12V Diesel heater (or two) as an emergency house heater?

[Cameramonkey]

My house is 100% electric with a heat pump. Too much load for a generator (that I can afford and justify under the circumstances*). After watching some reviews for diesel heaters, I wonder if it would work for us for a winter outage? Or even to inexpensively add BTUs into the house to back up the heat pump when we feel like it. I could easily install a diesel heater inexpensively. Not so for a wood stove or the like.

Our plan for an extended outage would merit only heating/cooling the downstairs 500sft living room with some spillover into the 200sft utility room to keep the water lines above freezing . We'd have a small genny going to keep the fridges and freezers going, so I'd have the power required to run a diesel heater.

Am I crazy? I already tried a Little Buddy propane and a traditional kerosene convection heater but wasnt a fan of the odors.



*our power lines are all underground and power outages longer than a few hours are VERY VERY VERY rare here. Its not like our power goes down for days every year or two so I cant justify the investment of a whole house generator. If we lose power for an extended time its going to mean that a major ice storm has taken out our entire township. Or worse.

 

[Sigblitz]

Do you have to exhaust the diesel heaters?

 

[Cameramonkey]

Do you have to exhaust the diesel heaters?

Yes. It appears to be a 1" line. VERY doable. (vs a 8" double wall woodstove chimney that needs to go 2+ stories up)

 

[Sigblitz]

If you can add them to your other loads, fridge etc., sounds like a plan.

 

[Sigblitz]

I bought a salamander for my garage and it gave me a drunken headache. Yeah those are useless for home.

 

[Cameramonkey]

An example of how they are installed

 

[actaeon277]

I bought a salamander for my garage and it gave me a drunken headache. Yeah those are useless for home.

Did you have a CO monitor? Cause headaches are a symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

[snapping turtle]

They should work fine as a backup. I have seen the Chinese D heaters used in campers and small garages. Once it was 13 degrees out and the little heater had that camper sauna warm. I was told they vary in BTU’s and sip the fuel. He said he upgraded his camper on to a one gallon fuel tank from the half they originally come with because he had the room where the heater was installed.

 

[Slow Hand]

I bought a salamander for my garage and it gave me a drunken headache. Yeah those are useless for home.

That’s not good. I have a salamander I use in my garage and it doesn’t cause any issues for me.

 

[Slow Hand]

I have been looking into them as well. I have some buddies who do a lot of camping and o also watch several off reading/overlanding YouTube channels and the diesel heaters are very popular. The ones I have seen use 12v for a power source. Either a spare or ‘house’ battery in a small camper or the battery from your vehicle. We bird hunt up in MI once or twice a year and have camped up there before. The little buddy heater works, ok, but the diesel heaters sound like a much better way to go. They can be fairly cheap, but I have heard that reliability is somewhat suspect. I guess they are cheap enough to buy one and try it out and see how well it works.

 

[Slow Hand]

Diesel heater article

 

[Butch627]

https://www.youtube.com/@johnmck1147/videos I think this guy is a retired engineer this is the most comprehensive info I have found on them.

 

[blain]

I like oil filler electric radiators (1500W).
You can power them with a small generator, and position a slow fan on one side to blow through the fins.
Adding mass on top helps to absorb and hold heat. The oil holds heat even after power is shut off.
They aren't going to replace a furnace, but help in a pinch.

 

[2in1evtime]

I bought a salamander for my garage and it gave me a drunken headache. Yeah those are useless for home.

I use one in my pole barn garage and have no real issues, don't use the red diesel in them as it really stinks tings up quick, the key is to have some ventilation , you must have a really airtight garage i bet.

 

[actaeon277]

Did you have a CO monitor? Cause headaches are a symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Also, I forgot, low oxygen can cause headaches.

 

[Mark-DuCo]

I've been debating on getting one for my pop up camper that i could also use as backup heat for my house if needed. The youtubers I follow that use them all love them.

One that I follow, Trailmedic, just did a review on a self contained unit that looked pretty nice. Just had to hook it up to a 12 volt source, fill the tank, and run the heater hose where you want the heat. He left the unit outside and just ran the hose in the side of his camper shell.

 

[firecadet613]

I like oil filler electric radiators (1500W).
You can power them with a small generator, and position a slow fan on one side to blow through the fins.
Adding mass on top helps to absorb and hold heat. The oil holds heat even after power is shut off.
They aren't going to replace a furnace, but help in a pinch.

I believe I'm going this route as a temporary, emergency solution for our new place which is all electric.

My Harbor Freight 9500 won't run the auxiliary electrix heating on our heat pump and getting a wood stove installed will take a bit of planning, so I have a few different oil filled electric radiators coming from Amazon this week.

I'll miss the natural gas furnace and water heater of our current place, in which the Predator 9500 will run the whole house...

 

[dprimm]

My goal is to have a couple of these eventually. Can burn all sorts of diesel. Need lots of igniters as that is the failure part. Rest can be dealt with.

 

[***Ironhead***]

I like oil filler electric radiators (1500W).
You can power them with a small generator, and position a slow fan on one side to blow through the fins.
Adding mass on top helps to absorb and hold heat. The oil holds heat even after power is shut off.
They aren't going to replace a furnace, but help in a pinch.

Yeah, we use them also for cold areas where the wood stove won’t get. Great for guest bedrooms, bathrooms...etc.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I think I may have found a better option. Something like this.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Ashley-Hearth-Products-1700-BTU-Portable-Forced-Air-Propane-Heater/1002260484

The only downside is, if I want to put this in the lower level, the top edge of the heater would be at eye level. The block foundation wall is about 4' tall.