Fluid fuel heater to heat air and a method for operating said heater

A transportable fluid fuel heater to heat and introduce air into an environment to be heated, comprising:

• a combustion chamber;
• a fluid fuel supply duct arranged to dispense said fluid fuel into said combustion chamber,
• a forced ventilation device arranged to collect oxidizing air from the exterior of the heater and to introduce said oxidizing air into the combustion chamber, so that said oxidizing air can react with said fluid fuel to carry out a combustion in the combustion chamber;
• a flow rate variator device configured to vary the oxidizing air flow rate introduced in the combustion chamber by said forced ventilation device, between a minimum flow rate value and a maximum flow rate value;
• said flow rate variator device being manually adjustable by a user;
• and
• a reference device comprising a plurality of reference values of a parameter representative of the pressure and a plurality of reference temperature values of the environmental air upstream of the combustion chamber;
• a control unit configured to:
• (i) compare a measured pressure value of air upstream of the combustion chamber with the plurality of reference pressure values and select the reference pressure value that is nearest to the measured pressure value,
• (ii) compare a measured temperature value of air upstream of the combustion chamber with the plurality of reference temperature values and select the reference temperature value that is nearest to the measured temperature value,
• (iii) select an optimal setting value corresponding to the nearest reference temperature value and to the nearest reference pressure value;
• and
• (iv) suggest, to the user, the optimal setting value for the user to manually set the flow rate variator device, thereby adjusting the flow rate of oxidizing air introduced into the combustion chamber between the minimum flow rate value and the maximum flow rate value in accordance with the optimal setting value, as a function of the measured pressure value and measured temperature value of the air upstream of the combustion chamber, in order to provide the optimal flow rate of oxidizing air as the air density changes.