Diesel space heater

[countryman]

Hi

just brought one of these Diesel blow heaters for my barn / workshop , it has a 19l tank with an output of 30kw , on the manual it saying that it’s an economical 2.4 KG/H whatever that is , it seems to drink fuel like no tomorrow, is that normal , also if you walk outside then back inside you really notice the smell of the thing, it’s blowing red hot like a jet engine I just can’t see how people work with these things .

Thanks

chris

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, If you mean the Diesel Space Heaters they are not ideal for your barn/workshop more for big industrial buildings, and yes they do use a lot of fuel and give out fume smell , How big is your Barn/Workshop ?? You could ask TT on here how he heats his Workshop, TT being Team Tractor 

Edited January 10 by oldypigeonpopper

[oldypigeonpopper]

42 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, If you mean the Diesel Space Heaters they are not ideal for your barn/workshop more for big industrial buildings, and yes they do use a lot of fuel and give out fume smell , How big is your Barn/Workshop ?? You could ask TT on here how he heats his Workshop, TT being Team Tractor 

Hello, There is a chap on the Stalking Forum ( gixer 1 ) who posted on these heaters, 36 hours on a gallon of Diesel ?? if your not on there i could contact, What make of Heater have you, ??

[Mice!]

Sounds like a big tank.

One of the lads in work was saying he's put one on his campervan bought off Amazon £100 odd quid, says its amazing,  uses it either on the thermostat or sends a msg when their finished at the pub.

[wyn]

I think people may be confusing  the large industrial space heaters with the smaller chinese vehicle heaters.

[Penelope]

3 hours ago, countryman said:

Hi

just brought one of these Diesel blow heaters for my barn / workshop , it has a 19l tank with an output of 30kw , on the manual it saying that it’s an economical 2.4 KG/H whatever that is , it seems to drink fuel like no tomorrow, is that normal , also if you walk outside then back inside you really notice the smell of the thing, it’s blowing red hot like a jet engine I just can’t see how people work with these things .

Thanks

chris

I'd me concerned about the carbon monoxide output too, in a confined space.

Carbon monoxide uptake by the body is accumlative too. CO binds to the haemaglobin in the blood, blocking the uptake of oxygen.

[Rewulf]

2 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, There is a chap on the Stalking Forum ( gixer 1 ) who posted on these heaters, 36 hours on a gallon of Diesel ?? if your not on there i could contact, What make of Heater have you, ??

 

2 hours ago, Mice! said:

Sounds like a big tank.

One of the lads in work was saying he's put one on his campervan bought off Amazon £100 odd quid, says its amazing,  uses it either on the thermostat or sends a msg when their finished at the pub.

I use lots of space heaters, the OP is referring to a 30KW unit, a low to medium size, the little Chinese ones have a max of 5KW, and are only useful for small areas, the exhaust needs to be vented outside, or you will indeed poison yourself.

To the OP, sometimes these 30-60 KW heaters dont run right from the factory, the fact that fuel usage seems excessive, and there is a smell, indicates its not burning correctly.
There is an air mixture screw at the back, have a play with that, the front of the boiler should be cherry red when its got up to speed, if its orange/yellow, and or there are flames coming out, its running too hot, this will use more fuel, and eventually burn the boiler out.
If its darker than cherry red, even black, it isnt burning efficiently, and will likely produce fumes.

A tip, I run mine on half kerosene, and half used engine oil, gives me double MPG and burns perfectly.

[JohnfromUK]

A litre of diesel contains approximately 10KWh of energy, so burning at 30 KW will burn around 3 litres an hour, or rather under 1 1/5 hours per gallon.

[Rewulf]

14 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

A litre of diesel contains approximately 10KWh of energy, so burning at 30 KW will burn around 3 litres an hour, or rather under 1 1/5 hours per gallon.

That sounds about right.

[JohnfromUK]

2 minutes ago, Rewulf said:

That sounds about right.

It's really just the 'science', in that you won't get more energy than the fuel actually has in it from its chemistry.  (I did have to look up the values).

[Rewulf]

Just now, JohnfromUK said:

It's really just the 'science', in that you won't get more energy than the fuel actually has in it from its chemistry.  (I did have to look up the values).

And thats where burning efficiency comes into play, if it smells its not burning right, so your 'MPGs' go out the window.

[JohnfromUK]

3 minutes ago, Rewulf said:

And thats where burning efficiency comes into play, if it smells its not burning right, so your 'MPGs' go out the window.

I'm not familiar with modern oil burners so can't really comment, but older pressure jet burners using 35 secs oil (basically red diesel) were always a bit smelly.  The 28 secs (I think near enough kerosene/paraffin) burners were less smelly, but the oil cost more as I think it was more refined.

[Rewulf]

4 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

I'm not familiar with modern oil burners so can't really comment, but older pressure jet burners using 35 secs oil (basically red diesel) were always a bit smelly.  The 28 secs (I think near enough kerosene/paraffin) burners were less smelly, but the oil cost more as I think it was more refined.

Youre not even allowed to buy red diesel for commercial heating anymore, but I found it always burned hotter than kerosene, the weird thing I found about kero was, it was sold as a 'heavy oil' but if you spilt any, the next day it had evaporated !
Adding the engine oil makes it burn hotter, and costs nothing for me.

[countryman]

2 hours ago, Rewulf said:

 

I use lots of space heaters, the OP is referring to a 30KW unit, a low to medium size, the little Chinese ones have a max of 5KW, and are only useful for small areas, the exhaust needs to be vented outside, or you will indeed poison yourself.

To the OP, sometimes these 30-60 KW heaters dont run right from the factory, the fact that fuel usage seems excessive, and there is a smell, indicates its not burning correctly.
There is an air mixture screw at the back, have a play with that, the front of the boiler should be cherry red when its got up to speed, if its orange/yellow, and or there are flames coming out, its running too hot, this will use more fuel, and eventually burn the boiler out.
If its darker than cherry red, even black, it isnt burning efficiently, and will likely produce fumes.

A tip, I run mine on half kerosene, and half used engine oil, gives me double MPG and burns perfectly.

I think from what your saying mine is about right then, I did see the mixture screw on the back, I tried it with a 5lt can full to start with , it’s all I had at the time and it ran for about 50 minutes or so, I thought it was going to run for a lot longer to be honest, it started spluttering about then went out and pushed a load of Smokey fumes out before i ran to it to turn it off, I didn’t realise at first that it had burnt all the Diesel all ready, my barn work/ workshop is 50ft x30ft but some of that is sectioned off to a room and upstairs space. I just wanted some heat in the space I am working in really, I never thought it would heat the whole building. 
Thanks

chris

[udderlyoffroad]

8 hours ago, countryman said:

2.4 KG/H whatever that is , it seems to drink fuel like no tomorrow

 

2 hours ago, countryman said:

I tried it with a 5lt can full to start with , it’s all I had at the time and it ran for about 50 minutes or so

2.4 kg/h of diesel is 2.82 l/h so you’re way off if it’s chewing through 5l in less than an hour.

[Mice!]

7 hours ago, wyn said:

I think people may be confusing  the large industrial space heaters with the smaller chinese vehicle heaters.

I thought I must be wrong when I saw the 30KW

[countryman]

2 hours ago, udderlyoffroad said:

 

2.4 kg/h of diesel is 2.82 l/h so you’re way off if it’s chewing through 5l in less than an hour.

Ok thanks for converting that for me, at least I know what it should be doing now, maybe as it’s new it needs to run in a bit.