paraffin Heater

[Jameshow]

Just fitted a diesel heater in my kitchen, red diesel today cost £ 1.36/ Litre. though heating oil is apparently 95p/Litre.
Researching the use of heating oil in diesel heaters tonight (sad).

Fired up for 1st time and used 3/8 Litre of fuel in an hour at the mid setting.
The heater claims to be 8kW though at least 1kW must go out of the exhaust.

Cost £ 130, plus £ 20 for a 10A 12V power supply.

If you had a longer alu tube exhaust you would probably recover more heat.

 

[Misterdog]

Or wrap the exhaust with an 8mm copper pipe coil and use an aquarium pump to heat water..
The exhaust pipe must reach 200 C.

 

[Inspector]

I'm curious. Are diesel heaters made for homes and they are legal? Never seen one here but I don't get to every corner of the country.

Pete

 

[Jameshow]

They are generally used for camper vans and boats. eberspacher being the premium brand. Chinese copies are £100/$150 each.

 

[Inspector]

So if one was proven to be the cause of a fire and toasted the house your insurance would be void like here and you get nothing?

Pete

Adding that even a CSA approved wood stove installed in a house without an installation inspection voids the insurance.

 

[minilathe22]

Interesting that you quote red diesel prices, I have a diesel space heater which has a 10 litre tank. I found that red diesel is hard to buy in small volumes, and I could not find any suppliers that ended up cheaper than a fuel station unless I committed to buy several hundred litres, which would take me forever to use up.

I would love to have a small wood burner in my workshop and could feed it with offcuts from woodturning but worried about insurance risk with a workshop that makes wood dust.

 

[Seascaper]

After reading about the Paraffin heaters that are odourless I decided to get the Zibro LC150 CE, I had to wait about a month as they were on back orer. Tested it out this morning and other than smelling the paraffin for about an hour I was very pleased with the heater as a whole. Hopefully the odour will gradually fade as the manual did state that new heaters did send out the odour.
Obviously I have fitted a carbon monoxide alarm for precaution ..

Hello,
Our previous house was heated inside by paraffin heaters. When the paraffin burns it leaves a residue on all the internal surfaces and turns the paint yellow. We had to thoroughly degrease all the internal surfaces and walls with many coats of sugar soap and stain block otherwise the oil from the paraffin came through. I had to put up plasterboard and re plaster the entire house to get rid of it.
Regards

 

[artie]

If you had a longer alu tube exhaust you would probably recover more heat.

I bought a longer exhaust for this reason. Having some Scots blood in me I could do no other.

The longer exhaust has a detrimental effect at start up,

I suppose I could do some experimentation with a wider pipe to reduce back pressure, but it is used so seldom, I just remove it until started and then slip it back on.

 

[artie]

Just fitted a diesel heater in my kitchen, red diesel today cost £ 1.36/ Litre. though heating oil is apparently 95p/Litre.
Researching the use of heating oil in diesel heaters tonight (sad).

I've not tried diesel in mine, but the consensus seemed to be that kerosene was both cheaper and cleaner so I went for it.

There is also the advantage that I could just run a pipe through the wall into my CH oil tank and thus have no worries about carrying/spilling etc.

Last oil I bought was around £0.50 per litre, I fear I won't see that price again.

 

[Misterdog]

Natural gas spot price today lowest since 2012.
Though I suspect our bills will not reflect this for a least 6 months.

 

[Misterdog]

If you had a longer alu tube exhaust you would probably recover more heat.

A longer pipe causes more friction as do bends.
Works the same on dust extraction and shower extraction the same as exhausts.

 

[Misterdog]

I've not tried diesel in mine, but the consensus seemed to be that kerosene was both cheaper and cleaner so I went for it.

Though with a different fuel you need a different air /fuel ratio.

Same with Altitude

 

[artie]

Though with a different fuel you need a different air /fuel ratio.

Since I don't have any fancy equipment, I worked on the premise that when it was running at optimum efficiency it would produce most heat, so I attached a thermometer to the output and spent an afternoon fiddling around.

Results were not conclusive or consistent, so I reverted to factory settings and was at peace with myself.

 

[Misterdog]

All you ever wanted to know about Paraffin, AKA Kerosine

https://www.crownoil.co.uk/guides/paraffin-guide-uses-history-more/

 

[artie]

All you ever wanted to know about Paraffin, AKA Kerosine

https://www.crownoil.co.uk/guides/paraffin-guide-uses-history-more/

I was always under the impression that Paraffin was more refined and more expensive than kerosene, but I suppose the terms get bandied around a bit especially when it comes to advertising.

https://www.differencebetween.com/d...able hydrocarbon produced from petroleum oil.

 

[baldkev]

Ive got a diesel space heater, awesome power but can chew through 20 quid of diesel in about 3 hours im running it on kero at the mo.....
My brother has a smallholding and unless he buys 1000 litres or more, red isnt currently all that much cheaper than pump diesel at the mo locally.

Without wanting to hijack the thread, commonly, people say lpg space heaters produce a lot of water vapour ( diesel supposedly low ), but where does it come from? I.e, does lpg contain water and diesel not? I did just do a google, but it suggests not.....

 

[Jameshow]

Ive got a diesel space heater, awesome power but can chew through 20 quid of diesel in about 3 hours im running it on kero at the mo.....
My brother has a smallholding and unless he buys 1000 litres or more, red isnt currently all that much cheaper than pump diesel at the mo locally.

Without wanting to hijack the thread, commonly, people say lpg space heaters produce a lot of water vapour ( diesel supposedly low ), but where does it come from? I.e, does lpg contain water and diesel not? I did just do a google, but it suggests not.....

From a car perspective diesel has a higher energy content per litre than petrol and even more so than LPG, so I guess when LPG is burnt it uses alot more air that diesel for a given heat output???

 

[Robbo3]

I would love to have a small wood burner in my workshop and could feed it with offcuts from woodturning but worried about insurance risk with a workshop that makes wood dust.

I have both a wood burner with a single skin flue & a diesel heater in my workshop but it is a concrete sectional garage with a screed floor.
The wood burner is next to the lathe & I have been over knee height in shavings which also covered the wood burner with no detrimental effect. However, I do clear the shavings before working on something new or if I leave the room, even for a couple of minutes. The biggest risk I've found is embers spilling onto or being spit onto shavings when the burner door is opened.
If your shed is wood then you will have to protect the floor, wall & roof from localised heat.

 

[Inspector]

Without wanting to hijack the thread, commonly, people say lpg space heaters produce a lot of water vapour ( diesel supposedly low ), but where does it come from? I.e, does lpg contain water and diesel not? I did just do a google, but it suggests not.....

Petroleum based fuels and dinosaur flatulence are made of hydrocarbons. Molecules of hydrogen and carbon. When you burn them you get carbon dioxide (if burned clean) and water. The amount of water will vary with the makeup of the molecule. One of the reasons you see water drops dribbling out car exhaust pipes. Make sense?

Pete

 

[Misterdog]

Air contains hydrogen and oxygen, during any combustion, CO2 (carbon dioxide) and H2O (water) are formed, if the combustion burner has a flue the water vapour is taken outside, see central heating boiler flue.
With an internal flueless burner, the water vapour remains inside.