Bring on the heat!

[Rednecktek]

So because I'm paranoid, and I have a well known soft spot for the parking diesel heaters... I've always wanted to make a self-sufficient-as-possible emergency diesel heater-in-a-box.

One common problem I see in the designs of other heater-in-a-pelican-case setups is that you still need to figure out how to power the 12v supply (hook up a battery) and then how to keep that 12v supply running (car charger?) and that's more stuff you have to lug around to make the ting work.

Now, there's no way to get around the fact that solar panels are a bit of a hassle to deploy, but if everything else is on wheels... well... that's a BIG improvement.

So, here's what I threw together

Harbor Freight rolling toolbox
Vevor 8Kw diesel heater
EPEver 20a MPPT controller letting me use 300w of panel (2x150w max label in the instruction manual and side of the box)
100Ah of LFP cells
A rebranded JBD BMS
2x 35w heating pads (I built my battery long & skinny so there's a pad sandwiched between each pair of cells)
Simple digital thermostat (set to come on at 2c, off at 10c)
Wires, fuses, adapters, breaker, extension cords, dryer duct, etc...

It heats up the place right quick!

Now, it didn't go perfectly. I had some fitment issues where I missed a hole and had to re-drill it a little bit over. I also made 1 other major mistake that I'm kicking myself for and I'll let you guys figure out what it is.

We did a 2 hour test run today and it was great other than the dryer hose I used was insulated and got warm enough to slowly fill the place with that hot plastic smell. I'll be replacing that with an all metal one soon.

It's not perfect, but for a first try I'm gonna be proud of myself.

 

[DPC]

I like diesel heaters too.
Great for warming up small spaces.

 

[Zwy]

Reading the reviews I wonder about the reliability of this unit. I've wanted to replace the propane heater in my truck camper with a diesel unit so I'm looking at reviews to find a good one.

 

[DPC]

That's also a Vevor 8 kw heater.
Its only a been in service a month and so far I am impressed with it.
The controller leaves a little to be desired but I am thinking about upgrading it to an Arduino controller or something aftermarket.

These are not very efficient and your going to have to take it apart and clean it eventually just like any oil burner.
Parts are cheap, the design is German, and the Chinese did a reasonable job copying it.

That's my wife's smoking tent lol
Shes quite happy in there with her I pad and a glass of wine, she does not come in the house smelling like smoke or diesel and thats the main idea .
This is a test I'm running to see how reliable this is running at high and low power settings, drawing cold air doing everything you probably should not do with one.
If it turns out to work good I will probably install one like it with some lessons learned in my cottage for supplemental heat in spring and fall

Already I started to mix gasoline into the fuel tank with diesel to lean it up a bit and get a cleaner burn at lowest possible setting.
Low setting is what I hear cokes them up the worst ( looking inside the exhaust port this seems pretty clean )

 

[Rednecktek]

Already I started to mix gasoline into the fuel tank with diesel to lean it up a bit and get a cleaner burn at lowest possible setting.
Low setting is what I hear cokes them up the worst ( looking inside the exhaust port this seems pretty clean )

Yup, that's the biggest issue for the 2 I run at my camp. I found that if you run it on max for about 10 minutes before turning it off and letting it do the shutdown cycle has drastically reduced the amount of gunk in the burn chamber.

As for reliability, once you know the tricks on how to set up and run these (10min of hot burn on shutdown, making sure the exhaust pipe is flowing correctly, etc) that the units themselves run forever. The only problems I've had at all were the low-load coking and user error. All the physical units seem to be made in the same factory, the brand difference comes down to what's in the kit.

The controller leaves a little to be desired but I am thinking about upgrading it to an Arduino controller or something aftermarket.

There is 1 aftermarket controller available, I think it's made by a company in Australia. Unfortunately the new style controllers lost some functionality so I'm trying to source an older style controller for this build. You used to be able to set it by temperature and it would spin up and down as needed, the new controllers don't do that without jumping through about a dozen button presses.

 

[Rednecktek]

Update: I found a couple videos on the Afterburner controller. It seems to work with the older style heaters, but no word if it works on the newer controller styles.

I also learned that the old style controller, the ones you can control by temperature, are not compatible with the new style control boards, so you can't just source the better (older) or basic (dial) controllers and have it work with the newer heaters. They have also changed some of the plugs on the new control board so it requires fenagling to convert.

I'm kinda regretting using the old EPEver SCC in there because of how slow it seems to respond to clouds and such. I think if I were to ever make another one I would just throw in a decent PWM in there instead.

And I would obviously fix my ^$^_$#$%^%%^^^^%^&&^$##÷×#^ that I messed up.

 

[Vigo]

I found one for $100 on Amazon Prime right before xmas and bought it as a 'backup' heat source for my actual house, mostly to keep the living area at a reasonable temperature overnight since i don't actually 'climate control' the whole thing on batteries at night, just where we sleep. At a low enough outside temperature it was taking really too long to 'reheat' the living space in the morning, so i decided to try one of these things. So far so good on my ugly temporary through-window install (its a 'window unit' now!),and will mount it permanently somewhere, somehow and probably get another one for my RV at some point. I don't have an actual need for it very often but im glad i decided to try it.

Also, im a very highly qualified auto technician developing a hybrid/EV curriculum blah blah blah so im an expert at either deciphering instructions or just not needing them, but good lord the instructions that came with this thing were PARTICULARLY useless! I might have been better off if they weren't included.

 

[Rednecktek]

Yeah, the chinglish directions aren't great but once you've done it once or watched a couple videos it's pretty easy. The exhaust is the trickiest part getting the flow and drain right sometimes.

Some of the oddities are odd, but that info is pretty available.

 

[DPC]

Yeah, the chinglish directions aren't great but once you've done it once or watched a couple videos it's pretty easy. The exhaust is the trickiest part getting the flow and drain right sometimes.

Some of the oddities are odd, but that info is pretty available.

In the 80s when the translation was real bad I bought a Chinese SKS

If you followed the direction and pulled the bolt upward and out an a leek angle of 235 you would eventually end up with something like the scene in woody Allen’s Bananas when he put the rifle together blind folded
To this day I do not fear the Chinese army

 

[Rednecktek]

Sigh.. I miss my SKS, or as my nephew calls it SKYes!

 

[Ampster]

To this day I do not fear the Chinese army

Even though they did not even have radios in 1951, they gave MacArthur's troops in Korea a lot of trouble in North Korea. They do have a large population to draw from.

 

[DPC]

Even though they did not even have radios in 1951, they gave MacArthur's troops in Korea a lot of trouble in North Korea. They do have a large population to draw from.

Im trying to remember the name of the hill in korea
I see the name everyone I pass monument to watts past, but I remember the story of a handful of princess pats infantry on a hill this mowed down thousands of Chinese in wave attacks
Terrible waste of Chinese land lives got a hill
You can’t win a war that kills so many
And they didn’t

 

[SamDeleted]

The controller leaves a little to be desired but I am thinking about upgrading it to an Arduino controller or something aftermarket.

The afterburner controller from the guy in Australia is superb