ✌️
Cheers, and sure no problem, you can download the diagrams here: www.buymeacoffee.com/selfbuiltstories/extras 😊
Congrads🎉
Cheers! 🙂
Nice, got the same Bobil system but went with using the Victron Cerbo to control the solar water heater. Have a tank level sensor connected to the Cerbo as well as a temp sensor. So when the switch is closed on Digital Input 1 on the Cerbo, there's 50% of the tank full, 90% battery and temp is under 50 degree's it turns Relay 1 on and this is connected to a 60A relay for immersion heater.
I thought this would be fine but also added a bypass so I can turn the Bobil pump circulating water though the radiator. Having the water moving when the immersion heater is on makes a big difference.
Cheers, yeah it's a cool bit of kit. And that's an interesting way of controlling it, nice one. We'll probably add a cerbo at some point as we have a lot of victron kit and it would be nice to be able to monitor it remotely. And yeah have been thinking of making some wiring changes to be able to have the bobil pump on when the element is running on its own, as with our temperature sensor at the bottom of the tank we found that opening it up and stirring it around it would actually be maybe a few degrees higher than it was showing. Not a big deal but would be a cool upgrade to do to make it even more efficient 😛
Hi, is this possible with the normal Cerbo GX settings, or do you need to install Guimods?
I would also like to control my immersion heater the way you do, but i don't know how to program it. (beginner in using Victron)
Did you use the generator start/stop relay settings? or the temperature relay settings?
Thanks!
Hey both, loving your videos, thank-you so much for documenting your conversion in such detail! I'm down in Cornwall currently converting my own XLWB Transit, with the goal of full time living while I travel and save some money, and yourselves and Mispronounced Adventures have been invaluable resources.
I'm looking to go down the recirculating shower route too, and your solution looks like it will fit perfectly with my layout. I was just wondering how you're going to handle the water from the shower re-entering the tank as it exits through the floor. I might be having a daft moment and missing something really simple, but I was wondering if the pump on the re-circulating shower side will draw the water back into the tank or if you'll need an additional pump/method to get the water to travel back up into the tank?
I've skimmed your previous shower videos to see if I missed any of the under van shower plumbing had been done, and couldn't see anything past the hole and drain being added, so If this is going to be covered in a future video then I look forward to learning!
Again thank-you for the great content and best of luck on your journey!
Hey! 👋 Awesome, we love Cornwall! Glad you're enjoying the videos and yeah Alex has some great videos on his channel 🙂 Cool yeah we figured it would justify having our shower more without having to carry a huge amount of water for it. You haven't missed anything though, right now it just goes through the drain in the floor and then flows into our waste tank under the van. We figured we'd do it the normal way first so we can start using it and then add the recirculating part afterwards, and yeah we have a separate pump for that. So there's one pump for the cold water, one for the hot water, and one for the recirculating. It will take the water after it's gone down the drain and pull it back into the van, through the filters, and then back into the tank. Similar to the setup Alex has but with the difference that he has it all inside the van with a raised shower tray and we have ours going through the floor where it connects up with our other waste plumbing under the van. Thanks for the comment and hope your build is going well 👍
Brilliant job and amazing detailed video...its good to see the results with your testing... to have the patience to film it all and analyse the results so meticulously on top of actually installing it is very impressive. I'm thinking of installing the same system in my van...how long did it take you? And how does the the tank fill up, do you have to do it manually or is it fed from your main cold water tank?
Cheers, glad you found it useful, makes filming it all worthwhile 😀 It took us a little while but to be honest most of that is the filming! This project was a nice one difficulty wise as for the most part it's just connecting all the kit together and wiring it up, the tricky part for us was just making it fit into the tight spaces we needed it. And then a bit of time to put it all through it's paces at the end of course. And we fill it from the cold tank at the back of the van. It's a pressurised fill with a manual valve. So we open one valve to drain out the existing water into the waste tank under the van, then open another to refill it from the fresh tank. Takes about 3-4 mins to drain and 2.5 mins to refill 👍
This has to be the best most informative build on RUclips. Will definitely be taking some ideas. I'm confused by the idea of the recirculating shower (I'm only half way through the video). Are you planning on showering with waste water???? or dirty water from the shower? Forgive me if I'm missing the point.
Thanks! And yeah so the way it will work is the water that goes down the drain will be pulled back into the van and passed through a series of filters and UV light before going back into the tank. We'll then use the recirculated water for a few showers before draining it into the waste tank under the van and refilling with fresh water. It'll take a bit of experimentation to find the amount of cycles we can get out of it. We're going to have the modes switchable too, so the first part of a shower can be standard so if we've been out running or hiking then any dirt etc will drain out into the waste tank. Then switch to recirculating for a nice long hot rinse afterwards. That's the idea anyway! 😀
I think it would be good to have a radiator so that the warm water could heat up the van, although a diesel heater does that also. At the very least, if the grey water tank was inside the van so that hot water from the shower can still heat up the van. I saw one van build which used a heated towel dryer as a radiator.
Hiya, thanks for the comment 🙂 We actually find the diesel heater really effective to be honest! It's been -5C the last few nights here in the highlands and we have it a toasty 22C in the van 🔥😊 We didn't want the grey tank in the van as it takes up a lot of space, and being under the van it gives the right gravity drop to drain properly and allow easy emptying. Both our tanks are insulated though too so the extra heat benefit would be marginal for us compared to the diesel heater
Nice build.
Do you think you can upload the manual in pdf for the heater water dumload please
Thanks from France
Hiya, cheers, and yeah all their downloads are here: www.bobilvans.co.uk/downloads 👍
Hey Tim
I like your video and your nice and neat system. I got myself an Autoterm 2D and am thinking before I install if the Bobli system works fine with it given it is only 2KW or will I opt in for gas water heater such as Truma Ultrastore Rapide Boiler JG. I am sure you also research that and very interested to see your thoughts please
Hey, thanks glad you liked it 👍 And it would work fine it will just take a bit longer to heat up the tank. It's quite linear so you'd expect it to take roughly double the time it would take with a 4KW heater if both are on full power. Bobil says it heats a 12L tank from 20 to 60 degrees celsius in circa 15 minutes with a 4KW heater. So for yours I think you could expect it to take around half an hour, if that's acceptable enough for you 🙂
Hi guys! Great videos! As a Mechy building services engineer this probably excites me more than most ha! Like others have said, I'd be taking the water to 60°C. My worry though would be that the air coming out of the vents would be far too hot to achieve this. What was the hottest the air came out of the vents?
Cheers! 🙂 Yeah we take the water up to 60-70C periodically to kill off any nasties, but we also completely refresh the shower water after a few showers too 👍 It doesn't get that hot out the vents if the circulation pump is running, mostly just luke warm. Even running on max after 20 mins (when less heat is being reclaimed as the water is already hotter) the temperature out the vent peaked around 58C so no issues 🙂
Another EXCELLENT video thankyou! I think the recirculating water system is a fantastic idea. How clean will it get the water? Also just curious what do you think youve put into this project so far? 😊
They are indeed a nice idea but have heard mixed reports. I saw one couple in the U.S who regretted it as the filters clogged up in no time. For that reason I've passed. But the Bobil system is excellent and I'm installing the hybrid with the boiler.
Cheers! You're welcome, thanks for watching 😀 Yeah it's something we wanted to do to justify the space of having a permanent shower as we figured we would use it a lot more. We're going to be putting it through various stages of filters and UV light so it should be quite clean when it goes back into the tank, but we still wouldn't consider it okay for the sink, so that system is completely separate. And we have kept a track of that side of things so might end up getting round to doing a video on it at some point 👍
@@ezioauditore3128 Yeah it will take a bit of experimentation with it and adds some complexity for sure but we figured we'd try it. We're making it so we can have it non-recirculating first so get rid of dirt if we've been out running/hiking and are all muddy etc, then switch to recirculating for a long rinse. So hopefully we'll get some good life out of the filters, but we will see!
Wow what a meticulous incredibly well planned build!
How does the water recycler work? Is that a standalone part or have you put it together yourselves? I imagine that's fairly essential for making a 15L water tank be able to supply enough hot water right?
Also, what are your plans for heating water in warmer weather? Will the heater still be pumping hot air into the living space?
Cheers :) keep up the amazing and inspiring work!
Cheers! And yeah we figured to justify having a shower we wanted it recirculating so we didn't have to carry huge amounts of water to actually use it. What we do is have a military style shower first using as little water as possible, usually a couple of litres each, and during that we get clean and then wash away any dirt and soaps etc into the waste tank under the van. Then we switch it to recirculating mode for a nice long rinse afterwards, and that sucks the water out of the drain and pulls it back into the van, puts it through a number of different filters and a UV light and then drops it back into the tank to start another loop. It's a very DIY setup, but using some off-the-shelf water filters.
And yep no problems with that, if the heater is being used for the water then the 'waste' air is not actually that hot, just luke warm as a lot of the energy is transferred to the water. And the air goes into the shower as well so it doesn't really heat the van up at all. We've used it during a heat wave and it was fine 🙂
After watching this install I'm actually happy I didn't get a bobil heater. It takes up a lot of space and all the various things and complicated electronics to think about are pretty crazy. You did an amazing job.
Some thought from my side:
I know in UK the taps don't mix water for some weird reason, so you put the temperature at 40 degrees. If you'd have a mixing tap and you'd heat the water to 55 degrees and mix it with cold water, won't you be able to get more mixed 40 degree water, so you can have more/longer showers? Also this will help against Legionaire's disease in the tubes.
Cheers :) Yeah there is a fair bit of wiring involved with our setup but quite a bit of that is from the optional solar element. We also have the DIY version, they make a pressurised one as well which is more of an all in one unit. And mixer taps are most definitely a thing in the UK! We had to hunt for quite a long time to find a shower tap that _wasn't_ a mixer as we specifically needed that for our setup. Because our shower will be recirculating we will fill it up to the exact volume we need to maintain a continuous loop and then the same water keeps going round. Then we can theoretically shower for as long as we want without using any more water than what we filled the tank with. If we had a mixer then the added cold water would keep lowering the temperature and after a while there would be too much water in the loop so the overflow on the tank would kick in. But yeah our setup is a bit niche because of the recirculating part, I think the only time I've ever used a non-mixer shower in the UK is in our van 😛 Good point about legionaires, to combat that the tank water is taken up to 60-70C every now and then to kill anything off, and the entire tank is also replaced with fresh water from the cold tank after a few showers 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Ah yes, I saw the recirculating part, but forgot about it.
I'll probably just go with a bucket and shower curtain and have a portable shower pump circulate that. Nice and low tech.
I actually thought you had finished your build already. I remember starting my research over a year ago, but you're still going. Keep it up, and thanks for the inspiration!
@@joeponthetrails Low tech is the best if it does the job you need! We have actually finished it pretty much and have been on the road for a couple of months now, but we have a big backlog of videos to edit. Funnily enough the only part we didn't get round to doing is the recirculating upgrade for the shower, but we have all the tools in the back of the van to do it at some point! Which we're really looking forward to, as the grey tank filling up from the standard showers we can have at the moment is the first thing that means we have to go and find some facilities. Should extend our time off grid by a few days when we've done the upgrade... if it all works as planned 😄
Hello somehow RUclips brought me to your channel. Just been watch this and part one, very interesting and informative.
My only question is why you are not using red diesel for the heater? As this would half the costs.
Answered my own question by watching the heater install video.
@@zampa4ever Cool, yeah it wasn't an option for us as we wanted to plumb our heater directly to the vans diesel tank. And thanks! 🙂
I'm trying to evaluate different water heating systems currently so this video is quite helpful, but I see one potential flaw in your design that I'm concerned about avoiding in my system. I see no way to quickly drain all the water. In the colder parts of the winter I consider this to be essential. I don't know whether the heat exchanger can be inverted with the water connections on the bottom to make it gravity drain or not, but if I did your system I would consider that important. Also, what is the heating capacity of your diesel heater? That would be useful to know. Thanks.
Hiya, there is a drain at the bottom of the heat exchanger with a manual tap, you can see us attach it here: ruclips.net/video/zgaRlmYyLpk/видео.htmlsi=0RfyQKukvfCk20cq&t=1274. We also have a drain tap we added on the tank, so we open both of them when we want to drain it out, which we do fairly regularly every time we want to refresh the water for our shower loop. We timed how long it takes to drain in different scenarios and you can just see some of the results in the bottom right of the results here (ruclips.net/video/TkdUtj5v3eo/видео.htmlsi=XLWx1OZzspo7nxeO&t=1410). It takes around 3.5 mins to drain it out the full tank using both of the taps. And we have a 5KW Lavaner Pro, HTH! 👍🙂
Great videos, very clear and well put together.
We're thinking of using a Bobil kit in our conversion, but I'm not convinced that it can be managed well enough to provide enough hot water at the right times of the day.
What is your experience with this now that you've been using it on the road?
Cheers! And we're very happy with the kit, we use it quite heavily and it hasn't let us down yet! We don't have hot water for the sink but we heat up a tank for our shower and we find it pretty efficient at doing that. We're in the Highlands at the moment and it's pretty chilly, -5C last night, so it's been interesting seeing how everything copes in the cold. But we've found if we just set the target temperature a little hotter to around 45C and keep the heater running fairly high then we can still enjoy a long recirculating shower even though it's below freezing outside. Definitely happy to have the afterburner on the heater as well as it makes controlling and using it much easier. But yeah, no issues so far 👍
Thanks, great description, sounds just the job.
Do you plan to have hot water in the sink or is the time tested kettle the way to go? @@SelfBuiltStories
@@user-eh8bp2im5q No problem. We've thought about it and had a few ideas for ways we might do it in future, but for now when we boil the kettle to make tea we just pour that into a flask and use it for the washing up later. Low tech, but works pretty well!
26A is quite a chunk. I am not too surprised that caused a voltage drop on the wires that caused it to kick back out.
Maybe consider running for longer at a lower current? Ideally you will be using surplus when the battery is fully charged and you're getting "overflow" power.
Heating 1 litre of water 1 degree C takes around 4.5kJ of electricity. So, say, heating 15 litres by 30 degrees will take around 2025kJ = about 1.9 hours at 300W. At 100W (ie. about 8A) it would take 3x that but if the sun is shining that wouldn't be pulling anything out of the battery.
Interesting.... lots to consider.
Yeah you could do that pretty easily, as you can connect up just one side of the heating element to cut the power in half to 150W. You can also set a time delay before shutting off so a short momentary drop in voltage wouldn't matter. For the first test we did we had the shutoff voltage too high though so lowering it a little and it was fine and we were able to maintain it on for as long as we wanted, so a bit of a balancing act with each setup and also the seasons. In Summer when we can recharge more easily we will probably lower the shutoff voltage and eat into our battery a little bit but in Winter will want to conserve more and only have it trigger at the very top end of our charge cycle. What's cool as well as that as we have our DC-DC charger setup we're also able to heat the water with excess charge from driving. So with those two together we should be able to do a fair chunk of the heating for effectively free and then just top up whatever's left with the diesel kit (and take it up to 70C every now and then to kill off any nasties). Thanks for the comment! 👍🙂
Hi Tim, can I ask where you found Abi.. and is there any left 😉
Hey! I found her quite a few years back but sorry, she is one of a kind 😀😊
👍😎
🙂👍
hey 🙌
Hey! 👋
Pipe inserts are to keep pipe circular and stop collapse
Yep exactly, we figured it was worth putting them on all the connections for peace of mind 👍
You did a fantastic job of that both. New to your channel but wondering why you did not put hot water to sink?
Cheers, and welcome! 👋 Good question, we decided not to do that as we didn't like the idea of the recirculated shower water coming through the sink tap. Even though in theory it's been cleaned a lot by filters, we figured we'd still rather not have it mix with the kitchen system so kept them completely separate. It would be nice to have hot water for washing up but we don't find it a big deal without. Having said that we do have some ideas to possibly add it in the future... but we'll see 😛
@@SelfBuiltStories Well that makes perfect sense now you say it - You certainly could not have two separate tanks for that. I guess the other thing to consider is if the kitchen water also runs in to the same tank as the shower you could have issues getting that water completely clean for showering (grease, food particles etc). I like your idea of recycling the water although personally I would probably miss the recycled water idea in preference of having hot water in the sink. Great build so far guys and really nice to see you both doing the actual build work together rather than one building and one recording - quite a refreshing change.
@@johnmead1337 Yeah that's what we thought, space is just too limited for that and it's use would be a lot lower for us. From the sink we'd probably want more instant on hot water too as we'd be using it at random times during the day. No problem with the kitchen waste though, it drains straight into the tank under the van, the shower tank is separate. We also have filters on both the kitchen and shower waste so no solids can make their way into the underslung waste tank. And thanks a lot, yeah we have a rule that we each have to work on every project 🙂
did you have to get a pressure switch to decrease from the 2.1bar (shurflo) to the bobil-compatible pressure (is it like 1.2bar?)
Hiya, no we didn't need anything extra, the tank is an intermediary. You can either use the outlet pump they give you or use your own, we went with the shurflo for a higher pressure shower 👍
😀👍👍👍🚿
😀🔥👍
So how's the hot water tank refilled? And if it's being topped up with cold as you use it surely that will make the whole tank go cold?
We have a manual valve on the top of the tank for it. And we don't use the cold water tap when showering, just the hot tap which is already at the temperature we want. You could use the cold in non-recirculating mode and it would just drain into the waste tank so wouldn't affect anything, but yeah if you used it when recirculating you'd be adding more cold water to the loop. The only time we've ever really used the hot and cold together is if we take the hot water up towards 70C to kill any nasties and then run with the cold as if it were a 'normal' shower mixer 👍
Looking good! One question though: shouldn't you heat up the water to 60C, in order to avoid legionella (which thrives at 35-40C)?
Cheers! And yep, we'll take it up to 60C every now and then for that reason. We'll also dump the recirculated water after a few showers and refill from the fresh, it'll take a bit of experimentation to figure out how many cycles is the sweet spot 👍🙂
@@SelfBuiltStories Ah good, just wanted to make sure, given that you used 40C now ;)
Yeah thanks 👍🙂
Have you got any idea of the overall cost for the hot water system? Thanks
Hiya, you can see all the bobil kit on their website here: www.bobilvans.co.uk/shop. We have the Air XChange and the solaris kit 👍
Do you have any issues with water expansion in the tank going from cold to hot? I'd love to have a simple plastic tank setup to supply a small sink with hot water heated solely on excess solar. Is this viable using a plastic tank? Thanks.
Hiya, no issues with that but we do have an overflow pipe at the top of the tank as well to take up any expansion. The tank plastic (polyethylene) is rated up to ~70C 👍
run your heater on kerosene and your costs will be about a third of the price of diesel (they run great on kerosene/heating oil) - very neat install btw.
Cheers, yeah have heard they run great on a mix of kero with a dash of diesel to give some lubrication to the piston pump. Would be a nice thing to try but not an option for us as we decided to tap straight into the van diesel tank to have one less fuel source to worry about. We're ok with that tradeoff though, much cheaper to heat the van than it was the houses we've been in 🙂
Could even try used cooking oil , filtered of course , just bear in mind there is a small filter inside heating unit , that'd need a clean out ,should any issues arise ,no matter the fuel !!! There are vids on here ,that show ppls experiments on various fuels and what to watch for and how to solve !! Personally I'd use a quality filter ,with easy access between tank and pump
@@wayne7521 We can't with our current setup as it's hooked into our diesel tank, but yeah it's cool there's a lot of experimentation going on out there. And yeah we have a filter in the line 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories makes sense too to rig into diesel tank , just for saving space !! Cool
@@wayne7521 Yep and no risk of spilling diesel inside the van 😛
what is the reason for the various ducts on the intake side of the heater ?
We have two, one that goes through to the cab and one that's on the other side of the insulated bulkhead wall in the house part, and then we have a diverter so we can choose the ratio between them. We did that so we can choose whether to recirculate the air just in the house if it's really cold outside (van heats up a lot faster) or take it from the cab (cooler but arguably fresher as it can pull from outside). It's more of a seasonal change than a day-to-day one 👍
Do you see that plastic tube you have there with markings for how full the tank is - well if the tank is full full or really empty it will look the same
Put a pattern behind it so that water in the pipe will distort the image when full, but not when empty.
Or maybea small plastic bead that floats in the plastic tube?
We don't find it too bad to read to be honest as long as it's above 5l (anything less is before the gauge starts). We always fill the tank to the same level at the moment around 12l and then use it completely. Similarly when it's recirculating we'll just put in the exact amount we need to sustain the loop. Cheers for the ideas though, good to keep in mind if we need it in future 👍
Hi, just wondering if you've pre recorded these videos and the van is actually done and you're having fun in your van now or are you doing them as you go? 😊
Hey, we're on the road now and slowly working our way through the backlog of videos we filmed. It takes us a long time to edit them so we decided we'd concentrate just on the building for the last few projects so we could get out and enjoy the Summer 🙂
Great to hear you're out on the road now!! It was a dark day when our build overtook your videos a few months ago and we had to go it alone!
@@Jack-ko5nr Haha sorry! Hope it all worked out 😛
Hi, how do you fill the hot water tank? Is it a manually operated pump from a main tank?
We have a manual valve above the tank that's connected to the pressurised cold line, so we just turn that and it pumps in fresh water from the cold tank at the back of the van. You can see us doing it here: ruclips.net/video/TkdUtj5v3eo/видео.htmlsi=SFDJFUoRcEkNGRqk&t=867 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories just looked at that and your previous cold water system. All makes sense now!
@@barkyclarky😎👍
have you fitted the solaris yet? if so what video is it please?
It's in this one 😄At 12:39 👍
@SelfBuiltStories so am I right in saying the once you batteries are full then you water is heated for free?
@@TheHiveOffGride Yep, if there is excess charge (either from solar or from driving) then if the solaris is on we can use that excess to heat the water 👍
Fantastic work. A truly complete camper-van.
Just two points:
1. You’ve made it all so incredibly complicated, are you not worried about one (or more) of the hundreds of connections - both electrical and hydraulic - might fail once the van starts rattling over some beautiful Scandinavian backroads?
2. Isn’t it about time that you went out and explored some beautiful Scandinavian backroads in your van?
Just get it finished (enough) to be liveable and add those “extras” over the years. A “hotel” light switch? Really? In a space where - if you’d placed a standard switch halfway between the door and your bed - you could reach across, from either spot, and turn it on or off.
Get it done and get out there!
Don’t get me wrong - it’s a fabulous machine - but is that really all the point of it all is?
Cheers! We're really happy with it 🙂 And we've actually been on the road for a couple of months now but have a big backlog of videos to edit, we're catching up... slowly. Not Scandinavia yet but it's one of our future destinations! We don't find it that complicated to be honest and haven't had any real issues yet, but we like that as we built everything together from scratch we both have a really good understanding of how it all works if anything breaks.
Funnily enough the double light switches were the quickest project we did on the whole van 😀 You're right it would seem a bit crazy to have dual zone switches in a space this small but actually we love having them, definitely one of the things we would do again no question. Being able to dim the lights for a movie night, turn on the lights by the door coming back to the van late, or switch on the kitchen from the bed if one of us gets up earlier etc. A luxury for sure but as it's our home well worth it for us. To be honest by far the biggest project that took the time was the filming and editing, easily made the build 3-5x longer and still finishing those off, but we enjoy making the videos so it's all good 😀
Do you know how heavy your van build will be in the end? Because what you are doing looks quite heavy to be honest..
Yeah we took it to a weigh bridge several times during the build and have always been conscious of the limits as the weight can start to add up really quickly from all the smaller things. One of the reasons we went with a recirculating shower is so we can cut down on the heavy fresh water that we need to carry. We tried to build the carpentry as light as we could as well which we got better at as the build went on. But even then with there being 2 of us in a high top jumbo the payload we had to play with was a bit too restrictive for what we wanted in the van and all the supplies we want to be able to stay off grid for a while, so we've also uprated our van to 4T so we have a lot more flexibility 👍
Wow! May I ask why you decided to not install a normal motorhome combi boiler? I fear your hot water system may be inherently problematic in the long run, and looks to be particularly time and space wasteful? I've found your channel very interesting, and your workmanship inspiring, thank you.
You're welcome, thanks for watching :) And sure, the main one is that as we're building a recirculating shower we wanted a tank that we can get into to clean out every now and then, and with a traditional boiler the pressurised tank is sealed. Curious, what do you think might be problematic about it? We don't find it takes up any more space than a truma combi or something like that, which with the more awkward shape we don't think we'd have been able to fit into the bottom of our cabinet out the way like this kit. Efficiency wise it takes us at most 15 minutes to heat the shower tank, reducing as far as zero giving us instant free hot water if there's been enough excess charge from driving or solar. Having used it for a few months now, it's working great and we're really happy with it 😀
@@SelfBuiltStories Thanks for your reply, and explanation. Good to know your hot water system works well, good luck : )
@@69intheshade No problem, and thanks :)
BO BIL pronunciation "Bow beal" it just means Campervan in Swedish
Ah interesting, we've said it how the company says it but that's cool to know, thanks!
:)
👍😀
step 1 get a mortgage out forJohn Guest fittings
Yeah they are annoyingly pricey for something so small, but they work well. Shopping around helps a lot, we found each type of connector varied in price quite a bit between places 👍
In no way would I recirculate water through all that plumbing- that little heat exchanger will plug and be difficult to clean.
I didn’t see a cold water line to the shower but I would have one to allow using some cold water which would reduce the amount of hot tank water used.
We have various filters with the last one being 5 micron so no chance of any debris making its way back to the tank really, have been using it for a few months now and working well 🙂 Yeah there is a cold water feed to the shower too but we rarely use it, we have it mainly for rinsing things out if we need to. For showering we just set the hot tank temperature to what we want and use that, first simply draining into the waste tank and then recirculating for a nice long rinse after 😀
I cant see any fodder for my usual smart arse quips in this episode 😕. But if I put my picky picky hat on I would have had a direct shower vent to outside and a bigger water supply tank over recirculating the shower water which even though I understand what we are told about UV purifying it still makes me wonder about washing my face in recirculated soapy Bum crack run off. .
There are two huge issues if you want long showers with non-recirculating: the amount of water you're using and the amount of energy you're using.
Their whole battery is 200Ah @ about 12V. That is about enough to heat 64 litres of water and do nothing more. At 5 litres a minute that would be 12 minutes of showering then no more electricity.
The other option is shorter showers/wipe downs which this couple don't want.
Me? I'd go for the shorter shower, but it isn't my choice to make.
They are indeed a nice idea but have heard mixed reports. I saw one couple in the U.S who regretted it as the filters clogged up in no time. For that reason I've passed. But the Bobil system is excellent and I'm installing the hybrid with the boiler.
Haha cheers 😛 That is a good point, no one wants that... for that reason we're having it with two modes. So you can use the normal mode first to get clean and drain to the grey tank, then switch to recirculating for the long hot rinse afterwards 😏We figured to justify the space, complexity and weight of water we need to carry for a shower we wanted it to be recirculate so we can actually use it all the time and make it worth its while 😁
@@cccmmm1234 Yeah our pump can actually deliver 7.5l a minute so we'd drain it out in no time! We could have gone with water saving heads but knowing we were going to build it recirculating decided to go for a higher pressure as we plan to use it in that mode most of the time but we can still do a military style shower if we want. We won't use battery power to heat the water unless we're desperate though, we'll use the standard bobil heat exchangers and then the excess power from driving and sun hopefully
@@SelfBuiltStories again I am being picky i imagine the heater will not keep up with flow rate and you might get 2 tanks worth before you have to stop and replenish the heat lost. 1st world problems ehh. anyway none of this detracts from the top job you are doing.
My mind boggles from all the bits and pieces to get this going. Respect but I'm just gonna install a gasheater... Simples
Haha cheers, there are a fair few bits! We don't mind though and it works great for our recirculating shower setup 🙂
too complicated. diagram?
We drew a diagram for it in part 1: ruclips.net/video/zgaRlmYyLpk/видео.html 👍