12 VOLT HEATER IN BACK OF VAN

Seriously clean 01 said:

I have recently just installed a diesel heater in my transit custom.cost £130 got my mate mechanic to fit it in.it runs off a leisure battery. I personally would not run it overnight as not taking the risk of it catching fire lol. If it’s frosty in the morning I go out an hour before work to turn it on. I was quoted £2000 for built in heating system. NO thanks I told them lol 

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ppads52 said:

hi all, if this has been covered before, my apologies.

does anyone know if its possible to run a heating source in the back of a transit custom, or any other van, directly wired to a leisure battery?

i have a GRIPPATANK delivery only, no RO system installed.

the battery is linked via split relay. 

is their such a heater out there,would it drain my battery overnight?

GRIPPATANKS frost prevention heater was quoted at £500.00 plus vat, plus installation.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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spruce said:

Grippa have an enclosure for pumps with a small 12v heater that runs off the leisure battery.

You will never be able to keep the back of your van frost free using 12v. The only way is with fossil fuel in any of its forms.

These cheap Chinese air diesel heaters have become rather popular. I'm not sure if the controllers can to regulated down to activate a 2 degrees or not. But again these heaters do require a reasonable amount of start up current so keeping a leisure battery fully charged with the heater and your pumps is going to be challenging. 

One of the local lads can only park his van in the street. In winter he drains his pumps down, empties his pole hose of water and takes his hose reels inside. He also takes his 85 amph leisure battery inside and puts it on charge. He has 2 leisure batteries and swaps them over each day.

Here's an old Google earth image of his old van. As you can see its impossible for him to run a heater out to his van at night across a public pavement.

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I'm fortunate as I park my van on the driveway. I have a 16amp socket on the side of the van and run a power cord to a 16amp socket on the side wall of the garage. I plug in an old electric wall heater I made a frame for with a frostat control near on 30 years ago which hasn't let me down. My van was the only vehicle around that had no snow on it during that bad winter we had a few years ago. The frostat activates at around 2 degrees and switches off at around 5 or 6 degrees.

If you have a fairly full tank of water that will also act as a heat source. I once checked the temperature of the water in the tank one winter and it was 9 degrees. My pumps are mounted on the tank frame about half way up. I also used to throw an old duvet over the tank which would keep the pumps frost free.

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