My Brother in law has a house and limited income. He can't afford the propane for his furnace so he suffers thru winter using portable heaters. Wondering if a diesel heater like these would be a good option. Thoughts? Do you have one yourself?
Anyone running a diesel heater? Thoughts?
- Thread starter ZZman
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What about a Mr. Heater Big Buddy or two, on a hose to a propane tank outside the home? You can even put a grate on it and boil water for moisturizing the air.
If he was my brother-in-law, I'd want to know if he's simply poor and there isn't enough income to pay the bills and what can be done about it if anything. If he smokes cigarettes as an example $7X30 @210 a month is a Dumb expense. Same thing with alcohol, lotto/scratch offs.
Bought one of the silvel clone units about a year ago, built a window exhaust board and garage door board. Works pretty ok. It puts out the same heat as a typical space heater. It also sips fuel. This winter I will probably try it with a car battery trickle charger as others have suggested.
I have one in my uninsulated shop and it has been a bit problematic. The first winter the main control board went out and had to be replaced. Last month the cheap plastic fuel line started leaking when it got too close to the hot exhaust so I replaced all fuel lines with proper rubber lines.
Also they sip fuel when on the low settings but if you crank it up it uses fuel at a pretty good clip although I have not measured it. I would do it again but they are not without challenges.
Also they sip fuel when on the low settings but if you crank it up it uses fuel at a pretty good clip although I have not measured it. I would do it again but they are not without challenges.
I have one fitted to my car!
Mine has been very reliable and provides excellent heat for low costs. My 2kw unit uses 70ml per hour on it's lowest setting rising up to 250ml flat out.
Mine has been very reliable and provides excellent heat for low costs. My 2kw unit uses 70ml per hour on it's lowest setting rising up to 250ml flat out.
From a practical point of view, the heat contained in fuel is relatively efficiently used to heat a home. To make matters worse, fuel is often priced by BTU (energy content) now.
Propane can be cheap in some locations, but is a lower BTU fuel source at about 91,000 BTU per gallon.
Heating oil is 1.5x more energy dense.
As I am fond of saying, it takes a certain amount of energy to do a certain amount of work. Heating a home is no different.
Creating a temperature differential of 60ºF (inside 70ºF to outside 10ºF ) requires a lot of energy.
Propane can be cheap in some locations, but is a lower BTU fuel source at about 91,000 BTU per gallon.
Heating oil is 1.5x more energy dense.
As I am fond of saying, it takes a certain amount of energy to do a certain amount of work. Heating a home is no different.
Creating a temperature differential of 60ºF (inside 70ºF to outside 10ºF ) requires a lot of energy.
July is the time to buy propane...assuming you own your own tank.
If you lease the tank it'll have a sensor on it and the people you lease it from will come fill it when it gets down to 30%, which will probably be in the winter time when propane is at peak price.
One of those running on off-road diesel would probably be the best bang for the buck. I'm guessing natural gas or firewood aren't an option for him?
Can you tell us more about the house situation? It might be more an issue of airflow, insulation, window / door seal leaking, etc. Free heat doesn't help much if it's just going out the windows.
I keep looking at these. Unfortunately they are just too small to be effective to keep the edge off in my insulated 24x36 garage. Maybe when I build a shed i'll get one to keep heat in it. Who knows.
I was told that my well insulated 24x36 garage wouldn't be able to get much above 45 or 50 running an 8KW unit around the clock. I have to assume running one of these to keep the edge off in a room or two in a house would be cheaper than running electric space heaters (and less risk of burning your house down).
I think I am going to buy a used mobile home oil furnace for my garage and plumb that into my heating oil tank.
I was told that my well insulated 24x36 garage wouldn't be able to get much above 45 or 50 running an 8KW unit around the clock. I have to assume running one of these to keep the edge off in a room or two in a house would be cheaper than running electric space heaters (and less risk of burning your house down).
I think I am going to buy a used mobile home oil furnace for my garage and plumb that into my heating oil tank.
If he/you can figure out a good installation set up(the whole thing could be outside, under cover) and will monitor it, they are pretty efficient, and dyed diesel is the easiest cheap/btu fuel you can get. It is still just is a portable heater 5k or 8k btu that you have to refill every day, or a couple days if you figure a larger tank.
Probably biggest problem is house insurance coverage?
What is the electricity rate there? A 1500W heater is ~5k btu and 20k btu constantly can heat a smaller insulated place pretty well.
Heater buddy things should never be used in a house or even a mostly enclosed tent as all the combustion moisture is in the house or tent... Good for an ice fishing hut with lots of vents or the door open, never for something like a house.
We do most of our heating with a wood stove, and if you can find someone taking one out with the good insulated $100/ft pipe, you might find all the materials for cheap, and then have to install. Then get it inspected for insurance purposes. As a secondary heat source, insurance is like $100/yr. A wood stove only makes sense if the wood is near free, which it can be if you look for it, and it takes a bit of knowledge and planning and setup. Buying wood at $300 cord I guess maybe cheaper than propane, but probably not a heat pump.
If he’s using electric portable heaters, I m not sure he’s saving any money. Perhaps it’s a case of being able to afford a higher electric bill vs paying one big bill to have the propane tank filled, even though it would’ve been cheaper overall?
The same will go for these diesel heaters. If you factor in the initial cost and then the cost of fuel, I’m pretty sure the overall cost will be higher, you are just spreading it across smaller chunks, that’s it.
The same will go for these diesel heaters. If you factor in the initial cost and then the cost of fuel, I’m pretty sure the overall cost will be higher, you are just spreading it across smaller chunks, that’s it.
He is on disability. Was in a car crash and got brain injury. Doesn't get around well.
It's basically a mobile home on a block crawl space.
Well he can burn wood but getting it and constantly bringing it in the house is an issue due to bad mobility/balance.
Propane is about 2.00 a gallon around here.
That's equivalent in price to $3 per gal heating oil. Remember diesel/home heating oil is 1.5x more energy dense.
Note, not 'hotter'. It means that if it takes 1.5 gal of propane to heat your house to 70 deg, 1 gal of heating oil can do the same job.
Sadly, there is no free lunch when it comes to energy and the 'savings' that companies (and people) love to claim are generally nonsense.
I'd love to help you come to a solution, but my PA experience is that whether I was using propane, natural gas or heat pump, the winter heating bills were strangely similar.
My advice would be to buy a stand-alone unit, not the 'suitcase'. Install it on the floor or through the wall of the mobile-home using a turret plate.
The fuel tank, fuel pump, fuel lines, combustion intake and exhaust will be outside of the mobile home and you'll just have the air intake and heat-out pipes to worry about.
You'll need a battery in line with a suitable 12v power supply as if these get shut off with a power cut then you may have difficulty getting them to restart again.
Also, keep the exhaust as short, straight and unrestrictive as possible. I run mine without a silencer but I only run it for 30 minutes at a time with the car on my drive. Where it could be running for hours on end, it may upset the neighbours!
