- Joined
- Sep 9, 2021
This is really cheap ....but not fool proof.A very good starting point.I have all ready ordered a pack of 5.
Cheap/Alternative/Offgrid Heating - Keeping warm for cheap during the apocalypse
- Thread starter Grub
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Phalanges Mycologist
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 11, 2021
In the old shop it was single layer brick with a wood framed apex roof with slate and a wattle an daub lining on the roof, it was a Horse stable an Coach shed, the a Garage an workshop, then my workshop.
The new place is a mix of Stone an Brick at the bottom it's about 3ft thick tapering at the top to about 2ft thick and it's brick from about half way up, an the roofs Slate (an needs some repair) but the back 1/3 where the Herdsmans stay is quite old an made from stone all the way with a gravel an rubble infill between the inner an outer walls it used to be a Cattle shed / barn from when my House an Property where part of a much larger estate the oldest bit was built around 1500 but was built on over the years but only a tiny fraction of that (1 wall an a bit of floor) is from that era the rest is 17th - 19th century.
It's kind of a hard decision what I need to address first with the creature comforts and environment in the shop, and I also need to take care of the roof before I do anything else, but the next stop is the ventilation as most of that is just slots in the roof, then lighting, I will likely document it as I go forward but at the moment I am in there an able to work but it's also something I am acutely aware of so it will be addressed as soon as time allows.
Grub
kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 2, 2021
It's probably better than the stock temperature sensor at least. The problem I find with my setup is that the temperature sensor in the controller gets more inaccurate the colder it gets outside. It can't keep up with the heat loss properly. Using my arduino setup the heater keeps my trailer between 20°C-24°C according to my fairly accurate wall thermostat. It starts up and shuts down properly but depending on the temperature outside, I have to set the controller between 24-27°C because the sensor doesn't register the cooling properly when it gets too cold outside.
I'm thinking of ordering a couple of those DS18B20 sensors that the guy in that video was using and I already have the arduino connected and I have an LCD screen, an RTC, some buttons and other random electronics shit so I was going to try and make my own thermostat for it. Doing it that way would also give me access to manual mode on the heater so I could do things like start the heater up on a lower speed and only increase the speed if the temperature's not rising fast enough and save fuel and shit that way. I could also setup some scheduling shit so I don't have to fuck with it and have it automatically set a lower temperature during the day when I'm out and at night when I'm sleeping.
Lol I'm guessing you're from the UK? As far as I know we don't have buildings that old in Canada, well at least not any built in the 1500's. On one hand, I've always thought it's super cool the buildings there are hundreds of years old and just been added onto and renovated and shit over the centuries but sometimes that shit must be a nightmare to do any kind of work on. It's bad enough doing work on 50 year old houses let alone 200-500 year old houses.
Yeah that's definitely probably a good first priority. I've never seen a slate roof before so I just looked them up because I was picturing some kind of flintsones style big slate slab but, I guess it would make more sense that it's slate shingles. They actually look pretty cool.
The whole thing sounds like quite the project.
You should make a thread on it if you do end up documenting things if it won't be too much powerleveling. It would be cool to see.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2021
If you've already got a fire going, I also recommend ye olde hot water bottles: the warming pan and the warming brick. If the idea of a pan of glowing embers or hot sand under your sheets (you take it out before you get into bed) is a little too ye olde for you the brick is a better option.
Really good thermal longjohns are worth their weight in gold too, along with a selection of thick real wool jumpers (sweaters). And don't be shamed for wearing a pair of high denier or wool-blend tights under your trousers (pants) as a man, they do trap the body heat in.
Grub
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2021
No. It was getting too warm because the cabinet it's mounted on was getting warm because the heater is installed below but I stuck a piece of insulation behind the controller and now the back stays the same temperature as the front. From what I've read most of these controllers use thermistors as temperature sensors to cut costs. Thermistors are prone to self heating issues that can cause inaccuracies. They're also only accurate generally to +/- 2°C which is pretty bad as far as maintaining indoor comfort levels go. The controller I have seems to read at least 2°C high most of the time. Sometimes that climbs to 3°C.
Grub
kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 2, 2021
Make sure you have a drain port on the bottom for condensate and slope it slightly so the condensation drains. You also need to increase the pipe size from the stock size if you increase the length.
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- Sep 9, 2021
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- Joined
- Sep 9, 2021
Grub
kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 2, 2021
I thought of doing something like that. I feel like a standard furnace thermostat would make the unit short cycle too much, especially if the heater's in a poorly insulated space. I have a similar model to that one except with 7 day scheduling. The two degree Celsius differential most of those simple 1 heat stage thermostats have isn't really enough for the kinds of setups a lot of these heaters are installed in. Even with the 4°C differential I have currently, the down time was only around 20 minutes an hour with outdoor temps around -4°C-0°C.
A a battery powered thermostat with decent installer settings that let you adjust the differential would probably work decently though.
Edit: So, having come home to an E-08 code after letting the tank run too low in the day because I figured it had enough left in there and I was lazy this morning, I just had a thought about all these methods that involve soldering something directly to the power switch. The arduino code I use checks to make sure there's no error code before it tries to startup. If there's an error code, it won't attempt to start. There's no way to do that with these methods meaning if the fuel ever runs too low and the heater starts pulling in air and the flame goes out, it will keep trying to start up until someone manually intervenes meaning you could easily burn out a pump as the heater tries starting up over and over again and the pump is continuously running dry.
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- Joined
- Sep 9, 2021
Yes indeed , Stay away from anything with galavinized ,Zinc or any paint that isent for high heat.
Grub
kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 2, 2021
So far, running it for two and a half months in place of my propane furnace I've spent around $70/month on diesel at $1.84/L and $50/month on propane for my stove and hot water. This is, not really being efficient with it either and keeping my trailer between 20°C-24°C all day and night. Even when nobody's home just to keep the animals cozy. Last year, at the kinds of temperatures it's been I would have probably gone through a propane tank a week at $47 to fill a 30lb tank. So I'd say so far at least, it's saved me roughly $50/month over using propane. That's not to mention I get points for the local grocery store that gets me free groceries if I use a specific gas station I also get extra cash back dollars if I use my credit card to buy the diesel so it's actually been working out to be a fair bit more economical at least for me. I would think it's fairly dependent on the price of diesel and and propane or natural gas in your area.
Also, on a gallon to gallon basis. Diesel has more energy than natural gas or propane. Diesel has around 123,000 BTUs/gallon propane only has around 84,000 BTUs/gallon. Meaning if you burn a gallon of both propane and diesel, you will get 39,000 BTUs of extra energy out of the diesel.
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2023
Dude from Calgary has been hacking on these things for a couple years. Landed him a Vevor sponsorship. He's the kind of mechanical nerd that I expect y'all would adore. https://www.youtube.com/@loweredexpectations4927
Grub
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2021
That channel looks pretty cool. I'm wary of burning vegetable oil and waste oil and shit like that in the heater though. The heaters aren't the best quality and diesel's finicky enough to ignite as it is. Carbon buildup seems to be the number one problem with these heaters. Doing things that could potentially create extra buildup seems like a bad idea. As far as I've read, once you've blocked up the atomizer screen, you basically need a new burn chamber or heater. It's not a serviceable part.
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2023
He got the best results from no more than 50% blends with diesel. There is buildup and caking, but he also goes through the process of cleaning that out, and keeping the system going. He's burnt a lot of random waste oils. This winter, he's been playing with other heaters too.