Cheap Diesel Heaters

wiggy

wiggy

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Looking into a heater for our garden office, at the moment it’s heated using a electric radiant heater and is costing about £4 a day.
Any recommendations for a supplier of cheap diesel powered heaters?
 
...and if you have access to heating oil, or have a friend that can supply you some, it’s currently a third the cost of diesel. Chinaspachers run very well on heating oil.
 
To be fair, diesel is 1/3 the cost of diesel if you buy it from a marine outlet and ask for 100% duty relief for heating!
 
wiggy said:
Looking into a heater for our garden office, at the moment it’s heated using a electric radiant heater and is costing about £4 a day.
Any recommendations for a supplier of cheap diesel powered heaters?
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Electricity costs about 14p per kWh. Since diesel contains about 10kWh per litre, the costs are actually very similar, though you can save a fair bit if you can buy red diesel or have central heating oil available.
 
Assuming the garden office needs heating for about 8 hours a day that's about 2l of diesel based on my Eber usage (which would be WAY lower for a garden office/shed size place with some insulation). If you buy diesel without duty for heating that's about £1 so much cheaper than electric if the £4 was the cost for an 8 hour day
 
Yes, 60/40 is just a standard people picked, presumably because 40% for heating sounds plausible and is higher than most people will use. If you fill up in winter though you're within your rights to claim 100% heating. My last fill was 80/20 in favour of heating because since buying the boat I'd motored for 2 hours but ran the heating for several days 24x7. That's partly why I know how much diesel the heater uses :)
 
On the Thames last year mid summer, the bankside suppliers of diesel simply asked what split you wanted.................................................... ask for 100 % and you got got it.
They did not give fig.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Electricity costs about 14p per kWh. Since diesel contains about 10kWh per litre, the costs are actually very similar, though you can save a fair bit if you can buy red diesel or have central heating oil available.
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Diesel heaters (Eber, Webasto, etc) typically produce about 8kWh of heat per litre of diesel. Central heating oil is currently about 45p a litre, so a diesel heater might be able to produce 1kWh for around 5 or 6p - much cheaper than electricity. However, there's the purchase cost of the heater, the installation cost (including the cost of a 12v power supply), the need to mess about filling the fuel tank, etc. For occasional winter use, a decent electric fan heater might be my choice.
 
pvb said:
However, there's the purchase cost of the heater, the installation cost (including the cost of a 12v power supply), the need to mess about filling the fuel tank, etc.
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A friend of mine recently bought a Chinese eBay heater for his business workshop/store, and keeps telling me how great it is. I don’t know exactly what it looks like, but apparently it’s a packaged unit with integral tank and control panel, so no installation cost or effort. He just unrolls the exhaust hose and sticks the end out under the slightly-raised roller shutter.

Pete
 
A 2.5kW reverse cycle air conditioner can be bought for ~ £700 and installed for a further £600, and this will then cost ~ £1 per day or less compared with your present £4. So assuming it will be used for 4 months per year the payback is ~ 3.5 years, and can be used to cool the office in the Summer, but will obviously require power when used for cooling that is not being used now.

I have just fitted one in our converted garage office (lockdown workplace for my Daughter) as I was fed up with the continuous 2kW from the oil filled radiator. The place is far cosier and only a fraction to run.
 
fredrussell said:
Will they do that then? I didn’t realise you could do that.
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Don't you have garages where you just go and fill up with red diesel? There are two I use nearish me. One keeps the pump locked (you just ask for the key) and one has the pump at the side of the forecourt.
 
prv said:
Surely the same amount of electric heat costs
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I'm not sure your right . Its thermostatic so each time it's not using power it's still radiating heat
It would be interesting to have a comparison, does a 2kw oil filled radiator heat a room to the same temp as a 2kw fan heater ?
 
Rappey said:
I'm not sure your right . Its thermostatic so each time it's not using power it's still radiating heat.
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If a given amount of energy goes in through the cable, it all ends up in the building one way or another (well, minus what leaks out again, but I don’t think that depends on the type of heater).

Pete
 
About £85 on ebay . Very quick delivery and fairly easy to set up. You will want a good place for the exhaust to exit and the provided pipe is not that long.. You will also need a 12 v supply that will provide about 10a during start up. The exhaust outlet is underneath and a bit awkward. Its difficult to get the corrugated pipe to bend through 90 degrees so you have to either put on a 90 degree bend or lift up the unit somehow.
A bit noisy but effective up to a point. The exhaust gets very hot so I think the 10kwh per litre output is compromised by the exhaust losses.. ( the exhaust on my oil central heating is hand hot). for convenience I think the electric fan heater wins out
 
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dgadee said:
Don't you have garages where you just go and fill up with red diesel? There are two I use nearish me. One keeps the pump locked (you just ask for the key) and one has the pump at the side of the forecourt.
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I do. The last time I bought red diesel it was 80p a litre, whilst road diesel was 120p or so. Was I Being ripped off? Lusty reckons red diesel is 1/3 the cost of white. That has not been my finding, but I may well have been paying over the odds.

Edit: just had a look. It’s currently 45p a litre so I reckon that garage was taking the pi$$. Cheeky sods.
 
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