Nice and quick this time. Purely from the exhaust outlet, I could recover 500w to heat the water with. That's 500w that would normally be wasted. The EGR cooler - amzn.to/2plBwYn
Thanks a lot David! Now I just need to get an EGR cooler in that has a leak, and I can fix it for my heater! Good to know this actually works fairly well, and honestly for a quick thrown together thing, 500 watts is pretty good!
As someone who will soon be getting into the world of these cheap diesel heaters, I subscribed. It would be cool to harness the hot exhaust to make warm water in my camper.
You've inspired me to plumb an EGR to my coolant system for a block heater in my T1N Sprinter because she struggles to get started in the cold. Gonna do the install tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Thanks for the video it inspired me to DIY. Just finished my quick installation of EGR and radiator with hot water heater pump. (11 litres per minute) Works well and gets the water temp up to 45-55c after 1 hour of running. That's with the room at 13c and outside 9c. Putting a simple safety in place for cutting the connection to the fuel pump if it goes over temp for now. Using a 60x60 single radiator and a mondeo EGR for £9. Next i'm going to insulate the exhaust piping to see how much that improves it. :) .
Thanks so much for sharing. Great idea on the fuel pump cut off safety relay.... I am going to send all that exhaust waste heat into my interior 35gal aluminum tank. Being inside its kinda like a big 35 gal radiator lol. Just take a shower when the water is the right temp and you'll never run the risk of freezing tank. The water tank also has a built in engine coolant heat exchanger I made for it too if it needs a little boost. Now I got 2 forms of free byproduct hot water heating!
I'm thinking of using a swimming pool heat exchanger but; I'm not sure it would hold up to the exhaust temps. I really like the idea of capturing the most usable heat from these type of unit.
Good to know there isn't as much heat coming out of the exhaust as I imagined, but if you're trying to scavenge all your energy 500w is still plenty useable.
With installing the EGR, you just reduced NOx production. Thats great. If you only intoduce a self regenarating DPF you have build yourself an Euro 6 diesel burner.
Great videos have one of these diesel heaters and have been wondering about heat recovery....if you run it 24 volts does it decrease resistance .dropping amp use while running ??
"Could this setup be improved, of course it could!" Love it! I'm really enjoying your experiments with these heaters!!! Looking forward to the heater with the built-in water jacket! I'm also wondering if the 500W recovery will still be a possibility on the new heater as there is only so much volume in the exchanger to extract the heat in. You may end up with double exhaust water jackets (one built into the heater and one addon) :)
@@DavidMcLuckie will be awesome to make a glycol radiator heater and an EGR water heater for tea! That combined with the normal forced air heat will be awesome!!!
Really like your experiments, i guess the pump would have to withstand high temperatures in order to circulate the water? This is a great idea to capture heat - would like to see it eventually feed a water tank for a shower
Hi love your vids about diesel heaters,I have a 5kw one that I run on 0.8htz when it gets going and I use paraffin not the pink stuff so it doesn’t soot up do you think I can use 50/50 diesel and paraffin without it sooting up as 0.8 is lowest it will go and is quiet at that and keeps my van at 19 when it’s freezing outside and 22c when it’s just chilly outside🙂
Hi. I wish to recover the heat from my narrowboat vintage engine. I would love to know the gas pipe diameter and overall length of the unit. When looking on e bay etc they naturally say what they fit not the dimensions.
Was looking at this and the bobi vans kit and wondered if a cheep barrel intercooler would be more efficient than the bobi vans heat exchanger unit as from this video. Car parts are obviously more robust
Would cooling down the exhaust gases lead into problems with condensate freezing at cold ambients? The original muffler gets quite wet at low powers as is.
Do you think one could forgo the pump as long as egr cooler is below the water tank? Then the natural convection flow of hotwater rising would create a slow but steady circular flow throughout a closed loop system to tank? I'm looking to do this without the added water pump side and rely solely on convection. I'm fine if it is slower. I just hope it would still flow without a pump.
So if I put this set up on my truck would I need a pump to help it to circulate... Jw cause it won't trip the thermostat... How much power will they draw off the batteries?
curious what exhaust temps are in this set up. You've nicely done thermal video of your modified unit..... have you done them of this one.... in particular for a water heating setup attached. Would also be interesting to compare this heaters water heat exchange efficiency compared to your modified exhaust heater.
Hi, great series of videos 🤓👍👍. A couple of questions if I may, please excuse my ignorance but as a mechanic I make a great commercial analyst 🤪. Does the EGR impact the efficiency of the heater? Namely does it use more fuel with the EGR attached to the exhaust and is the heater outlet temperature affected? Do you think the speed of the exhaust gases are affected passing through the EGR and if so will it impact the heater performance? Finally, do you think the scavenged heat from the exhaust would be sufficient to power a radiant heated floor in a van?
If anything slowing down the gas leaving the heater will slightly improve the output temperature. But the EGR cooler only has a very minimal impact on gas fow. Underfloor heating would be an ideal use, plus it's free heat so to speak.
@@DavidMcLuckie What components would be needed to covert this exhaust heat into underfloor heating? If you were game to do a wee video on how to set that up I would watch it at least twice and give a thumbs up :) I am trying to figure out how to capture wasted heat from the engine and engine bay, exhaust manifold and diesel heater so your videos have been really useful. Would there be any advantages to using glycol to extract the heat rather than water directly? Could glycol be used on a thermosyphon like water can? Maybe to pass several components to heat the floor then dump remaining heat into a water tank perhaps? Am I getting too ambitious? I have watched more hours of you pulling these heaters apart than I ever imagined I could! The accent helps, haha.
David great work. Can you please tell me what happenes with the normal exhaust gases in this case ? I don.t see anything in the atmosphere,not even vapors of condensation. Are they absorbed by the water and the oxigen is safe to inhale ? that would be brilliant in case I would fit a radiator instead of that container and run it in a closed space without the problem of intoxications right ?
@@DavidMcLuckie thanks for the answer. I have a chinese diesel heater and been trying to runn it in a apartment but there is a problem with the white smoke that comes up on stratup and it bothers the neighbors. It's for a short period of time like 5 mins butt still annoying. Can you please make a video on youtube with different hacks or methods that can reduce the white smoke on startup ? Oh and the noise exhaust reduction as well...damn people allways have something to complain... thank you for the good work
I wonder if you connected the flow and return through a domestic central heating radiator, it would raise the temp in the garage? Asking for a friend....
Think how a car heater works. The water pump moves hot water from the engine through a heater core. Which is a small radiator. A fan blows air through the heater core, then through the dashboard. We would use a 12 water pump to move water from the egr heat source to a heater core. Then we use a large 12v computer fan like Noctua makes to blow air through the heater core. The result is 500 watts or 1700 btu of warm air which would have gone out the diesel heaters exhaust.
@Woolly Daly I’ve just finished a project as suggested today and it works. 1200x600mm radiator running a gravity fed system. The use of a central heating pump through the same egr cooler and with the heater on full (5kw all in one) after about 30-60 mins the radiator is lovely and warm. Free heat that would otherwise go into the atmosphere!
@@DavidMcLuckie do you think any of the iterations of egr fitment you've tried, could supply water hot enough for a forced air heater like in a car, in a continuous water loop?
The egr fitted onto the end of the modified burner and a much slower water circulation might work. As another commenter pointed out the longer the water stays in the egr cooler the more heat it can absorb and the greater the efficiency.
Interesting - I have a EGR and was thinking of fitting it to my 1934 Lister CS 5hp to both capture the exhaust heat for my 25ft workshop & I reasoned cooling the exhaust would quieten the noise?
I’ve ordered a 3m exhaust for mine so I’ll just run that inside my shed and hopefully that gives me a little more heat into the workshop. I have a 50 sqm tin shed so I need all the help I can get. It warms it up by about 4 degrees above ambient so hopefully it’ll take it to 5 degrees above ambient haha.
Thank you so much for doing this! That recovered heat would negate the need for me to run my gas Carver water heater. My only concern is would the EGR soot up?
@@PhantomMark Yes, makes sense, but if the egr is damp with condensation then would the soot stick to it and clog? I run mine full time, so have to turn it to full for 15 minutes once every 12 hours to stop it clogging. sometimes it can make a black patch on the ground.
@@connectcapers7614 I am going to take a punt here and suggest just using a cleaner fuel, meth or petrol or something cleaner than derv ? the deposits would be minute compared to Derv surely ?
Like to have the temperature change comming from the exhaust. Want to know about the new heater from China been looking for a water jacket heater for a good price.
One problem I see with this test is that it looks like the EGR cooler was already hot when you started the timer. If that's the case, there was a substantial amount of heat energy stored in the metal, which was then transferred to the water almost immediately when you started the pump. I think the test would be far more accurate if you used a much larger volume of water and ran the heater for a longer period of time. If you ran the test with ~20L of water for an hour, the initial energy stored in the cooler would have much less of an impact.
Not really. I started the pump once the heater was running. I edited out a few minutes. The time take to go from temperature A to B is what determines the power. More water and longer time will yield the same power rating.
@David McLuckie The thing is, you're not just heating the water. You're also heating the mass of the EGR cooler itself. With such a small volume of water relative to the size of the EGR cooler, that's likely throwing off your calculations significantly. By running the test with a higher volume of water over a longer period of time, the initial heat energy absorbed by the EGR cooler will have less of an impact on the heating of the water, so your final calculation would be much more accurate.
@David McLuckie Now that I think about it, I suppose you're right. If the pump was already circulating from the beginning, the stored energy in the cooler wouldn't effect the temperature of the water during the test. The water would already be slightly warmed by the time timer was started, but that wouldn't make any difference.
@@unicornswag888 The mass of the EGR-cooler is not negligible compared to the 5 cups of water being heated, but if anything, the recouped heating power is higher than measured
I’ve got 2 of these heaters which I’m going to put 2 egr coolers on the exhausts and see if I can flow it through a car radiator with a fan for extra heat for the workshop
I got 8 litres of water to 50c today in an hour all uninsulated. So it’s feesable to do it with insulation and less water. The heater wasn’t all to keen on the back pressure though it got quite sooty
Could you share the link of where you purchased or can acquire one of those "EGR heaters" I think you were calling them? Basically I need a device like that for a similar project
I made it. Steel plate cut into roughly matching flange, bit of pipe welded on to make a chamber, a lid for the chamber with a hole in it to fit the exhaust.
I would like to use this idea in my campervan, using a 14 L insulated vat and a 12V pump to recirculate water from the egr to the vat. Only thing is I would need a way to bypass the egr cooler thingy in case the temperature in the insulated vat reaches a set temperature (let's say 70 degrees - seems much but the boiler vat has a automatic mixer vale on it... Any ideas what car has a convinient egr and egr valve to use for such a setup? Maybe a egr valve which is electrically (12V) controlled?
Great idea using the EGR valve to bypass the exhaust. Most of the EGR valves I've seen are vacuum operated as they end up being in very hot places where 12V motors don't like to be. :)
@@DavidMcLuckie I must admit I never actually had any parts of an EGR system in my hands though I like the Citroën C5 you guys are using... I also had a though about using a bi metal operated valve but that would be mechanically very complicated to make. Getting suitable valve which goes with a EGR and can be plumbed in in such a way it acts as a bypass sounds possible but I would not know what vehicle I would need to get the parts from, maybe your recycling facility employed brother can remedy that lack of knowledge ?? Would you kindly ask him what to track down ? You know: 12V operated, bypass suitable and that kind of jazz...
This is really awesome what you are doing with these heaters, could you recommend where to buy one please?? The price difference between 5kw and 8kw seems negligible now ?
If I buy a used EGR cooler could I clean it enough to be used safety with water that people will be showering with and washing hands? What’s the fluid that is used in an egr cooler?
Heloooooo Dave Just a quick one heve you tried or can we try or will it make any difference if i use RedX fuel cleaner in my tank will it clean it up inside
I like the idea of a fan over the recycled heat to send it into the space. I had thought about your idea or using the exhaust flow through an exchanger of some kind. I am somewhat concerned about sending it into that intake. Not that for sure it would be a problem as the air my just be like a little warmer day or a warmed up room. But to be safe I would want to know what the more technical guys on this heater would say if any adjustments to fan speed etc are needed. Or maybe even not. I tend to think it will not harm the heater as it is not some huge amount of heat.
I have tried several egr coolers on my diesel heaters but they just make them produce a LOT of white smoke!. I think they produce too much back pressure . I got my egr coolers from the scrap yard and tried to clean them as best I can. So thinking it was that they were already dirty, I bought a brand new egr cooler. Got it connected up yesterday and fired it up for the first time. It ran great for 6-7 minutes and then the white smoke began to build. I don't want to give up on my project, but I am struggling on what else to try. Anyone any ideas?.....
A very bad welding job onto a plate that I cut to fit onto the end of the EGR cooler. What I wanted was a pipe that fitted into the exhaust but didn't have any scrap suitable.
Hi, so these heaters advertised on eBay, Amazon etc that are marked as 5kw or 8kw are the same just with a different label . If not how can you tell the difference . Thanks in advance. Andy
There are just two sizes. The small one usually labelled 1-5KW, but known by everyone as the 2KW and the larger labelled as 5,8,10,12KW but again known normally as the 5KW. They are two physically different sized heaters. I had a viewer recently who bought an "8KW" and opened it to find the 5KW stamp on the burn chamber.
It would be similar to boiling or simmering a chicken on a small stove burner. Not a quick process, but enough for fixing soup or heating water for a shower.
this has nothing to do with this but if people were worried about high egr temperatures why do the go through the hassle of installing this cooler if they could just fully delete the egr valve
Couldn't this cause a steam explosion in a closed system? How did you go about preventing that? You could shut off the heater if it reaches a certain temp but that would damage the heater as it wouldn't go through its cool down process. Btw fantastic content happy I came across your channel. You got a new subscription.
Yes, you are correct. I'd just never have a closed system. Have a header tank with a vented cap or a pressure set cap so you don't build too much pressure.
@@DavidMcLuckie excellent and thanks for the response. I am currently designing a portable 5kw version inside a case for my boat, truck shop etc. Heating water with exhaust is of interest for two reasons. One efficiency, two by reducing the exhaust temperature i am able to explore other options for safe disposal of the fumes. Do you notice a significant reduction in exhaust temperature post heat exchanger?
As I recall, 1 watt of heat is about 3.4 btu. 500 w = 1700 btu. A small burner on my electric stove is 600 watts. This seems like enough heat to slowly heat 20 liters of water for kitchen or shower uses.
@@DavidMcLuckie I was mixing specific heat and conductivity with my idea. Thanks for following up. Also your accent and humor reminds me so much of my grandfather. I hope to visit the Orkney Islands where he is from some day. Greetings from Seattle, Washington.
There is no such unit as KW/h. He is heating water with 500 W (watts). If applied for 1 hour, the amount of heat is 500 Wh (watt hours) or ½ kWh (kilo watt hour). Watts are the speed, kWh is the distance travelled.
