VANAGON archives -- November 2004, week 3 (#124)

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 15:44:50 -0800 Reply-To: Doug in Calif <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET> Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> From: Doug in Calif <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET> Subject: Cabin Heat / Aux Heating / Propane Heater/ camping heater / pics Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Well Volks, Especially those of you who are doing the winter camping thing and are dealing with the COLD. Here is a heating idea that I have put together for my bus, that I would like to share with the group, especially those of you who typically think out of the box and design your own solutions. This is one of the greatest values of the list in my opinion. I am constantly getting fantastic ideas from the group. I have finally completed another one of my Syncro GL to westy conversion projects. The completely "HOME GROWN Primus Lantern mantle fresh air heater". "Ta-da!"

Some of you will surely say I have too much time on my hands which I wish was the case. Rather, I really really enjoy and get a great deal of accomplishment from projects like these. I think it is a shame there are not more "fresh air" heating options for the vanagon. I wanted a heater that would completely vent intake and exhaust air to the outside of the van and would have zero emissions and oxygen depletion inside the van. I wanted a heater I could sleep right next to with absolutely zero worry that I may wake up "dead" from depleted oxygen or build up of carbon monoxide. I have looked at pretty much everything out there and the Propex is the one I really like but its not cheap and I could not install it where I installed this one in the side body cavity. I have done some initial tests now with my completed project and I feel I achieved what I wanted.

By using two Primus lantern mantles re-jetted for the low 1 psi pressure of the regulated westy tank I am able to generate a decent amount of heat for the rear sleeping area of my syncro. I started with a basic ten dollar electrical box from my local yard birds, seal welded in eight 3/4 inch metal tubes to act as a fresh air heat exchanger. I used two hot water heater copper flex lines to vent intake and exhaust air to the side air duct at the rear of the van. I am using a thermocouple from a parted out westy fridge to shut off the propane in the event the mantles should go out. Wood stove ceramic glass for a window in the face, wood stove door seal rope for the seal of the face. I made a hinged cover to hide the light from the lamps. 4 inch 107 cfm 12vt box fan draws 1/2 an amp for the main blower, 10ohmm resistor to gives the fan 2 speeds, a thermal 160 degree snap switch mounted on the top of the heater box cycles the blower fan on and off. Webber bbq Pizo ignighter lights the first mantle and once lit, the 2nd mantle will light from it. I found out the hard way that the unit would not "draft" as it did on the bench test, once I had installed it in the van, the box filled up with propane to the level of the pizo before igniting, my heart is still recovering from that event. I ended up installing a small 1inch CPU fan to the far end of the exhaust run which I ran all the way to the top of the air intake behind the plastic louver intake. You can just barely sense a slight temp change of air at the outlet. Which means that most of the heat from the mantles is being extracted by the heater. Installing the combustion fan on the exhaust side and drawing a "vacuum" on the heater box is the best way to install a combustion blower because any leakage will draw air into the box and exhaust it. If you install the combustion blower on the intake and create a pressure to push the air, any leaks will come into the van. I believe I have a good seal as with the blower off the mantles use up all the air quickly and go out.

I used bubble foil behind the heater and around the heater to create a proper air duct for the blower fan to push the air through the heater. I used fiberglass header wrap on the back of the heater box itself as it gets pretty warm, also a small section of the body metal behind the heater where its a bit close. My testing running the heater for long periods show only a small warming of a few degrees of the body metal when you feel it from the outside, hardly even noticeable by feel.

The amount of heat is not huge, I do not think you could heat the whole van effectively unless you had really good insulation and ran the heater for a long time. It does heat up the back sleeping area pretty well and it uses a very small amount of battery and propane. I am thinking of a drape at the end of the bed to trap some of the heat and perhaps a small length of the new aluminum coated 3 inch dryer vent hose to route the heat under the covers in severe cold . With both mantles going on high the blower fan will cycle on and off running for a few minutes to cool down the heater then off for a few minutes as it heats back up.

I have the corvair gas heater that I will be installing next that is a bit of a heat monster. It draws a hefty 7.5 amps and blows out significant heat to heat the whole van in several minutes. I am going to try to incorporate a hot water coil to its exhaust for heating water in the tank.

My thinking is use the gas heater for major heating and this propane unit for low draw during the night.

I have the GL back seat and access to the drivers side body cavity for this, the westy has the closet there. I believe I could design this to work as a free standing unit that could sit on top of the closed stove sink lid and route the intake and exhaust to the side slider window for fresh air heat. You would need to splice into the propane line behind the fridge and hook it up after cooking etc but I think I could make a nice unit that would work well and throw light to boot.

What is once only a thought and notion in your head can become a reality.

Pics:

http://users.ca.astound.net/dougfayne/lanternheaterwideshot.JPG

http://users.ca.astound.net/dougfayne/Lanternheatercloseup.JPG

http://users.ca.astound.net/dougfayne/lanternheaterxposed.JPG

http://users.ca.astound.net/dougfayne/lanternheaterplumbing.JPG

http://users.ca.astound.net/dougfayne/nightimelight.JPG

http://users.ca.astound.net/dougfayne/exhaustvent.JPG

Cheers,

Doug

87 syncro conversion 89 wolfy

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