Motorhome vs campervan - Better heat and cold insulation on the 1st one ?

We had an overhead bed Peugeot based Autocruise, before our current Fiat A class.
The cab used to be the coldest area of the van, probably due to the single pane windows and (as I found out) the air vents in the doors, which I taped over in an attempt to stop draughts.
Our A class has two front doors but no draughts, and the double glazed front side windows (including the door windows) must help with insulation. Our massive windscreen has an electric metal roller shutter which shades the front but could be a source of heat in the summer. I fitted net curtains to the front screen to allow light in but forms some privacy.
 
As a former site owner in France where we also stored vans, heat inside the vans can be a very significant problem during the hotter summer months where we used to see temps. in the mid to high 40's C.

In my experience ventilation is the most important thing to consider, that and pulling down all the reflective blinds on the Seitz (or similar) windows, when it comes to ventilation, it helps if you have an air intake located in the coolest possible place i.e. underneath the van. The other important thing to consider when parked up is to deploy the reflective cab insulation which is just as good keeping out the heat as it is the cold.

I believe the best possible form of insulation is closed cell spray foam and it makes me shudder how awfully some vans are insulated, most especially some of the professionally converted panel vans where there chintsie furnishings are on top of some of the cheapest types of insulation I have seen!
 
alcam said:
Wasn't being 'rigorous' , your first link was shot down by virtually every comment for lacking credibility . Therefore not very helpful .
New link seems better researched .
Thank you
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The most 'researched' of the comments actually agreed that there was a difference between dark and light vehicles, but said other more scientific studies showed only a 7(?) degree differance
 
Don't think anyone is denying there is a difference, thats basic, dark colours absorb more energy. It's just how much the difference is. :)
 
mark61 said:
Don't think anyone is denying there is a difference, thats basic, dark colours absorb more energy. It's just how much the difference is. :)
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Exactly . Very relevant to me right now . I suspect [prefer to think] the difference is bearable . I could be wrong but surely that is unlikely !
 
Mark 61and alcan,in post 12 l clearly state a 10 degree difference between a black and a white car, and l don't know wether it was farenhight or celcius .l assume that your both blokes and not ladies suffering pmt.
 
martinmartin said:
Mark 61and alcan,in post 12 l clearly state a 10 degree difference between a black and a white car, and l don't know wether it was farenhight or celcius .l assume that your both blokes and not ladies suffering pmt.
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Sometimes I'm not too sure !
Back on topic , having had pvc and coachbuilt (first pvc was grey) I don't remember experiencing huge temperature differences i.e. 10° . Not very scientific I know
 
As an aside, thing thats always baffled me is why do the Taureg people in the desert wear black robes ??? Maybe they only venture out at night :)
 
DaveH55 said:
As an aside, thing thats always baffled me is why do the Taureg people in the desert wear black robes ??? Maybe they only venture out at night :)
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I read something about that years ago, I checked up because I wondered why they wore that lovely indigo blue in the desert.

It's something to do with the design of the loose fitting robes that allows ventilation, and the dark colour absorbs heat given from the body rather than reflect it back, something like that. Might be worth checking again.
 
I think that regarding Tuaregs, this explanation may be correct;

“If it were about the hot desert sun, white clothing would be better because it simply reflects away the heat and light. Everyone knows that a black surface gets hotter in the sun than a white or reflective surface. Far better for the cloth to not get hot at all, than for it to absorb heat and get hot and then have to insulate it from the body with more layers of inner clothing.

In fact, the reason for dark clothing is heat transfer in the opposite ddirection - from the body to the outside.

The body absorbs heat from the environment and also produces a lot of heat internally through metabolism. White clothing would simply reflect this heat back, accumulating it next to your skin. But dark clothing absorbs body heat and allows it to escape into the atmosphere, keeping the wearer cool.

But this is a delicate balancing act, and only works if the rate of heat transfer from clothing to environment is faster than the rate at which the sun warms the clothing. The primary methods of losing heat are convection and radiation, and convection here tips the balance. In short, it works because high and constant desert winds cool the clothing at a fast enough rate. It would never work without wind, when white clothing would be cooler.

Tuareg dress is the result of millennia of adaptation to hot, windy desert environments.”
 
I've driven through Awbari, a Tuareg town and a lot of people there, wear jeans and T shirts :)
 
Black or white

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alcam said:
Going back to PVC for a variety of reasons . Pretty sure coachbuilt are cooler but 10° difference between white and black vehicles ? Difficult to believe its that much
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I’ll believe it. On our barge you could walk on decks in bare feet on a sunny day where they were painted white, on a red painted surface you literally burnt your feet, dread to think what it would have been like on a black surface.
 
Keeping out the heat

One tip I discovered with hinge-up windows... don’t use the Seitz pull down blinds as this restrict the amount of ventilation. Apply silver bubble wrap to inside of windows on sucker pads then fully open. This way you can have maximum ventilation and the raised window acts as a sunshade.
 
There's some kind of European set of regulations you can reference to find the insulation properties of your intended purchase unless you plan to d.i.y, no idea where to find it though, Wildax for instance comply to the maximum insulation measurement even though it's a van conversion.
 
You don't see many black cars in Western Australia :) With panel vans insulation can only do so much , as its the number of thermal bridges that is difficult to deal with . laminated panels used in coachbuilts are far better insulators . Double glazing helps as well . Having solar panels mounted a couple of inches above the roof helps keep cooler , same principle as the old landy safari roofs. They use this false roof on the dongers in the outback in Australia , plus big aircon units :) .
 
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