Cheap Chinese Diesel Air Heater for Tents

[Ride Red]

Great job RJHunter, nice to see someone realizing that they can step outside the box and build their own equipment.

One thing to be conscious of is amperage draw. As the unit size increases, the amperage draw climbs exponentially. It’s fine when you are installing into a rig with tons of charge power, but remotely off batteries is another story. I’m running an Espar D4 in my jet boat and it sips fuel, even on high with kerosene.
Espar D2 - 7500btu @ 2.8amps
Espar D4 - 13,650btu @ 3.3amps
Espar D5 - 18,800btu @ 7.1amps

[RJHunter]

That's a great point for sure. Your battery size is going to depend on the unit size and power setting and will be the limiting feature. May be able to setup a solar panel to extend the run time if needed but it wont be ideal for all situations. I picked up a 160 amp hour battery from Grangers on sale and expect to get several nights out of it, but its heavy. It should have no problem running a couple of nights on a smaller battery but I am new to this and will find out at some point I'm sure.

I don't have the means to confirm but the bench test I saw shows the 5kw units pull 8-10 amps for a few minutes when starting up as the glow plug needs a lot of power. Once its up and running it pulls around 2 amps at 3.6 hz fuel pulse rate (medium heat). 3.6hz would be 3.6 .02ml drops of fuel per second.

[Ubertuber]

I've been using one those heaters in my cargo trailer for a couple of years now. The unit works so good that I bought a self contained one for my tent. The only thing I'd suggest is drawing the cold air out of your tent and running it through the heater rather than heating outside air. Pretty minor, but it will help conserve fuel.

[RJHunter]

That's a great tip. I suppose you will want to draw outside air if condensation is a problem but prewarming air will help with efficiency I'm sure.
Thanks

[sparkes3]

I have a 8kw one in my partially insulated 14’x 24’ shed in the lower mainland . I turn it on with the remote about an hour before I go out and I’m fine with a t shirt.
so my brother put the same one in his 20’ cargo trailer and used it this weekend camping / sledding at britton creek on the coquihalla and was toasty warm , with no problem drying their gear.

[Silent But Deadly]

Exactly as stated above is to try and heat the inside air. I have a portable Planar 44d that I used at -16c. It easily kept my camperized cargo at 23c at the half way setting. I'm almost positive it would have ran far more efficient if I was recirculating the inside air. A couple tips the fellow at Planar told me was to run these at full blast prior to shut down each day. And run Kerosene as much as possible.

[Ride Red]

Found this portable on Amazon too;

https://www.amazon.ca/Parking-Heatin.../dp/B0861825CB