I am currently in the pre-build stage of a Sprinter conversion. I am considering going with an Espar D5 hydronic system for both cabin heat and hot water heat and was hoping some you more experienced builders might be able to answer a few questions for me.
If I go with the hydronic diesel heater, I'll probably go with two or perhaps three supply diffusers and pipe a supply/return loop with glycol or similar to heat exchanger fan units at each diffuser location. My current thought is that for simplicity I'll omit the interconnection with the engine coolant. I'm a little baffled in that with a hydronic system, fan units with heat exchangers such as these should be mandatory for cabin heat, but I've only been able to find one manufacturer. The manufacturer is Kalori (which Eberspaecher now owns). I guess I wouldn't have any issues with using a unit similar to this https://kalori.com/us/products/heating-us/water-heater-us/silencio-fai/
I'm just wondering if anyone on the forum has used a cabin heat setup like this and can provide any insight regarding the do's and don'ts as well comment on the general performance. What would be a reasonable way to integrate a thermostat into the system, given the manual fan level settings on the Kalori units and knowing the hydronic loop would also include an exchanger in the hot water heater?
As far as using the hydronic loop to heat hot water goes, I was planning on using the isotemp Slim Square heater the built in heat exchanger. I would also utilize the 115v 750W heating element as backup. Can anyone provide a guess as to how capable the D5 hydronic loop is at heating hot water in this scenario? My thinking is that I would go with the "factory" controls for the electric heating element and generally use the hydronic and electric concurrently. I could wire a switch into the electrical connection so I could go with hydronic heat only if desired. Again, I'll need to figure out a reasonable way to integrate HW specific controls for turning the D5 on and off as well as a hydronic bypass for when cabin heat is needed, but HW is already at temperature. Any effective, but easy to implement ideas to accomplish this would be appreciated. Similarly, what would be the simplest way to do a hydronic bypass for the cabin heat exchanger fan units so I don't have cabin heat fan units acting like convectors when it's summer time when I still want the hydronic loop going for HW only?
The D5-E version appears to have a boost mode and generally lower power consumption compared to the S and SC models. Are there any benefits associated with the S and SC models that I should consider? The manufacturers data that I've found so far is very limited and it's difficult to determine what the differences are between models.
I'm trying to keep things simple and depending on how complicated things become I could end up just going with the D2 for cabin heat and electric only HW heat. Right now my biggest concern is controlling everything without getting too complicated. I'm pretty decent with electrical stuff and pretty terrible with plumbing stuff. My preference would be to go with hydronic, but unfortunately my tolerance for complexity in that category isn't quite what it should be.
If I go with the hydronic diesel heater, I'll probably go with two or perhaps three supply diffusers and pipe a supply/return loop with glycol or similar to heat exchanger fan units at each diffuser location. My current thought is that for simplicity I'll omit the interconnection with the engine coolant. I'm a little baffled in that with a hydronic system, fan units with heat exchangers such as these should be mandatory for cabin heat, but I've only been able to find one manufacturer. The manufacturer is Kalori (which Eberspaecher now owns). I guess I wouldn't have any issues with using a unit similar to this https://kalori.com/us/products/heating-us/water-heater-us/silencio-fai/
I'm just wondering if anyone on the forum has used a cabin heat setup like this and can provide any insight regarding the do's and don'ts as well comment on the general performance. What would be a reasonable way to integrate a thermostat into the system, given the manual fan level settings on the Kalori units and knowing the hydronic loop would also include an exchanger in the hot water heater?
As far as using the hydronic loop to heat hot water goes, I was planning on using the isotemp Slim Square heater the built in heat exchanger. I would also utilize the 115v 750W heating element as backup. Can anyone provide a guess as to how capable the D5 hydronic loop is at heating hot water in this scenario? My thinking is that I would go with the "factory" controls for the electric heating element and generally use the hydronic and electric concurrently. I could wire a switch into the electrical connection so I could go with hydronic heat only if desired. Again, I'll need to figure out a reasonable way to integrate HW specific controls for turning the D5 on and off as well as a hydronic bypass for when cabin heat is needed, but HW is already at temperature. Any effective, but easy to implement ideas to accomplish this would be appreciated. Similarly, what would be the simplest way to do a hydronic bypass for the cabin heat exchanger fan units so I don't have cabin heat fan units acting like convectors when it's summer time when I still want the hydronic loop going for HW only?
The D5-E version appears to have a boost mode and generally lower power consumption compared to the S and SC models. Are there any benefits associated with the S and SC models that I should consider? The manufacturers data that I've found so far is very limited and it's difficult to determine what the differences are between models.
I'm trying to keep things simple and depending on how complicated things become I could end up just going with the D2 for cabin heat and electric only HW heat. Right now my biggest concern is controlling everything without getting too complicated. I'm pretty decent with electrical stuff and pretty terrible with plumbing stuff. My preference would be to go with hydronic, but unfortunately my tolerance for complexity in that category isn't quite what it should be.