Campervan heating (1 Viewer)

[Simbawright]

Hello campers I'm brand new to campervans and forums so please bare with me.Ive just bought a Mercedes van conversion .its got 1 leisure battery connected to the engine and 240v hook up.I just wondered what people thought would be the best type of heating to have when you cant use your hook up.people have mentioned extra battery's and inverters so any advice would be grateful

 

[Terry]

Hi you will kill any batts with a inverter and heating --you need either gas or diesel heating -Propex gas = £500 or Truma gas =750 and webasto/esbacher diesel =950 all ish --of course if on hook up £10 fan heater will do
terry

 

[Deleted34567]

Hi and welcome.
Inverter and battery not suitable for heating I'm afraid.
Gas is probably the way to go or you can fit a warm blowing air system.... Like this
Broken Link Removed

 

[Popeye]

Two very sound replies there.........and even the Ebespacher/Webasto type of products are fairly greedy on 12volt.

 

[Simbawright]

Thanks for the replies does the ebespacher diesel system run hot water as well as the heating and if so any ideas how much to get fitted

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[scotjimland]

as said.. you can't use 12v for heating..

if on a tight budget you could fit a gas catalytic heater .. http://www.motorcaravanning.co.uk/shopuk/therm_x.htm

but would suggest this is just short term and you should plan to fit a Truma combination heater that heats water and has a warm air blown heater ..

does you van have ANY gas appliances fitted .. ie cooker , water heater, fridge or oven ?

 

[Simbawright]

Yeah it's got cooker and fridge I didn't really want to rely on gas I was hoping to to use the battery.I was talking to a man who ran his heating and hot water off his diesel tank does that sound practical

 

[scotjimland]

I didn't really want to rely on gas

why not.. it is reliable and available everywhere.. only guessing here, but I''d say 95 % of camper vans use it for both space and water heating ..fit a refillable gas bottle and you can fill up at an Autogas pump..

diesel heaters are expensive.. and noisy .. think small jet engine.. battery use is heavy.. and in my experience can be troublesome to run and maintain.. others will say they are great ..

 

[mjltigger]

We have a transit conversion and use a portable camping heater. Uses a can a night which we can get for about £1 a can. Simpler than fitting a heater of any sort although relatively expensive. The other advantage is it takes up no room in the van and didn't require any fitting.

Ideally we would have a diesel heater to enable us to use it on the move. You can get gas appliances that can work on the move but I'm not convinced they are safe of self fitted and by the time you get one fitted by the trade you might as well self fit a diesel heater I think.

 

[mitzimad]

are you certain your heater is suitable for use in a van be very wary of anything that burns gas inside the van, get a co alarm
having seen a lot of the cheap chinese cookers go up in flames at festivals i wouldnt use any disposable cannister appliance in the van

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[mjltigger]

are you certain your heater is suitable for use in a van be very wary of anything that burns gas inside the van, get a co alarm
having seen a lot of the cheap chinese cookers go up in flames at festivals i wouldnt use any disposable cannister appliance in the van

Yes all good. CO alarm is sensible whatever your burning I suggest. Actually we had an expensive German one but it broke so have replaced it with a cheaper one that is much more robust.

We don't want to fall asleep with a fire on and either wake up with no fuel left or knock something over in the night. This is the safest option unless or until we can afford a diesel heater (which I suspect will be on our next van not this one)

 

[Simbawright]

I think i'll go down the gas route are there any links to any gas and water heaters been looking on the net,I don't know exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[GeriatricWanderer]

Has anyone mentioned a generator - or is that word banned on this forum?

 

[Drexxer]

Has anyone mentioned a generator - or is that word banned on this forum?

We went to camperjam last year and this clown behind felt he needed to run the gennie from dawn till dusk!!

I don't know why he bothered with a campervan when a static would have suited him better, wouldn't mind someone doing repairs etc and needing power tools but this muppet couldn't function without mains power!

Oh yes either propex or an eberspacer will do you nicely, get whichever is quietest

Andy

 

[scotjimland]

Has anyone mentioned a generator - or is that word banned on this forum?

no, not banned, they have their uses .. but converting energy from one form to another is never 100% efficient.. petrol genny is about 30% efficient..

and not suggested by me as it's not a permanent solution to heating a van .. also the petrol used would make it an very expensive to run.

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[UK Pete]

If your going to get a heater it might as well do the hot water as well, i have the diesel heating and hot water, it runs off the vans tank, they are like little jet engines not exactly quite, but no where near as offensive as a genny, they do take lots of power on start up so it depends on what the rest of your set up is like or going to be like if your going to use it to its best,
i have a solar panel topping up 2 leisure 130 ah batteries which seem to cope well enough, my system also has a sterling battery to battery charger , so when i am about to start the heater i often run the engine first to stop any drain on the batteries, also by doing this you are whacking a good fast charge into the batteries , which on a cloudy day compensates for having no solar charge, basically what i am saying is with the right setup a diesel heater is amazing and i can wild camp with heat and hot water for as long as i want , i have recently thought of adding a proplex gas blown heating for the spring and autumn cold spells and have a quiter heating system working on a thermostat through the night if i need it
pete

 

[jonandshell]

Just got back from a week and a half in the Alps.

Our 345 Ah battery ran our Webasto Dualtop diesel hot water and blown air heater 24/7 for the last three days without recharging.

Modern diesel heaters are not the battery eaters some suggest!