Heating!
The big question - what do I go for... probably the biggest question I have to ask myself on the self build! Do I go for a cheap 240v oil heater only on hook up or diesel... well over 50 hours of internet searching, I think I have the answer. GAS and hook up! The reason... mainly noise, diesel units need more maintenance and are really noisy.
The heater that I fitted was an Propex HS2000E (gas and 240v) so I looked on the internet and found one for £600 bargain! Over xmas I waited for the heater to turn up which it did.
Where to install it? In the end, the only place left was under the drivers side seat (a bit tight with all the support under the van but got it in):
From this picture you can see that it only just fits:
You can see the exhaust pipe goes to the back of the dub and the inlet comes just from the side can any one see the balls up!!! I didn't - I will go into more detail later!!!.
With the unit installed I piped the gas to the front of the unit:
...and the 240v supply to the rear only took about 5 hours to get to this stage! Well tested the 240v no problems, works a dream so hot so quick with 500w,1kw and 2kw settings but the gas system would not fire (pardon to pun!) I was getting a 4 light error! I checked everything couldn't see any problems so I emailed the manufactures. Propex heat source (http://www.propexheatsource.co.uk) and await an email back.
I got to speak to a guy called Richard on the support team who couldn't help enough we quickly found that the fault was mine! remember the the shortened inlet pipe, well you can't just cut the pipe down! it has to be .75 of a meter for the right air flow.
So I put a second pipe I had left over due to only cutting one pipe down! but guess what still I got the error..... I was starting to lose the plot but Richard was up for the challenge so I got half a day off work and drove over to their unit in Southampton. The rain was coming down so I drove it into there goods inwards bay and Richard soon was under the dub checking out my work! He pulled off my inlet and exhaust pipes and tested with two .75m pipes which did not work! and then with two 1m pipes which worked (and a very big smile on my face!).
The new pipes fitted:
It looks like the problem was my Camping Gaz regulator, I need to get a new one but I now have a new set of 1m pipes so if a regulator ever goes I know what will fix it.
I have now run this new heating system for a week and I'm so happy this unit is a must! if you're at a campsite you can use hookup (which for me is 95% of the time) and the times we do wild camping we have the gas system.