Cold garages & heating solutions ?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

There seem to be a number of diesel powered heaters for lorry cabs, boats, work spaces  & garages so do they work and how big a vent pipe hole is needed. How long does a gallon of diesel or Paraffin last in reality?

As I have a double garage with a boarded roof but not insulated ceiling wonder if its better to hibernate for 4 months or consider  heating in the daytime when working on the bike in winter. I will need 8kW I suspect to make it work - if they are actually worth having.

I think at least one member here has one in his work place. Any experiences or links welcome.

[Laverdaroo]

Watch that Ted,  my pals 'Ooop Norf' have them in their garages. I've made a small methynol burner for the Shed of Dreams which works quite well but I'm deffo getting one when they come into stock again. The 3kw are a bit wheezy but the 8KW is a proper bit of kit. This chap goes into running costs at the end. Interesting stuff and minimal faff realy for the ease.

There are billions of films on the subject on You Tube if you have a scroll through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyiUpFjwtlU&t=582s

[Charliecharlcomb]

There seem to be a number of diesel powered heaters for lorry cabs, boats, work spaces  & garages so do they work and how big a vent pipe hole is needed. How long does a gallon of diesel or Paraffin last in reality?

As I have a double garage with a boarded roof but not insulated ceiling wonder if its better to hibernate for 4 months or consider  heating in the daytime when working on the bike in winter. I will need 8kW I suspect to make it work - if they are actually worth having.

I think at least one member here has one in his work place. Any experiences or links welcome.

I went to see Phil from Full Circle Wheel Building today and he showed me his “Chinese Diesel” setup. A large workshop heated all day on 4 litres of diesel. He works in a t shirt. Looked impressive, I m sure he would be happy to tell you all about it.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

My first obsevation is that they seem to be quite noisy - am hoping to hear from a member who has one.

I see Vevor make one - my Ultrasoudnd bath is the same make.

My BiL has a wood burning stove in his Shed that is big enough to get a car in - it was a building Site Hut iirc.

[Oddjob]

I watched that Vid and it looked fine. However you then start to read some of the comments and things start getting complicated, stuff like routing the exhaust pipe wrong, drawing outside air in as opposed to using inside air. After a bit my head started to throb trying to decipher hat exactly they were concerned about.

It also say £120 but buggered if I can find one for that price in the UK. I'd love to have a toasty garage so this looks ideal, I'd also like to know where he's buying red diesel, it's hard to find a supplier due to changes in the law. 

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Might be an old video as prices are closer to £175-200 for a brand you might have heard of.

As an experimant tonight I will set my tower fan heater to maintain around 18 C overnight using economy seven & see what temperature it reaches. I will use the side door for access via my office that acts like an air lock entry.

[Matt_Harrington]

Ted, I have a mate who has ordered a diesel powered infrared type heater (no fan) so it will be interesting to see his review on this.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Diesel - infrared - I'm mystified by the combination - sounds like a flamethrower 😁😁😁

[amx1992]

I bought my 8kw one in the summer, so it was only about £80, before they seem to have exploded in popularity. I couldn't recommend it enough.

They are reasonably noisy, especially the exhaust, but i always have my lathe / mill / vapour blaster running, so i dont really notice it. If you get one with an external tank, throw away the fuel filter it comes with, mine broke and dumped 10l of fuel all over my workshop.

I filled up a 20l container and have the fuel being sucked out by the pump, rather than gravity fed, so let chance of spill. I filled up the container on the 2nd december and it ran out yesterday, but im here about 9hrs a day 5 days a week.

It runs a bit colder on waste veg oil than diesel, but still very effective. I think a lot of the heat goes out the exhaust, so I'm going to try some way to capture a bit of that heat, maybe in the new year

[amx1992]

Also, if you run kerosine, mix in a bit of 2t oil for the pump

[Oddjob]

Do you strain the waste veg oil or just burnt it with all the impurities in it?

[amx1992]

I strain it, but also only use the cleanest stuff as it can get a bit too thick when the temperature drops. To be honest diesel is much less effort and mess to run

[Bryanj]

Plus you dont get hungry from the smell of burgers, i ran my pickup on biodiesel for a long time till the price of waste oil made it uneconomical, free to take used oil dont exist any more

[Moorey]

  I have had a 5kw one in the garage since 2017 and it works fine for my needs. Unless things have changed very recently the so called 8KW are a
 load of old tosh and are exactly the same as the 5kw heaters even down to the fuel consumption claims and you don't get another 3kw of heat for
 nothing I don't think the calorific value of diesel is high enough to give 8kw @0.5lthr  They must be including the exhaust heat to make the figures
 look good
 I have a single block built garage with ply roof and roller shutter door. It will raise the temp of the garage by about 10c when running flat out
 burning approx 0.5 lthr. Tried it on old oil it doesnt like it and it blocks the burner gauze inside the heater. The only hole i have put in the garage is a
 small one big enough for the exhaust. They are certainly not silent but quite acceptable to me and you can still listen to the radio if you want to.
 I don' want the garage warm just comfortable enough to work in. Over the recent cold spell it did just that. A double uninsulated garage and you will be struggling with 5kw you would need two. As I said do not be tempted with the 8kw they do not exist unless things have changed very recently.
 Join the Chinese diesel heaters group on FB. When I got mine It was when they first appeared and I took a punt on one as there was no one who
 knew anything about them.

[amx1992]

I think you are right about the exhaust being included in the calculation moorey,

Your right bryan about the smell, think the last lot i used was from a donut van and the exhaust smelled absolutely delicious