Why doesn't smartveg use electrical fuel heaters?

Put simply, they’re are an ineffective and inefficient way of heating veg oil. A simple bit of mathematics will show you why...

Efficiency: Most electric heaters draw around 150 to 200 Watts of power. There’s no such thing as free power - that additional 200W needs to come some from somewhere: your fuel tank. You’ll burn more fuel to supply the required 200W.

Electrical Stress. Your alternator has been designed to supply the maximum you’re your car will reasonably need. This is likely to be headlights, rear window demister, heater fan & wind screen wipers all operating simultaneously on a cold winter’s day. If you then expect the alternator to supply an additional 200W (14Amps) you will invariably be exceeding its design limit. This over stressing of the alternator will be reflected into a shorter operating life. It’s worth remembering that engine components like alternators are ‘cost reduced’ components – a manufacturer will fit the lowest cost part to achieve the design functionality. They will not build in spare, more costly capacity.

Ineffective. From our extensive work with infrared imaging, we’ve concluded that electrical heaters simply cannot deliver the required heating power. Let us explain: on a cold start, your injection pump and engine block are at the same temperature. Starting the engine (a source of 55,000W minimum of power & heat) causes this large thermal mass to start warming. The injection pump is another thermal mass in loose thermal contact with the source of heat - the engine block.

Now, dumping a mere 200W into veg oil entering the injection pump does little to raise the actual temperature of the pump – any heat the fuel may have is quickly stripped away by the colder metal surfaces (higher mass) of the pump. Thermal contact with the still colder mass of the engine block further ensures that heat energy is quickly removed from the veg oil.

Only when the engine block has raised its temperature to move from being a heat sink to a heat source can vegetable oil be safely and reliably delivered to the injection pump. At this point, the extremely close tolerances inside the injection pump will be less subject to change through thermal inbalance and therefore less likely to fail due to premature changeover to veg oil.

Smartveg closely monitors your injection pump temperature to ensure correct thermal stability has been reached before allowing changeover to veg oil.

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