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Building: Built: Roadster, Exocet, Bertini, Now Something Di
posted on 16/11/13 at 11:23 PM
Workshop Heater Build
Well winter is setting in so time to have a crack at building a workshop heater. i have always liked the idea of a waste oil burner but have never
fancied having it in the workshop, i'm a bit paranoid about burning the place down. so this is all a bit its experimental but what the heck
its all made out of scrap so nothing to lose. the plan is for the stove/boiler to be out side and the heat inside!
i saved an old back boiler heat exchanger and the plan is to run the burner to warm up the heat exchanger and pump the hot water round radiators in
the workshop. so today i started on the boiler part.
it consists of an old gas bottle, a bit of scrap metal and the scavenged heat exchanger. i tried to find a bigger gas bottle so the heat exchanger
would fit completely inside but gave up and went with what i had. eventually i will build a little insulated shelter round the whole thing so it
doesn't matter how ugly it is.
still need to find an expansion vessel and a central heating pump then i have everything needed.
As expected here are the pictures
initial cut out of the cylinder to locate the heat exchanger
3mm steel box round the heat exchanger to direct the heat and exhaust gasses round the heat exchanger
top view of the heat exchanger down into the fire chamber
side view of the heat exchanger showing the outlets (not sure how im going to get the pipes in and seal the box backup tet but i will work that out
later when the time comes.)
view of it mocked up with the 5mm thick flu pipe.
as for the burner im not sure what im going to use there seems to be lots of designs out there that can burn oil very cleanly so i think i will build
a couple and test to see which works best
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
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posted on 17/11/13 at 10:05 AM
Please keep the info and photos of this heater coming
It looks a great idea and i will have a back boiler to remove out our house next year
Thank's
Jacko
My mate built one very similar a couple of years back only it had a fabricated heat exchanger using 2" tubes It has a wagon brake drum in the
bottom with a vertical burner tube, an old boiler fan blows In horizontally which creates a nice vortex, the oil drips in by gravity, and the copper
feed tube is wound round the boiler to thin the oil once running.
We piped 8 radiators up to it and a central heating pump, within 1/2 hr they are red hot.
It was trial and error to get the burner tube the correct size, and there is a slider on the fan to regulate the blow, if the flame is too strong it
boils the water.
Within a few minutes it runs clean as a whistle no black smoke just heat vapour, although my mate says it does cover the cars etc in tiny soot
particles, so watch out
For the neighbours washing.
The only drawback I can see with using an old gas heat exchanger, is you might have trouble cleaning out the fins, as they are so close together, he
has to clean the inside before each use, they get pretty sooty inside.
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Building: Built: Roadster, Exocet, Bertini, Now Something Di
posted on 17/11/13 at 05:14 PM
the idea eventually is to have an electronic controller that measures the temp in the combustion chamber and in the rad pipes and automatically
regulates the feed airflow and the oil rate. until i get to that stage your advice is noted and i will run it vented i have experienced hot
pressurised water and it wasn't nice
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
Haynes Roadster (Finished)
Exocet (Finished & Sold)
New Project (Started)
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Building: Built: Roadster, Exocet, Bertini, Now Something Di
posted on 18/11/13 at 11:33 PM
yep flu and lid come off, the plan is to just jetwash it out now and then. scale on the photos may be out a bit but the gap between fins on the heat
exchanger is around 10mm so i'm hoping it doesn't block up too fast. flu is 5inch internal diameter. im planning forced induction so the
resulting burn should be pretty clean if i can get the air fuel ratio correct. its all experimental but my super technical squint and think
calculations say it should work. problem today was finding fittings to go in the heat exchanger, the hunt continues.
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
Haynes Roadster (Finished)
Exocet (Finished & Sold)
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Building: Built: Roadster, Exocet, Bertini, Now Something Di
posted on 23/11/13 at 08:13 AM
quote:Originally posted by David Jenkins
I hope there'll be plenty of ventilation - I'd be worried about carbon monoxide emissions due to incomplete burning...
it will be outside in the garden heating up water that will get pumped indoors to warm up the radiators so not much chance of that
have been out experimenting with burners in the garden last night. i made a small 2.5 inch version and used my compressor for the air supply for the
moment but the final design will be around 4-5 inch burner with a ducted fan for air supply as i don't want the air compressor running all
day.
vid one is the aluminium burn chamber. its about 10mm thick on the sides and 20mm thick on the bottom. once its up to temp its actually so hot that
as soon as the oil touches it there is immediate combustion.
this is with a perforated stainless flame tube. burn is nice and clean no visible smoke (ignore the smoke in the gas bottle i spilt a little bit of
oil in the bottom doh!)
this is with a closed stainless flame tube. excellent combustion mainly just heat vapour coming out the top.
i still think i can improve combustion a little bit more so i am going to play with a few more designs before i make the final burner but so far
progress seems good.
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
Haynes Roadster (Finished)
Exocet (Finished & Sold)
New Project (Started)
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Building: Built: Roadster, Exocet, Bertini, Now Something Di
posted on 25/11/13 at 12:37 AM
well thats the weekend over and im onto the mk3 version of the burner. i setup a small drip feed oil supply after i made this video and had it
running for 8 hours today not a single bit of smoke. im using a 6inch fan out of a server rack it seems to push enough air to keep a clean burn. as
for oil consumption with the new 5inch burner it seems to be around 200ml per hour
here is the vid
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
Haynes Roadster (Finished)
Exocet (Finished & Sold)
New Project (Started)
Looking good, i suppose it depends on workshop size, how many radiators and levels of insulation, but i reckon you might need a bigger flame than
that.
My mates burner drinks between 5 and 10 gallons a day depending on outside temperature and which size burn tube he has fitted.
The workshop is approx 20ft x 40ft x 15ft high at the apex, brick built asbestos roof and no insulation.
Think he has about 8 rads approx 600 x 1200, it takes about 40 mins to get the water up to 70 degrees or so.
Similar idea, but they drop the oil onto a sphere which has a very small (.5mm) hole in it. Air then pushes through the hole and vaporises the oil
which ignites in a tube causing a great deal of heat.
.JPG)
ash i did post that link up for you pal re roof panels
