But heating medium sized van may be not enough
However a 500 watt fan heater ( in bursts ) could solve that !
Just commenting that if the Wallas cooker/heater doesn't quite warm say the rear of the vehicle.A 500w heater is only any use if you are out of the van all day and even then it will not provide heat for long.
I estimate that heating my van from 0800 - 2200 hours in Winter uses 2 kg of gas per day which is the equivalent of 28 kwh.
To put it another way, during the winer my van requires a 2kw heater on full time to keep cosy,
A 500w heater (via an inverter) will use around 45 amps.
Therefore, a 100 ah leisure battery will be flattened if you use a 500w heater for 1 hour.
This allows nothing for other power demands; cooking / fridge / etc
If you don't have Gas and you want to use the van in winter get a diesel heater.
What ever you decide to install do the sums before committing.
A 500w heater is only any use if you are out of the van all day and even then it will not provide heat for long.
I estimate that heating my van from 0800 - 2200 hours in Winter uses 2 kg of gas per day which is the equivalent of 28 kwh.
To put it another way, during the winer my van requires a 2kw heater on full time to keep cosy,
A 500w heater (via an inverter) will use around 45 amps.
Therefore, a 100 ah leisure battery will be flattened if you use a 500w heater for 1 hour.
This allows nothing for other power demands; cooking / fridge / etc
If you don't have Gas and you want to use the van in winter get a diesel heater.
What ever you decide to install do the sums before committing.
Yes the 500 watt just as a topup if the Wallas is not quite enough.I would agree with that about a 500w heater. We hadnt done a winter trip for a while but were away three weeks+ over christmas and New Year and pretty much had to have a 2kw electric heater on full whack to keep the van cosy while we were in it. I think it was better using the gas fire but 500w would not keep you warm in our van by a country mile. Its a big space to fill though the Kontiki 640 with two lounges.
What you need is a tea light under a plant pot.
That video is almost as bad as his first one, he is just regurgitating what’s been known for ages but in a bad light.
Stop getting them crap Ikea ones then and get some proper heat churned out. When all your tea lights flash over and blow your van up at least you will be warm.A tea light produces about 30w of heat.
To keep a moho warm requires about 2,000 w.
So you will need 2000 / 30 = 66 tea lights and cost under £1 an hour to run.
There are also other problems e.g. too many candles under a plant pot can cause the candle wax to reach flash point with the resultant explosion destroying your van.
Can a flower pot and tealight candle create enough heat to save you in a cold emergency?
We’ve been testing various prepping memes, like turning oranges into candles and using Doritos to start fires. Around this time of year we often see people share memes about using tealight candles and a terracotta pot to craft a DIY heater. So we built a couple of different versions ourselves...theprepared.com
Sorry. I should have said AUTOGAS and not LPG.
I have looked at diesel-blown air heating and water heating. There seems to be a vast difference in prices for heaters. from £80 for a Chinese type and extra for a heat exchanger that there are a lot of bad reports about, up to £1900 for a Truma setup.
As for windows any recommendations on makes of opening double-glazed windows?
I'd stay with gas for fridge an cooking & heating. Perhaps UK lpg pumps might get to be scarce but you can always fall back to bottled gas which will always be available at a price. I have always used French Intermarche bottled gas which is much cheaper than UK with bottle deposits around €5 available at most of their Supermarkets with filling stations some even have self service racks now.LPG
I am about to press start on the camper build. I have been hearing a lot about LPG not going to be available at many filling stations in the future. The question is should I build solo electric or bottled gas?
What about trips over 2 days? Depends on what type of camping you do and for how long I suppose. I've been abroad and off grid the whole time since early November, running a gaming laptop for hours every night and a portable twin tub every couple of days. Despite having a lot (665w) of solar and 460Ah Lithium I don't think it's a good idea having something as critical as a fridge being reliant on the weather. A week or two of dull conditions and you would really struggle. With less solar, you might run into trouble after a few days. I can think of two or three occasions on the current 4 month trip where I would have struggled to power a fridge on top of everything else. Meanwhile my 160 litre 3 way fridge freezer can run 24/7 for a solid month in the pitch black if need be on one full tank of gas. Something it might need to do if I pay a return trip to Norway to see the Northern lights in winter.
Our main electric use is a fridge. It is never a problem because after a few days we charge when we have the engine on for moving. Even with that much solar you need some alternator driven backup.What about trips over 2 days? Depends on what type of camping you do and for how long I suppose. I've been abroad and off grid the whole time since early November, running a gaming laptop for hours every night and a portable twin tub every couple of days. Despite having a lot (665w) of solar and 460Ah Lithium I don't think it's a good idea having something as critical as a fridge being reliant on the weather. A week or two of dull conditions and you would really struggle. With less solar, you might run into trouble after a few days. I can think of two or three occasions on the current 4 month trip where I would have struggled to power a fridge on top of everything else. Meanwhile my 160 litre 3 way fridge freezer can run 24/7 for a solid month in the pitch black if need be on one full tank of gas. Something it might need to do if I pay a return trip to Norway to see the Northern lights in winter.
Since early November through France, Spain, Morocco and Portugal I have never used EHU or had to drive a 4 tonne motorhome just to run the fridge. Ran a bit low a few times after 4-5 dull days, a compressor fridge would have been the straw that broke the camel's back and forced me onto sites. I carry enough gas to run the fridge for a month and can plan ahead to make sure I have enough for the trip without being reliant on the weather. As I said, depends on what type of camping you do and for how long I suppose.Our main electric use is a fridge. It is never a problem because after a few days we charge when we have the engine on for moving. Even with that much solar you need some alternator driven backup.
He was forced to remove his video because he did not state the facts correctly and put a lot of people in limbo as regards the use of LPG. He then pulled out an ECOFLOW battery station which only a week ago he had been slagging.John has released a video about this that contains some facts about this subject:
He was forced to remove his previous video.