Building a budget warm air / water water solution

[goodwoodweirdo]

Hi guys,
What are Overlanders doing for warm air heating and water ? The $1000 solution is out of budget so I'm looking to improvise.. sorry my comments are rather European centric...
British Telecom Ford Transit vans are fitted with Eberspacher D2 warm air diesel heaters, these can be brought off Ebay UK for around £200 ok so that's the air taken care of .. it connects into the vehicles diesel feed and takes a small electrical current to power the fan.

For warm water, VW Sharon's, Ford Galaxies (European spec small people carriers eg 7 people) they had an option to be fitted with a diesel powered warm water heater, this enabled the engine / cabin to warm quicker on cold days. same concept, connecting into the vehicles diesel feed, but I've heard, a nightmare to wire up as the wiring loom is connected to the ECU / airco unit.

My troopie has a hot water system that's currently not working, its a feed from the engine cooling system that runs through a copper coil mounted in the water tank. When driving the engines water system heats the water tank and at the end of the day you have hot water, however in 20 years the cooper pipe has broken and I loose coolant fluid into my water tank !!.
So I'm now thinking; should I have engine independent hot water system, One option is to fit a liquid to liquid heat exchanger separating the two water systems (I've just been given a small commercial stainless steel unit ! ) or fit one of these diesel water heaters and then have the option of heated water anytime, rather than only at the end of a drive.
Then the sensible thing is to integrate it with the engines cooling system and create a pre-heat possibility.

My god it must be more simple. OK buy a purpose built water / air heater from a camper van... but have you seen the price they ask even out of wrecked vehicles...



Apart from moving to a warmer climate, any other ideas.



Thanks Matt

Various projects !!

 

[Bogo]

You may wish to look into replacing the copper heat exchanger pipe in your hot water tank. You could also replace the whole unit. That style of water heater is generally made for marine use, and some use them in RVs. Isotherm seams to be one of the better makers. Even if you have to have the heat exchanger pipe fabricated it will still be less than a whole new unit.

There are also many other less expensive means for getting hot water. A stainless steel sprayer heated by a camp stove works. They are available in the two to three gallon range. The Zodi Extreme is just such a contraption and even comes with a propane fired burner.

 

[Bogo]

keg water heater idea is something I came up with awhile back. It can be built without machining and would be able to be mounted into a vehicle. It is also posted here with some other discussion. Do a forum search on "water heater". Much stuff will come up. This is a recurring topic with lots of ideas.

 

[goodwoodweirdo]

Thanks for your replies, I'll have a hunt around....

 

[No. 3]

I've built one- they work well and can be as nicely built as your skill set allows for:

<http://www.thesietch.org/projects/solarthermalpanel2/index.htm>