I agree! That's why I power. My diesel heater with a 100 watt solar charged battery. This way, even if the grid goes off I can count on having heat. Plus, I made it so I could move the heater inside my home to give us temporary back up heat. Our power grid went down 3 years ago for 4 days, so this is when I started putting in off grid backup systems in my home. Very few governments are pushing for more power generation to serve their citizens before they require us to switchboard electric vehicles. A recipe for disaster.
Neat job! But, if you have a power outage while running your system, your diesel heater will lose its cooling while the burn chamber is very hot. You then risk overheating and damaging your heater. Consider using a 12VDC battery and charge this from the mains instead. I have a similar heater in my sailboat, and consider winding a copperpipe around the exhaust pipe to get some hot water.
biggest danger is the plastic case not the heat chamber. as soon as power is lost the flame goes out as the airflow stops, as it was at running temps when the power out and the fires out all the temps can do now is fall.... but the lack of cooling air around the chamber means all that heat has no where to go but into the plastic
@@jellygaming5600 it's at the cold end on ones I've seen. I wouldn't be too worried. There's enough distance for the heat to be lost as it spreads down from the hot end. But I suppose it's going to vary with different designs. The ones with the PCB in a full case etc are going to be more resistant than the ones with the open box pcbs
I've just bought some components for my van, as I recently happened upon a similar build by Brian Canning who commented below. I was also tempted to try a t-joint to divert the hot air. I might go for a manual switch, but I love your version, very cool.
Upgrade your solenoid to a 5 quid rc car servo wont have a heat issue. Or you can put a 50p resistor in the positive side of your solenoid supply to reduce the current, I cant really say a value but going out on a limb say 12 ohms 5 watt. the resistor may get warm but thats kind of its thing... problem now is at the reduced current the solenoid may not have the pull, we counter this by adding say a 4700uF capacitor over the resistor (parallel) as its spike of charging current will give the original kick back the solenoid. tbh you may get away with just putting 50w headlight bulb in its positive supply as when thats cold it will give the kick then gradually light up reducing the current. any of the above will extend the coil life
Find yourself a little 5 gallon 120 V or 240 whatever you guys have in the UK water heater they make 5 gallon water heaters for remote locations in your house things like that use the thermostat that’s in the water heater already and instead of connecting the heater element if you do it right you don’t need that pump that makes all that noise you can install a 006 circulator and it will be silent you need to put this under pressure so you need to bring a cold water line from your home and then it pipe it to your sink❤️🇺🇸
Interesting - doing is learning - another solution would be to run the hot exhaust trough a car EGR heat exchanger and capture the 1.5kw that's wasted from these units (calculated on a Russian post)
I have tired exactly that and it works briefly but it puts a small amount of back pressure on the exhaust and it got blocked up rather quick and struggled to start for a while, to many chambers on car egr valves, it would probably work with a single skin water jacket, I'm currently drawing something up using the waste heat to heat water to a radiator of some sorts, stay tuned
I love your idea! Thank you for posting. Without your posting, I would not have this idea: If your water tank were above your water heat exchangers, your water might thermally circulate, with the warm water rising and the cold water sinking, without a pump. This might be an "Automatic" way of eliminating the solenoid, valve, and circulating pump, use less electricity, and still have hot water. In fact, you might be able to plumb this into one of these 2.5-6 gallon electric water heaters and use it as your tank. What do you think?
Pretty neat, i had been thinking of doing similar in my campervan. Just as an idea, Could you delete the flappy valve and solenoid by putting the air/water heat exchanger directly on the heater output, and then controlling water heating by just turning the water pump on or off? You would have full heater output through the exchanger which would definitely speed things up while reducing part count? That was how I was thinking to do it anyway.
I thought the same but as the heat exchanger fins are very thin the constant heat would damage them plus you risk boiling the water sitting in the exchanger and that will definitely damage something 👍
@@beardedstagg3284 it's not a closed pressurised system so any water left inside the heat exchangers will just boil off into the tank and not cause any damage.
Great video! Can you post links of the parts you used to complete the system(?) To be more specific, I'm mostly interested in links for the ducts/ducting and the 10lb Amazon heat exchanger/s - Thanks!
hi, really cool idea and great video! i'm a complete novice when it comes to this kind of stuff but am really interested in this setup. did you 3d print that top portion that your tubes are connected to? (the part that sits ontop of the two heat exchangers). also, is it necessary to use two heat exchangers, or is one ok?
Hi yes the pipe connectors are 3d printed, You could use just one but I think it could take longer to heat the water with there being less surface area being heated but it would work 👍
@@beardedstagg3284 i see, thank you for the reply! i was also wondering, are you using an arduino or some kind of mircrocontroller to communicate between the temperature controller and valve? and for the valve did you DIY a valve into an existing t-duct? sorry for so many questions 😅
The temperature controller just acts as a switch so it's just an open circuit to the electro manget. And yes the valve I made myself and retro fitted it 👍
@@beardedstagg3284 That would be super helpful thank you! I'm working on a similar set up in my camper and this would be the final piece of the puzzle.
Unfortunately they not that cheap anymore as this was done a while ago but this is what I could find www.amazon.co.uk/ASHATA-Exchanger-Radiator-Aluminium-Computer-default/dp/B07HH5G1QG/ref=mp_s_a_1_45?crid=10KAGRZYLRTDZ&keywords=mini+heat+exchanger&qid=1692257403&sprefix=mini+heat+exchanger+%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-45
Many thanks, I might also look into using the matrix from a car heater, either way it will be a bit more tricky for me as Idon't have a £D printer!@@beardedstagg3284
Why bother with turning on and off the air flow. Let the air flow it's not that hot. Instead turn on and off the water pump. Or better yet to increase the efficiency of the heater use a heat exchanger on the exhaust.
Anything that reduces the exhaust flow causes soot build up in the burn chamber, technically yes it would work but would drastically reduce the lifetime of your heater 👍
@alisonhamerm.i.q.a2323 putting anything inline of the exhaust will reduce the air flow and cause back pressure, boilers a designed that way but these are simple burn chaimbers and can't handle any back pressure 👍 like a said it will work but will clog up with soot alot faster
Like people with wood burners in log cabins and mini stoves in tents? It's diesel so it not even flammable unless in the combustion chamber things will only go bad if your stupid with it or its damaged 👍
Can you do me 1 to heat the water to say 10 degrees to keep my pond at a good temp in the winter , I think these would sell as using electric costs a fortune?.
It's definitely possible but as its a large volume of water you would need something like a car radiator to run the water through and would have to be running 24/7 my design is only for small amounts of water I doubt it would be powerful enough.
What are those things from Amazon? I couldn't quite hear. I'm guessing water blocks or heat exchangers, but a direct link to the items in question would be very helpful. I noticed you didn't insulate the water tank. I'm sure it's something you considered, though. I'd also be a a bit bothered by the amount of air flowing through the delivery pipework, but maybe that's just me and my OCD?
Yes just heat exchangers of amazon I think there is a link on previous comments. Yes the bubbles eventually made there way out after a few times so all good 👍
I'm currently working on a water jacket for the exhaust, I've tried a heat exchanger with the fumes but the restriction on the exhaust flow causes soot build up fast!
You need to use the exhaust heat for heating water ... 1. it gets much hotter and 2. you dont lose any heat to the room. 3. exhaust heat is just lost otherwise. This is not the best setup.
They try to rob heat from exhaust ,you did something new and exciting
I agree! That's why I power. My diesel heater with a 100 watt solar charged battery. This way, even if the grid goes off I can count on having heat. Plus, I made it so I could move the heater inside my home to give us temporary back up heat. Our power grid went down 3 years ago for 4 days, so this is when I started putting in off grid backup systems in my home.
Very few governments are pushing for more power generation to serve their citizens before they require us to switchboard electric vehicles. A recipe for disaster.
Neat job! But, if you have a power outage while running your system, your diesel heater will lose its cooling while the burn chamber is very hot. You then risk overheating and damaging your heater. Consider using a 12VDC battery and charge this from the mains instead. I have a similar heater in my sailboat, and consider winding a copperpipe around the exhaust pipe to get some hot water.
Hello my friend 😊 hope you are enjoying your sailboat lifestyle. Have you set up your water heater?
biggest danger is the plastic case not the heat chamber. as soon as power is lost the flame goes out as the airflow stops, as it was at running temps when the power out and the fires out all the temps can do now is fall.... but the lack of cooling air around the chamber means all that heat has no where to go but into the plastic
@@lezbriddonThe concern is melting the motherboard. Not the casing.
@@jellygaming5600 it's at the cold end on ones I've seen. I wouldn't be too worried. There's enough distance for the heat to be lost as it spreads down from the hot end. But I suppose it's going to vary with different designs. The ones with the PCB in a full case etc are going to be more resistant than the ones with the open box pcbs
ABSOLUTELY the best version of water heatig.
I havve myself used a egr cooler on the exhaust.
how did that go?
I've just bought some components for my van, as I recently happened upon a similar build by Brian Canning who commented below. I was also tempted to try a t-joint to divert the hot air. I might go for a manual switch, but I love your version, very cool.
Upgrade your solenoid to a 5 quid rc car servo wont have a heat issue.
Or you can put a 50p resistor in the positive side of your solenoid supply to reduce the current, I cant really say a value but going out on a limb say 12 ohms 5 watt. the resistor may get warm but thats kind of its thing... problem now is at the reduced current the solenoid may not have the pull, we counter this by adding say a 4700uF capacitor over the resistor (parallel) as its spike of charging current will give the original kick back the solenoid.
tbh you may get away with just putting 50w headlight bulb in its positive supply as when thats cold it will give the kick then gradually light up reducing the current.
any of the above will extend the coil life
Brilliant I've been doing to do this for ages well done m8
Need a how to vid now lol
Find yourself a little 5 gallon 120 V or 240 whatever you guys have in the UK water heater they make 5 gallon water heaters for remote locations in your house things like that use the thermostat that’s in the water heater already and instead of connecting the heater element if you do it right you don’t need that pump that makes all that noise you can install a 006 circulator and it will be silent you need to put this under pressure so you need to bring a cold water line from your home and then it pipe it to your sink❤️🇺🇸
I calculated to heat 10 litres from 14 to 30 in 26 minutes you need approximately 430watts of power going through the HX.
Exbox360 power cord works great for these to I have three on this
Cool good to see another build be you 👍
Why buy something when you get the tremendous satisfaction of making it yourself :)
Interesting - doing is learning - another solution would be to run the hot exhaust trough a car EGR heat exchanger and capture the 1.5kw that's wasted from these units (calculated on a Russian post)
I have tired exactly that and it works briefly but it puts a small amount of back pressure on the exhaust and it got blocked up rather quick and struggled to start for a while, to many chambers on car egr valves, it would probably work with a single skin water jacket, I'm currently drawing something up using the waste heat to heat water to a radiator of some sorts, stay tuned
Well done good project
I love your idea! Thank you for posting. Without your posting, I would not have this idea:
If your water tank were above your water heat exchangers, your water might thermally circulate, with the warm water rising and the cold water sinking, without a pump.
This might be an "Automatic" way of eliminating the solenoid, valve, and circulating pump, use less electricity, and still have hot water. In fact, you might be able to plumb this into one of these 2.5-6 gallon electric water heaters and use it as your tank.
What do you think?
Great job!
Dude please put parts details 🙏
Can I buy the 3D printed air inlet/outlet from you please? From your accent you sound like you're local to me (Norfolk).
Very very clever
🎉
Pretty neat, i had been thinking of doing similar in my campervan. Just as an idea, Could you delete the flappy valve and solenoid by putting the air/water heat exchanger directly on the heater output, and then controlling water heating by just turning the water pump on or off? You would have full heater output through the exchanger which would definitely speed things up while reducing part count? That was how I was thinking to do it anyway.
I thought the same but as the heat exchanger fins are very thin the constant heat would damage them plus you risk boiling the water sitting in the exchanger and that will definitely damage something 👍
You can buy hand controlled valves for like £20 I just wanted to make it automatic
@@beardedstagg3284 it's not a closed pressurised system so any water left inside the heat exchangers will just boil off into the tank and not cause any damage.
Great video dude!
I don't suppose you have any links for the heat exchangers and thermostat? Cheers, J
Link please
Great video! Can you post links of the parts you used to complete the system(?) To be more specific, I'm mostly interested in links for the ducts/ducting and the 10lb Amazon heat exchanger/s - Thanks!
Hello from France.
Can you share your 3d printed part file.
Thanks from France
1yr .. we are still waiting
I like it
Hi, very interest in this. Can you provide a list of the components you mention on Amazon please? Cant seem to dind what you mentioned. Cheers!
I would rather use the exhaust hotter quicker perhaps copper tubing wrapped around exhaust pipe.
hi, really cool idea and great video! i'm a complete novice when it comes to this kind of stuff but am really interested in this setup. did you 3d print that top portion that your tubes are connected to? (the part that sits ontop of the two heat exchangers).
also, is it necessary to use two heat exchangers, or is one ok?
Hi yes the pipe connectors are 3d printed,
You could use just one but I think it could take longer to heat the water with there being less surface area being heated but it would work 👍
@@beardedstagg3284 i see, thank you for the reply! i was also wondering, are you using an arduino or some kind of mircrocontroller to communicate between the temperature controller and valve? and for the valve did you DIY a valve into an existing t-duct? sorry for so many questions 😅
The temperature controller just acts as a switch so it's just an open circuit to the electro manget.
And yes the valve I made myself and retro fitted it 👍
@@adamstagg189 oh wow that's much simpler than i initially thought. so is it using a relay, which is also controlling the water pump?
Yep you got it, both are wired into it and it activates both
what kind of filament did you print, is the temperature no too high and does not melt the bracket?
Awesome setup dude, could you share the 3d file for the flat brackets?
Il see if I still have them bud and post a link if i do, was 2 years ago when I designed them and I rubbish at keeping files 🤣
@@beardedstagg3284 That would be super helpful thank you!
I'm working on a similar set up in my camper and this would be the final piece of the puzzle.
Can't find a water heat exchanger for the life of me. Do you have a link or what did you type to find it please mte?
Do you have the stock file available?
Could you give any details about the "£10 Amazon Heat exchanger" as I cannot find one like it on their site
Unfortunately they not that cheap anymore as this was done a while ago but this is what I could find
www.amazon.co.uk/ASHATA-Exchanger-Radiator-Aluminium-Computer-default/dp/B07HH5G1QG/ref=mp_s_a_1_45?crid=10KAGRZYLRTDZ&keywords=mini+heat+exchanger&qid=1692257403&sprefix=mini+heat+exchanger+%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-45
Many thanks, I might also look into using the matrix from a car heater, either way it will be a bit more tricky for me as Idon't have a £D printer!@@beardedstagg3284
You should make and sell plans for this
I would but it's a lawsuit waiting to happen if someone does something wrong or it fails.
what do you do in summer when you don't need warm air but warm water to take a shower?
You would usually have another t-valve after the heat exchanger one venting in and one side venting outside so you can choose where the heat goes
Can you post a link to where you got those heat exchangers? What are they called again? Amson?
Yes please. Where did u get them?
@@BrianHotsauceBauer the same brand also has a pure copper one that wouldn't last as long but might be safer to drink from
@@BrianHotsauceBauer B01D81UPHA is the amazon item number. He posted a link in another comment. Or just search that item number
Why bother with turning on and off the air flow. Let the air flow it's not that hot. Instead turn on and off the water pump. Or better yet to increase the efficiency of the heater use a heat exchanger on the exhaust.
I think you are better off having the heat exchanger on the exhaust side, this would save robbing heat from the air flow
Anything that reduces the exhaust flow causes soot build up in the burn chamber, technically yes it would work but would drastically reduce the lifetime of your heater 👍
@@beardedstagg3284 who said a heat exchanger reduces airflow? After all it's how all boilers work.
@alisonhamerm.i.q.a2323 putting anything inline of the exhaust will reduce the air flow and cause back pressure, boilers a designed that way but these are simple burn chaimbers and can't handle any back pressure 👍 like a said it will work but will clog up with soot alot faster
Sup dude iv bought the heat exchangers you used... Can you advise on what you used to hook the hose up the brass connectors
Cheers
Yuhtech Spring Clip, Hose Spring... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QHTVQTN?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Let's take a flame+fuel based heater and mount it on wood, what could go wrong?
Like people with wood burners in log cabins and mini stoves in tents? It's diesel so it not even flammable unless in the combustion chamber things will only go bad if your stupid with it or its damaged 👍
What did you print the brackets with? (Material)
Printed in abs 👍
Bobil Vans sell a very similar system, do you have any suggestions to speed up the time to heat 10ltrs of water?
Maybe a 12v heating element in the tank
Can you do me 1 to heat the water to say 10 degrees to keep my pond at a good temp in the winter , I think these would sell as using electric costs a fortune?.
It's definitely possible but as its a large volume of water you would need something like a car radiator to run the water through and would have to be running 24/7 my design is only for small amounts of water I doubt it would be powerful enough.
beater take heat from exhaust pipe
What parts do I need to make this I have installed same heater already
What are those things from Amazon? I couldn't quite hear. I'm guessing water blocks or heat exchangers, but a direct link to the items in question would be very helpful.
I noticed you didn't insulate the water tank. I'm sure it's something you considered, though.
I'd also be a a bit bothered by the amount of air flowing through the delivery pipework, but maybe that's just me and my OCD?
Yes just heat exchangers of amazon I think there is a link on previous comments.
Yes the bubbles eventually made there way out after a few times so all good 👍
so what u going to do about the diesel gasses from the heater if u run it like that ur get carbon monoxide poisining
The exhaust vents outside, there's a hole in the wall with an extension pipe, no fumes indoors
Only disadvantage is that burning diesel for heat gives nasty pollution.
Why not use the exhaust to heat the water? That's where most the heat goes anyway
I'm currently working on a water jacket for the exhaust, I've tried a heat exchanger with the fumes but the restriction on the exhaust flow causes soot build up fast!
Any links for the heat exchanger
They where from amazon but go in and out of stock all the time just search mini heat exchanger 👍
Dont supose you have links for the water side of it please
BXQINLENX 18 Pipe Aluminum Heat Exchanger Radiator for PC CPU CO2 Laser Water Cool System Computer 120mm(A) amzn.eu/d/b7cJEhG
Sold can I buy it off you .....I need it for my RV ..thanks.....
if I could I would bud, modified diesel heater (risk of failure/fire) would be an insurance nightmare
why is your water system full of air ?
One of the pipes wasn't fully sealed and was sucking in air was resolved once found 👍
Hey man, this exactly what I'm building. Would you want to share the 3d print file?
Sure will see if I can dig them out 👍
Same for me.
Can you list the water-cooled you used or your build.
Thanks from France
+1 for the files if you would like to share them
Can you send me the file if he sent it to you. Thanks. Brianbauerucsd@gmail.com
I would also like the file for the 3d printing if it’s possible. Thanks.
Would you like to build me one?
You need to use the exhaust heat for heating water ... 1. it gets much hotter and 2. you dont lose any heat to the room. 3. exhaust heat is just lost otherwise.
This is not the best setup.
3 months later the water is almost hot enought to wash your big toe.
Gets hot enough for a shower, works exactly the same as the ones you buy of the shelf