Heating/using a caravan in the winter

We caravan all year round and very seldom use the gas heating. On arriving on site plug in electrics and switch Alde heating on at 2kW. By the time we're all set up the van is warming up nicely. We do have a small can heater in case of emergencies but rarely use that either. Don't bother with heating on after we go to bed, unless it's a deep frost and then only set a 12degrees. We keep some, if not all, of our windows open, ldepending on the strength and direction of any wind, to prevent any condensation buildup.I've covered the floors under the seating with carpet, ensuring that the vents in the floor are still open though.

I always found the floors of our caravan took a long time to warm up in very cold weather but the addition of some rugs on top of the carpet seemed to help so we've done the same with our motorhome. I think vans can take quite a while to heat through properly, especially if they've been unused for a while. Extra clothing helps. We leave our heating on a low setting overnight, letting the thermostat control things.

I know some like to blast the gas and electric heating together but we keep the gas for emergency heating....which we had to use last year in Nov staying on a chilly Norfolk coast when our electric heating stopped working( we bought ourselves a small fan heater too.)

Other than that we've vanned all year round until this year and this is a first for us to be staying at home due to Covid.

We do tend to have thermostat battles at home.  I usually like a high temperature, but Carol is happier for a lower temperature.  12C overnight would be too low for me....   Our thermostat at home is at the bottom of the stairs, so one or the other of us usually finds an excuse to go upstairs and tweaks the thermostat on the way... 🤣🤣  Not so easy to do in the caravan without the other noticing....

David

I can’t sleep overnight if heating is more than 12-14 degrees. Too stuffy and hot for me. We always have a window cracked open, at home and away. 

It's a good idea to use the gas from time to time .... use it or lose it.

When out for the day, we leave our wet Alde heating on but just drop the temp a little on the 'stat. Why you'd turn it off? 😉

So do I, EmilysDad....  in the winter, anyway.

David

Not sure which heating system you have - but you do mention blown air, so I'm assuming it's the Truma.  In normal times, we are away all year round and have never been cold - even at Sandringham a couple of years ago when the 'Beast from the East' visited! What we tend to do when we come back to the van is select the temperature on the thermostat at least 10 degrees above the ambient temperature and this will provide the 'boost' facility on the fan speed.  Then select 'Mix 2' on the control panel which will give gas and full 240v power. Although the fan sounds a bit like a jet engine once it's up and running, within 10 minutes, I can guarantee you will have to turn the heating down because it's too hot! We then reduce the temperature, switch back to electricity only and turn the fan down.  

We do have the benefit of underfloor heating as well but don't use it very often because the dog tends to complain that she's too hot!!

We had Alde heating on our Bailey Cadiz . If it was cold we always set up put it on 2 or 3 kw electric and went for a walk and perhaps a bit of lunch, after a few hours the van was lovely and warm and unless it was a beast from the east scenario, 1 kw was genenerally sufficient. Possibly because we have always had solid fuel, which is difficult to rapidly turn down at night, we like it warm. So 18C at night 22C in the day. We never turned it off when we went out, just left it on the thermostat. Personally I think warming a van back up from cold can use equally as much energy as leaving it on.

Now we have a MH, even if leaving from storage it is reasonably warm when we arrive if a decent run. It has the Truma blown air system and on 16 amp sites I tend to use the electric 2 setting and eco fan. This seems to work reasonably well at keeping the van as we like it, whilst hardly hearing the fan.

Like others we periodically run it on gas for a few hours, to make sure it will work when we are not on EHU.

Make sure you have a working Carbon Monoxide detector alarm we use a portable one as our previous fixed one was set too high in the van. They have an annoying light flash but you can turn it away from your line of vision in the dark.

We have occasionally been very cold in our van and overnight low background heating keeps condensation at bay. If we've been off EHU we've used gas but it does run down quickly in the winter.

Yes ours is the Truma blown air heating so I will initally try a mix of gas and elec then use the lower setting on the electric once warm :)