Home / Heating

Carmen is fitted with a 5kW diesel heater which takes fuel from the main fuel tank. It's controlled by an "Afterburner" smart controller which adjusts the power to reach and maintain the desired temperature. Once activated it will start/stop the heater automatically.

Note: The heater uses a glow plug to start and stop heating. When starting this can take a few minutes before the fan starts, when stopping you'll hear the fan speed increase as it burns off excess fuel and cools down, this process takes around 5 minutes and is normal. The controller will indicate any errors on the screen.

Safety

Carmens diesel heater is a very efficient and safe device. It has an external air intake and exhaust for combustion underneath the van, this is fully sealed from inside the van. Internally it simply circulates air over the heater body.

You may hear a faint clicking noise while the heater is running, this is normal and is the sound of the fuel pump under the van.

Warning: The air outlet in the bench will be hot when the heater is operating. You should avoid placing sensitive items in front or block the outlet.

Heater Operation

The heater is easy to operate and shouldn't require any adjustment other than on/off, up and down.

Key

1. Temperature Up
2. Menu Left
3. On/Off
4. Menu Right
5. Temperature Down

Starting

To start the heater press and hold centre button 3 for a few seconds. The heater will then either display "Starting" or "Suspended". If it shows "Starting" then in a few minutes it will begin to heat up the van, if it shows "Suspended" then it means the temperature inside is within 2 degress of the set temperature. If you press button 1 to raise the set temperature mroe than 2 degrees it will then start.

Stopping

To stop the heater press and hold centre button 3 for a few seconds. If the heater is currently heating, it will then say stopping and run through a cooldown process which takes a few minutes. While this happens it will continue to blow warm air to cool down the heater body to prevent damage.

Fan Speed

You may notice the fan speed starts off quite fast which can be noisy, this is directly related to the heat output andis designed to bring the van up to temperature as efficiently as possible.

As the temperature in the van starts to warm up the fan speed and heat output will decrease and slowly adjust to try and maintain the desired temperature. If the heater detects the van is getting too warm, even on lowest output then it will "Suspend" and restart when the air temperature has dropped a bit.

If the cycling on/off is too regular disturbing sleep you can open a window to help ventilate and regulate the temperature, however be aware that this may increase the fuel usage.

Fuel

Diesel fuel for the heater is drawn from the main fuel tank and is generally very economical. It should stop before the tank is completely empty but if you are stationary for a long time with the heater running it is worth checking the fuel level occasionally.