[Nathanael Jones]

Nathanael, how is your hot system going? Luke

Still in the planning stages Luke. I've heard of a couple of people having problems with the cheapo gas powered water heaters, and I wasn't keen on having a gas cylinder in the van anyway,.. so that idea was scrapped.
I've seen a system that uses a twin coil calorifier, with one coil taking heat from the vehicle engine (free eco friendly heat!) and the second coil powered by an erberspacher/webasto type diesel heater. If you do much driving between jobs at all, the diesel heater hardly kicks in at all. The only problem is, I need a bigger van to fit it all in!! 
You have your standard cold WFP tank, plus a 80 litre calorifier, and you simply connect the pump before the calorifier with a Y splitter,.. one branch goes through the hot tank and the second goes to the could input on the mixing valve. The hot output from the tank goes to the hot input on the valve. You need a good quality thermostatic mixing valve, not one of the cheap shower mixer types though.
I think this will be the way forward for me though.

[007 or what]

what ever you do, Do Not Leave Your Pump On when trying to un-freeze the frozen pipes if everything is solid, it will burn out your pump.
Mine did last week 

[NWH]

What noise did it make before it went.

[windowwashers]

What noise did it make before it went.

something like eeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr er er errrrrrrrr er e   r .....

[d s windowcleaning]

a simple soulotion that works . no more lost days . all thats needed is 1 car invertor  1 elemement  1 spanner . simple but true . trry remove a element from the kettle and see how easy this is . stuff gas heating 

[Nathanael Jones]

a simple soulotion that works . no more lost days . all thats needed is 1 car invertor  1 elemement  1 spanner . simple but true . trry remove a element from the kettle and see how easy this is . stuff gas heating 

Kettle elements are normally between 4.5 and 7 KW,.. good luck finding an inverter that will handle that!!!

[d s windowcleaning]

the invertor from maplins works nathanael .

[AuRavelling79]

a simple soulotion that works . no more lost days . all thats needed is 1 car invertor  1 elemement  1 spanner . simple but true . trry remove a element from the kettle and see how easy this is . stuff gas heating 

Kettle elements are normally between 4.5 and 7 KW,.. good luck finding an inverter that will handle that!!!

Nathanael - I think you'll find that most household kettle elements top out at 3kw/12 amps. Otherwise a 13 amp fuse would blow 13amp  x 240 volts = 3120w

[AuRavelling79]

BTW - my tank is cold water but lagged with space blanket/polystyrene/ply.

If I put a 3kw element in the tank and switched on by timer 2 hrs before I started work, then on the principle of an immersion heater would it not warm things up to let me work on frosty days?

[matt]

if you really mst have hot water

buy a hot water cylinder element ( 25 quid in wicks, i checked yesterday )

wire it up to a fused extension lead

leave on over night ( or as alex said, on a timer so its not boiling )

fit polystrene slabs around the tank, thicker the better ( then cover that in ply painted the same clour as your floor, i know people on here think that people care what the system looks like )

the water will stay warm for the best part of the day

[AuRavelling79]

if you really mst have hot water

buy a hot water cylinder element ( 25 quid in wicks, i checked yesterday )

wire it up to a fused extension lead

leave on over night ( or as alex said, on a timer so its not boiling )

fit polystrene slabs around the tank, thicker the better ( then cover that in ply painted the same clour as your floor, i know people on here think that people care what the system looks like )

the water will stay warm for the best part of the day

Interesting, my tank is already lagged as you describe - but where to put the element? Dropped in the lid hole? Or cut a hole and seal it lower down by the outlet pipe as heat rises?

[matt]

if you really mst have hot water

buy a hot water cylinder element ( 25 quid in wicks, i checked yesterday )

wire it up to a fused extension lead

leave on over night ( or as alex said, on a timer so its not boiling )

fit polystrene slabs around the tank, thicker the better ( then cover that in ply painted the same clour as your floor, i know people on here think that people care what the system looks like )

the water will stay warm for the best part of the day

Interesting, my tank is already lagged as you describe - but where to put the element? Dropped in the lid hole? Or cut a hole and seal it lower down by the outlet pipe as heat rises?

well a hot water copper cylinder has it at the top, they have them in most households so it must work

[Jon-scwindows]

i dont know where the hot water coil elements are in boilers at home , but the hottest water rises to the top, and is colder near the bottom, having the element in the top will not really warm the water in the bottom very well unless its a very good heater.

it would be better to have the element at the bottom, or mounted in from the side or bottom.

I think a system which uses the vehicles engine heat to heat up water along with a diesel powered unit, like the eberspacher /webasto ones that are 12v for the ignition and run off diesel is the best, efficient solution- if not going for a 'off the shelf' unit. Electric powered will just drain too much power too soon.

[matt]

i know that they enter from the top and point down,

you can get them on 11" and 27" normally ( sad but ive done the research )

[Nathanael Jones]

if you really mst have hot water

buy a hot water cylinder element ( 25 quid in wicks, i checked yesterday )

wire it up to a fused extension lead

leave on over night ( or as alex said, on a timer so its not boiling )

fit polystrene slabs around the tank, thicker the better ( then cover that in ply painted the same clour as your floor, i know people on here think that people care what the system looks like )

the water will stay warm for the best part of the day

I like that idea Matt,.. I'd be worried about using an inverter drawing that much power for extended periods of time,..

I was thinking of having 2 tanks in my new van,.. the wfp one and a pre-insulated copper cylinder. I'd have the cylinder as hot as possible before I left home and use a thermostatic mixing valve to mix the 2 feeds to the appropriate temp. My only worry would be if the water would pick up impurities from the copper?

[AuRavelling79]

i know that they enter from the top and point down,

you can get them on 11" and 27" normally ( sad but ive done the research )

I'm glad you have cuz your input on this forum helps me no end! Thanks.

[G & M]

what about using the cylinder coil to heat the water and then keep it warm with the kettle element working off the invertor?
Michael

[d s windowcleaning]

sad as it may seem (boing day ) but me & a mate tryed this today & it worked . this was tryed on 150 ltrs of water which got to 30 degrees in 45 mins im not saying it took 45 mins we checked after 45 mins . invertor was £39.99 from maplin /element was taken from a old t urn from a road side caff . so ive seen it & tryed it & no it works .

[Nathanael Jones]

sad as it may seem (boing day ) but me & a mate tryed this today & it worked . this was tryed on 150 ltrs of water which got to 30 degrees in 45 mins im not saying it took 45 mins we checked after 45 mins . invertor was £39.99 from maplin /element was taken from a old t urn from a road side caff . so ive seen it & tryed it & no it works .

Nice one!
Did you have the engine running, or will it work straight from the battery?

[Old_Master]

Be sure to have a spare battery as a 1000 watt heating element will draw approx 80 amps of battery power in one hour through an inverter.

You will need at least an 85 amp battery to operate for an hour as batteries never fully reach their total capacity.