How to make a portable mini heater with your own hands
Portable heater – devices for short-term heating of objects in a room. They are in demand among tourists, fishermen, hunters, garage mechanics and ordinary people. Often when hiking/fishing you have to spend a lot of time in the same place or in a tent without heating. Conditions are not always favorable. Heaters save the day. Large models are used for heating small rooms - usually tents. But it is not always profitable to use such models. When fishing in the cold, your hands often freeze, and it is unwise to turn on a huge heater outside to warm your hands. There are portable mini heaters for this.
What are the main advantages of mini heaters? They are easy to install, quickly heat the room, consume little fuel, are safer than large devices, convenient, portable and small in size.
Want to make a portable heater? Then first familiarize yourself with their types. Afterwards we will look at how to make a simple mini-hand warmer, its operating principle, and also tell you how to make a simple warmer from several candles.
The content of the article
Types of portable heaters
Heaters are classified according to the fuel they use:
- gasoline,
- alcohol,
- gas,
- electric heaters.
They are further classified according to other characteristics - the method of fuel combustion, heat transfer, etc.
Alcohol The devices are the cheapest. They are easy to produce and can be found anywhere, as is the fuel for them. But their disadvantages are low efficiency and power, and at low temperatures (6 degrees) they will not start.
Gasoline heaters are very popular in the CIS countries. This is a relic from the USSR, when they were at the peak of their popularity. There are different models: open type, where users warm themselves directly from the flame; these can also be used for cooking; closed type, where heat is transferred through a coolant, and others. The main advantages of gasoline models: availability, low price and inexpensive fuel. Disadvantages: unpleasant smell, smoke, risk of fire/explosion.
Gas devices, like gasoline ones, come in several types, including closed and open types. You can cook on the open type. Closed ones are often equipped with a reflector that specifically heats a certain area. Advantages of gas heaters: cheap fuel, no smoke, availability, ease of use. Cons: explosive, low cost-effectiveness and efficiency.
Electrical models are probably the most comfortable. They and other equipment can be connected to one source. Among electric heaters, infrared heaters are considered the best. Their peculiarity is that the heat from them is transferred to objects, and not to the air, this significantly increases their efficiency. Advantages of electric heaters: efficiency, availability, price, cheap “fuel”. Disadvantages: low efficiency.
How to make an electric mini heater. Operating principle of an electric mini heater
First you need to choose the material from which you will make the heater.It is better to use refractory plastic or metal. Wood will not work - the heating element will set it on fire. In the case of plastic, the base design can be made on a 3D printer or cut and glued yourself. The metal base can only be made with your own hands.
You can also use a ready-made form. For example, an old incandescent lamp or watering can.
The shape of the heater will be in the form of a pyramid-like watering can. The base is a square for the cooler, the top is a rectangle for the heating element.
To make it you will need:
- Pencil, marker, ruler
- Cooler for power supply
- Soldering iron
- Wires
- power unit
- 12 Volt power cable
- Heating element (can be ordered from Aliexpress, price about 3 dollars)
- Ready-made mold/refractory plastic, scissors, glue gun/thin sheet metal, metal scissors
The first step is to make a drawing based on your parts. A cooler is taken as a basis - a square of 12 by 12 cm, and a cut pyramid is built from it. There is a heating element at the top of the cut pyramid. In our case, a rectangle 5 by 2 cm.
Skip the next step if you have a ready-made mold or are 3D printing it. If you are making a heater from plastic/metal, then cut out all the elements - eight plates (half of them are 12.3 by 2.3 cm, the second half is the width and height of the heating element + 0.3 cm), four trapezoids (depending on the size of your heating element) and a grate (also according to the size of the element).
3 millimeters are added to the elements for additional space - imperfections, hot-melt adhesive points, metal soldering.
Next, start assembling the base. First make a “winding” for the heating element. Check how it sits. Solder/glue the parts. Install the grill.The second step is to make a winding for the cooler. Also connect the cut out elements. Make sure the cooler is seated. Glue the cooler to the winding. Finally, start making the cut pyramid. Make a hole in one of the edges for the wires.
Next, solder two wires with the wires from the cooler. Connect the wires from the cooler to the heating element. Pass the outgoing wires through the hole in the pyramid. It is recommended to seal this hole with something. Connect all three elements.
Connect the wires from the heater to the 12 volt cable. Connect the cable itself to the power supply.
If you wish, you can make a base and a tripod for the heater.
How does this heater work:
The power supply supplies electricity through wires to the cooler and heating element. The element heats up, the cooler blows cold air from the room onto it. Hot air is blown out of the structure.
If you want to modernize/improve your design, use a more powerful element and install a radial fan.
Budget heater made from candles and flower pots
There is also a very simple version of the heater. It is made from several candles, two pots of different sizes for flowers and ceramic/metal dishes. Light the candles and place them on the dishes, cover them with a pot (there should be a hole in the bottom for drainage), and cover them with another, larger pot. All. The heater is ready.
The candles burn and heat the air. Warm air rises, passes through the openings of the pots and reaches the user. The movement of warm air resembles a mini fountain.
The effectiveness of such a device is very low, but it will save you in an emergency or when you have nothing to do.
