Defender underfloor heating

Hi,

I'm starting out converting my 110 into a semi-camper and am looking into the possibility of fitting electric underfloor heating in the back. I've seen a company called Aztec Caravan Heating (Caravan Heating Solutions - Aztec Europe Ltd) and wondered if their products would be suitable? Has anyone got any experience of underfloor heating in a defender?

Also, I'd be interested to know how to work out how long I can power the heating on say an Optima auxiliary battery? Anyone know the calculations or how to work it out?

Cheers

mudzilla said:

Hi,

I'm starting out converting my 110 into a semi-camper and am looking into the possibility of fitting electric underfloor heating in the back. I've seen a company called Aztec Caravan Heating (Caravan Heating Solutions - Aztec Europe Ltd) and wondered if their products would be suitable? Has anyone got any experience of underfloor heating in a defender?

Also, I'd be interested to know how to work out how long I can power the heating on say an Optima auxiliary battery? Anyone know the calculations or how to work it out?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Underfloor heating in a landy! I suppose the idea isn't really that daft but I think there are quite a few cheaper alternatives to buying a special kit, one of which would involve routing hot water from your engine through a series of pipes to a coil / pipe mesh underneath some form of suspended flooring in the rear load space. If you don't like the thought have having your engine running in order to generate the heat, you could always fit a purpose built, auxiliary diesel / petrol heater under the bonnet that does the same thing. It won't be as loud and it won't glaze up your engine bores mind . I'd imagine underfloor heating systems would zap a battery relatively quickly, regardless of whether it's a leisure battery or not, it's quite a demanding system. Ofcourse, one other, perhaps more rustic (but more appealing) idea would be to fit a small log burning stove somewhere in the back, with a flu that simply vents straight up and out of the roof. They do exist, in fact I think someone on here did it. That would certainly keep you warm and it'd be a damn sight cheaper too with a lot less hassle fitting and a lot less to go wrong.

-Pos

Fuel burning night heater 12v think boat/lorry

LOL wow... Each to there own.

Landies self heat their floors tbh!

ed.poore said:

Cheaper option?

Click to expand...

Probably not :doh:

Mountain Equipment Everest Sleeping Bag from Facewest.co.uk

redhand said:

Probably not :doh:

Mountain Equipment Everest Sleeping Bag from Facewest.co.uk

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Warmer option though - I did pick the most extreme one (with a -22°C comfort zone - i.e. anything above and you'll begin to roast).

Seriously though - once you've slept in a decent sleeping bag then your whole view of them changes. I've got an old one which I only actually get inside when it's below 0°C outside - just use it as a duvet the rest of the time.

ed.poore said:

Warmer option though - I did pick the most extreme one (with a -22°C comfort zone - i.e. anything above and you'll begin to roast).

Seriously though - once you've slept in a decent sleeping bag then your whole view of them changes. I've got an old one which I only actually get inside when it's below 0°C outside - just use it as a duvet the rest of the time.

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yep I've got an ajungilak eskimo that's good to -16 I only get in it when I'm sober enough to.

One of these will keep ya toasty -- Eberspacher D2 12V Diesel Night Heater on eBay (end time 05-Oct-10 16:10:06 BST)
Got the 24v D3 in mine , have to open the windows to cool down it gets that warm .

Thanks guys, i think im going go down the Eberspacher route.

I still like the idea of underfloor heating in a defender but the fact that it would drain the battery too quickly is putting me off

Get a disco 4 they've got a remote which preheats the engine and interior! You can even set it automatically to come on at certain time even haha!

Pity not everyone has the money to buy them !

sypher said:

One of these will keep ya toasty -- Eberspacher D2 12V Diesel Night Heater on eBay (end time 05-Oct-10 16:10:06 BST)
Got the 24v D3 in mine , have to open the windows to cool down it gets that warm .

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I've had an Eberspacher for a few years now and I transfer it from vehicle to vehicle when I change motors, so far I've had it in an Astra Van, a Ford Transit and at present in my Peugeot Partner van. It'll be going in TheBus for this winter though. The D1 Eberspacher comes with a small black box which will automatically switches the unit off after 1 hour, I bought a mini-timer (also on Ebay,) disabled the timer circuit in the black box and connected the mini-timer to operate the relay, so now I can set the time I want it to come on. The mini-timer it also lets the unit run for 1 hour before switching off. I set the timer to kick in about 15 minutes before I leave the house for work and it's a lovely sight, first thing in the morning, to look out the window and see all the snow and/or frost covered vehicles sitting in the street while mine sits gently steaming. When I get around to installing it (too many other jobs to do first,) I intend to make my own centre cubby box with a false floor, underneath which I will fit the night heater (which is what us truckers call them.)

I noticed someone mentioned fitting it in the engine compartment. This isn't really the best place for them. Basically, the way they work is by drawing air in one end, monitoring the temperature of this air, heating it and blowing it out the other end. Once the temperature of the inlet air reaches whatever temp you set the rheostat to, they go into a much lower setting to maintain the temperature (almost silent and more fuel-efficient.) Also, they use very little battery power after the initial start-up sequence, they have a glow plug to ignite the fuel but this switches off soon after flame-up.

Finally, the rotary rheostat control knob has three settings (turn it clockwise for heat) centre position for off and click it anti-clockwise to circulate the air in the cabin without heat so it sorta works like a cool air blower in hot weather, not that we get much of that here in the UK, but handy if you are sleeping in the vehicle and it gets a bit stuffy.

Ron.

p.s. I should mention, that you can also get a 7-day timer for them and another company called Webasto make a very similar item so try searching Ebay for Eberspacher and/or Webasto night heater.

Thanks for all your comments.

I've just bought an Eberspacher D2 off ebay, so will hopefully be fitting it soon... there'll probably be lots more questions

Cheers

mudzilla said:

Thanks for all your comments.

I've just bought an Eberspacher D2 off ebay, so will hopefully be fitting it soon... there'll probably be lots more questions

Cheers

Click to expand...

Was it compleat and working ?? + does it have the conrtols and the all important fuel pump ??? them pumps are bloody expencive for what they are ...... .

btw you might need this http://www.eberspacher.com/downloads/technical-documents/airtronicD2+D4_technical.pdf

sypher said:

Was it compleat and working ?? + does it have the conrtols and the all important fuel pump ??? them pumps are bloody expencive for what they are ...... .

btw you might need this http://www.eberspacher.com/downloads/technical-documents/airtronicD2+D4_technical.pdf

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Cheers sypher, that'll come in very handy!

Yup, it's complete with pump and everything that's needed. I hope it's working otherwise i'll be kicking up a fuss. He seems trustworthy from his feedback though, we'll have to wait and see!

Have you got a eberspacher in yours? Any advice on where to mount the unit?

mudzilla said:

Cheers sypher, that'll come in very handy!

Yup, it's complete with pump and everything that's needed. I hope it's working otherwise i'll be kicking up a fuss. He seems trustworthy from his feedback though, we'll have to wait and see!

Have you got a eberspacher in yours? Any advice on where to mount the unit?

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Thats alright then happy days . Yeah Ive got the 24v D3LC in mine ( not long fitted ) , Ive mounted it on top of the passenger side rear wheel arch in line with the body . Ive yet to box it in and get a longer exhaust pipe for it but by god does it pump out the heat .

sypher said:

Thats alright then happy days . Yeah Ive got the 24v D3LC in mine ( not long fitted ) , Ive mounted it on top of the passenger side rear wheel arch in line with the body . Ive yet to box it in and get a longer exhaust pipe for it but by god does it pump out the heat .

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Do they make much noise at all? If you're camping in the landy this might be an issue? Is there space to put it under the bonnet so it's further away?

They don't make too much noise, but you can get a silencer for the exhaust which should help, they are quite small things and just go in-line with the exhaust pipe (if you use one.) I recently bought one off Ebay, but haven't fitted it yet. Just search for Webasto silencer (also try Eberspacher silencer.)

As for fitting it under the bonnet, this wouldn't work too well. These night heaters work by monitoring the temperature of the air being drawn into the heater in order to regulate the temperature within the vehicle as per set on the rheostat. If you fit it under the bonnet, it would always think the vehicle was still cold and would be working at full blast all the time, which would result in you cooking inside the vehicle. I once fitted mine high up inside a transit conversion I'd done and it took me a while to realise why it never heated the van as well as it should. It was because hot air rises and it thought the van was heated, but in reality, it was quite cold at floor level. I had a flexible pipe on the output end to direct the heated air towards the windscreen for de-frosting etc., so once I realised what was wrong I simply put the flexi-pipe on the input end and left the open end at floor level, this resulted in a nice toasty, warm, pre-de-frosted (I run mine on a timer,) vehicle on cold winter nights.

Ron.

Clanforbes said:

They don't make too much noise, but you can get a silencer for the exhaust which should help, they are quite small things and just go in-line with the exhaust pipe (if you use one.) I recently bought one off Ebay, but haven't fitted it yet. Just search for Webasto silencer (also try Eberspacher silencer.)

As for fitting it under the bonnet, this wouldn't work too well. These night heaters work by monitoring the temperature of the air being drawn into the heater in order to regulate the temperature within the vehicle as per set on the rheostat. If you fit it under the bonnet, it would always think the vehicle was still cold and would be working at full blast all the time, which would result in you cooking inside the vehicle. I once fitted mine high up inside a transit conversion I'd done and it took me a while to realise why it never heated the van as well as it should. It was because hot air rises and it thought the van was heated, but in reality, it was quite cold at floor level. I had a flexible pipe on the output end to direct the heated air towards the windscreen for de-frosting etc., so once I realised what was wrong I simply put the flexi-pipe on the input end and left the open end at floor level, this resulted in a nice toasty, warm, pre-de-frosted (I run mine on a timer,) vehicle on cold winter nights.

Ron.

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Wow thanks thats really helpful. I will have to start saving up

Personally I would stick this type of question on a motorcaravan forum as the question is more relevant to them than normal LR ownership.

That said I have been around caravans & motorcaravans my whole life and have never come across underfloor heating whether that be electric or wet, I suspect it is too power hungry when the engine is not running. The most common solution is blown air and there are some very decent, compact units out there that supply both heat & hot-water.