Espar heater and APU's

[LDB]

Does anyone have both the Espar heater and an APU on their truck? I got to thinking about it and the Espar is supposed to use only about half as much fuel as an APU uses, if not even less than that. You also reduce pm expenses on the APU as well as extending the useful lifespan. That got me wondering if it might not pay off over a couple years time to have both so you could reserve the APU for battery charging and air conditioning.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5507, 5508, 5509
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
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Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Broompilot]

Leo I am at a loss as the comment regarding the cost of maintenance. An oil change a Speedco is under $20.00 I probably spend less than $300 annunally on the PMs and belts. I just do not find this to be excessive and I service mine more than I should cause of the low cost at Speedco.

 

[cornerstone]

My understanding of the ThermoKing Tri-pac is that it is an apu and uses a seperate heater. In the winter you run your heater without the apu turned on and when the voltage gets to low the generator turns on to charge the batteries. This seems like the best setup but it does come at a higher price. I have heard over $9K. I wonder how long it would take to justify that cost.

Cornerstone

 

[LDB]

It's similar to fueling in Florida or Georgia. It isn't large amounts of money but it's enough to notice and add up over time. With a 400 hour service interval and a minimum of 10 hours daily APU operation during required DOT breaks that's a service every 40 days out. Add in the times where you sit over the weekend or have a less than 14 hour day and you could reach 400 hours APU run time in a month. When you're up north and it's below freezing 24/7 you have to have heat running 24/7. If the APU is 4 hrs/gal and the Espar is 12 hrs/gal then it's 6 gallons fuel for the APU or 2 gallons for the Espar. The APU pm goes from 30 days to maybe 75 days. Theoretically that's a savings of 300 gallons fuel and 1 pm in 75 days. Maybe it isn't worth it but it's something that crossed my mind and I thought I'd see if anyone had tried it.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5507, 5508, 5509
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Paul56]

>Does anyone have both the Espar heater and an APU on their
>truck?

We have both a ProHeat and an Espar, but not for the reasons you suggest below.

We want the redundancy in case of failure since we often run in very cold remote regions where a failure could mean major trouble.

The air conditioning is great but something of a luxury as compared to the need for heat.

>I got to thinking about it and the Espar is supposed
>to use only about half as much fuel as an APU uses, if not
>even less than that. You also reduce pm expenses on the APU
>as well as extending the useful lifespan. That got me
>wondering if it might not pay off over a couple years time
>to have both so you could reserve the APU for battery
>charging and air conditioning.
>

 

[LDB]

>We have both a ProHeat and an Espar, but not for the reasons
>you suggest below.
>
>We want the redundancy in case of failure since we often run
>in very cold remote regions where a failure could mean major
>trouble.

What is the approximate run time of your Espar on one gallon of fuel?

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5507, 5508, 5509
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Paul56]

Well, these are estimates: Proheat consumption 2.5 litres/hour, Espar at 2.0 litres/hour. The Espar unit is one of the larger ones rated at ~60,000 BTU. Conversion for you sensible folks State-side who haven’t gone metric: 0.66 gallon/hour and 0.53 gallon/hour respectively.

When calculating operating costs we round up and calculate at 1 gallon/hour consumption rate for both. The difference really doesn’t amount to a pile of beans either way, in any case I’d rather estimate a little higher than lower.