aVANger Build

[bdosborn]

I got the heater hooked up yesterday and ran it overnight to see how it would work. Here's the metering I got from the Cerbo GX:



Summary:

It only got down to 45F last night so it's not a challenging test.
The heater ran 4 times over the 12 hour period from 8pm to 8am.
The temperature inside the van bounced between 55 and 65F.
The heater glow plug only came on 3 times??? or the Cerbo missed one of them.
The heater used 2% of the 400 amp-hr battery capacity (8 amp-hrs)
This is using straight kerosene rather than diesel.
The heater has a fresh maintenance overhaul: combustion chamber cleaning, new gaskets, glow plug and screen.
The ~20A current peak was me screwing around with some wiring. Doh!

I need to test it when it gets colder but this looks pretty promising. I didn't have the insulated window covers on so that will help when it gets colder. I'm super glad we insulated the van as I think it makes a huge difference. I still need to figure out the fuel tank installation, that's next.

BTW, I can confirm that a pump for an Espar D2/D4 will work with a D1LC. It's old enough now that parts are crazy expensive. There's no way I would be using it except for the fact that I already had it.

Bruce

[lfhoward]

That’s good news that the heater didn’t use more than 2% of your power overnight. That is definitely sustainable! The graph is neat. I really like how Victron allows us to plot different variables on the same graph so we can see how parameters relate to each other over time.

It will be interesting to see what the power consumption & temperature curve looks like when it is below freezing out. Insulation makes an enormous difference! The fact that the heater only came on 4 times shows your van is well insulated.

[bdosborn]

It's supposed to get down to 27F next Thursday, I'll run another test then. I better blow out the sprinklers before then.
Bruce

[bdosborn]

Here's a few more install photos:

Looking up at the floor of the van, you can see the combustion air intake filter, the fuel pump and the muffler.


The combustion air exhausts below the van in front of the rear wheel.:


Supply air comes from the front of the van and the heated air is ducted into the garage:


The air flows up to the bed.


We'll see how this works, it might be too hot in the bed when the furnace is running. In that case I'll duct it out somewhere else.

Bruce

[bdosborn]

I haven't made a lot progress lately, but I should be able to install the kitchen counter soon. I bit the bullet and drilled three more holes in the van for a porch light that is bright AF!




I put this dimmer with a wireless switch on it. My neighbors will thank me.



I finally picked a spot for a fan, I'll be able to pull air in through the sliding door here. Putting it half way down makes a big difference when the heater is running; it mixes the air so the area at the roof isn't uncomfortably hot. I've got some tubing coming from China to make some changes to the heater hot air distribution.




Bruce

[bdosborn]

A quick update, I'm back to working on the kitchen cabinet. I added a little bling to the silverware drawer front:


All the cabinet doors are hung and Jean painted a two of the doors:


I'm waiting on parts from Amazon for the sink plumbing. I hate plumbing, Its always three or four runs for parts.

Bruce

[Staryder61]

Those look so good.. the craftsmanship is what I'd expect..
love the painting on the doors.. Great job Jean..
Awesome seeing you move along with your build..

I hate plumbing, Its always three or four runs for parts.

I agree with the plumbing.. if I'm doing it and one of the kids calls.
Mom says "He's busy doing his least favorite thing. ya know, he hates plumbing."
There's a reason, there's none going in our conversion..

I sold our little van conversion, to one of our kids. Now they can't wait til we get the trailer done so we can all go camping together..

[bdosborn]

I sold our little van conversion, to one of our kids. Now they can't wait til we get the trailer done so we can all go camping together..

Now you're motivated to git 'er done.
Bruec

[Staryder61]

I sold our little van conversion, to one of our kids. Now they can't wait til we get the trailer done so we can all go camping together..

Now you're motivated to git 'er done.
Bruec

For sure Bruce, motivation still exists.. with the moving from the woods back into a town.. then the holidays..
wasn't a lot of time.. things starting to settle down now..

[bdosborn]

I got the kitchen counter installed and the plumbing done today. I can tell the counter extension will be very handy. The plumbing took forever, its always 3-4 tries to get all the parts I need. I don't have the sink permanently installed yet; there's a polar vortex on its way so I want to wait till it's warmer. I added a sprayer with a mixer for a shower so the sink looks a little like a dentist office. I also added a soap dispenser, I'm surprised you don't see more of these at camper sinks. The empty hole in the upper right hand side is for the silverware drawer, I still have to build it. I'm thinking about a box joint for the drawer instead of dovetails....







The counter top is leftover birch plywood and laminate from the trailer build, one more thing out of the garage! Jean made the window covers, It's amazing how much they cost if you buy them. Van parts are like marine parts - expensive!

Bruce

[Staryder61]

I like it, very well done...

[bdosborn]

Thanks! Its starting to feel like a camper instead of a project.
Brucee

[bdosborn]

A quick update, the cold weather has slowed me down a lot. I finished the grey water tank shelf; it's under the sink and on top of the step for the sliding door. I ended up with a little room on the end so I added a rack for butane cans. I'm planning on using an induction cooktop for our main cooker but the butane will be a backup in case our battery is too low to use. It's all built with left over stuff so some of the junk that is sitting around got used.





I also hooked up the switch to the water pump relay so I should be ready to test the water system when the weather gets a little warmer.
BTW, the in-cabinet light really pumps out the lumens, it should be easy to find stuff in there.

Bruce

[Staryder61]

Well this week doesn't look to promising with the weather for y'all either... Hang in there...

The rack looks great,, like the idea of the butane rack.. gives me an idea for the 1 lb propane cells I use..
Given, we only use wood or propane (Coleman) to cook with..

[bdosborn]

I'm consolidating some cold weather battery posts here so you might have seen these already:

In anticipation of the cold weather coming through Denver I had planned on bringing my batteries in the garage. Most are only rated down to -20C, here's the specs for my CALB cells (-10F= -23C):


It occurred to me that I added a battery heater to the bottom of each cell when I built the system, I've just never used them. They are controlled via a relay in the Victron Cerbo GX to come on when the battery gets down to 34F and turn off when it's back up to 37F. I decided it was time to try them out.


I covered the batteries with an old moving blanket and we'll see how it works with the cold tonight!


Here's the results:
I turned the heaters on Wednesday the 22nd and turned them off when we got home today the 26th. The heaters kept the battery warm down to -8F in the van (it was -15F outside).


Running the heaters costs around 10% of my battery capacity per day (40 A-Hrs/day).


I turned on the shore power battery charger right when the cold wave hit on December 22 but it was running on battery power the 23, 24 and 25th. The PV panels will keep up with the usage if I'm parked in full sun and it's fairly sunny. I was parked at my brother-in-laws house for Christmas and his driveway gets full sun all day. Our driveway only gets full sun till noon or so this time of year. So I'm not comfortable leaving the battery heater on all the time without being plugged into shore power, but its pretty close.

Here's what I concluded from the tests:
- I'm glad I used the bee hive heaters, they don't get too hot. Some of those Amazon silicone heating pads get way too hot.
- I'm going to bump the on/off temperature up a degree for a little bit more of a safety margin.
- I'm going to ask my wife to make a battery cozy out of thinsulate, I bet that heaters will run less with the better insulation.

Bruce

P.S. Just a final follow up on the battery cozy. The battery was at 50F 4pm yesterday after turning the heaters on and charging. This morning they are at 37F, the outside temperature is 25F and the heaters stayed off all night. The heaters had just turned on as I took the screenshot at 7am. Charging definitively heated the battery up; the cozy will have to come off in the summer.