Now a for bit of a run down, of what I hav.4e found, since buying a CDH....
I paid £67.39, for a suitcase type, 8kw heater, as the suitcase version appeared to be cheaper, and include all the bits. It was bought to replace a wood stove, which took time to warm my workshop up, and caused dust. It came with all that was needed, but I decided to add a filter, plus change the green fuel pipe to white nylon, move the tank to somewhere more easily accessed to fill it. I also bought a spare parts kit, glow-pin, spanner, mesh, along removal tool, plus gaskets.
I did investigate running it on waste oil, waste chip oil, and various other substances, as a cheap option, but the research suggested that was a bad idea. It did suggest it was fine run on white or red diesel, kero/heating oil, or Jet A1. White seems to be particularly cheap at the moment, but the cheapest fuel I was able to find was the Jet A1 at 94p per litre, from my local aero club.
The unit seems well-made, comes with a remote control, to turn its stat up and down, plus on or off, and so far 100% reliable, the little use I have made of it. You apply the 12v, press the on button, then 2 or 3 minutes later it is producing some heat. The amount of heat then gradually increases, as it warms up to maximum output. In a matter of ten minutes, my workshop is warm. Turning it off, it continues to run it's fan, to cool itself down, for a few minutes, which is essential to avoid the electronics, inside the unit, being cooked. For that reason, it is best run from a 12v battery, itself on a charger, rather than just a mains adaptor, in case mains power is lost. They draw around 13amps to start the burn, then 2 to 4amps once fully lit.
They are simple enough - just a solenoid dosing pump, injecting a pulse of fuel, each time the pump is fired. A wire mesh, around a glow-pin, into which the fuel is injected. The pin heat the mesh, ignites the fuel, then a variable speed blower, blow air into the chamber. Eventually, the glow pin can be switched off, and the burn self-sustains. The burn chamber is an allow casting, which gets hot. The same blower motor, has an air fan on the other end of the shaft, blowing air through the hot casting, which is the hot air which exits via a large duct. So you have 4 -ports on the unit, combustion air in, exhaust gas out, room air in, hot room air hot. The combustion, is entirely sealed away inside the unit, so not combustion products get into the room.
Rather than waste the heat from the exhaust, and as the unit was mounted on my work bench, I decided to risk spirally the exhaust round, below my bench, before exiting out through the wall, and add a small fan, to blow cold air over it. I've added a CO and CO2 monitor alarm, for safety, but the space is generally well ventilated anyway.
I paid £67.39, for a suitcase type, 8kw heater, as the suitcase version appeared to be cheaper, and include all the bits. It was bought to replace a wood stove, which took time to warm my workshop up, and caused dust. It came with all that was needed, but I decided to add a filter, plus change the green fuel pipe to white nylon, move the tank to somewhere more easily accessed to fill it. I also bought a spare parts kit, glow-pin, spanner, mesh, along removal tool, plus gaskets.
I did investigate running it on waste oil, waste chip oil, and various other substances, as a cheap option, but the research suggested that was a bad idea. It did suggest it was fine run on white or red diesel, kero/heating oil, or Jet A1. White seems to be particularly cheap at the moment, but the cheapest fuel I was able to find was the Jet A1 at 94p per litre, from my local aero club.
The unit seems well-made, comes with a remote control, to turn its stat up and down, plus on or off, and so far 100% reliable, the little use I have made of it. You apply the 12v, press the on button, then 2 or 3 minutes later it is producing some heat. The amount of heat then gradually increases, as it warms up to maximum output. In a matter of ten minutes, my workshop is warm. Turning it off, it continues to run it's fan, to cool itself down, for a few minutes, which is essential to avoid the electronics, inside the unit, being cooked. For that reason, it is best run from a 12v battery, itself on a charger, rather than just a mains adaptor, in case mains power is lost. They draw around 13amps to start the burn, then 2 to 4amps once fully lit.
They are simple enough - just a solenoid dosing pump, injecting a pulse of fuel, each time the pump is fired. A wire mesh, around a glow-pin, into which the fuel is injected. The pin heat the mesh, ignites the fuel, then a variable speed blower, blow air into the chamber. Eventually, the glow pin can be switched off, and the burn self-sustains. The burn chamber is an allow casting, which gets hot. The same blower motor, has an air fan on the other end of the shaft, blowing air through the hot casting, which is the hot air which exits via a large duct. So you have 4 -ports on the unit, combustion air in, exhaust gas out, room air in, hot room air hot. The combustion, is entirely sealed away inside the unit, so not combustion products get into the room.
Rather than waste the heat from the exhaust, and as the unit was mounted on my work bench, I decided to risk spirally the exhaust round, below my bench, before exiting out through the wall, and add a small fan, to blow cold air over it. I've added a CO and CO2 monitor alarm, for safety, but the space is generally well ventilated anyway.
