Live in a tent or caravan all year round

[antwerpman]

Abbe is right with the tipi's he recommends. My brother and his family have lived in an indian style tipi in the Ardennes for several months and they liked it. Of course it is going to be tough in the winter. I surely would recommend to buy a decent woodstove . I myself have a tentipi varrie 9 and a woodstove which is very nice and comfortable to travel. I think I could live for a longer period in it, but the real indian style tipi would give more space and is absolutely very wind resistant

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Just found THIS on ebay, just wondered if its any good to you ?

Dont know seller etc etc

 

[gunnix]

Hi, we're now living in a caravan with a front tent. Now we have to insulate the tent and the caravan before it gets really wet n cold. We were thinking of putting some plastic sheet under the floor of the tent, there are already wooden palets as the floor, but we see there's a lot of damp on the inside of the tent in the morning. Inside of the caravan there's always a lot of damp on the windows in the morning, it gets really humid with all the rain in these days. We'd think of making double windows by putting an extra sheet of plastic over the windows (with air trapped in between ofcourse), I don't know if it'll be pretty though.

Has any of you lived in a caravan in autumn and winter in a humid quite cold climate like belgium? Any idea how to insulate? Does anyone know a good website about insulating caravans, living in caravans?

We're also looking at yurts, would be nice as an extra room, and probably warmer than the caravan.

greetz, Sarah & Gunnar

 

[janiepopps]

Hi, we're now living in a caravan with a front tent. Now we have to insulate the tent and the caravan before it gets really wet n cold. We were thinking of putting some plastic sheet under the floor of the tent, there are already wooden palets as the floor, but we see there's a lot of damp on the inside of the tent in the morning. Inside of the caravan there's always a lot of damp on the windows in the morning, it gets really humid with all the rain in these days. We'd think of making double windows by putting an extra sheet of plastic over the windows (with air trapped in between ofcourse), I don't know if it'll be pretty though.

Has any of you lived in a caravan in autumn and winter in a humid quite cold climate like belgium? Any idea how to insulate? Does anyone know a good website about insulating caravans, living in caravans?

We're also looking at yurts, would be nice as an extra room, and probably warmer than the caravan.

greetz, Sarah & Gunnar

Hi Gunnix,

I lived in a caravan for a few years in the UK on the edge of Dartmoor - climate sounds a little similar! Loved it!

Great idea while you're getting ready for the winter is to get some sheets of polystyrene and glue it to the underneath of the van. It doesnt need to be very thick stuff - about an inch, but it will make such a massive differnce to your heating costs. Thats assuming you're in a fixed location I guess. If you're mobile then perhaps line under you carpet/flooring with it.

Dont even bother to try to heat the tent in winter - complete waste of energy. Insulate as best you can and keep things out there that dont matter too much and live in the van. I had to wipe my windows daily as they were wet with condensation, and the windows had to thrown open during the day whatever the weather.

Very bracing!

Good luck!

j

 

[gunnix]

Hi janiepopps! Thank you for your kind words.

I'll do the polystyrene on the underside of the caravan!

We're static, standing on a camping space we rented for a year. It's nice because nobody can get in the camping without an electronic pass and there are fences all around it. So even if our stuff is not very closed it's still secure. Almost nobody knows this camping, because the owner makes no advertising whatsoever Fences n passes to get to my caravan are maybe also quite annoying, but we live just close to the city Ghent (actually in it, just close to a big park full of sport possibilities), so I think it's needed.

I'm already now wiping the windows each morning, and it's only august! I hope it won't get too bad this winter Opening the windows is a good idea, I'll try to do that when the sun is shining. I guess you also just do that for 10-15 minutes?

Did you use an electric heater?

You're right about the tent, not having anything of value in it, or at least stuff that can tolerate the humidity... The problem is my girl has soo many clothes that it can't all be in the caravan Maybe we'll have to store those in garbage bags, so they don't rot.

By the way, didn't you get any problems with your lungs because of the humidity of the air in the caravan? I already heard that from a few people, my girls mother even got tuberculosis from living in a caravan for two years! Although she often exaggerates.

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

if your going to store the clothes outside in bags, try to get the vacuum sealable one's, as they will get very musty !! I also lived in a caravan for quite a while, so i know this happens !!

http://www.woolworths.co.uk/ww_p2/product/index.jhtml?pid=50488414

 

[anthonyyy]

I think it would help if you get a non-electric dehumidifier (the ones that you fill with crystals).
I know it is difficult to open windows when it is cold but remember the dampness comes mainly from inside.

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

those crystal moisture traps really do help

 

[janiepopps]

It's nice because nobody can get in the camping without an electronic pass and there are fences all around it.

By the way, didn't you get any problems with your lungs because of the humidity of the air in the caravan? I already heard that from a few people, my girls mother even got tuberculosis from living in a caravan for two years! Although she often exaggerates.

I guess our idea of nice is quite different???

As an acupuncturist I agree that living in damp conditions is not the best idea for a lot of people. If either of you have any chronic health problems you may want to limit the time that you live like this, but if you are young, fit and healthy you'll be fine.

I had gas heating in my van (which I would have found difficult to live without) but as it was built in the 70's it had nothing in the way of insulation so it was pretty chilly. More than once I woke to find the inside of the windows with a layer of ice on them.

But, wasn't this normal for our Grandparents?

Good luck to you both

 

[Glen]

I'll do the polystyrene on the underside of the caravan!

I already heard that from a few people, my girls mother even got tuberculosis from living in a caravan for two years! Although she often exaggerates.

Not lived in a caravan but thinking about the physics of it.

I'd have thought the roof was more important to insulate somehow rather than the floor, it will probably depend on what materials they're made off.
Even throwing a tarp over an uninsulated metal the roof will cut the rate of heat loss by cutting the amount of wind, preferably with something to raise it from actually touching the roof, if you've got acess to cheap polystyrene it might be worth lashing some down then lashing a tarp ontop to stop water build up in the gaps. How about a small tripod support in the centre and a tarp on ridge lines down to each corner, should give a bit of wind deflection that way, and lashed down in as many places as practicle.

Plastic over the windows will only really help much if you can stop the palstic sagging onto the glass. One trick I used to use to do this an unheated house I lived in was to tape it down all round then run a hairdryer over it to shrink the plastic till it was very taught. Doing it on the outside would help too ( it's the trapped air that provided the insulation ) but would probably be prone to blowing off and having to be redone after strong winds.
The condensation on the windows should be cut down this way because the damp air will not have quite such a cold surface to condense on. A possible downside is that they're might be more humidity in the air in the caravan and your belongings will probably be that bit damper.

If your thinking about electric heating then I'd actually think seriously about getting a small electric dehumidifier. This may sound counterintuitive as they use a cooling system to condense the water out of the air if you think about it further, they run at a couple of hundred watts and as it's essentially a sealed enviroment that means your getting that as heating while it's in use while at the same time taking moisture out of the air. The major downside might be that they can be a bit annoying in small spaces because of the noise of the fans.


On the tuberculosis side, don't forget that tuberculosisis a contagious disease, you have to catch it from someone who already has it. The reason it's associated with damp is that the organism that causes it needs the moisture to survive, cold damp conditions generally cause people to chatch colds and chills more easily, when they cough the organism is expelled in the small water droplets, and that other people in close proximity will breathe those dropplets in, putting themselves at rick of catching it. I don't think your self and your ladyfriend will need to worry too much your inside activities in regards to tuberculosis unless one of you is at risk from another source or entertain others who may have it in your home.

The damp may cause other respitory problems but if it's damp enough to cause mildew or rot then spores in the air could cause problems. I suspect that's far more likely than TB unless there's already a TB problem in your area.

One idea you might like to try is if your both going to be out all day, as the van is likelt to be completely cooled by the time your home anyway, open the doors/windows 10 minutes or so before you actually leave each time to air the place.

 

[gunnix]

Hi, so here's a list of things we're going to do:

1) Put some, maybe two, layers of that plastic with bubbles on the windows inside, sealed with strong duct tape.

2) Get a plastic tarp and put it above the roof of the caravan, a tripod on top of the caravan seems a good idea. We can get some rolls of insulating material which we'll put on the roof as well.

3) stick some polystyrene on the bottom of the caravan.

4) In the tent have palets on the ground and on top of it a plastic layer, on top of that maybe a wooden floor. On the sides have everything air closed, creating an "insulated" room.

5) Painting the metal inside and outside of the caravan, because the naked metal is a too good heat conductor, the paint would make it more insulated.

6) Getting dehumidifyers with crystals.

7) Getting a heater, probably an electrical one. I don't know which one though, will have to look for a good one which doesn't use too much...

Yesterday we bought a second hand lawnmower, such one without electricity which you have to push. Cutting the grass already helped much for not getting wet feet I think we'll make a path trough the grass with some stones.

 

[gunnix]

Well, I'm still looking which kind of heating I'll use. I just bumped onto this one:
http://www.econo-heat.com/main.html

The econo heat panels seem very promising, although I did not find any cheering outside from their own website. Does anyone have experience with these econo panels?

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Found this from a google search...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu..._pt/102-1670345-4379325?ie=UTF8&n=228013&s=hi HTH

 

[Glen]

Well, I'm still looking which kind of heating I'll use. I just bumped onto this one:
http://www.econo-heat.com/main.html

The econo heat panels seem very promising, although I did not find any cheering outside from their own website. Does anyone have experience with these econo panels?

Not had experience of them myself, but if you think about how they work, according to the sites own claims, they heat the air between the heater and the wall.

My guess is that their claims may work out OK of it's mounted on an internal wall, stick it on a low insulated outside wall and your probably wasting energy as it's going to loose a lot of heat to the outside.

If your having any sort of wall mounted heating then I'd suggest insulate that bit of wall as much as posible and also add a silver reflector behind it Just like any other bushcraft shelter really Tin foil on polystyrene is proabably going to be your cheapest slef made option if you go that route.

 

[gunnix]

The econo heater doesn't seem so special after looking at it further, probably their claims are exaggerated.

For heaters I'm considering between the electrical oil filled heaters, the electrical ceramic heater, econo heater, or a closed gas heater with electric ignition (such one which has a pipe for incoming air with the pipe for outgoing air inside). If I can put in the gas I think it will cost much cheaper then an electrical heater. I'll probably have to go both electrical for cooking and heating or both gas, the gas would probably cost me less. But then I need to transport those gas bottles with my bike, I'll better get a strong trailer for the bike then, or maybe only use smaller bottles. Then I'd also like to get a kelly kettle to sometimes boil some water using all the woodsticks lying around here.

I don't know how big the difference is between cost for gas or electricity though. But most people on the camping use gas.

 

[anthonyyy]

Please do not forget proper ventilation. This is important to reduce dampness and carbon monoxide poisoning.

When you burn a Kg of gas you create approximately 1Kg of water. And you can't smell CO.

 

[gunnix]

Thanks for the warning.

I'm looking to maybe buy a kind of gas stove which only uses air from outside with a pipe trough the wall. With this system it's luckily impossible to have CO poisoning. I don't know if it's a new system but it has been recommended to me.