Heating and hot water

[Pummer67]

Anyone fitted any sort of hot water system that runs off the LPG tank at all. I was thinking of taking out the inbuilt water tank and fit a water Heater in there and get a easy roll water tank to sit outside that could feed into this and the kitchen sink.
Also out ebespacher has never worked. I started investigating slightly and found a glass fuse blown with some tin foil wrapped round it in the box under bench seat. What does this fuse do? I'm thinking I might just fit a new propex heater to run off the LPG and maybe take the ebespacher off and try and get it running once off of the van and have more time to play with it. Just wondered what this fuse is protecting ?

Mark

[kevtherev]

I have a hot water system but it's a solar powered immersion heater, not gas or liquid fueled.
Although you can get mini water heaters (webasto, carva, truma etc) that will fit in our campers.
As for the Ebber I would be thinking of replacing I with a more modern heater, oldiebut goodie on here supplies petrol night heaters and they are no bigger than ebberspacher.

My night heater is a petrol Webasto 3.8kw
It gets the van toasty very quickly.
With this we can camp all year round.

As the van is gas powered.
The old petrol tank is used for heating fuel.
We are considering a petrol water heater as the solar heater is not much use in England on a winters day
But abroad it's more than adequate for showers etc

[Winchweight]

I removed the rear under bed heater but left the hot water pipes in place. I'd like to use them to heat a small (10 ltrs or so) water tank via a heat exchanger for washing up etc.

Any one else done this and got advice on a suitable heat exchanger / water tank?

[kevtherev]

I removed the rear under bed heater but left the hot water pipes in place. I'd like to use them to heat a small (10 ltrs or so) water tank via a heat exchanger for washing up etc.

Any one else done this and got advice on a suitable heat exchanger / water tank?

CAK tanks will supply a 15l water tank that you can get your hand inside to fit stuff (4" hole)
I was thinking of using a oil cooler matrix inside the tank.

[Winchweight]

Interesting. Would I need a specific type of pump to move it through or would a regular water pump work?

[Plasticman]

olearies make my tanks to any drawing you supply with fittings as specified by you, average £100
mm

[kevtherev]

I've experimented with a 12V shurflo 30 psi pump and it works ok with hot water
I'm struggling with the 'boiler' aspect

[Winchweight]

Thanks Kev, I'm interested in your progress.

MM - are the tanks plastic?

[Winchweight]

I was hoping to find a simple insulated tank with a hot water coil through it that I could attach to the engine coolant pipes. A water pump then circulates the water in the tank from the source / storage tank....

Any ideas?

[Pummer67]

I have a hot water system but it's a solar powered immersion heater, not gas or liquid fueled.
Although you can get mini water heaters (webasto, carva, truma etc) that will fit in our campers.
As for the Ebber I would be thinking of replacing I with a more modern heater, oldiebut goodie on here supplies petrol night heaters and they are no bigger than ebberspacher.

My night heater is a petrol Webasto 3.8kw
It gets the van toasty very quickly.
With this we can camp all year round.

As the van is gas powered.
The old petrol tank is used for heating fuel.
We are considering a petrol water heater as the solar heater is not much use in England on a winters day
But abroad it's more than adequate for showers etc

Ok so solar is definitely not the way forward. I love energy efficiency things but like you say in England in winter solar is always going to struggle although we do have a few nice sunny days. I didn't realise they still made petrol heaters. I will have to look into those aswell. Thanks got your reply.

Mark

[TheProf]

I was hoping to find a simple insulated tank with a hot water coil through it that I could attach to the engine coolant pipes. A water pump then circulates the water in the tank from the source / storage tank....

Any ideas?

hi shaun -- sorry for being so late on this one -- if it helps your thinking any, the hot water tank under the trakka (50l alloy tank for the shower and sink) which sits between the rails is heated from the engine coolant pipes when the heater controls are selected to hot - -- unsure how the internal pipe inside the tank coils, and it is not insulated, but apart from that it does what you are suggesting-- .. the picture here shows the in-and-out diverted engine coolant pipe -- the third pipe in the picture is the filler across from the cold tank on the other side of the van ..

in the second picture you can see the blue feed pipe to the shower and sink leading from the in-line (ie external) electric pump (which sits above the flat plate you can see) attached to a take-off in the base of the tank ..
d.

[TheDocmeister]

I removed the rear under bed heater but left the hot water pipes in place. I'd like to use them to heat a small (10 ltrs or so) water tank via a heat exchanger for washing up etc.

Any one else done this and got advice on a suitable heat exchanger / water tank?

These wee black ones come up regularly on Ebay - usually just bare with the thermostatic take off. I've got one, only hassle at the moment is that my van's Aircooled...
The other thing is that filling is via the yellow plug on top, so not automatic unless you rigged something up. I'm pretty sure I found a 12V immersion heater element to fit in there too, but it was a few years ago when I was looking. Anyway, here's the link.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Calorifier-wi ... SwCGVX8Tqs

[Winchweight]

Looks very simple and is certainly what I had in mind....

[bluebus1987]

The top of the calorifier will take a standard plumbing fitting to pump cold supply in. It may need to be vented or used with a pressure vessel though.
Look on boat sites for more details they come in all sizes.

[Winchweight]

Thanks guys. I was looking for a really simple system that would use the heat from the engine coolant to warm the water up for washing etc, not boiling it or heating with electricity. Just warming it up with spare heat energy, which can then be heated further with a kettle if needed. Maybe a short shower even....

My tnoughts were connect the pipes to a copper coil inside an aluminium or plastic 25 litre water container. Pump cold water in, leave it to heat as we drive, then pump out again for washing, showering after a long days desert driving etc.. Once empty, repeat the process... nothing fancy.

The Trakka looks closest, but I'd want the water inboard I think, to get the best from the heat exchange. Also the existing pipes are under the bed... it'll need to be watertight as the Eber and the batteries are already there too.