Also check out ourvideo about installing and demonstrating our diesel heater.
We are installing a Planar 2D diesel heater. For which we have two main goals. First heating the van, obviously. Second using the warm air to make our shower slash toilet into a drying room.
We live in The Netherlands, we like to visit Scotland and Scandinavia to do outdoor adventures. Mainly hiking and mountainbiking. So during our holidays wetness will be a fact of life. Wet clothes are to be expected and good weather is not a given in the places we like to visit. So we see the need to be able dry our clothes overnight.
We planned the heater in the garage at the back of our van, next to our bike slide. From this the main heat output is directed straight into our living space via a short piece of Truma heating duct. Directly after the heater we will also install a Truma T-piece that will transport hot air to our shower slash toilet, to be able to use it as a drying room. We know the main airflow will be directed into our living space. We have an adjustable air flow outlet vent in our living area, so we can regulate the airflow somewhat. The outlet in the shower slash toilet is adjustable as well.
First step was checking if the location of the heater was actually possible. We had to cut a hole in the floor of our campervan with a jigsaw. We cannot cut through the structural beams under the floor, so we had to doublecheck the measurements of our design and determine the exact location we can install the heater. Turned out our design was spot on and the location in our garage was situated exactly between two structural beams and was large enough for the hole needed.
Second step installing the fuel supply to the heater. So the fuel has to be directed from the vans diesel tank, to the back of the van using the fuelpump that's part installation set of the heater.
We didn't feel comfortable enough to mess with a diesel tank ourselves, so we decided to have this part of the install done by a professional campervan builder. He took the dieseltank down to make an extra fuel line connection. He installed the heaters fuel pump and led the fuel line to the back of the van.
Meanwhile I took on the job of cutting a hole in our floor. Always a stressful moment, but there is no going back after this! We bought a custom made metal base plate to install the heater on. This had to fit exactly in the hole I needed to cut in de van's floor. To my surprise it was quite straight forward. The professional jigsaw I borrowed, cut through our wooden floor, the insulation and the sheet metal floor like a knife through butter.
With the hole in our van and the fuel line firmly secured in our garage I drove home to complete the installation.
So after securing the heater to the baseplate, it's time attach the air intake, fuel supply and the exhaust. First a quick walkthrough of how the heater works and what you have to install.
The diesel heater heats up the air in the van using combustion. This process needs air that it takes from outside the van, hence the separate combustion air intake on the bottom of the heater, next to the fuel intake. The combustion process produces hot exhaust fumes, that are emitted on the bottom of the heater as well. So the air that's heated in the van is completely separate from the air used for the combustion process. The control panel will be located in our living area. We also will be installing a temperature sensor, so the heater will automatically shut off as soon as the desired temperature is achieved. And of course starts up again as soon as the temperature gets too low.
To save a lot of hassle, we connected the air intake and the exhaust tubes first. So we had plenty of working space. We didn't want to do this, while lying on our back underneath the van. Turned out to be quite a challenge to get the tubes tightly secure. This would have been a hell of a job if we had to do this underneath the van.
Then a hole needs to be drilled next to the heater, where the powersupply cable for the fuel pump needs to go through. This cable has to be directed all the way from the back of the van to the fuel pump that is located near the diesel tank in front of the van. We secured this cable using tiewraps.
Now we have to put the heater in place. We used silicon sealant to make sure the baseplate would be air tight. We used screws to secure it onto the floor of our garage.
With the heater firmly in place the work continues underneath the van. Here we are going to secure the air intake, the fuel supply and the exhaust to the bottom of the van. The manual states we have to do this in a specific way to ensure the diesel heater works the way it should.
The air intake we directed to one side of the van. The exhaust to the other. And of course we had to connect the fuel line.We used self tapping screws to secure the tubes to the bottom of the van. The exhaust has a small muffler to reduce the sound of the heater. The exhaust output needs to be pointed to the back of the van.
To seal the edges around the heater's baseplate underneath the van we used the adhesive sealant Sikaflex 291i for marine applications. Basically for no other reason, than we had some left after installing our solar panels.
All in all doing all this work underneath the van lying on your back was quite an ordeal. We made a quick video edit of this part of this process but don't be fooled. We have been struggling to get this right for several hours.
So that's the heater installed. Now for the heating ducts. In the dividing wall between the garage and the living space we drilled a hole to install the an adjustable air flow outlet vent. Then a T-piece to add a duct to our shower slash toilet so it can function as a drying room. Here we also installed an adjustable air flow outlet vent, so we can open or close it as needed.
The last thing we installed was the control panel in the living area. We fitted it in, next to the double USB charger we already had installed. We now have been using the Planar 2D for about a year. And usually we get our whole van warm on a low or a medium setting. Usually we start the Planar on full power for about 5 minutes, then turn it back to low. The coldest night we had at minus 5 degrees Celsius and inside the van it was nice an toasty.
We hope that taking you along on the install of our Planer 2D diesel heater gave you some useful information for your own van conversion.
Also check out ourvideo about installing and demonstrating our diesel heater.
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