Discovering my freedom in Minnesota

We had almost no mosquitoes this year, im sure because it was so dry.

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Same weather here…and now suddenly I can wear pants!

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I’m sure that’s a big relief to any women in your area. :woozy_face:

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I think we had the normal amount of bugs this year. They’re starting to go away now thankfully.

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we had hardly any mosqetos this year till the fall that is now lately more rain and still warm enough- i am ready for the cooler weather- its been a hot summer,even though its been a bit shorter than some years up here in central michigan area. I think it has to do with the bug spray anidote also.

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We get pretty cold up here in Minnesota. We’ve already seen 0⁰F this year and have seen -50F a few times in the last 8 years.
Yesterday i installed this Chinese diesel heater for the outhouse. I have a remote in which i can turn it on from in the house prior to my daily visit. This may sound strange to many of you, but if i can get a little comfort when going to the library, I’ll take it. These little heaters are inexpensive and only use .1-.3 liters of diesel per hour. They need a 12V source to operate, so i have a use for my trolling motor battery in the winter. :slight_smile:
I will make a cover for it before our next chance of snow.

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Good idea Bill! Now you can spend more time in there. Do you have to keep that battery from freezing?

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I just have to make sure the specific gravity is suitable for the current temperatures.

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Hi BillS.
Can you give more details on how this outside heater transfers heating to the inside, please.
Blowing heated air?
Heater liquid transfer?
Or is it mounted inside working like the old VW camper vans liquid fuel heaters?
Thanks
Steve Unruh

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Hi Steve. It blows heated air into the building. It’s made to run inside and run the exhaust to the outside. The exhaust pipe gets pretty hot so i decided have this outside and build a box over it. Plus the outhouse is pretty small. I just feel this is safer.
They call it a car heater and is meant to warm up the inside of the car instead of leaving the car idle to warm up.

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Bill, you taught me a new useful phrase :smile:

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These are used a lot in tractor trailers, because of no idle laws for big trucks in most places now.

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I bought a 5kw diesel heater mid way through winter this year , Bill it uses a hell of a lot less that the 1 too 3 liters an hour you mentioned on its lowest setting a liter will run the heater for 5 hours on number 6 max it makes it around 3 hours on my machine .
I start off getting it running on number 1 then after 10 mins i put it on number 6 for an about
1 hour that gets a real nice comfy temp in downstairs back door area , then i drop it back down too number 1 till bed time .
I was lucky enough to be given a drum of old diesel that had sat in someone’s shed for about 4 years so its free heat for me , but you may be lucky if you can buy kerosene cheaper than diesel you would want to run it on that as it produces better heat , here in Aus kerosene/ paraffin is only sold in hardware shops in 1 litre bottles for $14 . just don’t be tempted to use waste motor oil like a lot of people on youtube , some have run it on waste cooking oil with good results as long as it is well cleaned and filtered .
I would raise the heater off the ground so as to keep the exhaust pipe straight and then try and seal the unit from the elements i am currently making a heat exchanger for the combustion air and also the fan flow air as a little pre heated air will not hurt it at all and may even get better results .
Dave

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Steve if you watch this guy , he is by far the most sensible of the heater users that i have seen and will say what’s what without bullshit , if it can be done he will do it if not he will warn against .

Dave

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Thanks Dave.
Now what’s inside . . . ( This guys a hoot, he talks to himself like me. Traps his finger Outch! just like me too.)

Then a year later sizing systems comparison:

And BillS., he has an after 2000 hours operating internal cleaning video too.
Regards
Steve Unruh

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I can’t even imagine -50f. A couple of years back during a polar Vortex I think we got to 10 below for a day or so. Had a pipe burst. No fun. I don’t think we have even seen zerof for a couple years now. Not crying about that. I know people in Montana. 100f in the summer and -40f in the winter. I guess that’s the price you pay to keep the riff raff out of your state.

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BillS. here a good one too:

S.U.

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Its nice to be able to spend time in the garage during the winter. I have a big wood stove and an insulated building. Ive finally have had some time to start organizing. This weekend I spent time building drawers for my work bench. I didn’t want ti run to town for drawer glides, so I went old school and the drawers slide on wood. It works well and if needed, I can apply some wax.
For the drawer pulls, I cut down a small birch tree for handles.

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Bill, that looks like a very comfortable shop.
How do you like that heater so far? Do you have any idea the range of the remote?
I would like to try one in my ham shack.

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