HOW DO YOU STAY WARM IN VAN DURING NIGHT

[Caz]

Hello folk
I've Truman blown air, off grid not good on batteries. How safe is it to leave the oven on. I've got the monoxide alarm. Does anyone else do similar? Graham

Oh dear, I do hope you are not serious?
On no account should you leave the oven on except when you are up and about and cooking with it.
The blown air heating discharges all noxious by products of combustion to the outside via the exhaust.
Any from the oven will come into the inside of your van.
Please don't do it.

 

[trevskoda]

We have Blown Warm Air heating that I believe runs off the vans diesel fuel does anyone know if this is an expensive way to heat? We have only used it a few times but its getting cold now!!

No its good though some folks use a seperate tank and burn gasoil 28sec which is home heating oil,a lot cheaper as no tax on it.

 

[trevskoda]

We use carp fishing sleeping bags, never yet needed heater on at night time.

So thats where carp sleep,theres me thinking it was under a stone

 

[dragonfl1e]

Always put the heating on! We're southern softies, have our electric blanket in the house, so make sure that our van is nice and cosy when we're out and about in the cooler months. We have lpg hot-air heating plus lpg water heater. Leave it on very low overnight, turn it off in the morning and only put it back on again from early evening.

 

[Deleted member 2784]

Denise Van Outen would be my ideal way to keep warm, alas she never returns my calls :-/

I've spent the last 12 days/ nights town wild-camping in my DIY stealth van. No heating, just a singe lecky blanket in the double bed and only an inch of polystyrene on the ceiling... on one night I was awoken by the inverter beeping 'goodnight Vienna' , - as I'd not driven that day the auxiliary batteries were exhausted... that was not a good night :-/

Once the lecky blanket [on low] has kicked in things are great until the odd drip of condensation can be heard hitting the floor or felt when it lands on my head. Bare feet on the ice cold floor when getting up for a pee during the night is an experience.

Despite all that I absolutely lurve sleeping in my van even though I might be found dead in it during a really cold snap..... ;-)

 

[The laird]

Does it not really pull your battery’s down when off grid ,ie heat on ,lights on etc

 

[Caz]

Yes but it's ok for a couple of nights, or if you are moving on every day. A solar panel helps a bit even in winter. Change lights for LEDs. Don't switch on more than you need.

 

[maingate]

My current van has the Alde heating system which is good ... apart from the temperature range being crap. It gets too cool and when it kicks in, it gets too warm. I have just pulled the thermostat out of the boiler and checked it was fitted correctly. It was not perfect but I will test it out sometime. If it is still not as good as I want it, I will modify it to work off a digital room thermostat (I have a copy of the wiring diagram).

 

[nabsim]

My current van has the Alde heating system which is good ... apart from the temperature range being crap. It gets too cool and when it kicks in, it gets too warm. I have just pulled the thermostat out of the boiler and checked it was fitted correctly. It was not perfect but I will test it out sometime. If it is still not as good as I want it, I will modify it to work off a digital room thermostat (I have a copy of the wiring diagram).

The eberacher thermostat I have seems to work pretty well Jim, not sure if you can use one of those or not. It’s fairly simple digital thing, small display up and down set point arrow buttons, button for turning fan on/off without heating, button for turning heating on and off. Don’t know if you need to fit their thermostats. It’s only for and air system I think so maybe no good.

 

[maingate]

It's a strange system Neil. There is a sealed tube inserted into the fluid reservoir in the Alde boiler, the Operating thermostat and Overtemperature thermostat are a push fit into this tube. The fluid temperature operates the thermostat and switches the boiler and Pump on or off. The thermostat has to be inserted in a particular way for some reason, probably to maximise efficiency as it needs to be hard up against the inner wall of the tube (it has a spring fitted to hold it against the tube). The thermostat in mine was slightly out of position axially. To renew the thermostat is not cheap as you have to purchase a complete unit which also contains a temperature regulating switch (see link).

https://www.leisureshopdirect.com/g...sories/alde-compact-3000-operating-thermostat

I have just finished checking it out (which means stripping out the wardrobe to gain access). I will need to put some water into the system and having a night away to see if it has improved matters but I am not confident it will be much different. If not then I reckon I can do away with the Alde thermostat and fit something like this:

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/myson-electronic-room-thermostat/

 

[nabsim]

Strange it has to go against pipe wall, if that’s the case I bet the trace heating thermostats you wrap round the outside would work. No idea where you could get these or if they work out cheaper than what you have seen though as it’s a good 20 years since I had any involvement with them. It won’t get proper water temp touching pipe, may not be that critical though for a domestic heating system.

If you go for the room one you may have to play around a bit to get the settings you need rather than reading exact temps but you can make almost anything work and it’s no fun trying to get in awkward places once you have passed about 45

 

[pj palance]

Oh dear, I do hope you are not serious?
On no account should you leave the oven on except when you are up and about and cooking with it.
The blown air heating discharges all noxious by products of combustion to the outside via the exhaust.
Any from the oven will come into the inside of your van.
Please don't do it.

yes heater or snuggle up tight be a wear of the gas ,ok, pj

 

[TR5]

With the Combi under the island bed, the bed is warm when you get in, when the heating is/has been on. I set the room temp to 14c for overnight, and to come on higher around 6.30am, so it's nice and warm when we rise.
It can get too hot under the bed from the latent heat, so I have fitted a 60mm vent into the garage area, with a thermostat controlled small 12v computer fan. It both keeps the under bed from getting too hot, and uses the waste heat to put some into the garage if necessary. Works very well.