Heating/using a caravan in the winter
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£5 a night is a lot!
At 15p/KWH thats 33kwh in 24 hours or 1.3KW continuous.
1.3kw continuous is a lot, the heating is cyclic and once our van reaches the temp defined by OH then it only has about a 20% run time on 1KW setting to keep our largish van unbearably warm!
This gives about 3KWH overnight (6KWH if run in the day as well)
The fridge is about 200w, or 0.2KWH so 5KWH for 24 hours
The lights, TV etc are about zero when offset for the panels but even if no panels then it would struggle to use 1KWH
Assume 4 kwh for hot water ( 2KW 30 min for 4 tanks)
I would struggle to use half of the assumed 33KWH even in winter. In summer we virtually dont use the heater at all!
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It does depend on how cold it is outside. At the extreme end of the spectrum during the beast from the east 2, our heating didn't switch off set at 2 kw. So we would have been using 48kw per day on that alone.
Also I remember one of the CL owners quoting what they had to pay for electricity and therefore pass onto the client. It was considerably more than 15p a unit.
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It also depends on how well insulated your van is, not all vans in use today have the latest levels of insulation.
Our 2008 Sterling twin axle, with Alde heating, dates from before the new, better, levels of insulation, and also only has the 2kw Alde, so to keep it warm when it is very cold, heat water for dishwashing and showers, and run the fridge etc can easily take 40kwh of electricity per 24 hours, and sometimes we need to boost that with gas too. Especially when it is also windy.
We know it can use much as we have a device that measures use fitted in the system. This was to monitor use on metered sites abroad, to avoid unexpected bills, but is useful here too. The 40kwh was recorded one very cold mid March day at Harrogate Club site.
When cold, we leave it at 18degrees when out for the day, and overnight it is set to 13 degrees. While sitting in the van we set it to 23 degrees, put a thick rug on the floor, and block off as many draughts as possible. Below the cooker is especially bad!
Fortunately for site owners, we normally only go away between late March and late October these days.
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For some years we wintered in Spain. Lovely sunny days but quite coild (between 3 and 15C from 6pm until 8 am. If we used metered electric for TV Cooking hot water and heating we would regularly use more than 20KWh, and perhaps 24KWh. In the UK living our cold winter the same way I would expect at least 24KWh/day. In Spain the large motorhomes were consuming over 40KWh on one overnight stay, which the site had to stop as it was included in the pitch fee for a single night.
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I would also Like to ask a question on leaving gas heating on all night.
I also have trauma heater gas and electric. The electric part of it is broken, I knew that when I bought my motorhome.
I was out early December this year when the weather was minus degrees!
I really I did'nt know if I should trust using gas heating while asleep!
I have a carbon monoxide monitor sat on table. Should I trust my life to a small device to alert me of gas fault!
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It's really down to you. A lot of people do sleep with their gas on and some don't, and I'm sure many will say that it is safe and I don't dispute them (I tend not to use gas except for cooking) but no one can decide for you except you. You'll be the one sleeping there.
Also a carbon monoxide won't detect a gas leak only (I'm sure you know that) it only detects the toxic CO caused by a gas using appliance having a fault like your heater, have you checked the batteries and pressed the test button?
Hope this helps somehow?
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KjellNN
Do you know if when the caravan is drained down for winter if you can still hook up to electric ( at home) and keep the heating on about 10 degrees to keep the van aired ?
we have a Elddis crusader storm 2018 with alde heating
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Ratty, why not consider a small oil filled radiator to use at night time? It’s an item quite a few MH owners use, often just to keep the cab area that bit warmer. It might be just what you need for overnight. Silent, but safer than gas. Obviously you need to be on hook up. Around £20 for a small size (stores behind our cab seat) at Dunelm.
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Yes, as ET said, no problem. We set ours to 5 degrees all winter, just to make sure nothing freezes, though we do drain down all water.
Then, a week or two before going away in March we step it up a bit each day.
Been really cold here recently, our electricity bill will be huge!
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