Winter storage and central heating
I am in the fortunate position of having a locked shed on my farm to store the caravan in. The shed has electricity so I am able to keep the caravan plugged in to the mains. The question is 'can i keep the central heating on in the caravan when it is in the shed?' Or is it better practice to drain down the system and keep it unplugged?
Comments
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We too are in the fortunate position of keeping our van at home (but not under cover) and keep it permanently plugged in to the mains. In the colder months, we plug in a small heater on a timer rather than the van's central heating.
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Drain the system? If you have wet Alde heating there's anti-freeze in the the system so no need to drain. Our caravan lives at home too but though it's plugged into the mains I only have the battery on charge as I've never seen the point of heating the caravan while there's no one in it.
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If it’s an Alde system it has antifreeze anyway and also be wary of fumes building up in the shed from the boiler exhaust.
A shed gives you more protection than leaving the caravan outdoors and should be good enough without heating but if you wish to keep the heat ticking over then a small oil filled radiator plugged into the mains would be best.
Personally I would say that the significant cost of the fuel used is an unnecessary extravagance with limited advantage.
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I drain down the hot and cold water system, my van is outside and plugged into the mains electric, The heating is set at 10 C , there are no fumes on electric. From time to time I run the heating up to 20 C to air the van, It has been know for me to take a book and sit in the van reading. and even falling asleep. thinking of all the great days out I have had.
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Heating a caravan when it is not in use is a complete waste of energy.
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If the heating has a frost protection setting, that will suffice. Otherwise, it’s personal choice whether to heat or not. One school of thought suggests heating it will encourage condensation and mould due to temperature fluctuation. I don’t think I’d bother seeing it’s in a shed. Our van stays plugged in at home for battery charging because the SP can’t cope but nothing else is turned on.
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1994 swift no heating in van all these years no mould on furnishings ,natural air flow , just adjust cushions away from walls
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That's exactly what I do
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Agree one hundred percent, in fact I would actually suggest it does more harm than good, heating and cooling the van creates condensation. In over twenty years of ownership of motorhomes and caravans I`ve never heated or used dehumidifiers etc and never had any issue whatsoever, except one season when I put a so called breathable cover on a caravan - result was internal damp which caused mildew.
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Don’t have any experience of Alde heating system but I do drain down all other water tanks/pipes/boiler heater/flush tank/loo & leave all taps & cupboard doors open to encourage air circulation if LV is to stand for any period especially if frost may occur. Also keep it plugged in but have never used heating. Have occasionally moved bench seat cushions indoors.
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2016 Coachman Pastiche 575, with Alde heating.
Mine has over wintered for 3 years in a field, wind chill the lot. It isnt plugged in.
Drain the hot and cold thoroughly, I also take the filter out the onboard pump, leave all taps open and that's it. Never had any issue with caravan or battery. First trip out in February mind, bed is as cold as a slab of butchers marble!
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We don’t heat ours during winter as it’s in storage. Just throughly drain down water system. Alde heating system has its own antifreeze so just leave that. We take out some seat cushions and carpet. We do have a fitted winter cover to keep it clean and dry, and a solar panel to keep the battery charged. This has worked well for us for many years now. It seems a waste of power to heat an unused caravan.
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Great help. Thanks everyone for all the comments.
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Alan, i thought caravanners drained their water system (hot and cold) on leaving site, even in summer, as they are apprehensive about carrying 10kg of water in the boiler or is this not the case?
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We drop the hot water tank but don't always blow out the pipes for winter. Normally we have few nights likely to be a problem and so the Alde will not get much use but the position of the pipes in sub zero weather is such as to protect system.
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what?
i asked a perfectly sensible question re winter draining (of the engine driver
) and you replied with some oily twaddle, as usual..ive read many times of caravanners not wanting to carry the extra weight, especially as some boilers are at the rear and may cause 'pendulum" issues.
even caravans with fresh water tanks probably wont carry that water around with them for the above (and payload) reasons.
no one mentioned dumping grey waste (or whatever you were wittering on about) so ill await Alans response....as im interested in what he has to say, not you and your perpetually skewed agenda
edit: thanks Alan, as I suspected
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thanks, David..
my point to Alan was re: his response to DD's post where he said 'he did the same', but in fact DD doesnt drain down and uses the Alde system to avoid a freezing situation.
whereas Alan does 'drop the hot water tank' and would be unlikely to have a cold water system operative either.
although Alan does set the heating to 5 deg....some warer still lying in pipework?
Like DD, i dont drain down (unless a hugely unusually long period of deep frost is forecast)...we actually had a (slight) frost last night, lovely clear skies yesterday, but all gone by breakfast time.
priming the water system every time you arrive on site is just another task i dont wish to carry out.
the weather we get here is unlikely to cause any 'water' issues....although heating set to 5 deg
(it will rarely kick in).1 -
So, don’t take the bait - simple. 👍🏻
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but you did ,again but then a sense of humour is not allowed