What is the best way to heat Van
As the cold weather begins we are thinking of making a small tour late October by then it could be very unpleasant or nice and warm.
I'm sure there are many avid late campers out there, the question is what is the best way to keep comfortably warm
Is it by using Gas Or Electric I would never sleep in the van with gas being used is this being too safe?
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October is not a particularly cold time of year compared to December and January. We have never been away in snowy conditions but we have with heavy frost so below freezing outside in December. We tend not to leave the heating as a matter of course over night but if we wake up and its cold we have been known to put the electric heating on. Generally it only needs to be a fairly low setting, say 15/18 degrees to keep the cold at bay. In a caravan you have a slight advantage over a motorhome as the cab area can be a source of cold depending on the layout of the sleeping accommodation.
David
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Electricity wins hands down especially if the cost is included in the site fee. You will use a lot of your expensive gas if you use it to heat the caravan. If you use gas, the flu is vented to the outside and should be checked on the service if it goes out the safety turn off should operate.
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We do not caravan mid winter, but have had early Feb temperatures with frost. Gas to warm up quickly as the Truma unit is generally about 3.5kw. After that electric on low works well.
Colin
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We caravan all the year round, regardless of the weather, provided of course that we can get to our chosen sites, and heat the van during the day using our electric heating. We always switch it off before going to bed, (and if we go out for the day), but will switch it on prior to us getting up in the morning if we feel cold. We do carry a small electric heater which we will use occasionally on arrival on site while we are setting up, before switching over to the van's own system. We don't use gas for heating except in dire emergencies.
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Should have said earlier that we prefer using electrics for heating. Would only use gas, with the electrics if we needing a quick boost to the temperature. Obviously it depends where you are camping and whether you have electrics available. Like Nellie we don't leave the heating on if we out out during the day, always found the Truma heating quite quick to warm up on the return to the van.
David
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Gas wins hands down especially if the cost of electric is metered and your gas is cheap and is pumped into a refillable supply. You will use a lot of expensive metered electricity if you use it to heat the caravan, especially in very cold weather.
With an external gas flue it's perfectly safe to heat the van using gas whether you are awake or asleep, after all, the fridge can run on gas overnight when not on a hook up.
in essence, if you've paid for your leccy then use it, if not then gas will be better, or even use 'mixed mode' which uses more gas at heat up time but gradually cuts out and leaves the system using just electric once up to temperature.
No single answer, different circumstances demand different options.
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I use a convector heater, which is nearly always just used on a very low setting to take the chill off on cold days, which is not too often, as i don't tour between November and March. I don't leave it on if there is no-one in the van nor overnight.
Whilst we are on the subject, personally I would much prefer a lower pitch price and a pay as you use it, electricty charge.
Digressing slightly, I was very surprised not too long ago when it was hot weather, to find the radiators on in the facilities block, at around 6 am in the morning and wondered if they are on all night, even throughout the summer months.
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We tour all year round, even in the coldest periods, and in snow. We prefer to use electric heating if hooked up, best thing we invested in heating wise was a very small oil filled radiator that sits in the cab, silently, and with a thermostat, overnight. Safe, silent, and we never wake up with that dry, fuggy head that being too warm can give you. We paid £20 at Dunelm. It slots away behind passenger seat when not in use. We might use gas heating to get a quick boost when arriving back on pitch.
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We also use the van all year round and if there's no financial penalty, will heat it using electricity. However, we are on a CL with metered electricity next week and I know from our previous trip there, that running on electricity will cost us over £10 per day (if it's cold) whereas running on gas will bring the cost down to just over £5 per day. Quite a big difference. Plus with two Safefills we have plenty of gas and it's cheap!
I did think about going the whole hog and getting a big portable solar panel but since Skybarn is the only site we have encountered (so far) with meters, I would have to use an awful lot of electricity to justify the cost of going solar.
One little device I bought last year which has proved to absolutely brilliant is one of those plug-in ceramic heaters. Cost about £15 and only uses 500w - so cheap to run. We use it in the bathroom for 10 minutes prior to having a shower (the bathroom is at the end of the blown air run and is always cold) and it's really effective.
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Whilst lots camp all year round, not many of them will be camping off grid in deepest winter as there just isn't enough solar for things like ebike charging...
to that end, almost every 'winter camper' will be on hook up and it's then when you make the decision to use it for heating or not depending on how it's funded.
even on hook up, if it's metered we probably wont use it for heating as our gas is so cheap. If it's really cold, a small oil filled radiator wont make much of a dent in the cold but they are good for background heat overnight, as you say.
we still have one but it gets so little use it seems to stay in the garage at home. We also have a small fan heater but that's fairly redundant too...
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Yes, know what you mean YT. I think we are hardier than most, and even at home don’t like an over warm house. Rare we have any heating on at all overnight. That little radiator does of course need to be plugged in.
If we are on a no hook up site, with our bikes, we usually negotiate bike battery charging for a small fee. Many CLs, particularly the older ones are still happy to charge up batteries. Neither of us is totally reliant upon batteries on bikes, and if we take bikes, we usually have our riding days, hook up days, sorted out. We have battery recharge packs as well, and our bike batteries offer chance to recharge other things like phones and IPads, Fitbits, etc…. There’s usually a cheap work around😁
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Thank you all for the informative comments It looks as though I will invest in a small portable .
heater in addition to the gas and electric already in the van I should be able to stay comfortably warm.
Just hope the temperature outside keeps at around 15 degrees then I would not need to use
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The heater in your van should be sufficient to keep you warm without an additional heater, plus bear in mind you can only use so much power at any one time.
However, carrying a small plug in heater, like a fan heater, is good in case the van heating conks out.
This happened to us when in Germany one year, and it was below zero. The 2kW fan heater kept us snug until I made the repair.
We have the Alde wet heating system, but ours is only the 2kW model, so if it is very cold it can struggle. When that happens we turn it to gas as that provides 6kW, and like YT we have cheap gas via refillable bottles.
Usually running it on gas for an hour is sufficient and we can then revert to electricity.
No problem with using gas overnight since the boiler is vented to outside and is perfectly safe, though we rarely need any heating on overnight. We set the overnight temperature at 13 degrees and it has rarely come on.
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richardandros I too have SafeFill but normally use electric. On your point about electric meters I was on Culloden Club site when I mentioned to a warden that a vehicle was using the hook up to re-charge the battery. They mentioned that they could do so if they paid (I think £9 per day) but this particular person had not paid. They said too it was becoming a problem where vehicles were plugged in overnight on the sly and as a result the Club was investigating installing pitch meters at its sites This seems the only way forward otherwise members will be subsidising those with EVs who choose not to declare but hookup.
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Tirril
The sad thing is the minority will once again dictate the policy and we will all be paying more because these meters will cost to install and read, I'm in no doubt the meters will come.
However when they do, the club and Cls must adjust their site fees they all used the increase in elec price to hike the fees but now the elec price is going down they definitely will not be dropping their site fees.
We mostly use CLs and they now run from £20 to £25 with no frills not even an on site loo
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There will be a few of us on here who remember when not all pitches had electrics and a bit like a serviced pitch today you had to pay extra if you wanted to hook up. We seem to have turned full circle. The Club have been concerned about the amount of energy used on their sites for years but the only action they have taken is to put up notices in toilet blocks asking members to use electricity wisely. Throw into the mix PHEV and EV cars and you have another demand on the use of electricity. There could be flaws we are yet not aware of but metering seems to be the only way it can go? That way those who wish to be profligate with their use of electricity will have to make a fair contribution to the cost. The system used by the Club seems to be quite good in that you set up an online account to which you add credit. After a site visit you can either ask for a balance refund or carry it over to the next site. Some commercial sites use the same system but I don't know what options there are to share the accounts between the Club and a non-club site. All we need now is a timetable for implementation.
David
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Just checked our usage at Skybarn Farm over our first 24 hours. Ran heating (briefly, this morning) and hot water on gas. Total electricity cost has been £1.50. That's battery and phones etc charging, large fridge/freezer and wifi running on electricity. This compares with just over £5 for the same period in March - but it was very cold then.
Considering that the pitch fee has been reduced from £25 to £20 to take account of the metered electricity, I am well in front - and quite pleased, especially considering the Safefill gas cost will be negligible.
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For comfortable winter stops, Alde central heating with its thermostat managing internal temperatures, reduced at night, has been a game changer. We used a small oil filled radiator and fan heater to supplement our van’s convector in earlier models. Maintaining comfortable internal temperatures is only one consideration out of season, occasionally in snow - muddy feet, damp clothing, frozen water supplies and condensation can all be overcome, at a cost in terms of more effort. Today’s challenge for us isn’t cold, but surviving 30+ deg summer temperatures.
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