What vehicle?
We have had a Webasto hydronic style combined central heating, hot water, engine pre heating in the OKA for nearly 8 years. Best thing since sliced bread.
Buy the bits and make it as simple or as complicated as you like.
I believe there are Chinese copies, but never seen one.
Cheers,
Peter
Truma make the combined air and water heaters, they are electric/diesel, there are also chinese copies by Belief and JP.
The standalone diesel hot water heaters are Webasto Thermotops and are available in petrol and diesel variants. they are basically a diesel burner with a heat exchanger which pumps heated coolant around a circuit through a calorifier (Hot water tank) which heats the water within the tank. They can also have little radiators (like a car heater core) which have a fan to blow cabin air through them to heat the living space. They have a few extra components like a header tank, fuel pump and the subsequent piping to connect each piece up so can need a bit of space. Quite a bit more than the Truma combi type unit which is all in one and quite compact.
