ThePog

An update on the bus/shed heater. It is now powered by a 30A power supply, and the exhaust is extracted with a 150mm fan and ducting. I got a whole lot of ducting leftovers for $60 off marketplace. The fan was a freebee from when I worked at a tech company in chch, they cleared the storage out and let us take what we wanted, I grabbed loads of shit. I still have boxes of ally brackets and bus bars in my container... The fan is pulling right on that exhaust so I checked the temps while running it, it hits 43 degrees on high, 30 on low. That ducting isn't sealed so it is sucking air as well. The fan is a Pabst that is rated for 70+ deg so should be sweet. Still need to mount the supply and an RCD in a box for safetys and cut a hole in the shed to waft the fumes out.

I made an executive decision and bought a 24v 30a power supply. One of the batteries was completely toast, the other not far off it. I used another to get it going but I would still need some more batteries plus something to charge them. I have also discovered it doesn't like anything connected to the exhaust so might extractor fan it.

I am pleased you are taking the biscuit.

Lolol Shit cranks.

https://waveinverter.co.nz/shop/accessories/powersupply/powersupply-24v-20a/ Or maybe 2x PC power supplies feeding each of the batteries? Basically free from the dump shop.

So that supply is 8 amps roughly? Could be worth a try.

I am a man who mostly finishes projects. I don't have the room for too much unfinished shit. Maybe. I could actually sit this outside the shed under a wee roof and make holes for the ducting. This means I don't need to worry about the exhaust too much either, then set up a couple of panels for charging the batteries.... It could work.

So how about I get an 8 or 10a 24v power supply and hook it up to the batteries. That will run the fan and supply a bit of charging current....?

I may as well leave it running in the room and forgot the heater completely.

Yea the batteries make sense to deal with startup, then it's a case of supplying running current. In reality I would probably disconnect the power when unused as long as it had enough jibber to charge it up a bit while running the fan.

What about a big PC power supply? I don't know how common 24v would be on those.

My little 5.5kW eberspacher drew 10 or 15 amps initially, this is way bigger. I found a user manual, fan is 4 amps, there is a glow resistor that I think this is in series with the glow plug, this should measure between 15 and 17 amps. So 20 amps on startup probably.

This one is appealing to my sense of hackery and danger.

Maybe, although it may be good to supply some amps to run the fan after the initial heating draw...?

No unfortunately, there is a big ass heating coil that draws lots of current for a bit, then it's just a fan. Hence the batteries to buffer that.