Heaters

[papab]

I was going to put off the heater decision for a while, but the wifey (& me) is getting impatient with my slow progress
Considering hiring some of the work. The guy I've talked to likes the wallas 22Dt. It seems like most campervans use the espar or the webasto. The comparable models would be the 2000 ST & the D2. Any opinions?

[mlts22]

I'd recommend taking a look at Truma's new offerings. Since they combine a furnace and a water heater in one unit, they save space. They are not perfect, but they are a good alternative, especially to the standard furnaces that you find in "B"s.

[papab]

Thanks, I hadn't heard of those. More than enuf capacity, and too much current tho.

[avanti]

We like our Espar hydronic system very much, both the heat and the on-demand hot water work very well indeed.

[booster]

Originally Posted by avanti

We like our Espar hydronic system very much, both the heat and the on-demand hot water work very well indeed.

I think someone has mentioned that the diesel powered heat they had (don't remember who it was or what brand) used quite a bit of electrical power because the pump(s) ran a lot of time for the infloor heat setup. Do you have any idea how much your setup uses in a day? Our propane powered Suburban (hot air) seems to use about 10+ ah per day in 35 degree night weather.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by booster

I think someone has mentioned that the diesel powered heat they had (don't remember who it was or what brand) used quite a bit of electrical power because the pump(s) ran a lot of time for the infloor heat setup. Do you have any idea how much your setup uses in a day? Our propane powered Suburban (hot air) seems to use about 10+ ah per day in 35 degree night weather.

Note that our system is NOT an infloor radiant heat setup. Rather, it is the Rixen system, which employs a water-to-air heat exchanger to create a forced-air ducted heat system.

I just turned on the heat and watched the amp meter on my Trimetric. It peaked at around 10 amps during startup and soon settled back to around 5 amps. Converting that to ah/day would of course depend on duty cycle which would in turn depend on weather. I have no quantitative data on that--probably more than 10, though. We do OK on our fairly modest battery setup, though.

It is far more comfortable and quiet than the Suburban in our old rig.

[booster]

Originally Posted by avanti

Note that our system is NOT an infloor radiant heat setup. Rather, it is the Rixen system, which employs a water-to-air heat exchanger to create a forced-air ducted heat system.

I just turned on the heat and watched the amp meter on my Trimetric. It peaked at around 10 amps during startup and soon settled back to around 5 amps. Converting that to ah/day would of course depend on duty cycle which would in turn depend on weather. I have no quantitative data on that--probably more than 10, though. We do OK on our fairly modest battery setup, though.

It is far more comfortable and quiet than the Suburban in our old rig.

Thanks Avanti-our Suburban uses just under 3 amps when running IIRC, so if we have similar duty cycles you are probably right on. There probably are extra pumps needed to do the infloor setup that could add to the power consumption considerably.

I think giving up a few AH to get rid of the Suburban noise (even with the new "quiet" one) would be well worth it to all of us.

[avanti]

BTW: The heat exchanger has a 2-speed fan. My measurement was on High. Low would no doubt save a bit.

[Davydd]

We have the diesel-fired Espar. I probably could dig out the specs. It is variable with temperature you set and the outside temperature and insulation level of your B. We seldom bother with heat with overnight temperatures in the 40s and above. Ours cycled on and off when the temperatures fell to 5 degrees with our setting on 54 degrees. On just general observation it doesn't seem to have much of an energy hit. The diesel is about a cup an hour.

Our electric radiant heat runs from the cab area down the center to the back. It is a 12v pad with 10 settings. It is mostly for under foot comfort but could contribute heat. It is something I will turn on in the morning before getting out of bed. We have an app on our iPhone that reads and controls our Silverleaf monitor. I just got it set up. I think I can control the heating now from bed but probably won't have any opportunities now for a while.

It all seems pretty efficient and as Avanti mentioned is rather quiet since the firing unit is outside the cabin under the floor. The ducting is in the cabinetry toe space so no cabinetry area is not taken up with any equipment. I'm not sure why this isn't more popular in Sprinter Bs. It is quite common in semi trucks. Advanced RV's owner Mike Neundorfer introduced this system to Great West Van and they have been using it ever since. So far they are the only two companies using it.

[avanti]

Lots of DIY converters use the Espar as well. You can find them over at Sprinter-Source. Note that there are also Chinese clones available if you are on a budget.

[Davydd]

Some of those DIYers scare me in what they are doing and some do really cool stuff. So far I have ignored the Chinese Espar clone threads. There is a semi DIY going on at Advanced RV right now. It will be a radically different design and plan. Advanced RV is working with the customer. The rest of us have just adapted the ARV base plan but even some of those are starting to modify the former untouchable area from bathroom to refrigerator middle area.