Completed Homemade Propane Forced Air Heater

This is the completed (as far as I plan on completing it) propane forced air heater. The fan is from a kitchen exhaust vent hood. The rest is just various pieces of 6" and 8" ductwork and 1/4 galvanized piping. The final piece to get the flame right was the polyurethane can in the back-center of the inner tube. In this run I estimate it to be putting out around 100,000 BTU, but by reducing the amount of air bypass I can get it up to at least 200,000 BTU, limited only by how much gas the 20 lb. cylinder will put out.

For those interested I made a forum thread covering the process. http://backyardmetalcasting.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3967

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• propane
• heater
• forced
• air
• homemade
• home
• made
• diy
• do
• it
• yourself
• fire
• flame
• gas
• combustion
• furnace

[Davidbzm01]

thats find and dandy but your still breathing exhaust

[ab48726]

@Davidbzm01 Technically, so are you. It's just CO2 and H2O, the same things that we humans exhale. As long as it remains below a certain threshold and relatively free of CO emissions it is perfectly safe. I usually get headaches from heaters that put out CO and I can recall a few kerosene heaters that did.

[andrew0901280]

how long does it heat with that twenty pond propane tank

[ab48726]

@andrew0901280 I'm not really sure, my tank was about 3/4 full when I started the project. After about 2 hrs or so of experimenting it was down around 1/4. Then I probably got about another 1 1/2 hours or so out of that. So probably somewhere around 4-6 hours at medium heat, of course you can crank it up higher.

[andrew0901280]

dang i was hoping for somthing a little more eficient but i like it

[ab48726]

@andrew0901280 of course that is putting out probably 150,000 BTU at least.

[pclle]

@ab48726 just like a direct fired make up air for kitchen applications, it's 100%efficient lol,

[01SnakeBite]

looks like a ricer muffler tip

[oilfield666]

i take my tiger torch and stick it into a tin 5 gallon pail laid on its side....throws out alot of heat. i prefer it more then my kerosene heater

[ryanthescooterguy]

Making heaters is very dangerous!

[andrew0901280]

oh wow ya so you could shut it down every noy and then and make it last