Really appreciate the effort to produce this video. It's given clear details on the 5Kw diesel heater power consumption during test with the data being used to give best and worst case of battery use over 24hrs. It clearly indicates why some owners complain their battery bank is not lasting, especially if it's a few years old and it's cold.
what battery do you think is best for the 5k diesel heater? i currently have a 12v 200Ah battery but it’s bad and i have to replace it. it’s pretty expensive but if that’s what i will need for the heater then i guess i will get it 😭
@@jcardosa02 Do you have a means of charging the battery all the time or are you operating without a regular charging facility ? Also what sort of time period are you intending or having to run the heater between charging periods ?
A useful video, clearly explained! I recently fitted a 5 Kw heater in my garage and initially ran it from an old, small capacity car battery, which isn’t in the best of health. I kept the battery topped up with a permanently connected car type “smart” charger. I then decided to buy a 30 Amp mains power supply and run it directly from that. I found one with a display which shows volts and amps. The output can be adjusted from 9 to 15V or switched to a steady 13.8V. I tend to use it at the 12.8V which is the maximum recommended in the heater manual and unlike running from a battery, irrespective of load this voltage is maintained. The current draw varies in exactly the same way as yours does. As you found, the highest load is as expected on start up but similarly high on shutdown. As I understand it, the heater must be allowed to run its pre-programmed shut down sequence so the fan blows at maximum to cool the heat exchanger right down. If this doesn’t happen, heat runs “backwards” towards the inlet end and can overheat the circuit board components.
I hadn't considered how the heat could cause thermal runaway and damage electronics that way. Hopefully an unlikely scenario, but certainly best to always allow proper shutdown. I often run the heater with the engine running and the alternator voltage sitting at 14.4V and it hasn't cause anything to go bang yet (on my particular model). Would expect a little headroom on max voltage. Recently build a diy LIFEpo4 battery at 80Ah to run it and that sits at about 13.4V.
@@DanSohan I’m just going along with the recommendations in the manual that came with my heater with regard to the correct shutdown procedure. I agree that the voltage tolerance should allow for the fact that most vehicle alternators are designed to charge the battery at about 14.5V.
I did the same for my workshop but you have to be careful because in the event of a power cut the heater won't go through the shutdown cycle which could damage the CPU. I would keep the battery connected for that reason.
@@joedunne6737 Actually, I’ve owned this house since 1988 and I can’t remember the last time there was a power cut here, fortunately they are very rare in this part of the world. Unfortunately, the instructions for the power supply I have specifically state that it’s unsuitable for connection to a battery because it provides a constant voltage (it would boil away the electrolyte). In any case, in the unlikely event of a power cut happening, a new ECU for these heaters only costs about £16 and probably take me about ten minutes to change. So, not really the end of the world.
Very useful, this makes me think when I install one I'll leave it on lowest Hz setting rather than temperature, to make sure on really cold days it doesn't ramp up trying to reach even a low target, but just stays on its lowest fuel/energy usage which should always be enough to keep a small van comfortable enough I imagine
If you're not running it full heat before shutting down you'll likely have excess carbon build up and premature problems. Run it full blast for 10 minutes before shutting down and clean it out
From video I seen, the pump should be upright or 45 degree angle to keep air bubble stuck in the pump. Helps the pump. Thanks for the video, this is a huge help
Best angle for pump is about 35 degrees with the output end up (usually where the power connector is) as it needs to lubricate the pump and get rid of air bubbles.
Thank you for this video, the internet is full of useless or incomplete info, means I can now make a reasonable informed choice of battery amperage. Very clear information!
Under password settings, you can set PF6 to 4 to slightly reduce the glow plug power during start and stop process. PF1 to 3 is for 40w glow plug that I've never seen as spare parts
Will reducing the power not increase likelihood of carbon build up. Although sounds very useful if your running on a smaller capacity battery or running low.
Ok so you got a big battery good for you.... ;-p yeah i would imagine that you don't even run it all when you are sleeping. I have a T5 well insulated. With two in bed it around 0°c nice and warm. Only cold when you get from under the sheets.
Good work! I installed a battery monitor in our RV because I had the same questions and concerns about how long we could dry camp on the existing batteries during an upcoming 16 day trip into the Rocky Mts (USA.) a bit of testing and math made me reasonably confident that what we had would work. And it did. Just to be clear - our (2 lead acid) batteries are good for up to three nights in a row. We were able to charge the batteries at least that often with either shore power or the Victron DC/DC charger I’ve installed on our tow vehicle. That’s another story though (spoiler - works Great.) The point is this - you need a good battery monitor - otherwise it’s like a car without a fuel gauge - else you never know how much you’re using or how much you have left. I used a Victron Smart shunt, but there are others that will work depending on the application. The Victron is great though.
hi may i ask what kind of battery do you have? i am trying to buy a battery to connect to my solar panels(2 100 watt) and get a diesel heater but not sure which battery i will need to buy 😭
The one I was using was a Halfords branded leisure battery. They are not the best I've had. The upgraded one is a LiPO4 type, but I had it imported from China and made it myself. I don't think you'll find them in stores for reasonable prices yet.
Interesting, thanks for that. It's also crucial to let the heater go through the shutdown mode for another reason. The CPU unit is close to the heater fins and will cook the components if you don't let the heater go through its shutdown cycle.
Absolutely right ! Many folks run the supply from a battery that is constantly connected to a mains fed 'intelligent' trickle charger to contend with power cuts.... no stranger to many who live 'out in the sticks' The fully charged battery will give a certain amount of continuity for the heating if the power goes off and I have been told that, as the battery gets emptied, the CPU will sense that the battery voltage is dropping and will initiate a proper shutdown procedure while there is still power available to do so. Can anyone confirm if this is the case please ??
Best angle for pump is about 35 degrees with the output end up (usually where the power connector is) as it needs to lubricate the pump and get rid of air bubbles.
Superb. Thanks for this. I've equated that my self contained unit in a peli case, with a 12ah lifepo4 running a 2kw heater will give me three 1hr heating sessions (one session at night before bed, for three nights - three initial starts, 45mins normal usage, and then three shutdown cycles. Should bring the van up to temp before we hunker down for the night - being well insulated the van should maintain a good heat over night with body heat of two people replenishing any that gets lost over night. If we want heat in the morning aswell we'll only get two nights and two mornings, and well have to reduce heating session to 35mins per session. I'm good with that!
Useful video....surprising to see how many aH that the heater can use in really cold conditions....definitely something to think about. Thanks for putting this video up, Jerry
Big thing with lead-acid is called the Pieukert Effect. Basically the more amps you draw, the less efficient the discharge gets. Run it hard and you might get as little as 30% of the available power. A tiny load on the other hand may get nearly all of it.
Excellent information. That answers my question about the battery usage. I'm wondering about buying a power unit and possibly an inverter! Thank you for a great video.
Amazing breakdown on battery consumption. I can't wait to see the real world test. I would love to see what kind of fuel usage you get as well (I kinda know what my 5kw uses, but it's straight estimations).
Thanks man real world actual data thank you so much. This is really helpful as all the other video are like… yes the jackery can power the heater for some time 🙈
Fantastic video, thanks for doing this! I would estimate a mid point between 17°C and 35°C (26°C) would probably end up using roughly ~3 Ah using these numbers. Maybe even a bit less if the heater could reach maintenance mode, and good insulation
I've been working from the van over the last week. Finding running it in Hz mode is better, just ticking by at 1.6hz uses a constant current and battery is lasting better. May do a follow up if I have time...
Yeah - I got a Ford Freda and it had a KA battery - it got down to -3 and at 12.4V the heater ran out at 3am. I replaced with Lifep04 and a DC_DC charger and now it runs all weekend at 17oc like it did before and I can get a full weekend out of the battery without charging it.
U can extract more heat if u put a heat exchanger on the exhaust,,because the exhaust runs about 300-450 degrees Fahrenheit , It will double the efficiency of the heater
When I install mine, I will be boxing in the exhaust and putting a heater core in there to heat my coolant in my van to use for block heat. Will use a vw coolant recirculation pump with an arduino pwm speed controller.
In both scenarios the square footage of the cabin space to be heated will be a factor. With everything being equal such as insulation, the number of windows, and so on, a smaller van will heat up faster than a large one so the heater would theoretically run for shorter periods. I'd like to see an experiment to see what the battery usage would be for different sized heaters to heat up the same amount of space. My guess would be that going up a size would save battery usage but result in more fuel consumption.
You don't want to have that pump running on a horizontal plane mate, the fuel naturally releases a tiny amount of air as it goes from high pressure to low and that air needs to escape from pump or you will damage it through lack of lubrication. It should be ideally vertical with outlet on top and definitely no less than 45 degrees .
Man this is a good video. I love real world test better than oh it uses this much power figure it out yourself. I was surprised it used so little battery power. Looking to switch from propane heating and electric blanket. This uses less power than electric blanket at 3 ah.
My heater only have it on for 10 minutes then off for half hour. So battery should last long time. At night set timer to come on couple of times to take chill off.
I have seen these heaters recently...and seem of interest... Great video with nice clear explanation.. Maybe you could advise more on the heaters available..ie good ones and stay clear ones.. Only if can.. Thanks Simon in Spain
Do both run heater before to get sleeping bag and inside area warm then shut it down in the morning start it back up ,the inside area gets warm get up get dressed, shut it down. I've got 2 100 watt panels and one battery and it stays charged and it never has dropped below70% if it is really cold I can leave it on all day and still keeps battery full I've got the all in one unit and move it from rv to tent. Wish I had the money to buy more.
have you thought about having the engine running while it heats up then turn it off when the amps go low? you should be fine for many hours if you do that
Thanks that is very useful, I on occasions run my Propex heater it's like the diesel heaters but runs on gas, that tends to pull my batteries down a bit too and I was wondering about swapping it for a diesel heater but it would probably be no better now I have seen your video.
if using it in the temp setpoint setting, the power usage will be highly dependent on ambient outside temp. startup burns a bit, about an AH, a bit on shutdown as well. max fan seems to draw about 4 amps, min settings seem to pull only 400-500ma
I would love yo have a diesel heater instead of gas heater but the power and fuel consumption over 24 hours is just too much and its just because it never turns off. Plus no automatic control over temperature. It would just keep heating up even on a low setting.
Does your controller have a glow plug icon? At ~7:00 when amps spike and glow plug engages during shutdown sequence, I didn't notice any indication on controller. The glow plug reëngages at shutdown to burn off residual fuel.
Thank you, very good video. Mine is giving off a funny smell, I can't tell if it's a mild diesel fume smell or if it's from new ducting I fitted last week. I think I'll invest in a carbon monoxide alarm like yours to know for sure
Thank you I've been trying to get a time frame for my battery I will have solar panels to help keep battery charged in day light so a 100 ah battery should work for my RV. We're did you get the amp meter?
It's all over Amazon/ebay, search for watt meter or power meter. I use them all the time in the van, charging ebikes, drones etc. I have 2 so that I can check on input/output simultaneously on buck/boost systems. Also works on solar panels (until it gets dark!) Creates a lot of certainty/confidence that you are not doing something ridiculous.
Hi. i was thinking of doing the same thing. occasionally i will run my fridge but since it’s cold i don’t think it will need to be on much. do u think this will work? i will have 200 watts of solar panel. will 100ah battery be ok?
Mine has been working fine. I don't have it on all the time but now that the temperature is dropping in low 30s I turn it on for about 3 hrs. and it never drops below 12.4
You know you need the car to start it recommended but once that thing's running in the fan goes low you should be able to run that for a day and a half off the battery 750 cranking amp hours
That it will, but nearly all batteries will sag in voltage level with a 10amp load on it.. only time you'll see a level over 12.2v is if the engine is running or you have a few batteries in series.
Do you subject that Status alarm to cold temperatures? I paid 100 USD for a brand that purports to survive to -13C, which I need in the Rockies. Did I waste my money?
If the voltage had have been higher, it would have pulled less amps at that higher voltage. So should have been very close in results, although yes, efficiency would have been slightly better
I'm about to install a Chinese diesel heater and the power side of it needs 12v , I purchased a desktop Power Supply that puts out 13.8 v . Would this power supply damage the heater ? Thanks
No. 13.8v should be fine. My 12v battery sits at 14.4v when fully charged. You might have issues with the PSU shutting it's self down tho. Desk top power supplies don't like sudden changes in load, and might think it's a short when the glow plug turns on.. might be fine. Let us know how it goes.
Fantastic tutorial. I have a 5kw Chinese heater which I would like to operate from low (8-10°C) to high (25-30°C) so iam thinking that a 120ah Golf cart battery would be sufficient for operation?. Thanks for sharing your video with us.👍✌️
Rule of thumb with lead acid only drain 50%. Or you’ll kill the life span of the batteries. They aren’t meant to be drained to nothing. It will damage the walls in the battery and won’t hold full capacity. But a 12v 120ah battery will run that for 2 days at the least
Bit late to the party here.... I've got a 100ah 20hr leasuire battery. I'm planning on running it for around 10 hours on a low setting. Will I get 2 days use out of the battery or will it need charging daily?
Great test , u never mentioned volts though . Them heators cut off at 10.5v Without inishiateing the cooling shutdown process. This situation cookes the motherboard and the unit is scrap. A visual voltage display will avoid this situation. Simply start the van up then shut the.heator down untill u have sufficient power. ( when parked up ) cheers.
Very useful, thanks. I am playing with the thought of getting one for my boat, and consumption is obviously a factor. Did anyone tell you that you sound like Moss from the IT-Crowd? :D
Under password settings, you can set the lowest RPM for the fan to a lower number, I believe it is 1300 RPM. Thus the heater consumes less power when running on its minimum. The only difference is that the device gets a bit warmer.
Shame you didn't measure everything while in Hz mode as temperature mode varies the motor and pump speed and thus the current used where as fixed Hz mode uses a universal fixed amount on all 5kw and 8kw heaters (and those 2kw heater that are actually 5kw ones!) dependent on the Hz rate set. Still, a good rough guide for startup and shutdown usage though...
So given these have like so little PPM, you'd actually be OK theoretically to put exhaust through the main cabin as long as you're not circulating the exhaust...
what u want is a 2kw heater, this way it will stay on longer, provide steady heat instead of hot/cold/hot/cold,etc, and start and finish sequences will be futher apart, u losing a lot power on it.
No, you have it wrong. A 5kw on low uses less power than a 2kw on high. The 5kw is also more efficient in thermal heat transfer due to the bigger heat exchanger.
Hello Dan, thanks fot this great information. Maybee a noob question but you are not mentioning the Amount of Diesel it uses. is this 100% Heating on the Battery without any diesel consumption?
How have you connected the heater to the poweroak, have you put an accessory socket on the heater wiring? This would be a way better solution for me going forward
It's all over Amazon/ebay, search for watt meter or power meter. I use them all the time in the van, charging ebikes, drones etc. I have 2 so that I can check on input/output simultaneously on buck/boost systems. Also works on solar panels (until it gets dark!) Creates a lot of certainty/confidence that you are not doing something ridiculous.
I got a feeling my battery is no good…I got a 130mah battery. When resting it’s at 12.6v when I put the heater on it goes to 11.3v. If my lights are on they start to flicker very slightly. Assuming my battery doesn’t have enough power to power them both? Thinking of adding an addition battery but dunno if my battery is okay, or should I just buy 2 new ones
That is a bit of a dip, suggesting the battery is a little weak.. however I have some high power 300Ah lithium battery and I still notice a slight pulsing in the light as the fuel pump pulses.
after my heater Starts up since im running it in Hz it settles down to the last setting i ran it on. so if my last setting in Hz was P3.1 the heater after it Starts up will Default back to that setting 3.1
and you use 3.2 litres in 24 hours on a none stop run. we use two to heat the bungalow. one each end running on heating oil at 39p per litre . if it helps
@@toneault7499 indeed, I like to mix a little engine oil in with it to help recycle it. I realise this will probably kill the glow plug, but give me a reason to open it up and tinker if it does :)
So seems like I'd be safe to say I could run the 2kw model in my 8 ft truck bed for an 6-10 HR overnight sleep on a 35ah battery with no problems right?
can u pls tell me what battery u use for this heater? is it a 200 ah battery? and is this a 5k watt heater? idk much about this stuff just trying to hurry and get what i need before it’s like 9 degrees out (that’s the coldest it gets here )
At the time I was only running a 100Ah lead acid leisure battery, but it wasn't enough. I have since changed van, and now run a 280Ah battery, with 150W solar. This keeps it running for about 3 days for needing a top up from the engine. Problem with a much larger battery is it takes so much longer to charge back up. The solar is great in the summer, but it's started to struggle now the days draw in. I actually find a really good sleeping bag and a well insulated hot water bottle work really well.
@@DanSohan aww that’s nice. u currently have a 200ah battery but i think it’s bad now. it dies very fast with just my max fan so i think i have to buy a new one. i have 200watts of solar.
@@DanSohan i also just got a sleeping bag. i currently use a blow dryer to warm it up inside😂 there’s electric out lets here at my local walmart parking lot
@@jcardosa02 It generally not much below 5 to 10C in the winter here. But 1 night it got down to -10C and the battery gave up at 4 am in morning. Luckily the backup blankets did the job. Turned the engine on when it got to about 6:30am. The heaters do use more power to fight the freezing cold. If you have access to them, a power meter would help decide how much power your getting through. Something that does Amp hours or Watt hours. Then you could figure out if your battery is failing, or you just need more storage.
first thing on the manual when I unboxed my 5kw heater says it is unsuitable for constant use! I'm pretty sure these things aren't designed to be used for 23 hours consecutively, in a real life situation would one would be switching the heater on a couple of times in the day for 3 or 4 hours at a time, similar to what you'd have your central heating set to in a house. The other info was useful though thanks
Many people have said that it is actually more economical and better for your AC unit to run constantly especially for gas units because like these parking heaters, once the system gets past its startup the only thing that is running is the fuel pump which can handle a few million "ticks" before wear and tear and a fan that usually has over a 10k hour life depending on model.
Very interesting and complete video! I have a question: I'd like plug my 5kw diesel heater to my LIFEPO4 battery which has a car cigarette port at 12v 10A (max 120W). I see the heater at the startup goes higher than 10A only for 10-12 seconds (it reaches 10.72A in this video), so would it be possible to plug it into my battery? Regards.
Don't recommend that. If the fuse blows, you could cook your circuit board and/or damage the unit if it didn't shut down properly. Although it *might* work
the wire filter in side the heater iis blocked..... so easy .. by carbon on the inside.. so is not able to burn it of.. or .. out .. ok. you can add old cooking oil.. to recycle .. but it needs 24hours to stand before you use it .. unless you are using less than 30%oil add. ok.. but over night is good. trick i learned from a tv show ..( top gear ) good old Clarkson .. lololol . using it in cars..
And thus you can set it to the absolute minimum in case you don't need more warmth, and also the fan consumes less energy. I believe the minimum is 0.8 Hz.
I have the heater 10w in a toyota sienna minivan. I use 2 agm 750 car batteries from walmart with a 5 year warranty about $150 each. Longest I have run one battery is 2 nites 2 start ups 2 shutdowns 13hrs 1st nite 9 hrs 2nd nite. I run it low on 1.6 hz. . I stayed very warm only used 1/3 of a gallon. Mountain Biking and skiing. Thinking I can get 4 nites in Telluride out of these 2 agm walmart car batteries.
Yes ish, but you would need to be converting down to 12v DC using a suitable power supply and considering the efficacy losses of the power supply used.
