Tubular Frost Heater

[RhysEvans88]

Hi Guys.

Because of the recent cold weather snap and the pain in butt of putting oil filled radiator in and out of the van every night.

Has anyone tried the tubular Frost heaters in their van. Was thinking of mounting it on the bulk head and leaving it there just to be plugged in when needed.

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[windowsurfer]

Got a link to see what you are reffering to

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[Part Timer]

Why is spending 2 minutes putting an oil filled radiator in the back of your van, to enable you to earn £150+ the next day, a pain the butt?

 

[RhysEvans88]

If it was a literal 2 minutes I can understand but I’m all about the easy life and streamlining. The more that’s mounted out of the way in the van is better than cluttering my house and shed.
10 minutes more in bed is far more appealing than moving a radiator to and fro my van.
And my question was intended to see if they were up to the job over a bulky 1500w oil rad


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[RhysEvans88]

Got a link to see what you are reffering to

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https://www.alertelectrical.com/dimplex-ecot1ft-40w-thermostatic-tubular-heater.html?prod_id=21884&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_LvJg_mH2AIVTY0bCh2ReAfREAQYCCABEgLOxfD_BwE


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[windowsurfer]

They look alright n as you say would be handy to leave in van. I just got a mini oil radiator, just a small thing n got outdoor plug put on drive,hopefully work alrifht in very cold weather.

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[Dr Von Samstein]

I have a 40w bar heater fixed to tank. The picture attached shows what thermometer attached to the ro mounted about 3ft above ro as the minimum temperature on Monday night when it dropped to -8 outside. It kept inside to a minimum of 1.1 degrees, so on coldest night for years it was just about good enough. No damage! I fixed it underneath pump and ro and hose reel so even though the whole van isn't same temperature the important bits are warm enough.

A lot cheaper than running 2kw rad, but I spent some money on insulation I taped to the ceiling of the van to stop heat immediately escaping so figure out what works for you. You still need to go down and plug it in so will it really save you any time? And a bar heater needs to be on for the whole night whereas an oil rad will only flick on and off a few times through the night. Personally I think most importantly is to insulate your van

 

[Dr Von Samstein]

Desperately need to get some paint on it but all the wood is new

Can you see bar heater at the bottom behind blue box?

 

[RhysEvans88]

I have a 40w bar heater fixed to tank. The picture attached shows what thermometer attached to the ro mounted about 3ft above ro as the minimum temperature on Monday night when it dropped to -8 outside. It kept inside to a minimum of 1.1 degrees, so on coldest night for years it was just about good enough. No damage! I fixed it underneath pump and ro and hose reel so even though the whole van isn't same temperature the important bits are warm enough.
 
A lot cheaper than running 2kw rad, but I spent some money on insulation I taped to the ceiling of the van to stop heat immediately escaping so figure out what works for you. You still need to go down and plug it in so will it really save you any time? And a bar heater needs to be on for the whole night whereas an oil rad will only flick on and off a few times through the night. Personally I think most importantly is to insulate your van
View attachment 12233

Thanks for your reply Matey.
Was going to insulate van aswell with some space blanket and get a 240w tubular Heater.
Might not save much more time but I hate things cluttering up the house or shed.



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[seymour sunshine]

I think that tubular heaters are convectors rather than radiators, so maybe most efficient to mount it below the tank if possible. Otherwise, low down and very near the tank.

I'd agree about insulating the van, but more important is to make sure that (i) the expensive heat that you're putting in goes into the water, pump and RO plus filters to prevent freezing and (ii) you're losing as little heat from them as possible, so they should be protected somehow.

I've written about this elsewhere, but your van radiates heat away into the night sky at an alarming rate. That's why using space heaters inside a van is such an inefficient way of doing things; you're throwing most of the heat away into the night sky.

If you are going to use a space heater, can you rig up some kind of tent so that there is plenty of air to circulate around the things you want to protect ... so you create a volume of warm micro-climate inside the van. Rather do this than try to heat up the whole volume which is very wasteful since it loses so much heat to the outside.