It's amazing how when you publish any type of technical information ....guys with lab coats and degrees pop out of the woodwork. Simply amazing. 😀

AH this is perfect. Always wondered what the start and shut down times where. This has answered a lot of questions, thanks.

It's a bit boring and geek style video, but for those who know, like me, it's extremely useful. Thank you for your patience doing this.

Really appreciate the effort to produce this video. It's given clear details on the 5Kw diesel heater power consumption during test with the data being used to give best and worst case of battery use over 24hrs. It clearly indicates why some owners complain their battery bank is not lasting, especially if it's a few years old and it's cold.

Thank you for this video, the internet is full of useless or incomplete info, means I can now make a reasonable informed choice of battery amperage. Very clear information!

Excellent data collection! This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much!

This was very informational, good job!

Thanks for taking the time to make this video. I have a 300Ah battery bank so I should be good for a few days :-D

Great overview ! ! and that there at the end was scary going down that hill! 21:10

Excellent information. That answers my question about the battery usage. I'm wondering about buying a power unit and possibly an inverter! Thank you for a great video.

From video I seen, the pump should be upright or 45 degree angle to keep air bubble stuck in the pump. Helps the pump. Thanks for the video, this is a huge help

good video, it answered some questions i had after installing my new diesel heater, thanks.

17:00 it does - the display shows it again also - thanks for this video interesting to know what they use :)

Good well done test, cheers

A useful video, clearly explained! I recently fitted a 5 Kw heater in my garage and initially ran it from an old, small capacity car battery, which isn’t in the best of health. I kept the battery topped up with a permanently connected car type “smart” charger. I then decided to buy a 30 Amp mains power supply and run it directly from that. I found one with a display which shows volts and amps. The output can be adjusted from 9 to 15V or switched to a steady 13.8V. I tend to use it at the 12.8V which is the maximum recommended in the heater manual and unlike running from a battery, irrespective of load this voltage is maintained. The current draw varies in exactly the same way as yours does. As you found, the highest load is as expected on start up but similarly high on shutdown. As I understand it, the heater must be allowed to run its pre-programmed shut down sequence so the fan blows at maximum to cool the heat exchanger right down. If this doesn’t happen, heat runs “backwards” towards the inlet end and can overheat the circuit board components.

Very useful, this makes me think when I install one I'll leave it on lowest Hz setting rather than temperature, to make sure on really cold days it doesn't ramp up trying to reach even a low target, but just stays on its lowest fuel/energy usage which should always be enough to keep a small van comfortable enough I imagine

Excellent video. Thanks for making this

This was really useful, thanks.

AWESOME! Thank you! Helped a lot!

Thanks man real world actual data thank you so much. This is really helpful as all the other video are like… yes the jackery can power the heater for some time 🙈

Fantastic video 👍 im going to buy a battery tomorrow so now I know what i need. Cheers

I have seen these heaters recently...and seem of interest... Great video with nice clear explanation.. Maybe you could advise more on the heaters available..ie good ones and stay clear ones.. Only if can.. Thanks Simon in Spain

Thanks that is very useful, I on occasions run my Propex heater it's like the diesel heaters but runs on gas, that tends to pull my batteries down a bit too and I was wondering about swapping it for a diesel heater but it would probably be no better now I have seen your video.

Useful video....surprising to see how many aH that the heater can use in really cold conditions....definitely something to think about. Thanks for putting this video up, Jerry

Great video, very useful 👍

Great vid. Super helpful.

Amazing video!

Fantastic video, thanks for doing this! I would estimate a mid point between 17°C and 35°C (26°C) would probably end up using roughly ~3 Ah using these numbers. Maybe even a bit less if the heater could reach maintenance mode, and good insulation

Amazing breakdown on battery consumption. I can't wait to see the real world test. I would love to see what kind of fuel usage you get as well (I kinda know what my 5kw uses, but it's straight estimations).

Good work! I installed a battery monitor in our RV because I had the same questions and concerns about how long we could dry camp on the existing batteries during an upcoming 16 day trip into the Rocky Mts (USA.) a bit of testing and math made me reasonably confident that what we had would work. And it did. Just to be clear - our (2 lead acid) batteries are good for up to three nights in a row. We were able to charge the batteries at least that often with either shore power or the Victron DC/DC charger I’ve installed on our tow vehicle. That’s another story though (spoiler - works Great.) The point is this - you need a good battery monitor - otherwise it’s like a car without a fuel gauge - else you never know how much you’re using or how much you have left. I used a Victron Smart shunt, but there are others that will work depending on the application. The Victron is great though.

Very useful. Thank you.

Many thanks for this informative video 👍

Under password settings, you can set PF6 to 4 to slightly reduce the glow plug power during start and stop process. PF1 to 3 is for 40w glow plug that I've never seen as spare parts

Thank you. That info helps me with mine.

Best angle for pump is about 35 degrees with the output end up (usually where the power connector is) as it needs to lubricate the pump and get rid of air bubbles.

if using it in the temp setpoint setting, the power usage will be highly dependent on ambient outside temp. startup burns a bit, about an AH, a bit on shutdown as well. max fan seems to draw about 4 amps, min settings seem to pull only 400-500ma

Great presentation.. thanks..

Man this is a good video. I love real world test better than oh it uses this much power figure it out yourself. I was surprised it used so little battery power. Looking to switch from propane heating and electric blanket. This uses less power than electric blanket at 3 ah.

Brilliant. Thank you 👋

Interesting, thanks for that. It's also crucial to let the heater go through the shutdown mode for another reason. The CPU unit is close to the heater fins and will cook the components if you don't let the heater go through its shutdown cycle.

Superb. Thanks for this. I've equated that my self contained unit in a peli case, with a 12ah lifepo4 running a 2kw heater will give me three 1hr heating sessions (one session at night before bed, for three nights - three initial starts, 45mins normal usage, and then three shutdown cycles. Should bring the van up to temp before we hunker down for the night - being well insulated the van should maintain a good heat over night with body heat of two people replenishing any that gets lost over night. If we want heat in the morning aswell we'll only get two nights and two mornings, and well have to reduce heating session to 35mins per session. I'm good with that!

Excellent !

In both scenarios the square footage of the cabin space to be heated will be a factor. With everything being equal such as insulation, the number of windows, and so on, a smaller van will heat up faster than a large one so the heater would theoretically run for shorter periods. I'd like to see an experiment to see what the battery usage would be for different sized heaters to heat up the same amount of space. My guess would be that going up a size would save battery usage but result in more fuel consumption.

awesome video, thank you!!!

Thanks for this

Very helpful.

Thank you!!!

Big thing with lead-acid is called the Pieukert Effect. Basically the more amps you draw, the less efficient the discharge gets. Run it hard and you might get as little as 30% of the available power. A tiny load on the other hand may get nearly all of it.

Yeah - I got a Ford Freda and it had a KA battery - it got down to -3 and at 12.4V the heater ran out at 3am. I replaced with Lifep04 and a DC_DC charger and now it runs all weekend at 17oc like it did before and I can get a full weekend out of the battery without charging it.

Thank you, very good video. Mine is giving off a funny smell, I can't tell if it's a mild diesel fume smell or if it's from new ducting I fitted last week. I think I'll invest in a carbon monoxide alarm like yours to know for sure

You know you need the car to start it recommended but once that thing's running in the fan goes low you should be able to run that for a day and a half off the battery 750 cranking amp hours

They certainly do sound noisy. I have purchased an under mount box to put mine under the vehicle.

A very in depth test. Awesome

Hello Dan, thanks fot this great information. Maybee a noob question but you are not mentioning the Amount of Diesel it uses. is this 100% Heating on the Battery without any diesel consumption?

U can extract more heat if u put a heat exchanger on the exhaust,,because the exhaust runs about 300-450 degrees Fahrenheit , It will double the efficiency of the heater

Very useful, thanks. I am playing with the thought of getting one for my boat, and consumption is obviously a factor. Did anyone tell you that you sound like Moss from the IT-Crowd? :D

Glowplug fires full at shutdown to burn off soot. Apparently.

after my heater Starts up since im running it in Hz it settles down to the last setting i ran it on. so if my last setting in Hz was P3.1 the heater after it Starts up will Default back to that setting 3.1

Great video explains alot to me, do you have a link for the amp meter you was using.

If you wrap the fuel pump in insulation so it doesn't touch anything metal etc.

If you are going to the mountains are you aware of the alpine setting which slows the pump for higher altitudes

I’d like to see a real world avg. of maintaining a set temp for 24 hours..

Is it possible to put a battery splitter in the car to run the alternator from time to time to boost the heater battery from the car engine?

Fantastic tutorial. I have a 5kw Chinese heater which I would like to operate from low (8-10°C) to high (25-30°C) so iam thinking that a 120ah Golf cart battery would be sufficient for operation?. Thanks for sharing your video with us.👍✌️

What most people.want to know is what old plug in our home we can connect instead of big batteries.

The 2kw are much more economical than the 5kw and still keep a large van nice and toasty the fixing plate is the same size but the actual heater is smaller great Info tho!!

Under password settings, you can set the lowest RPM for the fan to a lower number, I believe it is 1300 RPM. Thus the heater consumes less power when running on its minimum. The only difference is that the device gets a bit warmer.

Hi, thanks for this informative video. Is the heater controller wireless ?

So given these have like so little PPM, you'd actually be OK theoretically to put exhaust through the main cabin as long as you're not circulating the exhaust...

You don't want to have that pump running on a horizontal plane mate, the fuel naturally releases a tiny amount of air as it goes from high pressure to low and that air needs to escape from pump or you will damage it through lack of lubrication. It should be ideally vertical with outlet on top and definitely no less than 45 degrees .

Does your controller have a glow plug icon? At ~7:00 when amps spike and glow plug engages during shutdown sequence, I didn't notice any indication on controller. The glow plug reëngages at shutdown to burn off residual fuel.

My heater only have it on for 10 minutes then off for half hour. So battery should last long time. At night set timer to come on couple of times to take chill off.

Start your van get the heaters on then use small heater for maintenance

Thank you I've been trying to get a time frame for my battery I will have solar panels to help keep battery charged in day light so a 100 ah battery should work for my RV. We're did you get the amp meter?

Great video! Correct me if I’m wrong. In hertz mode and set at the lowest output, it SHOULD draw in the 20ah range regardless of other variables like temp and insulation? You just may freeze your knickers off...

Is it possible to run the heater from a 3 cell lipo battery

I use a poweroak to run this 112W on fire up 7W on tick over

I have the heater 10w in a toyota sienna minivan. I use 2 agm 750 car batteries from walmart with a 5 year warranty about $150 each. Longest I have run one battery is 2 nites 2 start ups 2 shutdowns 13hrs 1st nite 9 hrs 2nd nite. I run it low on 1.6 hz. . I stayed very warm only used 1/3 of a gallon. Mountain Biking and skiing. Thinking I can get 4 nites in Telluride out of these 2 agm walmart car batteries.

Hi, great content thanks. If the voltage had been 12.8VDC it would also have had a positive impact on the AH result

What battery was this please As I have a 135ah lead acid leisure battery will I be struggling or be ok

Bit late to the party here.... I've got a 100ah 20hr leasuire battery. I'm planning on running it for around 10 hours on a low setting. Will I get 2 days use out of the battery or will it need charging daily?

Very interesting and complete video! I have a question: I'd like plug my 5kw diesel heater to my LIFEPO4 battery which has a car cigarette port at 12v 10A (max 120W). I see the heater at the startup goes higher than 10A only for 10-12 seconds (it reaches 10.72A in this video), so would it be possible to plug it into my battery? Regards.

Do you subject that Status alarm to cold temperatures? I paid 100 USD for a brand that purports to survive to -13C, which I need in the Rockies. Did I waste my money?

What gauge wire are you running?

I would love yo have a diesel heater instead of gas heater but the power and fuel consumption over 24 hours is just too much and its just because it never turns off. Plus no automatic control over temperature. It would just keep heating up even on a low setting.

What size battery (Ah) are you using?

How much fuel did it use ?

Hello mate, thank you for this video. How long does a small sized leisure battery last for? I'm not sure if it's the battery that's gone but the fuel has stopped pumping

So seems like I'd be safe to say I could run the 2kw model in my 8 ft truck bed for an 6-10 HR overnight sleep on a 35ah battery with no problems right?

In the real world usage of my heater some time b4 morning it shutdown and got real cold the battery was to low. Two batteries will work and a solar panel to charge one while you use the other but I'm interested in your real world use results plus I had a brand new 100ah lead acid battery now I'm concidering a 12v power converter to assist the power use

I am adding a low voltage shut down for the fuel pump and it is rated at 2 amp max. Do you know the amps for the fuel pump alone? Thanks

Hook us up with a link to that power meter. Brand etc..

Shame you didn't measure everything while in Hz mode as temperature mode varies the motor and pump speed and thus the current used where as fixed Hz mode uses a universal fixed amount on all 5kw and 8kw heaters (and those 2kw heater that are actually 5kw ones!) dependent on the Hz rate set. Still, a good rough guide for startup and shutdown usage though...

You could run 2 12volt batteries and run at 24 volts.

I can't afford more than a self-built 100Ah battery so I reckon I'll just go with a thick sleeping bag rather than a heater.

do you have any contact?there are a business enquiry

the wire filter in side the heater iis blocked..... so easy .. by carbon on the inside.. so is not able to burn it of.. or .. out .. ok. you can add old cooking oil.. to recycle .. but it needs 24hours to stand before you use it .. unless you are using less than 30%oil add. ok.. but over night is good. trick i learned from a tv show ..( top gear ) good old Clarkson .. lololol . using it in cars..

Trying to decide between one of these heaters or a 1000 running watt generator/850w space heater as a survival device in case my work truck breaks down in -30°c. It is diesel and has three batteries so as long as it's not a charging system related break down I could run it for a while. If I have no batteries it sounds like my little 24ah lifepo4 battery won't run it for long. Thinking the generator/space heater might be the more reliable option. (If it starts lol) 20L of gasoline would last a long time. Could easily be 12 hours before they notice I'm missing and find me. Lots of desolate roads with no comms here

Great test , u never mentioned volts though . Them heators cut off at 10.5v Without inishiateing the cooling shutdown process. This situation cookes the motherboard and the unit is scrap. A visual voltage display will avoid this situation. Simply start the van up then shut the.heator down untill u have sufficient power. ( when parked up ) cheers.

So what would the lowest amp hour battery it would take to have for it to work properly?