Electricity used by diesel-powered heating

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goodmorrow

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I'm thinking of having Eberspacher (or similar) diesel-powered blown-air heating installed in my VW T5 campervan. I assumed this would make me completely independent of electricity for heating, but the converter I've asked about it pointed out that it uses electricity for the fan.

It still sounds like an improvement on what I've got now, a portable oil-filled radiator. The radiator is 13-amp 250-volt, so can only be used on EHU, whereas the Eberspacher heating works off the leisure battery, so can be used away from EHU. Also, I assume the Eberspacher will use less electricity since the actual heat is obtained from the diesel fuel. But I'm wondering how long I can use it off EHU before the fan drains the leisure battery.

Mostly I use the 'van for week-long folk festivals, and I'd want the heating on most of the night, most nights. Does anyone know if this would be enough to drain the leisure battery? (I don't use electricity for anything except heating when off EHU - I use a portable lamp, have no TV, don't charge the laptop or phone, etc. I haven't got a solar panel, although I am thinking of getting one.)
 
Fitted one to a boat once, seem to recall it wasn't the quietest of things when it fired up.
 
The Eberspacher heater needs a lot of amps when starting up and also when shutting down. On start up it is noisy but soon settles down. It chucks out a lot of heat once it gets going properly, then it just ticks over quietly. I never used to leave it on at night in cold weather when I had a T4 Westy California. Shutting the roof at night would keep enough warmth in.

I don't know how long the leisure battery would last but you need a big one anyway. The Westy had a 130AH Gel Battery which also had to power a compressor fridge. I only used the Eberspacher occasionally when not on EHU. 3 days without EHU would be the absolute limit in my opinion, with only limited use of the heater in the morning and evening. The heater was economical with diesel and I never noticed any significant increase in overall diesel consumption on a camping trip.
 
Had blown air Eberspacher on a boat. It worked well but I believe it was the cause of several flat batteries.
 
A radiant gas heater with an external flue might be your best option for week long heating (and a couple of the larger gas bottles).
 
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We've just been sitting on Cromer cliff top with the Eberspacher heater purring away. It's a wonderful heater, far better IMHO than gas and apart from the clicking is relatively quiet.

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You say Eberspacher or similar. I have Webasto fitted to mine and often have a number of days without EHU in winter. I use the Webasto all the time and I only have a single 85a leisure battery. I have never had the slightest issue, however, I do tour most days so I assume the battery is being recharged whilst I am on the move. If you are at a festival clearly you do not have this luxury and all I can quote is Webasto's official figure of 15 to 40 watts power consumption for mine and 15 to 30 watts for the smaller unit, from this you can calculate the running time for your particular battery. @Stealaway appears to have more information about 'they use mega amount at start up' which of course you will have to factor in, however, never appears to have worried my unit. They are slightly noisy on start up however soon settle down. There is a auto cut of if the fuel tank gets to low to save you draining the tank and cannot restart the van so best to keep tank over the cut out limit. On a separate note, regardless of Eberspacher you are asking quite a lot for a week off grid with one leisure battery and no back up eg solar panel.
 
goodmorrow said:
I'm thinking of having Eberspacher (or similar) diesel-powered blown-air heating installed in my VW T5 campervan. I assumed this would make me completely independent of electricity for heating, but the converter I've asked about it pointed out that it uses electricity for the fan.

It still sounds like an improvement on what I've got now, a portable oil-filled radiator. The radiator is 13-amp 250-volt, so can only be used on EHU, whereas the Eberspacher heating works off the leisure battery, so can be used away from EHU. Also, I assume the Eberspacher will use less electricity since the actual heat is obtained from the diesel fuel. But I'm wondering how long I can use it off EHU before the fan drains the leisure battery.

Mostly I use the 'van for week-long folk festivals, and I'd want the heating on most of the night, most nights. Does anyone know if this would be enough to drain the leisure battery? (I don't use electricity for anything except heating when off EHU - I use a portable lamp, have no TV, don't charge the laptop or phone, etc. I haven't got a solar panel, although I am thinking of getting one.)
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unfortunately a diesel air heater will tax a single leisure battery without any means of recharging it..
they draw 10/12 amps at start up when the glow plug is in use, and although it isn't for very long maybe 30 seconds, that load can drop the battery voltage to a level that will shut the unit down..
once fired up they typically draw 4amps or so while the fan runs at full tilt until the desired heat is reached (dependant on thermostat setting), and then the fan will slow, but still will be drawing around 2 amps..
on shutdown the current will increase again in order for the glow plug to burn off..
if you were to install a couple hundred watts of solar it could help , but because of the uncertainties of the weather you might be better with a battery to battery charger and be prepared to run your vehicle engine for an hour..
there are always options... hope that helps..
andy
 
We have a Webasto dualtop which provides hot water and blown hot air. It is very powerful - from memory the heat output is over 8Kw. You could run a sauna in a VW I think if you cranked the temperature up.

On startup it typically draws around 8 amps for a few minutes. I guess this is for the diesel pump and the glow plug or whatever it uses to get the diesel burning. The dualtop is fairly bulky - around 24" square and 12" high from memory but if they can fit one I don't think you would regret it.

If you can also get a solar panel of 100W or more added you should be fine most of the year but in the winter you will probably have to run the engine every now and again. This won't fully recharge your battery but it will help.

Whatever type you get ensure they fit any silencers available. For the Eberspacher there are silencers on both inlet and exhaust but not all converters fit them.
 
In my sprinter conversion i have a Propex Heatsource got the van really warn very quick dint think it was gas or electric hungry but cant give you facts and figures.
 
It was the cycling of the Eberspacher that I didn't like, it would settle down and then keep cycling using 10amps or so again for a while.
Ours was the Hydronic version, even heated the engine, it took 17amps on start up though, a massive amount.(Murvi Morello)
That's the reason Murvi went over to Webasto, less power was required.
 
Pausim said:
Fitted one to a boat once, seem to recall it wasn't the quietest of things when it fired up.
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You can say that again my webasto sounded like a jet engine !
 
We had a Eberspacher D2 in our sprinter race van brilliant bit of kit, our heater in the Mohican is rubbish by comparison heat's it up lovely but it dont half take a longtime.

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CazPaul said:
It was the cycling of the Eberspacher that I didn't like, it would settle down and then keep cycling using 10amps or so again for a while.
Ours was the Hydronic version, even heated the engine, it took 17amps on start up though, a massive amount.(Murvi Morello)
That's the reason Murvi went over to Webasto, less power was required.
Click to expand...

I've got the hydronic heater in a self build, and I also engine plumbed mine...
on the repetitive shut down and starting up if that can't be reduced by getting the thermostat setting correct for the conditions then theres not much can be done... it also used to shut down the burner when the circulating water reached a certain temperature.. but pump and fan would continue to run.
I fitted a solenoid valve to mine to prevent engine having to be heated up as well when parked up on a site..
andy
 
Our van has the eberspacher D4 airtronic heating. I now know via learning the hard way , how much it whacks the battery on start up . Our touring style is changing , where we tend not to use formal sites with hook up .Therefore to minimise problems with potential lack of power , have decided to up the ante in terms of maintaining reserve power .

Master plan ( be it right or wrong and am open to advice on the matter ) ......... refitting or probably replacing an already in place solar panel and then adding a 2nd panel.Then fit a decent solar regulator .Then to maintain the 2 x leisure batteries , fit a B2B charger .

Maybe something like this would also meet your needs.
 
Thanks very much for all these replies - lots of food for thought, it will take me a while to absorb them all !

Clearly I need to do quite a lot of thinking and then get back to the converter I'll be asking to fit it for me.

Thanks everyone.
 
DBK said:
We have a Webasto dualtop which provides hot water and blown hot air. It is very powerful ........
Click to expand...

Another vote for a Webasto Dual Top. Regarding spares and service for the OP, there is a good dealer in Gloucester.
 
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Thanks Dave. I've used Hall's before and found them excellent, so I'll take a look at that.
 
A lot of factors to think about. Personally we are going for Truma heating and a compressor fridge in our PVC. Think diesel heating and compressor fridge is a big draw in winter when solar is not very good in this country.

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Have a look at the Truma diesel heater. Looks identical to the gas version and sits in the same place rather than outside. The combustion is drip feed onto a steel mantle rather than high pressure pump so far less power consumption and very quiet. Servicing every 10 years too. Brilliant system.

We had the Truma 6 D, (6kw) in our last van and wish we had it in our new one.
 
goodmorrow said:
I'm thinking of having Eberspacher (or similar) diesel-powered blown-air heating installed in my VW T5 campervan. I assumed this would make me completely independent of electricity for heating, but the converter I've asked about it pointed out that it uses electricity for the fan.

It still sounds like an improvement on what I've got now, a portable oil-filled radiator. The radiator is 13-amp 250-volt, so can only be used on EHU, whereas the Eberspacher heating works off the leisure battery, so can be used away from EHU. Also, I assume the Eberspacher will use less electricity since the actual heat is obtained from the diesel fuel. But I'm wondering how long I can use it off EHU before the fan drains the leisure battery.

Mostly I use the 'van for week-long folk festivals, and I'd want the heating on most of the night, most nights. Does anyone know if this would be enough to drain the leisure battery? (I don't use electricity for anything except heating when off EHU - I use a portable lamp, have no TV, don't charge the laptop or phone, etc. I haven't got a solar panel, although I am thinking of getting one.)
Click to expand...
We had Ambulances with these heaters, often left them switched on (unintentionally) when vehicles were off the road, quite often for a couple of days or so, over winter too where they would be firing up constantly to maintain temperature. Never heard of any flat batteries.
 
The general said:
You can say that again my webasto sounded like a jet engine !
Click to expand...
Yes and us, we sold a van purely on the noise of this and also in freezing cold weather one time it dumped all our water out at night!
Never again we got alde heating now brilliant
 
I've had a few T5s with diesel heating, it is impressive and even pre heated the engine, however they will only work if your battery is topped up. Cant remember the detail but they wont fire up if your battery is not near it's max voltage. My vans were well insulated so we didn't use it for long periods overnight, maybe a good duvet might help the battery out. (y)
 
buttons said:
I've had a few T5s with diesel heating, it is impressive and even pre heated the engine, however they will only work if your battery is topped up. Cant remember the detail but they wont fire up if your battery is not near it's max voltage. My vans were well insulated so we didn't use it for long periods overnight, maybe a good duvet might help the battery out. (y)
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Well that's a first using a duvet to keep the batteries warm, whatever next.....:whistle:
 
We had Eberspacher heating on all our boats. Never had a battery problem and never noticed any diesel drain. The only thing that would put me off fitting one to our van is the exhaust is very noisy, a hissey roaring noise.

In efficiency terms, Eberspacher gives far more hot blown air heat than the motor home. I find the blown heat in the motor home quite pathetic compared to the boat heating.
 

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