My retro-fit Carver dual fuel blown air heating system - Pic-heavy thread! (1 Viewer)

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RogerThat

RogerThat

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May 20, 2016
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Ok, back again.

There's nothing under the other seat base (the first seat base contains the fresh water tank, water pump, water heater, etc) and although I use this area to store bottled water and other bits and pieces, I'd never noticed before I took this photo... Swift.. What the hell were you thinking running water pipes like this?!

IMG_8932.jpg


What's that all about?!??? :rolleyes:

Anyway, the ducting then runs across the back of the rear seat base (you can just see it at the top of this photo) and connects in to the last outlet vent, like so.

IMG_8939.jpg


Hmm... warm bottled water anyone? :LOL:

IMG_8943.jpg


Oh!

I nearly forgot!!

Another gotcha!

The 'chimney' for my Carver gas heater, you know, the flue pipe that goes up the inside of the wardrobe and out the roof. This one.

IMG_8918.jpg


You'll notice in that photo above that the flue pipe in not inside one of the wall clips anymore. The reason for this is because due to the electric fan motor / heater assembly being quite large, I had to give the flue pipe some more slack in order to go 'around' the fan heater.

Thankfully a simple fix, simply move the clip on the wall (y)

IMG_8924.jpg


So that's about it I think, all done!

Some finished photos for you.

IMG_9025.jpg


And the other side.

IMG_9024.jpg


Extra wide angle purple-carpet photo especially for @Anthea M (y)
 
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RogerThat

RogerThat

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Well, there we have it, all done!

During the install, I did an hour here, an hour there, over the course of a week. But in reality, the whole installation took less than three days really.

Hope you enjoyed the thread - if anyone has any questions either now or reading this years from now, just ask! I also hope you enjoyed the 91x photos I attached too :LOL:

Total project cost breaks down as:

£99 - heater element, fan motor, controls
£7 - Clipsal back box
£9 - 3x locking rear nuts for the outlets
£28 - 4x meters of new ducting pipe
£3 - A white outlet for the bathroom
£3 - Lamella vent
£4 - Tin of white spray paint

£153 quid all in.

Not tooooo bad really, considering the enjoyment and comfort I'll get from it in this cold weather.

What it's given me is a conversion from a gas-only heater to a gas and electric heater. I can now ditch the old electric fan heater I used to take with me. Hurrah!

It's also given me two new heater controls that exactly match my old/existing Carver hot water controls so it looks 'factory fit'.

There's also the nice blown-air factor too, I can just leave it on low overnight to keep the chill off on those cold mornings. And I guess, when (if?) summer arrives, I can use it to circulate cold air around too.

And! Best of all, it's also given me a bathroom which is now absolutely toasty warm instead of freezing cold.

I've also noticed that with the old electric fan heater I always had it on a surface, either on the cupboard where the TV goes on sometimes up near the sink where the kettle is. I hadn't realised the effect before but that old fan heater only used to heat the air from that height, upwards. The lower area of the motorhome was always cold. The blown air seems to cure this by having the outlets mounted very low, so it's heating from the floor level, up.

That's it, done!

Cheers (y)
 

Louis

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Mar 29, 2016
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Well, there we have it, all done!

During the install, I did an hour here, an hour there, over the course of a week. But in reality, the whole installation took less than three days really.

Hope you enjoyed the thread - if anyone has any questions either now or reading this years from now, just ask! I also hope you enjoyed the 91x photos I attached too :LOL:

Total project cost breaks down as:

£99 - heater element, fan motor, controls
£7 - Clipsal back box
£9 - 3x locking rear nuts for the outlets
£28 - 4x meters of new ducting pipe
£3 - A white outlet for the bathroom
£3 - Lamella vent
£4 - Tin of white spray paint

£153 quid all in.

Not tooooo bad really, considering the enjoyment and comfort I'll get from it in this cold weather.

What it's given me is a conversion from a gas-only heater to a gas and electric heater. I can now ditch the old electric fan heater I used to take with me. Hurrah!

It's also given me two new heater controls that exactly match my old/existing Carver hot water controls so it looks 'factory fit'.

There's also the nice blown-air factor too, I can just leave it on low overnight to keep the chill off on those cold mornings. And I guess, when (if?) summer arrives, I can use it to circulate cold air around too.

And! Best of all, it's also given me a bathroom which is now absolutely toasty warm instead of freezing cold.

I've also noticed that with the old electric fan heater I always had it on a surface, either on the cupboard where the TV goes on sometimes up near the sink where the kettle is. I hadn't realised the effect before but that old fan heater only used to heat the air from that height, upwards. The lower area of the motorhome was always cold. The blown air seems to cure this by having the outlets mounted very low, so it's heating from the floor level, up.

That's it, done!

Cheers (y)
Class job :clap:

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Minxy

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Nice job ... now remove all the bottled water and straighten the water pipes, bringing them towards the front of the cupboard so you don't 'squish' them with stuff ... you KNOW you've just gotta do it don't you ....!:D2

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Margaritaman

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Good job and great post!
Have you had it running yet??
You could hang up dry off your waterproofs in your shower now maybe?
Cheers
 

TheBig1

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Nice job ... now remove all the bottled water and straighten the water pipes, bringing them towards the front of the cupboard so you don't 'squish' them with stuff ... you KNOW you've just gotta do it don't you ....!:D2
plus there is less chance of them freezing away from the outside walls
 
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I have only looked in on your progress a couple of times and not had time to comment. I'm impressed. Well done. I'm sure you will find it far more comfortable than the other electric heater.
Don't expect too much though. It is only a 2kw max. and will be fine for keeping the area warm once it is up to temperature. On its own it can take quite a while to raise the temp.
The gas heater is 4 or 5 kw and you may decide to use that to bring the temp up quickly. The fan can be used without the electric elements being on. We haven't needed to use both on together but that is also possible. But then you know that from the User Instructions.

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OP
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RogerThat

RogerThat

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@Louis @Speve @Lenny HB Thanks for the kind words :)

Nice job ... now remove all the bottled water and straighten the water pipes, bringing them towards the front of the cupboard so you don't 'squish' them with stuff ... you KNOW you've just gotta do it don't you ....!:D2

Hmmm... Well, I didn't have anything planned for this weekend :rolleyes: I must admit though, the way those water pipes are run is playing havoc with my OCD :LOL:

Good job and great post!
Have you had it running yet??
You could hang up dry off your waterproofs in your shower now maybe?

I'd had it running on both gas and electric twice now. I've not gone anywhere, still on the driveway at home, but I've done four full-on tests with the outside temp this last week hovering around +1C it was ideal. From that cold it does take a good couple of hours to get up to an acceptable temp. But once warm, it seems to stay warm with not much effort.

So yes, from now on, damp towels etc will definitely be found hanging in the bathroom (y)

I have only looked in on your progress a couple of times and not had time to comment. I'm impressed. Well done. I'm sure you will find it far more comfortable than the other electric heater.

Thanks :)

Don't expect too much though. It is only a 2kw max. and will be fine for keeping the area warm once it is up to temperature. On its own it can take quite a while to raise the temp. The gas heater is 4 or 5 kw and you may decide to use that to bring the temp up quickly.

Interesting! I hadn't realised the gas was that much more powerful (so to speak). In my tests I did notice that the motorhome does indeed heat up (from as cold as +1C) a lot quicker on gas, maybe an hour or two quicker, it was quite noticable. So I may do exactly this when on site, take the chill off with the gas then flick over to electric to keep things cosy ;)
 

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