Not a solar question, but tangentially related as the highest priority reason to get my solar up and running is to have power for a heater, most which require electricity in some form for startup and background operation. Someone else posted a similar post here which apparently went unchallenged so I am just following the trend.
I am just about to get my electric sorted, all going well, when the remaining kit arrives.
I had been thinking of diesel for both cooker and heater. There are combihobs, which are not cheap at £1100+ from various companies. I figure that since my van is tiny (transit connect) this would keep space to a minimum while serving two important purposes.
Someone else mentioned in the linked thread though that they are using wood burning. I do like this idea for the sustainability aspect but I wonder if I would be able to store any capacity of fuel in my tiny van since the density is much less than diesel. Also I despise the smell of smoke. Is it inevitable that you will stink of smoke or have wood stoves come a long way since I used them in the 90s? I know there are cheap gas bottle stoves but would that be a smoke belcher as they seem quite simplistic. Nothing wrong with that except I cannot stand the smoke smell so that alone would turn me off. I am guessing that the well contained high tech ones with minimal expulsion in the living space would come at a high price tag. I saw some running upwards of £2k.
Another pro for the wood ones are they dont require electric to run but if you will stink and inhale smoke every day and that cannot be avoided that is a dealbreaker.
Just trying to figure pros and cons of each.
I am just about to get my electric sorted, all going well, when the remaining kit arrives.
I had been thinking of diesel for both cooker and heater. There are combihobs, which are not cheap at £1100+ from various companies. I figure that since my van is tiny (transit connect) this would keep space to a minimum while serving two important purposes.
Someone else mentioned in the linked thread though that they are using wood burning. I do like this idea for the sustainability aspect but I wonder if I would be able to store any capacity of fuel in my tiny van since the density is much less than diesel. Also I despise the smell of smoke. Is it inevitable that you will stink of smoke or have wood stoves come a long way since I used them in the 90s? I know there are cheap gas bottle stoves but would that be a smoke belcher as they seem quite simplistic. Nothing wrong with that except I cannot stand the smoke smell so that alone would turn me off. I am guessing that the well contained high tech ones with minimal expulsion in the living space would come at a high price tag. I saw some running upwards of £2k.
Another pro for the wood ones are they dont require electric to run but if you will stink and inhale smoke every day and that cannot be avoided that is a dealbreaker.
Just trying to figure pros and cons of each.
