Thanks Woof for the orientation thing - that was irritating me to no end haha
It can be used to dry hair - once. If you want to dry it repeatedly, you have to wait for it to grow back to dry it again.
I had actually considered the issue with airflow interfering with complete combustion, but even with their gigantor counterparts, they never ran long enough to reach any level I could detect (symptom-wise). Turns out the CO detector I had was a busted POS, but that's another story.
Likewise, this little gem doesn't need to run long either to warm up the space, albeit a little longer than the above mentioned propane hogs. Add that to the fact that the flame is so small (CO production being proportional to the propane burned) and it probably doesn't produce much more toxin than the typical candle (or maybe two). With the other methods (actual bonifide catalytic heater, and a gas cooking apparatus), I would be lucky to get a couple nights worth of heat out of them, and at that, the thermal cycling was ridiculous. I would wake up every couple hours (if that) from an impending chill, and have to light them off again for a few minutes and then kill them, and try to go back to sleep. With all that propane being burned so quickly, there's no telling how much CO was being produced. That said, I'm still working on the cylinder in the pic above, and while from time to time the other methods would use the gas fast enough to cause frost on the cylinder, this typically gets barely a chill to the touch.
With this, I can run it boosted up for about 5 minutes to get the air up to temperature, then pull it back to barely on, and cook it for another 15 minutes. Doing it this way, for whatever reason, ends up in a long lasting heating after I cut it off, and then I can go to sleep without having to light it back up again (at least for now, until the temps really drop).
Of course, CO *IS* still a concern, and I will be mitigating 2 issues at once when I install the vent fan this weekend. Its primary purpose originally was to bring in fresh air to displace smoky air (without causing a draft), but the air change will be more notable for the removal of any CO that might be present. It will be a 4" fan mounted on a partition between the cabin and cargo areas, to pull in fresh air via the front windows, thermally buffered by the cabin. There are a few ways for the "dirty" air to leave the back of the van from there. There will even be a light trap to help thwart those irritating wally world managers.
I have a LOT of upgrades that have been done, and pics all along the way, so when the process is finished, you guys will have quite the transformation to see.
Steve