Best way to heat a cabin?

[l008com]

So imagine a 20 HP machine, with plexiglass all around it enclosing it. This is going to be a winter/snow machine. In a general hypothetical setup like that, which is the better/simpler solution for heating the cabin?

Finding a liquid cooled engine, installing a radiator and a heating coil and heating up the inside the way a car does?

Using a more common air cooled engine, and using electrical power to run an electric heater to warm the space?

Is there another option? Some kind of device that can turn mechanical shaft power off the engine directly into heat in a way that won't wear out?

This whole idea is in the pre-pre-pre-pre-planning phase. At this point I'm just dreaming. And I'm trying to figure out what I'm dreaming of. A 20 HP v-twin, and a heated seat would be real nice in an enclosed cabin. But with snow flying, and just for overall comfort when its 10° out, an actual heater would be really useful.

 

[Sparkwizard]

Air cooled engines blow alot of hot air out into the atmosphere. Build or find some kind of damper to divert some heat from the head and cylinder area of the engine. Be sure not to get any exhaust. Liquid cooling is probably preferred, but is heavy and much more complicated.

Electric heat is very hungry for power and not fun in wet, cold environments.

 

[Thepartsguy]

The best way to heat a cabin in my opinion would be build the cabin near flowing water.

Big water wheel with a pulley and belt system runs the gen head all day long at 3,600 like any normal generator and plug in your furnace.

So basically run a small gas engine off water Will loose heat when the river finally freezes

 

[Sparkwizard]

I just exhaled hot coffee onto my desk. Thanks, Buddy!

 

[Hellion]

Air cooled engines blow alot of hot air out into the atmosphere. Build or find some kind of damper to divert some heat from the head and cylinder area of the engine

He’s right. You have free fan-forced air blowing over a large heat source (the engine). Do it the air cooled VW Beetle way. Although the engine was in the extreme rear of those cars, the heat was conducted off the exhaust pipe heat exchangers and forward through ducting, but all from the cooling fan, no extra electric fan. Get some of that flexible exhaust piping and run it right off the engine. You might have to cut a hole in the engine tins.



Show us what you’re working with.

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Small airplanes do that too.
Ducts around the exhaust pipe and forced into the cabin.

 

[Denny]

You could also light the cabin on fire. But you don’t have any temperature control that way. And it’s pretty much a one and done. Then you get to build a new cabin to help keep you warm for the rest of the winter.

Hot water heat exchanger!

 

[l008com]

Thank you for your answers, some were.... more helpful than others

I was thinking about this all day and yeah, it makes no sense using an electric heater or a physical mechanical heater, both of which are going to steal engine power and make this thing use more gas.

The only thing that makes any sense is using "free" waste heat. Exhausts get good and hot so maybe I can do some kind of heat exchanger around the exhaust, without accidentally CO poisoning myself. It may be that finding a water cooled engine is the best solution after all. A little more complicated than the other setups, but the heat would be totally free. And its not THAT complicated.

 

[Hellion]

Exhausts do get good and hot, that’s why VW used exhaust pipe heat exchangers for maximum effect and (probably) because the heat had to go a long way to and through the *passenger compartment*. By the time it got to the front seats, it might “forget” that it’s supposed to be hot air if you catch my drift, so they tapped the heat from the hottest parts of the engine.

Despite that, the air cooled engine is a natural choice. Water cooled engines run about 180-200F but air cooled engines run about a hundred degrees hotter …and that flywheel blower is always spinning.

 

[Sparkwizard]

You could use the hot air coming from the cooling shroud and also route the exhaust through a pipe routed near your feet and back outside, behind the cabin. No fans needed. Any muffler shop can bend you a pipe to go near or below your feet.

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

https://a.co/d/0iyPFZEL

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Seems kind of obvious glowing orange like that.

 

[Denny]

And don’t go swimming or take a bath with it plugged in!