I am currently designing a diesel fueled hydronic system suitable for RVs. Hydronic heating has been done in RVs before, however there is not a simple package on the market in Australia to meet our needs.

3 Way Hydronic Systems!

Some features I beleive to important to Australian travellers are;

• Prolonged Free Camping Time
• Hot water heating
• Warm air heating
• Option to use caravan park 240v power for heating without a seperate system
• Ability to turn off air heating during summer and just have hot water
• Hot water to be instant, rather than having a heavy bulky hot water storage tank

The system I am currently designing would primarily be diesel powered, with the actual heater mounted underneath the van. A header tank with a Glycol solution would be mounted in a cupboard around benchtop height in the van. 

There would be an instant supply of hot water providing the diesel heater had been running for a few minutes.

When pluged in to mains power at the caravan park, a small system would help heat the Glycol solution faster and would help maintain the temperature, minimising the ammount of diesel consumed by the diesel heater.

While driving there could be an extra anderson plug connected to your tow vehicle battery to heat the Glycol via 12v power so that when you park, the waiting time for the diesel heater to warm up would be reduced, also saving diesel consumption.

Heat exchangers with 12v fans would provide warm air, these would be isolatable during warmer months to allow for hydronic hot water only.

Please take the time to answer the following questions about hydronic systems;