[Lee Pryor]

I want to learn about this subject as we are coming to "that" time of year.

My questions are.

What type and how powerful are the ones you use?
Where do you buy them?
What size tank are you warming and how warm does the water get?
Does the water stay warm all day?
Is the warm tank over night enough to keep the rest of your gear (hose reels ect) defrosted or do you also need another heater in the van?

Thanks for your help.

[Plankton]

Honestly theses new comers, comin on ere wantin aw this info handed to them on a plate! 

[jo5hm4n]

I am getting ready to fit an Immersion heater myself so following this post with interest from others already doing this.

[Cookie]

I'm also interested - it's drilling the hole in my water tank that I'm perhaps a little concerned about! I don't want to end up with a whole load of leaks. Anyway the video below covers the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogw6FBV3suw

[p1w1]

There are a few topics on this if you search..personally i dont use one so not an expert, but i reckon you would need 3kw heaters (min) if you have 650 lt tanks in your vans (enough to keep hoses flexible during the day. 10 of those plugged in at night and i reckon you would need a small power station in your premises and would have to get your electrics looked at for sure.
Something to consider...

[Plankton]

I'm also interested - it's drilling the hole in my water tank that I'm perhaps a little concerned about! I don't want to end up with a whole load of leaks. Anyway the video below covers the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogw6FBV3suw

Makes it look easy, problem I have is I've got a Facelift compact tank which is a bit of a horse shoe shape inside so it won't distribute the heat. I'll follow the post and maybe fook my tank up next week!

[Jonny 87]

2kw immersions fitted to a 650litre  van tank will do what you need it to.

The water should be 30 degrees ish in the tank, it will Stop The back of the van freezing, and will let you work during the day.

Power wise though for 10 vans that could really be an issue.

What static setup do you have Lee?

It might be more feasible to have immersions in your static tank.

[tlwcs]

I have a 3kw element fitted in a 500 ltr tank.
A 16amp socket professionally fitted on the house with the correct cable and the shortest run to connect to the van.
Bought everything from tool station
Heated from 10pm till 1am and then again from 3 to 6.30am
Un insulated tank keeps everything in the back frost free.
Water gets to about 50* and stays warm all day
Only fault was I fitted it at arms length in depth, 2/3rds of the way down. So it’s takes 5 houses or so to run warm. If I can get a second hand tank I would fit one as close to the bottom as I could using the demos on YouTube
Great option for a sole trader who uses around his tank a day.

[Smudger]

The problem with having heat in static is your heating water you may not use - I have 2000 litres static but don’t heat that as the vans also come back with 1/4 or 1/2 tank some days so your then adding hot to a large amount of cold

If you use 3kw you will require 16 amp sockets and a separate fuse in the main board for each heater - if you have 3 phase you can possibly  split that into single phase

I use 3 kw in 600 litres and the temp is around 50 degrees in the morning but the van is inside the unit - the tank is non insulated but water only drops 10 degrees over 6 hours

I have got 2 kw elements which I got direct from a manufacturer but not fitted them yet

Drilling a hole is very easy a hole saw set has the exact size required

Darran

[Perfect Windows]

Gas costs about 1/3 as much to heat water as electricity.  Have a central heating engineer fit a boiler in your unit with a heat exchanger inside your large static tank. (Or add a heat exchanger to the central heating if you already have it in your unit).  You'll also need to insulate the van tanks.

That way you could use gas to heat the water and save enough compared to electricity that you could pay for someone to come in at 6am to fill the vans with hot.

Vin

Vin

[֍Winp®oClean֍]

I have fitted 5, and gone through the 16amp upgrade with timers and external sockets to boot, however...... it'll cost you £500 for a personal consultation- based on it taking no longer than one hour over the phone!😘

[paul alan]

3kw in a 650, don't know what the temps are but the tank is like a giant radiator in the back of the van, keeps all the equipment warm.


The hoses are warm and supple still at 5 pm.

[nathankaye]

Haha
I think I've waffled enough on this subject.
(not having a pop Lee, more me getting it in b4 anyone else 😂)

[paul alan]

I'm going to fit fan jets all around the base of my tank, when it gets really cold I'm then gonna cut the top off and jump in for 30 mins on breaks.

[G & M]

where can you buy the 2000watt version?

[Perfect Windows]

Few thoughts:

It takes 4200 joules to heat a litre of water by 1 dec C. So to heat 5,000 litres by 50 deg, you need to put in 1.05 billion joules.

1kWh is 3.6 million joules.

So, assuming no heat loss in your static you'll need 291kWh, which will cost around £35 a night, just under £9,000 a year. If you heat over 12 hours, you'll need 8 x 3kWh immersion heaters so you'll be drawing about 24kW, around 100A. You might well need professional help to solve that.

If you did it with gas it'd cost roughly £12 in gas a night.

However, the problem with gas is that the capacity of a normal central heating unit may well not be enough so you'll need an industrial heating expert. Then again, you'd take your annual heating cost down to £3,000 so that'd be cheap at the price.

Incidentally, you'd also produce around 25 tonnes of CO2 every year, so you might want to consider offsetting that in some way.

Vin

[Spruce]

Few thoughts:

It takes 4200 joules to heat a litre of water by 1 dec C. So to heat 5,000 litres by 50 deg, you need to put in 1.05 billion joules.

1kWh is 3.6 million joules.

So, assuming no heat loss in your static you'll need 291kWh, which will cost around £35 a night, just under £9,000 a year. If you heat over 12 hours, you'll need 8 x 3kWh immersion heaters so you'll be drawing about 24kW, around 100A. You might well need professional help to solve that.

If you did it with gas it'd cost roughly £12 in gas a night.

However, the problem with gas is that the capacity of a normal central heating unit may well not be enough so you'll need an industrial heating expert. Then again, you'd take your annual heating cost down to £3,000 so that'd be cheap at the price.

Incidentally, you'd also produce around 25 tonnes of CO2 every year, so you might want to consider offsetting that in some way.

Vin

That in itself is a whole new logistical issue.

[AuRavelling79]

Vin at Perfect windows probably makes the best solution for a multivan operator.

For a sole trader, immersion is great and cheap to install.

For a multivan set up you need a more professional (legal/health and safety etc. - AND COST) approach.

[Jonny 87]

The more I’m thinking about this, I think diesel is the only option.

Yes it’s expensive, but it gives the results you will
Want.

Once it’s set up, it will only cost for 10 vans about £50 per day in running costs.

I’d start with your best employees vans and roll them out once every couple of months or so. Within 18 months they all will Have hot water.

Both gas and electric seem very difficult and costly long term for 10 + vans.

[david mark]

On my tank I have the 3 kW but have the flow controller  set on 20 with  2 ball valves fitted .
This improves the temp by pumping from the bottom of the tank and directing it via 15mm push first pipes to the top of the tank. The result the whole tank is warm instead of the top.