My original plan today was to focus on the electrical cabinet and that is how the day started. We put the cabinet in a couple times to determine where the bolts would attach to the wall. We also cut the final piece of installation that will go behind the cabinet. This project led to a trip to Ace this morning to get a few parts for this project and a couple others.
As we were getting going on this project, UPS showed up with a special package. The package contained our longer heater exhaust pipe, which we were not expecting until tomorrow. As you may remember, the kit came with a 1m pipe and I decided we needed something longer to route the exhaust either across the van or more toward the back. The exhaust pipe available at the auto parts store did not work correctly so I had to order the $$$ pipe from the heater distributor. With the new pipe in hand our plans changed to see if we could get the heater finished up.
In order to put in the new exhaust, we had to unbolt screw the heater from the floor under the refrigerator cabinet. It’s a good thing I decided to make the cabinet larger because it definitely requires some space to work. While I was up above pulling up the heater and disconnecting the exhaust, Sara was below pulling the pipe down and pushing the new one back up. All in all it was not a difficult process and we got everything put back together well.
With the new pipe in place, it was time to figure out where to route it. We looked at how/where it would go toward the back of the van and we looked at how it would go across the van. We decided to take it across the van to exhaust near the passenger rear tire.* I used a few attachment points to secure the exhaust as it crosses the van. Needing some extra materials to secure the pipe led to another trip to Ace.
It took a few tries to get the attachments right, but at least for now they are pretty solid. Our plan is was to see how we liked it there so we could still change it up if necessary.
With the heater install finished I went back to thinking about the electrical cabinet. The components of the cabinet sometimes heat up and need some fresh air so I have been debating how to ensure there is enough airflow. I finally decided to add yet another hole to the van floor to pipe in some fresh air directly. During my second trip of the day to Ace I stopped at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and found a nice 2.5″ flexible hose that will work well. I think it might have been a hose to a shopvac or something similar. It was a lucky find because I have not had much luck finding good flexible tubing for various projects. Shopvac hose had never crossed my mind!
When I was eventually ready to drill the hole, I discovered that I did not have the right size hole saw. I have 2 3/8″, but the tube wasn’t going to squeeze in there. Trip #3 to Ace! $14.99 for one hole. (I will have to put another hole int he electrical cabinet so it is actually $14.99 for two holes!) Good thing the hose at the ReStore was only $.50. After drilling the hole I cleaned it up with a file and painted the bare metal.
We have to wait for the paint to dry before messing with the hose more, so we decided to take the plunge and do up the wiring to test the heater. I was really just focused on getting the heater installed and was not really plan on a test run, but I couldn’t think of any good reason to put it off. I pulled the rheostat off the microwave cabinet and gathered the rest of the heater wiring. We pulled the batteries into the van and wired them together. One battery would be more than enough to power the heater, but I want to keep them working together to ensure they work at the same level and end up with the same lifespan.
After hooking up the rest of the wiring and connecting everything it was time to cross our fingers and turn on the power. Sara put in the fuse and I turned the dial. The heater immediately came to life and started blowing…cold air. That was to be expected, of course, because the fuel line was still empty. The instructions don’t say anything about need to prime the fuel line so we just kept waiting. Under the van we could hear the fuel pump clicking so we knew it was getting power.
After 90 seconds the heater had not started so it reset. It goes through this stage twice and if it does not fire, I’m not sure what happens. I know if you try again too soon it will lock you out. I was hoping we would not find out. We waited, fingers still crossed. It was about this point that I remember I was going to at least have the fire extinguisher on hand when we started it the first time. Oh well. A few seconds later it started blowing cold air again. Outside we started to hear a fairly loud noise so we opened the door to check it out. The exhaust pipe was now blowing out a good cloud of smoke so it must be getting fuel and burning!
WE HAVE IGNITION! WE HAVE HEAT!
As the heater started to warm up, the air blowing out the heater got quite warm. Certainly warm enough that you could not keep your hand directly in front of it. I’m sure it will still take a while to warm a cold van, but it definitely works!
After it warmed up and ran for a while the exhaust cleaned up a lot. I suppose this is to be expected as it is a regular gas-burning engine. The exhaust is still surprisingly loud, though this is widely reported so I shouldn’t really be surprised by it. It is just one of those things that you don’t know how loud it is until you hear it yourself. We will definitely have to buy the muffler kit. Inside the van we can’t really hear the exhaust but outside it is quite loud. If we were in an area with other people I could imagine them being rather annoyed.
This was such an exciting step. We can now work on things in the van with our own efficient heat source and we are one major step closer to being self-sufficient out on the road! At the very least would could comfortably spend nights in the van without worrying about freezing to death or waking up to a cold morning.
*After firing up the heater and seeing how much exhaust the heater actually emits, we changed our minds on where to route the exhaust. Having the exhaust on the passenger side right behind the door means we might get it back in the van when we open the slider door or if we crack the slider door window, which we expect to do often when we cook. So, before we finish things up we are going to figure out how to route it to the back of the van.