Diesel heating verses gas heating

[Tony50]

I cannot understand why Motor home heating is mainly Lpg and not Diesel on Uk vehicles what with some Lpg stations closing obviously due to poor demand , when I spoke to Autosleeprs about giving a Diesel option they said they had no plans to do so, part of their group Marquis are rumoured to supply Lpg from 13 sites , put that against over 8000 filling stations in the Uk I think Manufactures need to rethink their strategy, we found Diesel or electric heating meant the gas bottles lasted 2months in Spain and still had plenty of Lpg left in the second bottle.
I would be interested in your thoughts ,not just because you may have only Lpg or Diesel heating

 

[Ivory55]

If there is money to be made by fitting it , then it will be fitted. Till then no.

 

[dash300]

Eberspacher on the boat and has been trouble free and efficient and gets me Red Diesel at a 60/40 split fuel tax reduction.
If new van truma diesel heater is as good will be delighted.

 

[mikebeaches]

There's for and against both diesel and gas space heating IMHO.

We had diesel in our previous van - a French Chausson - which was convenient and certainly kept the van warm. But boy, was it noisy, especially when starting and initially running cold - not quite so bad when it throttled back as ambient temperature reached in the van.

We have a decent Truma 6kw gas heater in our current pvc, which is quiet and seems to work really well with a great thermostat for maintaining the right temperature in the van. We did have an 11kg refillable gas bottle installed to make it easy to use on the continent.

But as you say, very straightforward heating with diesel.

 

[busby]

They will fit diesel heaters if there is limited room in their design for a decent gas locker.Have had both and much prefer diesel..BUSBY.

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[Ditcha]

You can get a Truma diesel combi

 

[SandraL]

We had a 2005 van with an eberspacher hydronic,wet,system for hot water and heating.
It was very effective.
The downsides
Needed a good battery to supply the glow plug on startup, drew 8 amps I think.
The original wiring needed upgrading due to excessive volts drop.

Be careful where you park. The exhaust angled down and we occasionaly left piches with scorched grass.

On start up and shut down could smell and smoke a bit. In winter with everyone inside not an issue. In summer those parked adjacent when we heated water did not appreciate our heater.

Perhaps a service might have improved matters. But it produced plenty of blown air heating via radiator and fans, plus hot water.

Noise, the ticking pump never affected us, the whistle from the jet did, maybe a silencer would have helped.
Heater itself was fitted under the van, but the hot water tank and radiator/fan unit stilltook up space inside the van.

Being an eberspacher meant spares were, I thought, relatively expensive.

In spite of the above it did work well and was reliable.

 

[Tony50]

You can get a Truma diesel combi

Thanks, that's what we had in our Chausson, we didn't find too noisy once it warmed up, acceptable all round, diesel is our preference.

 

[Lenny HB]

Most diesel heaters certainly OEM ones are fed from the main tank with feed set at 25% level in the tank. Great if you have a full tank but if its getting down towards the 25% and its a really cold night I wouldn't happy if the heating cut out.

Also some manufactures are fitting the standard 75lt tank rather than the 90lt option, the standard used to be 90lt before adblue.
I've never had a problem getting LPG anywhere in Europe including the UK.

 

[bigwood]

Knowing some one who fitted diesel heaters ,mostly to trucks , for a living he said they are only noisy if badly installed. A trucker being kept awake at night because of a noisy heater is not a happy bunny.
We were parked up off grid in a nice quiet wooded area alongside a self build. We could hear there diesel heater running most of the night.
We have hired a couple of narrow boats with diesel for heating and hot water. It seemed a good idea leaving gas for cooking and the fridge. Saying that there is more metal to reduce the noise on a narrow boat.
I can’t remember the builders but there was a van conversion that was all diesel with no gas.

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[Tonks]

I can’t remember the builders but there was a van conversion that was all diesel with no gas.

Jerba build vans which are all diesel - with combo diesel hobs/heaters.

My van has an eBerspacher diesel heater. As mentioned in comments, it does draw a big pull of power when it initially fires up, and it's noisy until it comes up to temperature but then it just ticks along quietly. I never run mine overnight because I'm always warm in bed. I can reach the switch to turn the heater on in the morning without getting out of bed! I also carry a small electric heater for use if I'm on EHU which is quieter for when I'm pitched up close to other vans.

 

[Jewellbags]

Yep vote for diesel here as well , running non stop for 3 days and didn’t make a dent in the fuel tank . A little noisy when fired up but after that no more than a gentle hum now and again - TOASTY !!

 

[busby]

Most diesel heaters certainly OEM ones are fed from the main tank with feed set at 25% level in the tank. Great if you have a full tank but if its getting down towards the 25% and its a really cold night I wouldn't happy if the heating cut out.

Also some manufactures are fitting the standard 75lt tank rather than the 90lt option, the standard used to be 90lt before adblue.
I've never had a problem getting LPG anywhere in Europe including the UK.

Always fill up with fuel early afternoon so always park up with three quarters of a tank so it's never a problem.If I am heading for a site and am stopping a week or two I arrive on site with a full fuel tank..BUSBY.

 

[Jewellbags]

But diesel is more readily available (currently) that LPG anywhere in Europe . I don’t have the running costs stats but given last weekends 3 day stint it seems to burn less than a gnats thimble of world burning diesel juice .

 

[CazPaul]

Had diesel heating on a previous van, a Murvi Morello, much prefer LPG with this Alde system, there is absolutely no comparison between the 2.
The Alde is like being in the house. Had to fit 3 batteries with the diesel heating as sometimes not enough power to start up, it was noisy and sometimes adjoining vans maimed about it.

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[Raul]

There are advantages, and disadvantages on both. We have a diesel heater, and a propex hs2800 lpg. The propex has thermostat, stops and starts depending on thermostat calling for heat. We can leave that on in cold nights to turn on/off if necessary. The diesel heater does the bulk of the work during the time we can control it. Yes it’s noisy on start up, but that’s it. If is a poor install, with cheap intake and exhaust, it can be noisy. They burn very clean if properly set up, little space and superior to gas in heating capability. A litre of lpg has about 7kwh of energy, diesel has just over 10kwh, and much easier to find in remote locations. We use both, good for redundancy and choice of fuel. Currently we burn kerosene.

 

[Mike800966]

Am about to tidy up the wiring on a "friends" van which has a diesel heater, I had a feling the start current was around 8ish amps so would I be right in planning a 10amp supply from the leisure battery?
TIA

Mike
PS Its presently wired in 2 core mains lead 0.5 mm Flymo I think!

 

[ivorantony]

I fitted my eberspacer heater between the double floors of my A class with both exhaust and inlet silencing, it’s as quite as the truma and IMO more cost effective,
It’s nice to have a choice of heating if gas is getting low, I took the diesel supply after the fuel filter
So could use all the fuel available if needed, but with a 100 litre tank it’s not likely to happen,

 

[Lenny HB]

Am about to tidy up the wiring on a "friends" van which has a diesel heater, I had a feling the start current was around 8ish amps so would I be right in planning a 10amp supply from the leisure battery?
TIA

Mike
PS Its presently wired in 2 core mains lead 0.5 mm Flymo I think!

Cable size is dependant on current and cable length, best to aim for a volt drop of less than 3%.

Good cable calculate here.
https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/cable-sizing-selection.html

 

[Raul]

Am about to tidy up the wiring on a "friends" van which has a diesel heater, I had a feling the start current was around 8ish amps so would I be right in planning a 10amp supply from the leisure battery?
TIA

Mike
PS Its presently wired in 2 core mains lead 0.5 mm Flymo I think!

Depending on the glow plug setting can be 80-90-100w plus the fan. My plug is on 90w setting, plus the fan speeding up on start up, it draws about 100-110w increasing to max 135w. At 13,2v that’s about 10,2A. The heater original harness comes in 2,5mm2 for the main feed. To that point is fed by 4mm2 with 15A fuse.
With a 0,5mm I think it will fail to start due to low voltage.

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[two]

A quick search (https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/TatyanaNektalova.shtml) and (https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/EricLeung.shtml) says that the specific energy of a litre of diesel is 9.7kWh, whilst that for LPG is only 7.5kWh.

From (https://www.costoffuel.co.uk) the average cost of diesel is currently £1.47/litre, with forecourt LPG being £0.71/litre. Those figures convert to 15.2p/kWh from diesel but only 9.5p/kWh from LPG.
So it would seem that the cost of heating with DERV is 1½ times more expensive than heating by LPG.
The cost would come down considerably if you could obtain and use red diesel, but I think that is impractical. Red diesel can cost as little as half the price of DERV.
If you obtain gas in exchangeable bottles, however, the cost of your heat could be as high as 30p/kWh, depending on your supplier and size of bottle. That’s twice the price that DERV would cost you and three times the price if using refillables.

The price of heat becomes less of a consideration when desperate and you may be willing to do anything to ensure that you never experience that. But, if you manage your use of LPG carefully (maybe by restricting where you travel a bit), I don’t believe there is anything to worry about.

 

[Potty]

Have had two vans, both new, with diesel heaters. One a Webasto, the other Eberspacer. Both were noisy - they could be heard quite a distance away- and smelly. The fumes came under the van and entered whenever the door was opened. OH has asthma and the fumes affected him badly.

 

[rod_vw]

I've used Eberspacher diesel heaters in all my own conversions plus one other spanning almost 20 years. The most recent ones are D2 Airtronic versions with 801 modulators (controllers) which with their internal thermostat enabled will provide temperature control of the habitation area and shut the heater down when set temperature is reached. Correctly fitted there is only noticeable noise at initial start-up.
The most effective silencing is achieved by fitting silencers to both exhaust and combustion air input. Fuel pump noise can be minimised by fitting the pump on the correct rubber mounting and ensuring that the fuel pipe from pump to heater does not touch the vehicle bodywork.
In cooler times we switch the heater on before leaving home with the thermostat set to 17 degrees and only switch it off when we return, sometimes many days later. Turning the setting up or down as required keeps us comfortable.

 

[busbuddy]

As an ex trucker I was used to diesel heaters for the cab but as the only choice back in the day was eberspacher at about the same price as a house I guess converters stuck with tried and tested lpg.
Webasto then became available at slightly less than eber but still nearly 2 grand just for a heater.
Now that the diesel heater market is more competitive, you could still spend lots on an eber if you want, and lpg is getting dearer plus space used for bottles is needed for other stuff it would seem the shift to diesel is immenent but which major converter would make that choice given the anti ice movement

 

[two]

A change to a gas-free van is possible, but I don't think that diesel hobs are particularly good.
As gas tends to escape fuel duty (or something like that) it is likely to remain the cheaper option in terms of fuel and it's pretty obvious that the motorhoming community tends to be driven primarily by cost.

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[busby]

As an ex trucker I was used to diesel heaters for the cab but as the only choice back in the day was eberspacher at about the same price as a house I guess converters stuck with tried and tested lpg.
Webasto then became available at slightly less than eber but still nearly 2 grand just for a heater.
Now that the diesel heater market is more competitive, you could still spend lots on an eber if you want, and lpg is getting dearer plus space used for bottles is needed for other stuff it would seem the shift to diesel is immenent but which major converter would make that choice given the anti ice movement

2k for heater? Mine cost me 900 pounds fitter new 4 years ago.Blimey they have gone up.BUSBY.

 

[busbuddy]

No,not now...they were 2k decades ago when there was no competition

 

[Wissel]

I intended to fit both. A Propex gas heater and a Chinese diesel heater.

Figured this would be good in case of one developing a fault.

Not gotten around to fitting the diesel heater though, although it is here ready.

 

[Otter Spotter]

I have a Wallas Xc Duo fitted this provides diesel heating and 2 ring hob for cooking, yes on start up the fan is noisy but as soon as it’s up to temperature it goes quiet, inside, outside you cannot hear it at all.
I didn’t want gas in my van and this was a simple answer. A great result is the fact that it’s doesn’t create loads of condensation in fact none. So in one way it will help with the longevity of the van.
I am considering fitting a heat exchanger to provide constant hot water, currently my water heater is 240v powered only, but the same heater can be connected to the heat exchanger, so giving me more choice.

 

[599]

we had a m/h with diesel heating & it was the noisiest thing we have ever had & if you park next to one its like a big blow torch going off we was glad when we changed

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