My boat had a small Force 10 cozy cabin heater that was simple and rather amazing. It heated the boat with nothing more than a Primus stove burner.
Designed for kerosine it worked better on #1 stove oil which is basically clean diesel. All you had to do to make #1 fuel work is to strain it through a couple layers of panty hose. The fuel oil burned a bit hotter than kerosine.
What was amazing about it was that it was small and didn't take up much space and worked on a simple principle. The Primus-type burner heated the sheet metal around it and the heat radiated.
It had a small, maybe 1 gallon pressurized tank whit a gauge on top of the filler cap and I never filled it more than 2/3s full so as to keep the pressure up as the fuel burned off. You'd fill the tank, cap it and pressurize it with a bicycle hand pump.
The next step was to preheat the burner. That was important and I learned fast never to take a shortcut. You'd fill the primer pan with alcohol pretty much to the top and light it. When the alcohol burned off the burner was preheated and you'd crack the fuel valve and light it off. Sometimes you could crack the valve as the last of the alcohol was flickering out and she's start burning. Then you'd adjust the flame, usually to full bore and in a fairly short time you could comfortably take your jacket off.
The thing vented through a 1" stainless steel pipe that U ran through the coach roof and had an excellent rain cap on it, This prevented the dangerous gases and odors from venting into the cabin. I never smelled any diesel or other aromas inside.
There was also another propane version. I had done my homework when I considered that one but I had gotten reports of moisture building up and it reportedly didn't burn as hot so I ran with the kerosine model.
While it certainly wouldn't be able to bake bread on the counter, it provided more than enough heat to be comfortable on really cold winter nights.
Over the years I have never stopped being amazed at how well simple things like that can work so well.
Of course now I live in a house with a fairly complex HVAC system and push a button a couple of times to regulate the temperature in the entire house but I often look back on things like that little cozy cabin heater and marvel at how such a simple thing could do such a good job of keeping me warm,
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