I mistakenly started this project thinking it would be relatively easy and successful and that it would be more economical than buying an LPG (propane) heater for the garage.
I was wrong on all counts. Thankfully I haven't yet cut a hole in the roof of my garage for the flue!
But to start at the beginning....
I'd read about Roger's design and decided to try it.
After a few years of procrastination and procuring parts, I made a start. I had been using the secondhand 6" flue I'd bought with a wood heater I'd also bought off eBay - but a recent acquisition of an old small water heater from a friend got me motivated.
I bought an aluminium dish and needle valve off Roger Sanders but now I see some of you have melted yours. I don't want to melt it as those two items cost more than everything else (cost A$136 by the time I had them).
I had been slowed up by trying to work out how to put a 6" flue onto the heater. I made up a cardboard template and a friend's son, who is a boilermaker with his own business, made the adapter up in steel. I welded it on, cut a circular hole in it (with a cutting disc in an angle grinder) and added a 6" ring to drop the flue over. For scale, the air intake is 100mm (4 inches) in diameter.
I've been testing it with wood I have for the other heater which has now been removed.
That hole in the door has a plate over it when oil burning.
Next job was to do the oil feed. I bought a glass bowl gauze screen oil filter and mounted it above the heater. The oil tank is a plastic drum up in the rafters of my garage. I've piped it down to the oil filter then via the needle valve to a pipe into the air intake.
The flue is temporarily routed through the fibro-cement garage wall and up the front of the garage for testing.
I now have a drip tray underneath to catch any small spills of oil - yes there have been some. The heater is lifted off the floor about 50mm, sitting on some square tubing.
Now to the problems. It simply doesn't burn hot with the Sanders burner so it smokes excessively. It is also very easy to extinguish the flame so it has to be watched constantly. The burner is left with a thick filthy black gooey mess. Nothing like that shown in Roger's booklet. The temperature on the side of the casing only reaches 120-140 deg C but with wood, the temps are well over 300 deg C (my Fluke optical temp reader maxes out at 299 deg C)
Today I tried something else. I took out the aluminium burner but left in the steel disc on which it sits. I then started a wood fire under the disc to get it hot and, after it was hot, started the oil flow. It burned somewhat hotter and I was able to occasionally get the flame flower Roger mentions.
Usual burn which is very smokey:
And when I get the flame flower, the smoke is barely visible:
Now my questions are:
- How do I get this thing to burn hot so that it doesn't smoke?
- How important is it that the front door be air tight?
- Is the distance from the air intake to the burner critical?
- Is my flue long enough. Would lengthening it help? I've avoided making it to high to minimise neighbour interest in the smoke and smell - I don't want the council around.
I'm sure I'll think of more questions.
So far, I'm up to $485 for this build and it's beyond the point of no return.
As an aside, has anyone had problems with their council? It's ok for you blokes in the country but I'm in a city suburb. I checked my council's website and they only mention requiring approval for wood burners. Very likely an oversight but I am not gunna tell them!
The temperatures that some claim can reached by the oil heater look a bit scary for where I currently have the heater for testing. The longer term would see it moved further away from the timber wall frames. I've put fibro-cement sheet between the flue (which doesn't get very warm - only about 100 deg C) and the timber frame.
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