Motorhome heating on all night, off grid ?

[sweet caroline]

NEWBIE Question
I plan to take Dollie, out all through the Winter, and might even think about wild camping, can you have your heating on all night from the gas bottle, or do you need the electric, to circulate the air, or does this come off the auxilary battery to keep you warm off site please.
Yes as i said pretty naive here hahah

 

[sweet caroline]

She is a peoguot boxer stardream 2001 deisal petrol

 

[funflair]

No heating for us overnight, don't need it with a good winter duvet. Whoever wakes first switches it on then jumps back into bed waiting for the van to heat. We always sleep with a window slightly open, but we are hardy Scots

Surely you use the timer function on your Alde Stewart

 

[stewartwebr]

Surely you use the timer function on your Alde Stewart

Actually, we don't as we never know when we are going to get up. With us it could be 5am or 9am just as easy to nip across and turn it on.

 

[Shrimp]

We never have heating on all night.
One time we went to France (house sitting days) we had one night at Canterbury-freezing literally, the windscreen was sheet ice early morning for our crossing and when we got to Montreuil weather was the same. Still no heating on over night!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[VXman]

Just out of interest - as we don't normally head off in winter so no experience but toying with idea more - how long does a gas bottle last if you were turning on heating every night on a low setting? Just after a rough idea I just got 4-5 years out of a 6 kg bottle that we only use for cooking i.e. gas rings & oven.

I assume you don't go for long trips. We used several 11kg bottles on our recent 2 month trip to Germany and only used the heating a couple of times on the top of mountains. Mostly it was cooking on the hob and some use of the oven plus fridge...and heating water for showers.

 

[Langtoftlad]

Book a pitch with electricity but don't hook up. Run the heating and see how it goes. If the leisure battery goes flat you can hook up to recharge it.
Running the battery flat (i.e. to below 11.5v) is not advisable but just the once is unlikely to do it any harm.

This - you'll learn about your van's offgrid stamina without any 'risk'.
I did similar with my first van - I knew nothing [still don't know much], went to Rutland Water for a few days... no EHU but as it was about 20 miles from home, I figured if battery went flat, or I ran out of gas, I could just go home.
I did learn that you shouldn't run your leisure battery completely flat, and having a second one fitted is a great upgrade.

 

[headlight]

One thing I've done which has reduced the amount of heating is to separate the cab from the hab as even with thermal screens on all the cab windows the cab is much colder.
I bought some thermal screen material and made a curtain that separates my cab and hab.
It means I am heating a smaller better insulated area and use about a third less gas.

 

[busbuddy]

I hate being cold

what is warm in the van ....to you
8 degrees 28 degrees
Once you know the temp you need ,then you can work on how to sustain it

 

[Suenliam]

Our last MH was an Adria 6.8m without electric blown air heating - only gas. One bottle lasted 6 weeks in the summer in France ( I like to cook a lot) and about 4 days in Edinburgh in the winter if only using gas heating. However we always carry a small electric oil filled radiator for use on site in cold weather. Now, having a 25 ltr. underslung tank we have not yet filled up since we got it in April despite using it for about 50 nights both abroad and here in the cold weather. Gas heating is quick but electric keeps it on "tick over" effectively.
Sue

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[sweet caroline]

OWW Thanks guys for all your advise above, this is so reasuring, about everything, at present, not spent one night in her, due to the fact the servie isnt' until friday 13th of all days ! mm, after then I will be hitting the road, every Thursday to try her out locally until I feel confident

 

[Furry Paws]

We have a Truma blown air system and regularly leave the heating on overnight when we are off grid.

We have two 110A leisure batteries and a separate power monitor which shows that the battery power is reduced by about 20% overnight. This can be replaced during the day by our single solar panel if the sun is out.

"If the Sun is OUT" Ha Ha!

 

[sweet caroline]

"If the Sun is OUT" Ha Ha!

That is so reassuring thank you so much

 

[Furry Paws]

That is so reassuring thank you so much

Well this is the UK Ha Ha!

 

[kens988]

The wife . She keeps me warm and doesn’t drain batteries . Or does she ? ;-)

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Tombola]

yes

 

[Badknee]

We never use heating overnight but I have been know to get out of bed to turn the heating on at 5 am when it's dropped well below zero outside.

Wuss

 

[Badknee]

The wife . She keeps me warm and doesn’t drain batteries . Or does she ? ;-)

usually two AA batteries

 

[bigalw35]

Wuss

use a time switch

 

[Minxy]

usually two AA batteries

I thought they usually used 2 AAA ones ... or is that just the smaller sized ones?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[mikeg40]

I set my van temperatures the same as my flat ones at home, 18'c when in it and up and about, 14'c when out or in bed. I'm off grid in Scotland most weeks throughout winter but have gaslo, 2 leisure batteries and inboard tanks. it really depends on how your van is equipped and your personal needs/wants

 

[Markman]

Having had many vans and caravans that we have lived in through numerous U.K. winters , you can keep the all singing all dancing blown air Truma combination and your Alde wet systems,
By far the best is the old style gas fire
Just leaving it ticking over pretty much all the time and never using the battery sapping blown air is by far the best heating system we’ve ever had.

I hope your CO detector is working well, or you have lots of vents open (letting cold air in). Open gas fires have killed many from CO poisoning over the years

 

[Nanniemate]

I set my van temperatures the same as my flat ones at home, 18'c when in it and up and about, 14'c when out or in bed. I'm off grid in Scotland most weeks throughout winter but have gaslo, 2 leisure batteries and inboard tanks. it really depends on how your van is equipped and your personal needs/wants

7' frost protection when out or in bed. 18' if I get cold. its off the rest of the time house stays quiet warm.
As for van boil the kettle and its warm . But have a radiator if on hook up but that is off More than on as it gets rather warm

 

[PhilandMena]

NEWBIE Question
I plan to take Dollie, out all through the Winter, and might even think about wild camping, can you have your heating on all night from the gas bottle, or do you need the electric, to circulate the air, or does this come off the auxilary battery to keep you warm off site please.
Yes as i said pretty naive here hahah

My experiance as a vetran is as follows. Do not leave your heating on all night in the winter, especialy if wilding. (An oilfired electric radiator would be great if on hook up and not paying for your electricity at a metered rate. However most campsites are switching to or have already switched to metered lecce and it has become very expensive to use electricity when heating your MoHo)
The trick is to switch your heating off about an hour or so (depending on how good your insulation is ?) before you go to bed. Once snuggled up, heating is just a waste of enegy and cost. Deisel heating (webesto) is probably the cheapest followed by gas then lecce. Even with a gas heater the leisure battery will be circulating heat via a fan and this will be taking amps out of your battery during the night and needs to be carefully monitored.
Clearly, with this method the mohome is cold in the morning and someone needs to jump out of bed put the heating on and jump back into bed if its really cold. For us and our Webesto heater it takes about 15 minutes to get the inside temp up to a reasonable temp. This method saves on costs and a large draw on our leisure batteries and has worked well for us over many years. Especially as I'm the one who has to put the heating on in the morning.

 

[headlight]

My Truma fan on its lowest speed only uses 0.3 amps/hour, as confirmed with the Victron smart shunt, so pretty negligible if left on overnight.
I don't normally leave the heating on at night as the van is to warm, but if its freezing, I've been away in minus 8-10c, I have left it on overnight.
I've been away the last couple of nights and the overnight temps outside have been 5-6c.
I've had the van around 16-18c in the evening and turned the heating off when we've gone to bed.
It's been around 10c when we've got up.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Furry Paws]

Too much information!