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Best Heating Option For Your Hobby Shed


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17 hours ago, Andy Joyce said:

You could always give it a quick run outdoors DG. Think that's what I did. Try and find a petrol station that sells red diesel as it works out %30 cheaper.

Yes red diesel or heating oil ,even cheaper , works fine.Best heater ever and will run all day flat out on a tankfull.

Whatever you do dont be tempted to use the red in your car as even the tiniest ammountcan be detected by customs if your stopped. A mate got caught out months after using a gallon in an emergency and given a warning as it was a works van.

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2 hours ago, Diamond Geezer said:

Thanks for your reply Martin

Just a quickie do both the pipes go through the wall 

Yes - the air intake is the air used for combustion, and other the exhaust. You need to take both outside.

 

The exhaust gets quite hot, I wrapped mine with a woven heat proof material that is used for wrapping around motorbike and car exhaust pipes.

Getting yourself a carbon monoxide detector is really sensible idea also.

Geoff   

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I left the intake inside my garage . As my garage is by no means airtight it can draw air for combustion with no fear of causing a vacuum ?. Might be a little noisier but each to their own. As Barnstormer says " the exhaust gets quite hot" so insulate if going through wood to be safe. I had to extend the exhausttubng  so just left it uncovered and convect any waste heat as it safely out of the way.

I believe some have used the hot exhaust pipe to heat water for cleaning up. 

An early post on this thread back in 2018 (remember back then before pandemic restrictions? Happy days) said his wife was worried about diesel emissions in the garden. After using for a few years now no more emissions noticed than my sons oil fired home heating, in fact you won't notice any as it's burnt  , unlike bei g ignited in a diesel engine. Zero smell apart from when refilling the tank. In fact you wily only notice steam when starting in cold weather and a slight roar from the exhaust. This can be cut be reduced with a better silencer .

Shame on the SWMBO for keeping her husband working in a cold shed.i hope he got his heater.

Edited by Engine Doctor
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  • 2 weeks later...

Started to buy the components to add an auxiliary tank to my heater but given the vaigarities of ebay descriptions have ended up with non compatible fuel pipe and fittings.

 

The tank connection has an outlet size 5.77mm across the connection barb. 

The fuel on / off tap inlet and outlet is 5.58mm across the connection barb. (Item described as 6mm)

Through connector to pass through the existing heater fill cap 6.22m. (Item described as 6mm)

Fuel pipe ID of 6.35mm. (Item described as 6mm)

 

Given the mixture of diameters unsure what fuel pipe ID to now purchase as finding even the through connection of 6.22mm is not what I would call a tight fit on the 6mm pipe. Is there any rule as to pipe size viz the fittings?

 

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Could you not use tygon type tubing and stretch itself over the slightly bigger fittings ?

 

Also has anyone who uses red diesel for their heaters noticed a drop in the heat output ? I noticed after my last purchase of RD that I wasn't getting as much heat. I thought it might be that the heater wanted stripping and cleaning. Talking to a mate who uses a larger version of this type of heater said his heater is also low on it put ? Just wondering if diesel fuel is being modified without us knowing ? Or is it just my conspiracy based imagination working overtime ?.

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Given the price of Tygon is twice that of standard rubber fuel tube ED think I will be sticking to that.

 

Have not noticed any heat drop on my heater but have only been using red diesel for the last two months. Did wonder though if any setting change was required for that type of fuel.

 

The last purchase of fuel also cost me a £60 fine as I thought the jerry can had fallen over on the way back home so I pulled over into a road designated buses only just to check. Found it had not,  but before I could exit the bus lane the dreaded camera had captured  me.

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  • 1 year later...

I have one of these brand new in the box and never installed. I understand that they are very useful for getting a shed or workshop up to a comfortable working temperature. I don't have a requirement for workshop heating, but I wonder how effective and useful such a heater could be for just taking the edge off my large storage barn, keeping it above freezing when the temperature really plummets?

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Yes fired up fine . I now run it on kerosene / heating oil as it cheaper than diesel . No adjustment needed.

25 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

I have one of these brand new in the box and never installed. I understand that they are very useful for getting a shed or workshop up to a comfortable working temperature. I don't have a requirement for workshop heating, but I wonder how effective and useful such a heater could be for just taking the edge off my large storage barn, keeping it above freezing when the temperature really plummets?

I use mine in a double garage and  set it to 25 c it usually goes to idle after a couple of hours then speeds up if the temp falls. In very cold or windy weather it generally runs at full speed and uses about 3 ltr of kero in 6 hrs or so. 

The beauty of these heaters is that they dont cause any condensation as all exhaust is expelled outside. 

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That's what I feared. So not really suitable for keeping the core temperature above freezing for tens of hours at a time then. I might well install it though and fire it up only when needing the barn at a higher temperature when wanting to actually do things in there, for shorter periods.

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They use only a small percentage of the figure quoted at the lower output but I’ve never used mine to maintain a low temperature.  They work on 2 heat outputs and the thermostat switches between them to maintain the setting so they’re always on one or the other i.e. if the set temperature is reached with low output then it continues to run regardless. 
 

Oh, and mine fired up with no drama after the long layoff. 

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12 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

That's what I feared. So not really suitable for keeping the core temperature above freezing for tens of hours at a time then. I might well install it though and fire it up only when needing the barn at a higher temperature when wanting to actually do things in there, for shorter periods.

If you can insulate the area you need they could be left on pretty much indefinately provided you have a big enough tank and a reliable power source of course.

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11 hours ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

They use only a small percentage of the figure quoted at the lower output but I’ve never used mine to maintain a low temperature.  They work on 2 heat outputs and the thermostat switches between them to maintain the setting so they’re always on one or the other i.e. if the set temperature is reached with low output then it continues to run regardless. .........
 

 

I don't know anything about these devices other than what I read on this thread, but if it needs a 12v power supply to run why can't you put a thermostat in the power supply so it shuts off at the required temperature? Would it restart when the temperature dropped below that set point again?

 

Dick

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1 hour ago, Engine Doctor said:

If you can insulate the area you need they could be left on pretty much indefinately provided you have a big enough tank and a reliable power source of course.

Ah, that's the problem, the area that is currently unheated has zero insulation, other than the 18 inch thick stone walls. It was a conscious decision, because at the time I was going to retain it as a garage for a van. However that's changed and it's now my model storage area. Too late to insulate, unless I tear out all my model storage racks.

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39 minutes ago, Dickw said:

I don't know anything about these devices other than what I read on this thread, but if it needs a 12v power supply to run why can't you put a thermostat in the power supply so it shuts off at the required temperature? Would it restart when the temperature dropped below that set point again?

 

Dick

It’s important that they shut down “gracefully” and they enter a cooling/shutdown cycle when shut down from the control panel or remote.  Simply removing the 12V supply would cause very damaging overheating internally. 
 

I suppose it would be possible to hack into the control panel or remote to initiate a start and/or shutdown from an external thermostatic control but for most purposes the high/low output controlled by the internal thermostat works well enough. 

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