Your numbers look spot on except for the heater is not running at 5kw when at minimum output. Most of the 5kw heaters are rated around 1kw at the lowest setting. A closer number would be your max fuel consumption on high and use that to calculate your 5kw heat output.
I do similar draw down tests to determine chemical feed rates for my work. May I make a suggestion that will make this job easier? Fill your squeeze bottle to 200ml (or any mark above it 00ml). Then just measure the time it takes to remove the 100ml. This way you will avoid getting air in the lines and you won't have to do any multitasking at the end of the test.
The best way is to weigh a container (it doesn't need to be empty), add exactly 1 litre of fuel then weigh again to find the weight of 1 litre. Then run the heater for 1 hour, weigh again and the difference is the weight of fuel used. Divide by the weight of 1 litre and you've got the consumption in litres per hour. That's probably overkill for what is needed here but it always works and is always as accurate as the measurement of the original litre of fuel (or whatever is being measured).
@@chrishartley1210 true, measuring by weight is always more accurate than measuring by volume. Like you said probably not necessary for this test. I'll play devil's advocate for a minute. Some people may not have scales that read in small enough increments for this. If you wanted to get really picky unless you have a lab balance the accuracy of the scales would be in question. Either way would be better, easier, and possibly more accurate. Not having to do all the final steps at one time would be a relief.
A couple of corrections from first few minutes of your video (from someone who services and repairs these CDH). Firstly, there is no injector in these heaters. Fuel is vapourised (not atonised) by a screen that is heated by the glow pin, the glow pin then ignites the fuel vapour. Once the flame is established, it will keep the screens hot enough to continue vapourising the fuel. Secondly, the fuel pump, in fact, has two one way (check) valves, one each at the inlet and outlet. Thirdly, the fuel pumps have a small amount of assembly lub from the factory, more than enough to keep the moving parts inside the pump lubricated during the prime cycle.
Because that’s how it’s measured, really. The unit of Energy is the Joule. Energy divided by time = Power. So 1.0 Joule /second = 1.0 Watt. This is Power. So you could put a car on a dynamo to measure it’s Power output. It has Energy stored in its tank or battery. (Joules) Measure how quickly it spends the stored Energy - the Rate at which it expends it - that’s Power. (Watts). You could measure Lance Armstrong at full tilt - you get ~ 900 Watts Power output. Could also measure a light bulb’s consumption. Happily, 1 Amp of current flowing under a pressure of 1 Volt = 1 Watt. Or, we could have 0.1 Amps at 10 V = 1 Watt. Could also measure heat energy. Take a small cube - measuring 1 cm x 1cm x 1cm. Think of a sugar cube. Some call that a cubic centimetre, or “ CC “. (“My motorbike has a 125 CC engine.”) Now if it was filled with water (our most abundant compound), Guess what the mass of that water is ? 1.0 gram. Guess what the volume is ? 1.0 ml. Now add heat energy to raise it’s Temp by exactly 1.0 Degrees. Guess how much energy you have to add ? You got it …. 1.0 Joules. Exactly. Incredible.
@Swim Fan It is very simple to compare with electrical heaters if measured in KW. All fan heaters,electric radiators,panel heaters are expressed as KW. Only when we get to water filled central heating radiators does the expression commonly become BTUs etc.
Copper tube around the exhaust to a thermal bank(mass)/hot water situation. Self circulating like a wood stove "wet back" or a "donkey" could be possible. I was thinking gravity or offgrid situation for water or an enclosed system using oil(used and filtered) using a hot water tank etc. Love the conversation and thought processes.
Been usiing B20 bio diesel for months now in mine. Makes a cold van into a warm comfortable living space. Removes moisture and is waay better than propane portable heaters. Kept on low the power used for the unit is surprisingly low. Barely used 4 ah last night and less than an inch drop in fuel tank.
Very informative. I live in cold and rainy England. I have invested in two 8kw diesel heaters. One has just arrived, the next in January. I will install them each end of the house piped in from boxes. outside. Sick of the obscene cost of gas and electricity I am doing something. different. Hoping this will allow us to avoid gas and electric central heating altogether. I think installed well these will be proved viable...
@iDiveDOTtv Being lazy they sat unopened for a year in the shed as winter came before I could finish the project. But I am on it this year. I have made 2x identical plywood boxes. Yacht varnished to resist the elements. Using a hole saw to chop in the exhaust outlets and clean air intakes (opposite ends of course). Importantly these are both completely outside my home. I will let you know once I get them going. Only using our gas boiler for hot water in the morning and evening.
@@alamore5084I'm truly curious as to why these need to be outside. If they are outside you really need to duct inside air back thru heater chamber as otherwise you are always drawing external ambient temp air into heater chamber, hence it's always cold air being heated, totally inefficient. For this reason it's more effective to mount internally, circulate warmed air through heater chamber and just have combustion air drawn in from external & run exhaust to external. That's how these units are mounted in RV's & Vans.
@@ianweal3081 You raise a fair question Ian. Being indoors in the house would be more heat efficient. The heat from the engine itself and drawing in ambient air. However, for me there is too much risk if something goes wrong. It greatly cuts the risk of house fires, carbon monoxide poisoning these being outside. Plus these are not the nicest looking devices. Having them outside increases safety, reduces noise. It also frees up internal living space which is a premium. This is my rationale, but everyones circumstances and properties are different.👍
I might add, I’ve been using an 8kw heater in my garage. The factory advanced settings ecentually clogged the unit with black coke or soot. I cleaned it out and have been experimenting with different settings. So far, I’ve yet to find that “sweet spot” where I wouldn’t feel the need to clean it every six months. I live below 5000 ft elevation and without the proper tools, there would be absolutely no way I would operate one of these inside my home. When it clogged up, white diesel smoke went everywhere and if you value your possessions within the home, this is your wanting.
Like you video thanks, one things for sure, looking at the comments below, there is much differing opinion on how these heaters run, happy with mine it works fine, I fill it up when I need too and that’s it.
My small 2kw Chinese unit has done 2376 hours and used 141L of diesel according to my aftermarket controller. I have tuned it to run at about 50% of its standard lowest power.
FANTASTIC. Well done Sir. This vid of yours will help many under privileged people keep warm this winter. These heaters are a good dry heat and cheap to run. Thank you. From Mario.
I have a comment on your calculation, you use how many fuel it uses on the lowes setting, then you devide by 5 KW, witch is the maximum power, it doesn't deliver 5 KW on low. But thanks for the nice and secure test you did, I am going to order one myself as well. Tanks for the video !
Glad I read the comments first ...... I was going to say the same! You could do a bit of math and work out the temp rise and the volume of air to find the actual power output, but many would not be interested in that here!
@@t.h.o.r. It might be worth checking this guy out .... he keeps coming up with twists on themes that are congruent to yours .... ruclips.net/video/m4rHS3ka2As/видео.html
The only flaw I see in your calculations was the conversion to watts. It's probably only 5KW when it's running flat out. It's going to be much less when it's running at the low rate. And you asked, so the test I want to see is electrical current draw in amps. And watts consumed at both rates and during warm up. I've been thinking about removing the propane furnace in my caravan and replacing it with one of these.
Yes!= you are dead right with the calculations. Ill do another vid shortly showing the amps draw at startup- 9.8 amps! and 1.2 amps once the glowplug turns off. the lcd panel does not shut down and consumes .04amp continuously.
@@t.h.o.r. One liter of diesel is about 10 kW, efficiency of a diesel heater is around 90% so the output is +/- 1300 watts of heat so the actual price is more like 24,6 cents per kW/h and not 6,3. Easy mistake to make in the heat of the moment. (Edit: just looked further down on the comments and realized I was "late to the party" with my comment)
Only thing I an add would be the two controls missed. Ambient temp of Input and output. Truth be told electricity as a primary source of heat is bad. The energy density of diesel blows it away. Flip side of that is what is your electrical source. If you setup a modern water wheel., with Tesla flywheels. Well now you are in the money. (If you have ever the moving water and a good drop. No solutions are perfect.) Good on you mate and love from the states.
Ummm - no… electricity as a primary heat source is excellent - using a Heat Pump. It’s the best there is. Now RESISTANCE heating is terrible - yes. It is ~close to 100% efficient, but quite costly. Save for Electric Radiant Panels - excellent heat because it’s infrared Radiant. Not heating the air (which of course is an insulator.) So, for Dollars burned, electric resistance is least affordable. But electric Heat Pump is the most affordable. And as a side benefit - whether Air Source, or Ground Source - you get the summer Air Conditioning feature for free. Obviously you buy the electricity in summer too, but it consumes much less than an old unit that is A/C-only.
its amazing these heaters have been used in semi trucks for 30 or 40 years because of their efficiency and this is the first year people notice them, really shows what people think how they just go through the motions of agreeing with what they are told until they are told they are going to be cold
Look around on RUclips. These heaters have been used, abused, tested, and played around with for donkey's years. I would go as far as to say that there are not many camper vans (in areas where heating is required) that doesn't have them installed in one shape or form, so it is not really fair to say that this is the first year people notice them. Some of the original brands like i.e. Webasto are of course very expensive to purchase but once the Chinese market began offering their knock off's for peanuts they are to be found everywhere.
Thank you so much for your simple setup and clear test. All your calculations are fine except at low setting you were not running the heater at 5 KW but at 1.48 pulses so I think 5 pulses/1.48 pulses x 5 KW is the correct KW hour used! See if I am right. Thanks again.
A liter of diesel has 9.7 kw/h of energy. So if your system would run on 100% efficiency ( which it doesn't because there's exhaust gas energy losses ) you would approximately use your liter price of diesel and divide it by 10 to have the conversion rate of diesel to kw/h price.
Hi from Sweden! Got one in our boat this spring and the heating is fine. Ordered one for the house now as electric are expensive as hell. This later one is a complete unit in a chassi. Just need to get the exhaust out of the building.
Great video very informative and easy to understand .Thank you. I have fitted one onto our caravan and it was quite easy to do. The only additional thing I did was to fit a small primer bulb between the tank and the filter, this eliminated the need for the pump only mode and possibly running the pump with no lubricant ! Two “small squeezes “ was enough for the line to be fully ready to fire it up. Thanks again for your video very informative.
Good Morning, one suggestion i would like to make is that you carried out the test as soon as you called for increased temperature. The yest needs to be completed over a longer period of time to allow for the heater to come up to temp and then regulate its self on and off as required to hold the temp. It will use more initially to get up to temp but then regulate to a more steady rate to maintain temp. Hope this helps
They are great units, i recently installed mine. I had to add a fuel filter, elbow joint on exhaust output and a hole in the other foot so that i could run exhaust and intake out in opposite directions, and also added a fuse to the ground line (there was only one on the positive and ideally you want one on each with DC). The pump doses at 0.02ml per cycle, so running at 1 Hertz wil give you 0.02ml per second, so you can calculate fuel use in this way also. Liked and subbed pal :)
it is great that you did this preliminary testing. what I would like to see is round-2 measure the incoming air and the discharge air, the amount of heat is the temperature rise times air speed to get BTU also, let the unit run on high until the unit settles in, the start the test. that way the test shows fuel consumption on high. this video shows the fuel consumption when ramping up from low to high, and then how long on high till it used the full 100ml using your calculation of 100 ml in 14 minutes shows that on high, the unit would consume 3.17 gallons per day. my home heater burns over 5 gallons per day when the outside temperature is less than 20F/-7C
Serious Miscalculation: 1 L of diesel has 38 MJ or approximately 10kwh of energy or so says google which I know is dependant give or take 12 percent based on what type of diesel you are using.. That being the case your calculations are incorrect as the manufacture lied about how much heat you are getting at full load. Interesting info about the difference between full load and minimum load. That made this video worth the watch. It seems you are better off running it on high instead of any other setting. Good thing it accommodates such functions. Hope this helps.
Run the exhaust through a heat exchanger to heat water or wrap a coil of copper pipe from a heat exchanger around. I'm in the UK and a 1930s home that is like heating a sieve, and I'm thinking what it may be like to have the heat come through the air brick, that surely is a cold air/damp collector, and the heat would rise through the floorboards. Thanks for the video, and I saw another one where he used red diesel that was cheaper, and another one that just put used engine oil in and it worked.
Nice video and thank you! Try running it on heating oil. Cost £0.60p in the UK as opposed to £1.49 for a litre of diesel. I believe heating oil can be successfully burned in this device and heating oil is far better in terms of economy and amount you need to burn? You may need to thin it or cut it with diesel to allow it to flow through the system without clogging it.
Far be it for me to call anyone wrong but you calculated fuel usage at the lowest setting but used the highest BTU rating (5000 BTU) in your calculation @ 20:00. If I'm wrong, I plea insanity. Lol Other then that, thank you for taking the time to make video. It was very informative.
I followed your calculations all the way to the bottom line. Where did you get the 5kW number from? Surely you don't believe the label on the heater. What I would do is measure the temp at the exhaust pipe and then at the hot air outlet. That'll give you a ratio, that gives you the efficiency of the heater. Then we know that one liter of diesel fuel has 10kWh of energy, ergo, easy to calculate the rest. Another nice experiment would be to create a small compartment, where the heater is installed with the exhaust pipe ending outside. Then run the heater until the air inside has risen a certain amount. Let the compartment cool down and run a 1000W electric fan heater and you'll get a pretty good number for the actual kW output from the diesel heater. Anyway, love your channel, and now liked and subbed.
The Chinese heaters are based on the Eberspacher D4 which, as I understand means these are 4kW rather than 5kW. So your KWH calc may be slightly off. Great video.
Tony, you are very likely correct, it makes all the sense that it's a 4kW heater that operates over 80% fuel efficieny when calculating fuel burned and resulting sensible heat. I cobbled some calculations based on the results of the video and if it's a 4kW unit, the results are very appropriate. My posting is perhaps 10 hours after your post if you desire a look.
But he did his calculations on the lowest setting, so probably not getting anywhere near a 4 or 5 kW output. This will be the nominal maximum. If you do the calculations at the maximum setting used you get a runtime of approximately 2.4 h/L and therefore a cost of about $1.05 / kWh at best, so not as great as is being made out.
@@shmavitzI did the calculation at maximum which was 100 ml in 14 minutes. He has that listed on his page. His minimum settings were likely under 2.5 kW and I did not use those numbers.
Also as stated the exhaust gets very hot , running the exhaust pipe through a water heat exchanger could give domestic hot water or some additional radiator heat
There is certainly enough heat in the exhaust to warrant water jacketting as a means of hot water. My diesel heater has the majority of the exhaust tube inside the building with only the last 6 inches penetrating out through the wall. There is a considerable amount of heat radiating from the length of exhaust inside the building.
I believe that to get the correct KWh rating you would have to use the higher consumption numbers as the heater only produces 5kw at it's highest setting for max heat. and you could not use the Alpine mode to do that calculation because at a leaner fuel mixture the heater will not put out the 5KW rating. You should be able to reverse the calculation of the KWh at full speed to calculate the KW output at the lower speed based off the fuel consumption. it would not be totally accurate as the KWh per ML fuel consumed will not be a straight linear curve but it would get you close for comparison. Great test and thanks for the information. pretty damn efficient units. I would like to see a test using one of the in line bulb fuel primers to do the initial priming so you would not have to run the pump dry while priming. leaving the bulb primer installed under normal operation to see if it would negatively effect operation. Thanks again.
Can you please tell us the type/brand of filter you used? I tried a small paper type that was supposed to be "universal" & compatible with the CDH but the pump could not draw the fuel thru it. I mounted it low between the tank and the pump thinking that gravity would assist in filling the filter basket but no joy there! Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Ive not played with filters yet. Im using the one supplied with mine. Its a fine mesh- but not super fine like a chainsaw or weedwhacker filter. I would say that its 0.5mm sqaures.
Pleased to watch stuff that I would like to do, but know it would take me days or just not possible to get the gear where I am. Great content! Like to see tests on the safety side, like carbon monoxide levels. And also different fuel types, bio etc.
I should add for reference I lived in a mobile home on the stormy north coast of Ireland and used this heater continuously for 2 years practically every day. I did upgrade the pump to a serviceable unit but only after the initial pump stopped working. They really are a great way to heat a small space and I currently run it in my van
@@t.h.o.r. wow I knew fuel was expensive everywhere these days but that's unreal. I think it's around €1.20 a litre here but you can buy it at most fuel station pumps and we use it to heat houses here in large tanks but definitely wouldn't be able to run at your prices. Move to Ireland lol
Good video mate ! Got 2 , one in shed and one in garage. Wonderful. We have Red diesel in the UK here (industrial use only ) which I use. May experiment later on waste oil, filtered and warmed by the heaters exhaust. Plumbers copper pipe fitted in exhaust for 5 feet gives under bench heating too. Cheers .stay safe.
@@tonze9829 Hi. I get my red diesel in the local Marina. You get quite a discount if you declare it's for heating only. The copper pipe for the exhaust extension you can get anywhere. I'm thinking of getting some used waste cooking oil from a local chippie. It will be heated up to boil off any water and then pumped through a fine filter, and mixed 50/50 with diesel. Haven't tried it yet but it may work.
ive got a wabasto 2kw,an old one and i figured i would up date to an 8kw. got a new maxpeedingrods put it in my 32 foot rv , bad mistake it blew black smoke inside and i burnt hand getting it out and off.now i am back useing my 2kw and no problem.
I've been using a CDH for 2 years and can agree, they're super cheap to run. In the UK red diesel is £1.49 per lt and the heater costs under £100 excluding the exhaust skin fitting, lagging and heater bracket for that you could add another £60.
its been tested by David Mcluckie the exhaust is waisting 800w . i run mine all winter 10-12 hours a day 1.5-2l per day of fuel . on around 2hz . for the last 3 years . it's been stout . btw the pump releases 0.022ml per shot. i also heat my shower water with mine 3-4 times a week . through a water to air turbo intercooler . works great . 25l of water from 10*c to 40*c in 35 mins at 3hz. food for thought . nice test thanks
I'm not sure you can devide the figure by 5 KW, the heaters are typically sold as 2kw to 5 KW heaters, given the thermal output is related to the volume of fuel burnt in a given period of time, burning less oil in same time frame can't = same heat output. I would suggest it's fair to assume 2kw output on the low setting and 5kw at the high settings. What do you think ? Cheers
Google tells me approx 10 kWh in a litre of diesel fuel. So 400ml is gross 4kw on high with a likely 75% efficiency is going to net you 3kWh. 0.4*$2.28/3= 30.5 cents per kWh. Pretty expensive vs electricity given resistive electricity is 100% efficient and a heat pump that would be 200-500% efficient.
@@joewiddup9753 You right to a certain extent. In Netherlands, once you used 2900 kWh for € 0,40 KwH, price goes up to € 0,80 / kWh. With a heat pump and solar panels, you are fine. But it's not for everyone an option, so diesel heaters could be a solution in those cases.
i just burchase same heater cost me less than 120$ shipping has 6$ good heater and no expensive. best budget heater than elektric or wood burn heaters. lot cheapen use.
That was my thought about to pick that last exhaust heat, from my point of view is completelly a good idea to wrap several rounds of copper tubes around the long exhaust pipe, a pump, and a tank (preferably thermally isolated) and we can have warm water too! joint this with a solar water heating system and a 300W FV solar panel and we can have heat at very competitive costs, or sort of... I'm from Italy, and in this winter, I presume I will pay a high gas and electric bills because high combustible prices caused by the war in Ukraine (not only this is the cause, but...). I will start to study if this system is viable here, here the diesel is about 1,9-2 Euros/litre.
Far better is to run it through a container paraffin wax and use it as a heat battery after the heater is switched off . Paraffin wax stores heat better than water or sand . You could run a coil of piping in the wax also . The exhaust and copper pipe would be surrounded by the Paraffin wax completely.
Yup! thats what Im going to do. Did you know that EGR's on some new cars are water cooled! They have a snazzy lil intercooler that I recon I can make fit the exhaust port of these burners and recover all that heat. Ill send it down 30m of PEX tubing coiled in my biodigester to keep my poos warm over the winter!
LPG heater with outside intake and exhaust needs no moving parts except a fan and burns much cleaner. Much more reliable. These put out 10x the particulate matter of a modern diesel engine per fuel used.
Assuning the high setting is correct at 5Kw then 100 mil was 14 minutes. The other run was a lower setting ( lower than 5KW ) so maybe it was 43 minutes at around 1.5 to 2 Kw ? But otherwise a lot of very helpful information, thank you.
I probably shouldn't say anything but I'm testing aluminum turbo car intercoolers with a computer fan to see if I can reclaim some of that exhaust heat, besides getting the heat it also lowers the exhaust temperature in the piping going through walls
Be interesting, using the figures to then work out at what point the heater has covered its initial purchase cost... I.e working on the saving from not using electric heating. Then ultimately this would show the true running COSTS. Hope you see this and do another video 👍🙏
I ordered an "all in one" 8Kw from Amazon and its shipping from the States which I am told will be delivered by mid January!! In the 2 weeks I spent contemplating purchasing one, the price pretty much doubled, and they have all but disappeared from stock! With energy prices going through the roof in the UK, the word is out on these diesel heaters. I'm interested to know what battery you used e.g. 60Ah? And how its holding up? One assumes you are keeping your battery on charge?
About the heat lost from the exhaust pipe, I was thinking about covering the steel exhaust pipe with finned heat sinks, enclose all of this in a box with a fan forced air in and out and maybe you could save some extra warm air. Also I have heard in other videos that running these on LOW for an extended period of time is detrimental to the unit- maybe you could do some research and experimenting into this idea. Gasoline and diesel vehicles can be converted to propane (which has an INDEFINATE STORAGE LIFE!) do you think one of these heaters could also be converted to propane? Good video, look forward to the next, Tom from USA. 😁😁😁😁
Thanks for doing the testing. My cost per hour is much lower in the USA but that doesn't do you much good. I just purchased one of these diesel heaters, still thinking about what to do with it or actually what to try and heat. Cheers M8
@@PauldeGrootMobytron I will use it for something. The power requirement makes it problematic for emergency use although some good batteries and a inverter could keep it going for awhile. I understand the European Government model where you tax the peasants to death to keep them oppressed with high prices for things that should cost 1/2 as much. All they can do is grumble which doesn't effect the people in power.
Just looking at my tests on my 5 kw heater and my figures are consistently very close to yours. Mine gives 7 hours and 15 minutes per litre of Diesel fuel.
I’ve read running a 5kw heater on low can gunk up the burn box. I’m wondering about the difference in the 5kw vs. 2kw heaters. Does the 2kw have a smaller pump. What is fuel consumption of the 2kw on high vs 5kw on low. Is the burn box on the 2kw on high cleaner after a prolonged time than a 5kw on low. What is the temperature at the supply nozzle of a 2kw on high vs 5kw on low. It appears the 2kw is approximately 4” shorter and has a smaller fan so I realize the 2kw produces less volume even if the out flow temperature is the same.I’m looking into using the heater in a small truck camper about 500 cubic feet.
I only know what you know re the 2kw heater. Its physically smaller.But I do know about the difference between a 5kw woodstove and a 2 Kw woodstove. - I would not bother with a 2 Kw heater unless i lived in a warm place with the odd chilly night. Im running my 5kw Diesel heater on low most nights after a 30 min burst on full to warm the place up. It fires up and shuts down perfectly. But Im not dicking about with dodgy fuels anymore. straight std diesel.
I’ve just bought one of these but I can’t get it to fire up non of the buttons on the controller do anything is there some kind of start up process I’m doing wrong
Im running it off my DC bench power supply at 12v and on startup for 3 mins it draws 9.8amps. after that it settles to 1.2amps when the fan is on low and 2.2amps when the fan is high. when turned off, the lcd display stays on and draws .04amps continuously
VERY good contribution, tons of vids that bring extended blahblah without any knowledge, i really like valuable stuff filled with actual experience and knowledge like you provided here, thank you so much, that really helps a lot!
Lot of guys are trying to make use of exhaust gas heat, some are diverting exhaust to some kind of selfmade heat exchanger, that seems to improve efficiency a lot. you just need take care of condensation, but there is lots and lots of energy going byby in the exhaust that could be used.
Can these heaters be operated with the air and exhaust pipes coming out the side?, or must they come out the bottom? It would make it easier for me to mount this on a side wall with the air supply and exhaust coming out the side.
I don’t see why it would matter to the orientation of where the ports come out either down, sideways or up it’s forced exhaust so it shouldn’t matter because it’s pushing exhaust out and not gravity venting.
If you tap in the code you can change the settings down to near one beat per second. Also you can set the speed of the fan. The thing is fool proof and will not let you do anything dangerous. The only reason it has a code is not to stop you setting it as you want. But it is there to stop you accidentally changing it once set and in use.
Hello - The end result in your calculation is not based on 5Kw like for "High run", but the "Low Run". So we need to figure out how many Kw the low setting represent. Am I right?
Great video thanks for sharing I have subscribed and welcome more of your experiments we already have one in our cabin but yours is running much better .I will have to see where I have been going wrong ?? Maybe in my set up .cheers keith
Thank you great video, I just bought this heater but after 2 mins of running the glow plug ecu mosfet transistor became faulty sent off for another and waiting, question is if the voltage is a little low and that increases the current does the mosfet blow out ?
Hmmmmm. it is supposed to have both low and high voltage protection. If they dick you about with a warranty- dont worry, spares are dirt cheap and all over Ebay
I bought a “Tu Shengda” brand which worked for a very short time, then nothing but error codes and frustration. What “brand” have you installed that is still working? Thx
In full power mode, it uses 428ml of fuel in one hour. That amount of diesel consists of 4,51kwh. So I recon you get about 4kwh of heat from the output pipe with roughly half a litre of diesel. Making the kWh price to 26 - 28 cents.
I would like to see a measurement of the actual heat delivered. Not the temperature, but the amount of actual heat output. In watts or BTUs per hour. One method of doing this would be to use a heat exchanger to move the heat into water. Measure the temperature rise of x quantity of water. Once you get the instrumentation/technique working, also measure the amount of heat wasted in the exhaust. Compare to the theoretical energy content of the fuel. So far, you have only measured actual consumption. To be meaningful, you also need to measure actual output.
One thing I would like to see is an attempt to run the heater on biodiesel fuel, I have seen vegetable oil and other alternative fuels, but no one has tried biodiesel. Would like to see if there are any differences in performance.
Looking at the heat probe it appears that your exhaust pipe temperatures are very high! An experiment maybe to cut the exhaust tube mid way ( two 300mm lengths), now install a 2.5 meter piece of 150mm Dia. flexible truck exhaust pipe between the two short pieces. By doing this you would capture a huge amount of wasted heat. The only down side is this truck exhaust pipe would need to be clean every now and then. But I recall as a child cleaning the heat tubes on our oil fired furnace every spring to prepare it for the next heating season.
Can you put the heater details up so we know what to buy please thanks great project also you didn't mention what alternative fuel can be used in them.
16:35 Fuzzy Logic is term that was used a while ago. What this is doing isn't Fuzzy Logic, it's programmed to respond to inputs from sensors, just like any other Microcontroller to world device. I have an ESP 32 Microcontroller, it can do the exact same thing, I only need to connect it and program it. The pump will use PWM, there would be heating resistance sensor inside the camber that would basically tell the Microcontroller how Hot it is inside. The Fan speed would also be PWM signal to vary its output.
A couple of questions. Do you have a link to the heater you used? Would the heater work on Kerosene. UK homes use kero. Kero is currently 84p per ltr Diesel is £1.58p per ltr
I purchased a 8K version of this heater to help warm a tiny home. I set it up in my shop to test it before deciding to install. It is really impressive how well and efficient it is. I set it on temperature mode which allows it to adjust temp output. The only downside I see, it is always pushing heat, meaning it doesn’t work like your home furnace. I a small space you have to manually turn it on or off. A small inconvenience considering the price.
I was planning on using a 12V 65Ah car battery, and a DC 12V 20A 240W Power Supply to protect the diesel heater in the event of a power failure. I notice that you are using a LiFePO4 battery in your circuit. Do you mind me asking what you recommend to do the same?
no need for a lipo- Its just what I have for random experiments and temporary use. The heaters oly draw 10 amps for two minutes while they warm up- even a 22amp/hr motorcycle battery would be enough if you charge it daily. I also use an old XBox power supply when Im runnin g it of AC . They are a 10 amp rated supply
@@t.h.o.r. This is the battery I bought & the power supply. Worried about the power supply being too much! Power Sonic Rechargeable Sealed Lead Acid Battery PS-12350 12V 35.0 AH @ 20-hr. 12V 33.0 AH @ 10-hr --Battery specs says to only use a 10amp power supply-- 240W Power Supply Transformer Switch AC 110V / 220V to DC 12V 20amp Switching Adapter Converter
@@kellygb9278 That sure is a grunty power supply. Like you Im a learner- Im not sure if a power supply ALWAYS delivers its rated supply or whether it is ABLE TO deliver its rated supply if the load is big enough. Get what I mean? Example: Grunty battery turns over big V8 engine but does now blow headlights and ciggy lighter.
I purchased a diesel heater for emergencies or maybe I will install it in my RV. My home has a natural gas furnace. I know a guy who lives in a old school bus who spends more on monthly heating cost than I do. He has 2 diesel heaters.
OK so it's safe to fit outside how hot does the air outlet into your building get as I'm thinking of fitting one to a 10foot by 8 foot plastic shed through the wall and don't want my plastic shed to melt lol
This information is much appreciated. The icicles hanging from my nose start to annoy me a little bit. Do you have a playlist for this series? I couldn't find it, although it's mentioned in the description that there is one.
Your numbers look spot on except for the heater is not running at 5kw when at minimum output. Most of the 5kw heaters are rated around 1kw at the lowest setting. A closer number would be your max fuel consumption on high and use that to calculate your 5kw heat output.
Spot on... just don't divide by 5 at the end when on low setting
I do similar draw down tests to determine chemical feed rates for my work.
May I make a suggestion that will make this job easier? Fill your squeeze bottle to 200ml (or any mark above it 00ml). Then just measure the time it takes to remove the 100ml. This way you will avoid getting air in the lines and you won't have to do any multitasking at the end of the test.
The best way is to weigh a container (it doesn't need to be empty), add exactly 1 litre of fuel then weigh again to find the weight of 1 litre. Then run the heater for 1 hour, weigh again and the difference is the weight of fuel used. Divide by the weight of 1 litre and you've got the consumption in litres per hour.
That's probably overkill for what is needed here but it always works and is always as accurate as the measurement of the original litre of fuel (or whatever is being measured).
@@chrishartley1210 true, measuring by weight is always more accurate than measuring by volume. Like you said probably not necessary for this test.
I'll play devil's advocate for a minute. Some people may not have scales that read in small enough increments for this. If you wanted to get really picky unless you have a lab balance the accuracy of the scales would be in question.
Either way would be better, easier, and possibly more accurate. Not having to do all the final steps at one time would be a relief.
A fu**in litre is a litre whats the fuss?????🙄🙄🙄
A couple of corrections from first few minutes of your video (from someone who services and repairs these CDH). Firstly, there is no injector in these heaters. Fuel is vapourised (not atonised) by a screen that is heated by the glow pin, the glow pin then ignites the fuel vapour. Once the flame is established, it will keep the screens hot enough to continue vapourising the fuel.
Secondly, the fuel pump, in fact, has two one way (check) valves, one each at the inlet and outlet.
Thirdly, the fuel pumps have a small amount of assembly lub from the factory, more than enough to keep the moving parts inside the pump lubricated during the prime cycle.
100% correct in every thing you say.👍
Ofcourse, Its A Pump, not a meter!!!!!
Ausie, a d,**k!!!!!!!!!🙄🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Im in the UK and i've had my heater 4 years now and always ran it on parrifin never had any problems 👍
I've fitted one of these. In my house ! Best thing I've ever done.nice and warm cheap to run.
For anyone who wants to know gallon conversions it will run roughly 9 hrs on the high setting and 27 hrs on the low setting per gallon.
Seems a bit low there, there's 4.55 litres in a gallon so somewhere around 32hrs on low setting.
Unless of course you're using "freedom" gallons.
@@ridley68 maybe he means US gallons, 3.86lts.
I've had my 5kw for 3 years in my workshop. Honestly the best thing I have ever purchased.
Because that’s how it’s measured, really.
The unit of Energy is the Joule.
Energy divided by time = Power.
So 1.0 Joule /second = 1.0 Watt.
This is Power.
So you could put a car on a dynamo to measure it’s Power output.
It has Energy stored in its tank or battery. (Joules)
Measure how quickly it spends the stored Energy - the Rate at which it expends it - that’s Power. (Watts).
You could measure Lance Armstrong at full tilt - you get ~ 900 Watts Power output.
Could also measure a light bulb’s consumption.
Happily, 1 Amp of current flowing under a pressure of 1 Volt = 1 Watt.
Or, we could have 0.1 Amps at 10 V = 1 Watt.
Could also measure heat energy.
Take a small cube - measuring 1 cm x 1cm x 1cm. Think of a sugar cube.
Some call that a cubic centimetre, or “ CC “. (“My motorbike has a 125 CC engine.”)
Now if it was filled with water (our most abundant compound),
Guess what the mass of that water is ?
1.0 gram.
Guess what the volume is ?
1.0 ml.
Now add heat energy to raise it’s Temp by exactly 1.0 Degrees.
Guess how much energy you have to add ?
You got it …. 1.0 Joules.
Exactly.
Incredible.
@Swim Fan because electricity runs at 100% thermal efficiency and that's what your gonna compare the cost to.
@@SquareRootOfMinus1 Seriously confused him now lol
@Swim Fan It is very simple to compare with electrical heaters if measured in KW.
All fan heaters,electric radiators,panel heaters are expressed as KW. Only when we get to water filled central heating radiators does the expression commonly become BTUs etc.
@@SquareRootOfMinus1 One cubic metre of fresh water = 1000 litres and weighs one metric tonne.....a great system.👍
Copper tube around the exhaust to a thermal bank(mass)/hot water situation. Self circulating like a wood stove "wet back" or a "donkey" could be possible. I was thinking gravity or offgrid situation for water or an enclosed system using oil(used and filtered) using a hot water tank etc. Love the conversation and thought processes.
And Fill the Tube with Lead.
I have a Webasto Hydronic with an egr cooler connected to the exhaust and t'd into the coolant circuit. Wasted energy from these heaters is criminal!
Been usiing B20 bio diesel for months now in mine. Makes a cold van into a warm comfortable living space. Removes moisture and is waay better than propane portable heaters.
Kept on low the power used for the unit is surprisingly low. Barely used 4 ah last night and less than an inch drop in fuel tank.
Very informative. I live in cold and rainy England. I have invested in two 8kw diesel heaters. One has just arrived, the next in January. I will install them each end of the house piped in from boxes. outside. Sick of the obscene cost of gas and electricity I am doing something. different. Hoping this will allow us to avoid gas and electric central heating altogether. I think installed well these will be proved viable...
How has this worked out for you. Looking at doing the same
@iDiveDOTtv Being lazy they sat unopened for a year in the shed as winter came before I could finish the project. But I am on it this year. I have made 2x identical plywood boxes. Yacht varnished to resist the elements. Using a hole saw to chop in the exhaust outlets and clean air intakes (opposite ends of course). Importantly these are both completely outside my home. I will let you know once I get them going. Only using our gas boiler for hot water in the morning and evening.
@@alamore5084I'm truly curious as to why these need to be outside.
If they are outside you really need to duct inside air back thru heater chamber as otherwise you are always drawing external ambient temp air into heater chamber, hence it's always cold air being heated, totally inefficient.
For this reason it's more effective to mount internally, circulate warmed air through heater chamber and just have combustion air drawn in from external & run exhaust to external.
That's how these units are mounted in RV's & Vans.
@@ianweal3081 You raise a fair question Ian. Being indoors in the house would be more heat efficient. The heat from the engine itself and drawing in ambient air. However, for me there is too much risk if something goes wrong. It greatly cuts the risk of house fires, carbon monoxide poisoning these being outside. Plus these are not the nicest looking devices. Having them outside increases safety, reduces noise. It also frees up internal living space which is a premium. This is my rationale, but everyones circumstances and properties are different.👍
I might add, I’ve been using an 8kw heater in my garage. The factory advanced settings ecentually clogged the unit with black coke or soot. I cleaned it out and have been experimenting with different settings. So far, I’ve yet to find that “sweet spot” where I wouldn’t feel the need to clean it every six months. I live below 5000 ft elevation and without the proper tools, there would be absolutely no way I would operate one of these inside my home. When it clogged up, white diesel smoke went everywhere and if you value your possessions within the home, this is your wanting.
Like you video thanks, one things for sure, looking at the comments below, there is much differing opinion on how these heaters run, happy with mine it works fine, I fill it up when I need too and that’s it.
My small 2kw Chinese unit has done 2376 hours and used 141L of diesel according to my aftermarket controller. I have tuned it to run at about 50% of its standard lowest power.
Great discourse on the efficiency of these diesel heaters, Thanks, I appreciate it
FANTASTIC. Well done Sir. This vid of yours will help many under privileged people keep warm this winter. These heaters are a good dry heat and cheap to run. Thank you. From Mario.
I have a comment on your calculation, you use how many fuel it uses on the lowes setting, then you devide by 5 KW, witch is the maximum power, it doesn't deliver 5 KW on low.
But thanks for the nice and secure test you did, I am going to order one myself as well.
Tanks for the video !
Glad I read the comments first ...... I was going to say the same!
You could do a bit of math and work out the temp rise and the volume of air to find the actual power output, but many would not be interested in that here!
I did a quick check ...... 1L of Diesel gives 10KWh ...... so 5KW would be using 500ml an hour!
Ahh- you guys are awesome - now I see where I went wrong- It did seem insanely cleap
@@t.h.o.r. It might be worth checking this guy out .... he keeps coming up with twists on themes that are congruent to yours .... ruclips.net/video/m4rHS3ka2As/видео.html
The only flaw I see in your calculations was the conversion to watts. It's probably only 5KW when it's running flat out. It's going to be much less when it's running at the low rate.
And you asked, so the test I want to see is electrical current draw in amps. And watts consumed at both rates and during warm up.
I've been thinking about removing the propane furnace in my caravan and replacing it with one of these.
Keep the propane furnace and add a diesel heater then you always have a backup.
Yes!= you are dead right with the calculations. Ill do another vid shortly showing the amps draw at startup- 9.8 amps! and 1.2 amps once the glowplug turns off. the lcd panel does not shut down and consumes .04amp continuously.
@@t.h.o.r. One liter of diesel is about 10 kW, efficiency of a diesel heater is around 90% so the output is +/- 1300 watts of heat so the actual price is more like 24,6 cents per kW/h and not 6,3. Easy mistake to make in the heat of the moment. (Edit: just looked further down on the comments and realized I was "late to the party" with my comment)
Only thing I an add would be the two controls missed.
Ambient temp of Input and output.
Truth be told electricity as a primary source of heat is bad. The energy density of diesel blows it away.
Flip side of that is what is your electrical source.
If you setup a modern water wheel., with Tesla flywheels. Well now you are in the money. (If you have ever the moving water and a good drop. No solutions are perfect.)
Good on you mate and love from the states.
Ummm - no… electricity as a primary heat source is excellent - using a Heat Pump.
It’s the best there is.
Now RESISTANCE heating is terrible - yes. It is ~close to 100% efficient, but quite costly.
Save for Electric Radiant Panels - excellent heat because it’s infrared Radiant.
Not heating the air (which of course is an insulator.)
So, for Dollars burned, electric resistance is least affordable. But electric Heat Pump is the most affordable.
And as a side benefit - whether Air Source, or Ground Source - you get the summer Air Conditioning feature for free.
Obviously you buy the electricity in summer too, but it consumes much less than an old unit that is A/C-only.
A very precise and informative video. Many thanks my friend for taking the time to do that for us.
Really enjoying your clever projects. Thanks for sharing it all with us.
its amazing these heaters have been used in semi trucks for 30 or 40 years because of their efficiency and this is the first year people notice them, really shows what people think how they just go through the motions of agreeing with what they are told until they are told they are going to be cold
Look around on RUclips. These heaters have been used, abused, tested, and played around with for donkey's years. I would go as far as to say that there are not many camper vans (in areas where heating is required) that doesn't have them installed in one shape or form, so it is not really fair to say that this is the first year people notice them. Some of the original brands like i.e. Webasto are of course very expensive to purchase but once the Chinese market began offering their knock off's for peanuts they are to be found everywhere.
Thank you so much for your simple setup and clear test. All your calculations are fine except at low setting you were not running the heater at 5 KW but at 1.48 pulses so I think 5 pulses/1.48 pulses x 5 KW is the correct KW hour used! See if I am right. Thanks again.
A liter of diesel has 9.7 kw/h of energy. So if your system would run on 100% efficiency ( which it doesn't because there's exhaust gas energy losses ) you would approximately use your liter price of diesel and divide it by 10 to have the conversion rate of diesel to kw/h price.
This is the correct answer.
The marked output of a diesel heater cannot be used in calculations.
11 kw per litre. Heating oil. Gasoline is 13 kw
@@hungrysurfer9471 Gasoline has less energy than diesel. 😀
Hi from Sweden! Got one in our boat this spring and the heating is fine. Ordered one for the house now as electric are expensive as hell. This later one is a complete unit in a chassi. Just need to get the exhaust out of the building.
I put a heater core on the end of exshaust with a mini fan then ran 2nd pipe outside. great reclaimer.
Thank you for this 🙏🙏 I always run my heater in my van at 1.6hz like 90% of the time so it’s nice to know what it consumes :)
Great video very informative and easy to understand .Thank you. I have fitted one onto our caravan and it was quite easy to do. The only additional thing I did was to fit a small primer bulb between the tank and the filter, this eliminated the need for the pump only mode and possibly running the pump with no lubricant ! Two “small squeezes “ was enough for the line to be fully ready to fire it up. Thanks again for your video very informative.
Good Morning, one suggestion i would like to make is that you carried out the test as soon as you called for increased temperature. The yest needs to be completed over a longer period of time to allow for the heater to come up to temp and then regulate its self on and off as required to hold the temp. It will use more initially to get up to temp but then regulate to a more steady rate to maintain temp. Hope this helps
They are great units, i recently installed mine. I had to add a fuel filter, elbow joint on exhaust output and a hole in the other foot so that i could run exhaust and intake out in opposite directions, and also added a fuse to the ground line (there was only one on the positive and ideally you want one on each with DC). The pump doses at 0.02ml per cycle, so running at 1 Hertz wil give you 0.02ml per second, so you can calculate fuel use in this way also. Liked and subbed pal :)
crazy question maybe, but why the fuel filter?
TO spare the pump i assume?
@@bertjesklotepino Yes to stop the clogging, lots of particulates in diesel. You could just filter the fuel as you fill the tank too.
12v systems only fuse the positive. Ideally, you just wasted a fuse.
@@mastermnd22 Thanks Dave, i've read conflicting opinions so thought it best to add one, they cost pennies.
@@mastermnd22 why only the positive?
it is great that you did this preliminary testing.
what I would like to see is round-2
measure the incoming air and the discharge air,
the amount of heat is the temperature rise times air speed to get BTU
also, let the unit run on high until the unit settles in, the start the test.
that way the test shows fuel consumption on high.
this video shows the fuel consumption when ramping up from low to high, and then how long on high till it used the full 100ml
using your calculation of 100 ml in 14 minutes shows that on high, the unit would consume 3.17 gallons per day.
my home heater burns over 5 gallons per day when the outside temperature is less than 20F/-7C
Serious Miscalculation: 1 L of diesel has 38 MJ or approximately 10kwh of energy or so says google which I know is dependant give or take 12 percent based on what type of diesel you are using.. That being the case your calculations are incorrect as the manufacture lied about how much heat you are getting at full load. Interesting info about the difference between full load and minimum load. That made this video worth the watch. It seems you are better off running it on high instead of any other setting. Good thing it accommodates such functions. Hope this helps.
Run the exhaust through a heat exchanger to heat water or wrap a coil of copper pipe from a heat exchanger around. I'm in the UK and a 1930s home that is like heating a sieve, and I'm thinking what it may be like to have the heat come through the air brick, that surely is a cold air/damp collector, and the heat would rise through the floorboards. Thanks for the video, and I saw another one where he used red diesel that was cheaper, and another one that just put used engine oil in and it worked.
Nice video and thank you! Try running it on heating oil. Cost £0.60p in the UK as opposed to £1.49 for a litre of diesel. I believe heating oil can be successfully burned in this device and heating oil is far better in terms of economy and amount you need to burn? You may need to thin it or cut it with diesel to allow it to flow through the system without clogging it.
Far be it for me to call anyone wrong but you calculated fuel usage at the lowest setting but used the highest BTU rating (5000 BTU) in your calculation @ 20:00. If I'm wrong, I plea insanity. Lol Other then that, thank you for taking the time to make video. It was very informative.
I followed your calculations all the way to the bottom line. Where did you get the 5kW number from? Surely you don't believe the label on the heater. What I would do is measure the temp at the exhaust pipe and then at the hot air outlet. That'll give you a ratio, that gives you the efficiency of the heater. Then we know that one liter of diesel fuel has 10kWh of energy, ergo, easy to calculate the rest.
Another nice experiment would be to create a small compartment, where the heater is installed with the exhaust pipe ending outside. Then run the heater until the air inside has risen a certain amount. Let the compartment cool down and run a 1000W electric fan heater and you'll get a pretty good number for the actual kW output from the diesel heater.
Anyway, love your channel, and now liked and subbed.
John from England fit it outside a shed or house withheater pipe on the inside noise outside heat inside all the best John
Reminds me of when I lived on my boat. 10 litre's (red) would last for about a week (£5-10) during winter.
The Chinese heaters are based on the Eberspacher D4 which, as I understand means these are 4kW rather than 5kW. So your KWH calc may be slightly off. Great video.
Tony, you are very likely correct, it makes all the sense that it's a 4kW heater that operates over 80% fuel efficieny when calculating fuel burned and resulting sensible heat. I cobbled some calculations based on the results of the video and if it's a 4kW unit, the results are very appropriate. My posting is perhaps 10 hours after your post if you desire a look.
But he did his calculations on the lowest setting, so probably not getting anywhere near a 4 or 5 kW output. This will be the nominal maximum. If you do the calculations at the maximum setting used you get a runtime of approximately 2.4 h/L and therefore a cost of about $1.05 / kWh at best, so not as great as is being made out.
@@shmavitzI did the calculation at maximum which was 100 ml in 14 minutes. He has that listed on his page. His minimum settings were likely under 2.5 kW and I did not use those numbers.
I love my diesel heater, its so efficient.
Also as stated the exhaust gets very hot , running the exhaust pipe through a water heat exchanger could give domestic hot water or some additional radiator heat
There is certainly enough heat in the exhaust to warrant water jacketting as a means of hot water. My diesel heater has the majority of the exhaust tube inside the building with only the last 6 inches penetrating out through the wall. There is a considerable amount of heat radiating from the length of exhaust inside the building.
I believe that to get the correct KWh rating you would have to use the higher consumption numbers as the heater only produces 5kw at it's highest setting for max heat. and you could not use the Alpine mode to do that calculation because at a leaner fuel mixture the heater will not put out the 5KW rating. You should be able to reverse the calculation of the KWh at full speed to calculate the KW output at the lower speed based off the fuel consumption. it would not be totally accurate as the KWh per ML fuel consumed will not be a straight linear curve but it would get you close for comparison. Great test and thanks for the information. pretty damn efficient units. I would like to see a test using one of the in line bulb fuel primers to do the initial priming so you would not have to run the pump dry while priming. leaving the bulb primer installed under normal operation to see if it would negatively effect operation.
Thanks again.
Can you please tell us the type/brand of filter you used? I tried a small paper type that was supposed to be "universal" & compatible with the CDH but the pump could not draw the fuel thru it. I mounted it low between the tank and the pump thinking that gravity would assist in filling the filter basket but no joy there! Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Ive not played with filters yet. Im using the one supplied with mine. Its a fine mesh- but not super fine like a chainsaw or weedwhacker filter. I would say that its 0.5mm sqaures.
Pleased to watch stuff that I would like to do, but know it would take me days or just not possible to get the gear where I am. Great content! Like to see tests on the safety side, like carbon monoxide levels. And also different fuel types, bio etc.
Hi I've been running one of these heaters on kerosene now for 2 years with no problems at all. Makes it even cheaper to run.
I should add for reference I lived in a mobile home on the stormy north coast of Ireland and used this heater continuously for 2 years practically every day. I did upgrade the pump to a serviceable unit but only after the initial pump stopped working. They really are a great way to heat a small space and I currently run it in my van
haha- not in New Zealand! Its $6.70 per litre here- only available in bottles at the hardware store
@@t.h.o.r. wow I knew fuel was expensive everywhere these days but that's unreal. I think it's around €1.20 a litre here but you can buy it at most fuel station pumps and we use it to heat houses here in large tanks but definitely wouldn't be able to run at your prices. Move to Ireland lol
Good video mate ! Got 2 , one in shed and one in garage. Wonderful. We have Red diesel in the UK here (industrial use only ) which I use. May experiment later on waste oil, filtered and warmed by the heaters exhaust. Plumbers copper pipe fitted in exhaust for 5 feet gives under bench heating too. Cheers .stay safe.
Good day @mickypful would you mind sharing with me your supplier as I too live in the UK (cold north east) cheers Tony
@@tonze9829 Hi. I get my red diesel in the local Marina. You get quite a discount if you declare it's for heating only. The copper pipe for the exhaust extension you can get anywhere. I'm thinking of getting some used waste cooking oil from a local chippie. It will be heated up to boil off any water and then pumped through a fine filter, and mixed 50/50 with diesel. Haven't tried it yet but it may work.
ive got a wabasto 2kw,an old one and i figured i would up date to an 8kw. got a new maxpeedingrods put it in my 32 foot rv , bad mistake it blew black smoke inside and i burnt hand getting it out and off.now i am back useing my 2kw and no problem.
I've been using a CDH for 2 years and can agree, they're super cheap to run. In the UK red diesel is £1.49 per lt and the heater costs under £100 excluding the exhaust skin fitting, lagging and heater bracket for that you could add another £60.
its been tested by David Mcluckie the exhaust is waisting 800w .
i run mine all winter 10-12 hours a day 1.5-2l per day of fuel . on around 2hz .
for the last 3 years . it's been stout . btw the pump releases 0.022ml per shot.
i also heat my shower water with mine 3-4 times a week . through a water to air turbo intercooler . works great . 25l of water from 10*c to 40*c in 35 mins at 3hz. food for thought . nice test thanks
have you tried extend the exhaust pipe with enough copper tubing that the very end of the tube is close to room temperature`?
Do you have any details of this? It sounds interesting.
Link the video please, cant find any "David Muckle"
@@DjHypnoz sorry i just edited , i spelt his name wrong .
David McLuckie
I'm not sure you can devide the figure by 5 KW, the heaters are typically sold as 2kw to 5 KW heaters, given the thermal output is related to the volume of fuel burnt in a given period of time, burning less oil in same time frame can't = same heat output. I would suggest it's fair to assume 2kw output on the low setting and 5kw at the high settings. What do you think ? Cheers
Google tells me approx 10 kWh in a litre of diesel fuel. So 400ml is gross 4kw on high with a likely 75% efficiency is going to net you 3kWh. 0.4*$2.28/3= 30.5 cents per kWh. Pretty expensive vs electricity given resistive electricity is 100% efficient and a heat pump that would be 200-500% efficient.
@@joewiddup9753 You right to a certain extent. In Netherlands, once you used 2900 kWh for € 0,40 KwH, price goes up to € 0,80 / kWh. With a heat pump and solar panels, you are fine. But it's not for everyone an option, so diesel heaters could be a solution in those cases.
I've got the exact same unit except in a red/black case.
Bought from Amazon August 2020 for $164.80 USD
Price is $180.90 USD now.
Great purchase!
It’s £200 today ! You were lucky
i just burchase same heater cost me less than 120$ shipping has 6$ good heater and no expensive. best budget heater than elektric or wood burn heaters. lot cheapen use.
Could you pass the exhaust through a water tank with a tube running through the centre to heat water at the same time ?
That was my thought about to pick that last exhaust heat, from my point of view is completelly a good idea to wrap several rounds of copper tubes around the long exhaust pipe, a pump, and a tank (preferably thermally isolated) and we can have warm water too! joint this with a solar water heating system and a 300W FV solar panel and we can have heat at very competitive costs, or sort of... I'm from Italy, and in this winter, I presume I will pay a high gas and electric bills because high combustible prices caused by the war in Ukraine (not only this is the cause, but...). I will start to study if this system is viable here, here the diesel is about 1,9-2 Euros/litre.
Far better is to run it through a container paraffin wax and use it as a heat battery after the heater is switched off . Paraffin wax stores heat better than water or sand .
You could run a coil of piping in the wax also .
The exhaust and copper pipe would be surrounded by the Paraffin wax completely.
Or use an EGR, like David McLuckie did in his testing. Works great.
@@englishrupe01 Please, what is “EGR?”
Yup! thats what Im going to do. Did you know that EGR's on some new cars are water cooled! They have a snazzy lil intercooler that I recon I can make fit the exhaust port of these burners and recover all that heat. Ill send it down 30m of PEX tubing coiled in my biodigester to keep my poos warm over the winter!
LPG heater with outside intake and exhaust needs no moving parts except a fan and burns much cleaner. Much more reliable. These put out 10x the particulate matter of a modern diesel engine per fuel used.
Brilliant vid. Cheers fella
Is 5kw what comes out of the clean Air heat or a combination of that and the exhaust heat loss?
Assuning the high setting is correct at 5Kw then 100 mil was 14 minutes. The other run was a lower setting ( lower than 5KW ) so maybe it was 43 minutes at around 1.5 to 2 Kw ? But otherwise a lot of very helpful information, thank you.
I probably shouldn't say anything but I'm testing aluminum turbo car intercoolers with a computer fan to see if I can reclaim some of that exhaust heat, besides getting the heat it also lowers the exhaust temperature in the piping going through walls
Be interesting, using the figures to then work out at what point the heater has covered its initial purchase cost... I.e working on the saving from not using electric heating.
Then ultimately this would show the true running COSTS.
Hope you see this and do another video 👍🙏
I ordered an "all in one" 8Kw from Amazon and its shipping from the States which I am told will be delivered by mid January!! In the 2 weeks I spent contemplating purchasing one, the price pretty much doubled, and they have all but disappeared from stock! With energy prices going through the roof in the UK, the word is out on these diesel heaters. I'm interested to know what battery you used e.g. 60Ah? And how its holding up? One assumes you are keeping your battery on charge?
Also, i've seen these units draw up to 13.5 amps during startup so i got some 20A wire.
About the heat lost from the exhaust pipe, I was thinking about covering the steel exhaust pipe with finned heat sinks, enclose all of this in a box with a fan forced air in and out and maybe you could save some extra warm air. Also I have heard in other videos that running these on LOW for an extended period of time is detrimental to the unit- maybe you could do some research and experimenting into this idea. Gasoline and diesel vehicles can be converted to propane (which has an INDEFINATE STORAGE LIFE!) do you think one of these heaters could also be converted to propane? Good video, look forward to the next, Tom from USA. 😁😁😁😁
Thanks for doing the testing. My cost per hour is much lower in the USA but that doesn't do you much good. I just purchased one of these diesel heaters, still thinking about what to do with it or actually what to try and heat.
Cheers M8
If you don't use it, please sell it to me!. In Europe this thing really makes sense
@@PauldeGrootMobytron I will use it for something. The power requirement makes it problematic for emergency use although some good batteries and a inverter could keep it going for awhile.
I understand the European Government model where you tax the peasants to death to keep them oppressed with high prices for things that should cost 1/2 as much. All they can do is grumble which doesn't effect the people in power.
Just looking at my tests on my 5 kw heater and my figures are consistently very close to yours. Mine gives 7 hours and 15 minutes per litre of Diesel fuel.
Hi and thanks for the video 1 of the best videos ive seen on chinese diesel heaters. can you tell me will it run on kerosene many thanks Jason
I’ve read running a 5kw heater on low can gunk up the burn box. I’m wondering about the difference in the 5kw vs. 2kw heaters. Does the 2kw have a smaller pump. What is fuel consumption of the 2kw on high vs 5kw on low. Is the burn box on the 2kw on high cleaner after a prolonged time than a 5kw on low. What is the temperature at the supply nozzle of a 2kw on high vs 5kw on low. It appears the 2kw is approximately 4” shorter and has a smaller fan so I realize the 2kw produces less volume even if the out flow temperature is the same.I’m looking into using the heater in a small truck camper about 500 cubic feet.
I only know what you know re the 2kw heater. Its physically smaller.But I do know about the difference between a 5kw woodstove and a 2 Kw woodstove. - I would not bother with a 2 Kw heater unless i lived in a warm place with the odd chilly night. Im running my 5kw Diesel heater on low most nights after a 30 min burst on full to warm the place up. It fires up and shuts down perfectly. But Im not dicking about with dodgy fuels anymore. straight std diesel.
I’ve just bought one of these but I can’t get it to fire up non of the buttons on the controller do anything is there some kind of start up process I’m doing wrong
Just wondering how much battery power it uses. Great content , thanks.
Use the exhaust and air output to drive a turbine to offset some of the electric usage
@@rocklover7437 Can you please 🙏 explain ?
Im running it off my DC bench power supply at 12v and on startup for 3 mins it draws 9.8amps. after that it settles to 1.2amps when the fan is on low and 2.2amps when the fan is high. when turned off, the lcd display stays on and draws .04amps continuously
VERY good contribution, tons of vids that bring extended blahblah without any knowledge, i really like valuable stuff filled with actual experience and knowledge like you provided here, thank you so much, that really helps a lot!
Lot of guys are trying to make use of exhaust gas heat, some are diverting exhaust to some kind of selfmade heat exchanger, that seems to improve efficiency a lot. you just need take care of condensation, but there is lots and lots of energy going byby in the exhaust that could be used.
Can these heaters be operated with the air and exhaust pipes coming out the side?, or must they come out the bottom? It would make it easier for me to mount this on a side wall with the air supply and exhaust coming out the side.
I don’t see why it would matter to the orientation of where the ports come out either down, sideways or up it’s forced exhaust so it shouldn’t matter because it’s pushing exhaust out and not gravity venting.
If you tap in the code you can change the settings down to near one beat per second. Also you can set the speed of the fan. The thing is fool proof and will not let you do anything dangerous. The only reason it has a code is not to stop you setting it as you want. But it is there to stop you accidentally changing it once set and in use.
Hello - The end result in your calculation is not based on 5Kw like for "High run", but the "Low Run". So we need to figure out how many Kw the low setting represent. Am I right?
Great video thanks for sharing I have subscribed and welcome more of your experiments we already have one in our cabin but yours is running much better .I will have to see where I have been going wrong ?? Maybe in my set up .cheers keith
About the fuel filter in vertical, is the flow going up or down ?
Thank you great video, I just bought this heater but after 2 mins of running the glow plug ecu mosfet transistor became faulty sent off for another and waiting, question is if the voltage is a little low and that increases the current does the mosfet blow out ?
Hmmmmm. it is supposed to have both low and high voltage protection. If they dick you about with a warranty- dont worry, spares are dirt cheap and all over Ebay
I store wood to air dry buy my workshop. could I use the exhaust gasses to pass around the air drying wood to help speed up that process ?
I bought a “Tu Shengda” brand which worked for a very short time, then nothing but error codes and frustration. What “brand” have you installed that is still working? Thx
ideal fon my workshop, will it run on kerosene ??
In full power mode, it uses 428ml of fuel in one hour. That amount of diesel consists of 4,51kwh. So I recon you get about 4kwh of heat from the output pipe with roughly half a litre of diesel. Making the kWh price to 26 - 28 cents.
What make other then one from China, as things tend to break would you recommend.
hello Team1
Great video!
Soo... for 25oc at half speed (my settings are from 1-8) half being 'L4' what how long do i get per litre?...
cheers guys!
🏁
I would like to see a measurement of the actual heat delivered. Not the temperature, but the amount of actual heat output. In watts or BTUs per hour.
One method of doing this would be to use a heat exchanger to move the heat into water. Measure the temperature rise of x quantity of water.
Once you get the instrumentation/technique working, also measure the amount of heat wasted in the exhaust. Compare to the theoretical energy content of the fuel.
So far, you have only measured actual consumption. To be meaningful, you also need to measure actual output.
If you want to use the exhaust heat, use an egr cooler plumbed to a small radiator.
Thank you ,fascinating
Glad you enjoyed it
One thing I would like to see is an attempt to run the heater on biodiesel fuel, I have seen vegetable oil and other alternative fuels, but no one has tried biodiesel. Would like to see if there are any differences in performance.
Looking at the heat probe it appears that your exhaust pipe temperatures are very high! An experiment maybe to cut the exhaust tube mid way ( two 300mm lengths), now install a 2.5 meter piece of 150mm Dia. flexible truck exhaust pipe between the two short pieces. By doing this you would capture a huge amount of wasted heat. The only down side is this truck exhaust pipe would need to be clean every now and then. But I recall as a child cleaning the heat tubes on our oil fired furnace every spring to prepare it for the next heating season.
Nice review is that the 5kw or the 8kw and would be cool to know the cfm output of the fan
Good and clear information, in your experience what is the best Chinese diesel heater?
Can you put the heater details up so we know what to buy please thanks great project also you didn't mention what alternative fuel can be used in them.
fantastic review .... thank you
Is it correct to reckon that you use 5 Kilowatts output on low ?Brilliant video thank you for sharing I'm convinced by you to get one.
16:35 Fuzzy Logic is term that was used a while ago. What this is doing isn't Fuzzy Logic, it's programmed to respond to inputs from sensors, just like any other Microcontroller to world device.
I have an ESP 32 Microcontroller, it can do the exact same thing, I only need to connect it and program it.
The pump will use PWM, there would be heating resistance sensor inside the camber that would basically tell the Microcontroller how Hot it is inside. The Fan speed would also be PWM signal to vary its output.
A couple of questions.
Do you have a link to the heater you used?
Would the heater work on Kerosene. UK homes use kero.
Kero is currently 84p per ltr
Diesel is £1.58p per ltr
I purchased a 8K version of this heater to help warm a tiny home. I set it up in my shop to test it before deciding to install. It is really impressive how well and efficient it is. I set it on temperature mode which allows it to adjust temp output. The only downside I see, it is always pushing heat, meaning it doesn’t work like your home furnace. I a small space you have to manually turn it on or off. A small inconvenience considering the price.
I was planning on using a 12V 65Ah car battery, and a DC 12V 20A 240W Power Supply to protect the diesel heater in the event of a power failure.
I notice that you are using a LiFePO4 battery in your circuit. Do you mind me asking what you recommend to do the same?
no need for a lipo- Its just what I have for random experiments and temporary use. The heaters oly draw 10 amps for two minutes while they warm up- even a 22amp/hr motorcycle battery would be enough if you charge it daily. I also use an old XBox power supply when Im runnin g it of AC . They are a 10 amp rated supply
@@t.h.o.r. This is the battery I bought & the power supply. Worried about the power supply being too much!
Power Sonic Rechargeable Sealed Lead Acid Battery PS-12350 12V 35.0 AH @ 20-hr. 12V 33.0 AH @ 10-hr
--Battery specs says to only use a 10amp power supply--
240W Power Supply Transformer Switch AC 110V / 220V to DC 12V 20amp Switching Adapter Converter
@@kellygb9278 That sure is a grunty power supply. Like you Im a learner- Im not sure if a power supply ALWAYS delivers its rated supply or whether it is ABLE TO deliver its rated supply if the load is big enough. Get what I mean? Example: Grunty battery turns over big V8 engine but does now blow headlights and ciggy lighter.
I purchased a diesel heater for emergencies or maybe I will install it in my RV.
My home has a natural gas furnace. I know a guy who lives in a old school bus who spends more on monthly heating cost than I do. He has 2 diesel heaters.
OK so it's safe to fit outside how hot does the air outlet into your building get as I'm thinking of fitting one to a 10foot by 8 foot plastic shed through the wall and don't want my plastic shed to melt lol
Can you not take fuel from near the vehicle engine as long as it is before the engine fuel pump
One can really appreciate ur detailed, non-biased, analysis of equipment like this.
Very handy and helpful to have this info.
Awesome guy, thumbs up.
This information is much appreciated. The icicles hanging from my nose start to annoy me a little bit. Do you have a playlist for this series? I couldn't find it, although it's mentioned in the description that there is one.
Can one run on used restraunt grease cut with diesel, or even grease or vegetable oil cut with a tad of water and gasoline ?
Is it possible to heat water using the exhaust pipe in some way? Seems like a nice hot spot at 140 degrees…
Cool thing about heaters is that they're 100% efficient at generating heat.