Comment

Comment by John Austin on January 9, 2017 at 2:48pm

I had a cousin who was a mechanical engineer who designed and installed industrial heat and air handling equipment.  He gave me a couple of precautions on home-brewed aircraft heaters: Don't use an overly-constricted duct that will generate much back-pressure.  Most household heater fans aren't designed to "push" or pressurize air and depend on the free-flow of air to cool the heater and keep the heater and fan within a reasonable operating  temperature range.

He also advised that the duct be sufficiently long so the heater/heat source is not directly under the cowl - in the event of a heater fire, you won't burn up your airplane!

Looks to me that David's design meets those criteria!  Looks good!

Personally, I like the Hornet Aircraft Heaters, but they are defintely expen$ive!!!

John

N750A

Comment by Ari Hulkkonen on January 9, 2017 at 1:52pm

Nice work!  

In Finland we have been using electric heaters based on exactly the same concept for years.  Some guys use oil-burning heaters but I have an electric Defa car interior heater blowing hot air under the hood. 1,5 - 2kW is required for cold winter days. That's compact enough to be thrown on the luggage compartment for overnight trips. Getting the mains connection down there is an other story then :)

Comment by David Orr on January 9, 2017 at 11:31am

$50 pre-heater made from hardware store parts.

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