Wondering about diesel "appliances" fuel consumption??

[bajabybus]

Hello everyone. I've been checking this forum out religiously for a long time. This might be my first post though.

I have had a 27' converted school bus since 2007 and several other converted camper vans prior to that including an ambulance conversion.

Anyway, my girlfriend just bought an Earthroamer to replace her Sportsmobile.

We've been figuring most things out about the ER as we go. We're going to head down to Baja for a few Months this Winter, starting in November.

I've spent A LOT of time in Baja over the last 15+ years. I have all of my campers dialed and know how long I can stay out for with the fuel, water, LP etc that I have on board.

The ER has 90 gal Diesel capacity (only 40 gal of that (rear tank) would be available to the diesel appliances I believe).

It has a Webasto 2 burner diesel cooker, an Espar air heater and an espar hydronic heater. In Baja we shouldn't be running the air heater much, if at all. It'll mostly be the cook top and the hot water heater. But, when not in Baja, we'll be using all of the diesel devices more regularly.

I was hoping to hear from some of you all with real life experience on the fuel consumption of said items. Do you think we'll notice a significant drain in the diesel fuel tank after being camped for 2-3 weeks, for example.

Any information, advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Rob

 

[doug720]

We had a Webasto air heater in our boat that worked well. It took the chill off a foggy night quickly and quietly.

Unfortunately, I can't help on the long term fuel burn, as the longest we used the heater was for week long trips. We burned the heater for a few hours each night on the boat, the heater drew from the starboard tank, and when well fueled after the trip, it was so close to the port tank to not see a difference. I would guess maybe 1-2 quarts a night to heat about 1900 cf of space with an outside temp of 50-60 F.

 

[dwh]

Specs say the stove uses between .1 - .2 gallons per hour.

http://www.webasto.com/int/markets-...-vehicles/comfort-solutions/cooking-solution/

40 gallon tank? You'll get between 200 and 400 hours of cook time depending on whether you're running the stove on low or high - from what I understand, with those diesel stoves, it's a basically all or nothing - not very adjustable, so you regulate the cooking temperature by moving the pan on and off the heat.

How many hours a day will you be running the stove? Say an hour on high in the morning, another for lunch and two for dinner. So, 4 hours per day - stove on high - .8g/day - 40 gallon tank will last 50 days. Two hours a day, stove on low - .2g/day - 40 gallons will last 200 days.

 

[Umtaneum]

I have a Wallas forced air heater in my sailboat, my dad has the Wallas two burner combo heat/cooking stove in his power boat. Both boats have gasoline engines so we run the heaters on dedicated 25 liter tanks we bought from the stove supplier. The first year that I had the forced air heater in the sailboat, I used it maybe 10 nights. The next three years it was less than 5 nights each. I finally dumped a quarter tank of old kerosene (they will run on diesel or kerosene equally well and I like the smell of kerosene on my boat better) out of the tank and re-filled it after four years. Call it 20 nights of chilly but not frigid temps, for less than 20 liters of kerosene. The combo heater/cooking stove in the power boat burns a little more fuel but less electricity to run the fan. Running it 4 to 5 hours a day it burns maybe 3/4 of a gallon or three liters. That was to cook dinner, make a cup of coffee or hot chocolate in the morning, and keep the chill off in the cabin during the night.

Oops Wallas not Webasto. Fixed it.

 

[bajabybus]

Thanks

Thanks for the comments!! Sounds like we shouldn't have too much to worry about with regards to fuel consumption.

Thanks again. Rob