Cheap Heat for Van Living
Video Statistics and Information
Channel: CheapRVliving
Views: 1,373,368
Rating: 4.8236198 out of 5
Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Fill-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, heat, heater, stove, coleman, btu, warm, cold, hose, adapter, water, propane, safety, safe, full-time, #vanlife
Id: WosMp5xG1e0
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)
Published: Tue Dec 05 2017
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Stoves and heaters are two entirely different things which work in entirely different ways.
Using a stove as a heater is also enormously dangerous, especially in the confines of a van.
Spend the money and get a good sleeping bag. Or a heater.
Reminds me this: https://vodvore.net/prikols/prikol1850.jpg
My RV is old and I havent been brave enough to try the furnace yet. I put a cast iron skillet or two upside down over a stove burner, and blow a small USB fan across the top of it. I do NOT do this while sleeping.
I do something similar and it works. It's difficult with the humidity tho. I have a big problem with that bc heating with propane makes the air even more humid and then u get mold and rust and stuff if u don't manage to get a good air circulation. The distribution of the heat is also not that good. But I do it and I'm fine with it. I can handle the cold at the places where I stay good anyways so I don't heat so much.
If you are caught between a rock and a hard place Bob's tips would work well but a standard Buddy Heater will be more efficient. I like Bob cause he always has tips for the people with very little
If you do that, or any non-vented combustion heater inside, also get a carbon monoxide detector. Cheap insurance.
I love our Chinese diesel heater which has exhaust vented outside. No condensation from the heater.
I've got a high top, extended E-350 with XPS and sheep wool insulation. I found the Mr. Buddy to be inadequate for heating the van in below freezing temperatures, so I'd have to disagree with the idea that it'll get your rig up to temperatures of 100+ degrees. The Mr. Buddy was recently swapped out for a $100 Chinese diesel heater and I couldn't be happier.
If you can afford it, and have the time money and space for it, I would jump straight to a Chinese knock off diesel heater. It will save you from having to redo things in the long run in your van and save you all the headache of having to deal with the typical headaches of propane heating. Those being; moisture problems, how many manage turn on the heat there on and off before you sleep and when you wake up, and overall diesel will be a lot more cost efficient than running propane delete your house. As well as itβs a bit harder to fill up a whole room with heat when you use a propane heater.
This reminds me of when people fought switching to LED light bulbs for lights in houses because the old incandescent bulbs produced heat so they could keep the thermostat lower... or putting a bunch of tea light candles under a ceramic pot.
Outside of normal stuff like cooking dinner and filling hot water bottles, just being smart about which food you cook and when... using a stove for heat is probably the most inefficient, unless you've got something dense heating up on top of it. Get like a 1ft section of a steel i beam. Remove any paint beforehand.
It's a long video so maybe i missed something because i skimmed through most of it. I did watch all of it from 12:00 on.