Staying Cool/Warm In A Van With No Insulation

hello adventurers and welcome back to my channel today we're going to be talking about something that you all at home have been asking a lot a lot of you have noticed that in my van i currently have no insulation in the ceiling or the walls and because of that you've been asking how do you keep it warm or cold don't you have condensation problems is this ever an issue when you get to extremes well today we're going to be addressing that now before we go further into the video this is what my van currently looks like right here there are no reflectix there are no thinsulates there is no wool there is absolutely nothing except for the bare metal that came factory from this cargo van right here now i am currently actually in the middle of doing some projects here at base camp so i thought what better time to address this than right now now the first thing that i've been doing to keep the air circulating to keep condensation out and then also to keep it a little bit cooler is using a variation of different kinds of fans these for example i tried out on my last trip and i really liked them although i will say this they started off with a magnet on the back and that was kind of short-lived but they do have this nice clip so i can still use them in a variety of different places throughout the space now the greatest thing about fans is whenever you use them correctly they can actually create a lot of circulation for you and it really does cool the area off especially if i'm able to open up even a single door i can really move the hot out and the cool in and that's very helpful i have two of these and then i also have two smaller fans that i use and i can put them in various points throughout the day and just kind of keep myself in a nice comfortable temperature now the next thing that i've done is i actually installed these weathertech wind deflectors and these are really nice for a variety of reasons but specifically when it comes to keeping the airflow i can roll down the window about an inch and what that does is it allows me to run the fans back here in the back and it actually pushes the air so i get better circulation overall that also keeps me from having that weird condensation that sometimes forms due to lack of circulation so these are by weathertech i definitely have a video about them go check it out now i've said this before and i will probably say it a million times but my surefire way to keep it where it is very tolerable in my nice little box back here is to move with the weather i tend to not stick around in extremes that means that if i see that it's about to be really really gnarly be it rain snow heat wave i am out of there i'm going someplace else but with that said sometimes i have to stick around a little bit more than i would like to for example if you watch the gutted series you know that we were out in the desert and it was very very hot there this came in handy typically i have this big fluffy blanket for whenever it's chilly outside but whenever it's hot this is a little bit too warm so when it's too hot to use this one i turn to this right here this is the most amazing thing i probably have bought for summers in the van period it is absolutely amazing now this is not a sheet it is actually considered to be a blanket but it's not your typical blanket as you can see super super thin material this is called a cooling blanket this blanket is not like any other blanket i have ever used in fact what it does is it actually pulls the heat away from your body and is cool to the touch if you all could feel this right now it is actually quite cold which is crazy because it's a warm sunny texas day right now but the thing i like about this the most is it doesn't require you to get it wet or to put it into any kind of refrigeration first like some of the cooling blankets do this is just a grab and go and as you're under it it progressively gets more and more cool in some weird freaky scientific way that i do not understand but this thing is amazing i also find this helpful whenever i am working because i use my laptop and i think if you've used a laptop before you know the bottom of it sometimes gets a little warm where the battery is if i put this underneath it not only keeps me cool but it keeps the laptop cool i also wrap my laptop in this on a hot summer day whenever i have to leave it in the van and it really helps it from getting too hot which is nice now they do have these in a variety of different sizes and also colors and i'm going to make sure to link all of this below in the description box if you're interested but 20 for this particular size and it was probably the best summertime investment i have made period for the van thus far now for everyone who has asked i have only dealt with condensation twice in my van and i think that the key to having condensation in your van is knowing how to combat it immediately that way you don't have issues within your interior and i have taken a couple of proactive steps just in case i have always said that the best offense is a good defense and norwex towels is what i use for that i wake up in the morning i assess if i have any condensation and if i do i immediately wipe it down with one of these now if you have never used norwex before these are traditionally used for your face or for your body they are super good and they literally absorb everything they are quality for sure i was actually introduced to these by one of my mom's teaching friends thanks twyla these things are awesome and uh i dedicated one of these i have two of them just to my ceiling up here and on the two occasions that i have had to use it oh my gosh it made the job so quick it was literally just like this obviously this is not wet however all i did was just this and that was it that was the only thing i had to do i didn't have to go back over it again or anything like that so if you're worried about condensation on either the ribs of your van or the windows this thing is amazing so now let's get down to the meat and potatoes i have two additional items that i have been watching from a distance that i know are tried and true because people that i know are currently using them like i said i've been doing some projects and adding some things to the van you'll see the rest of this at a different time but these are the things that have to do with today's video so at the gutted event i actually met someone named jacob or on instagram you can find him as jake's van and he was showing something that i was kind of interested in not at the event but on his social media he actually picked up something that was very fascinating to me and the more that i researched it and the more people i talked to the more i realized that this item is actually pretty commonly used not only in van life but also in boats the product in question is damp red and you may have seen this at your local store in the laundry department previously but i did go ahead and buy the big boy from amazon just so that i would have the larger version i mean why not large version small van makes sense sure it does as you can see here this attracts and traps all the excess moisture it eliminates musty odors and it creates fresher cleaner air so this little thing right here is going to be introduced to my van i just have to pop this off and then over here on the back you can see kind of how it works we're going to pour the little beads into the top and then it will start to absorb everything and then from what i was seeing from jake is as this does have any kind of moisture that gets locked into the living space back here what it's going to do is it's going to collect it down in the bottom so that we can safely dispose of it so that is super cool so like i said i don't really have an issue with the condensation other than those two times but with this time of year this would be when it would probably be worse so i thought why not do the extra little step just in case now this next thing is all about circulation for those of you who wonder how i get it warm or cold back here i showed you the fans i showed you how i create the draft but this device is a game changer for this part we have to move to the front seat but before we do i have a question for you how many of you at home have actually seen ladybug out in her channel show of hands show of hands in the comments i want to know if you're watching ladybug out and there's a reason for that now i wanted to know because i always like to give credit where credit is due and ladybug out totally introduced me to this device which is the most clever device i have ever seen for moving air from the front to the back with one device this thing is absolutely amazing and she has one of these in her van and when i saw it i was kind of questioning it and wondering huh how does this work she showed it to me and i had to go and get one every so often when a friend tells you this works you listen so we are going on the wild ride of installing this together right now and according to the noggle this can be done in 30 seconds challenge accepted and i will be filming this in real time so we will see if it indeed takes us 30 seconds the box itself will probably take longer to open than the noggle will to install that tends to be par for my videos at least these are the items that are included we have two retractable ties a circular dash plate and then also a rectangular dash plate we have the nozzle itself and these are our instructions we're going to loop tie and turn loop tie and turn we can do this [Music] [Music] okay as you can see we have a square or rectangle and then we have a circle the circle will be the one that we use it looks like so we can probably just put this one away the first step will be us looping this actually through so it's going to loop through like this and then we will put the circle on top of it [Music] okay i kind of knew this was coming i think i'm going to get some pliers i have the weirdest vents known to man we will try these [Music] between the tweezers and my fingers we got it and this is what it looks like now so now we get to put the cap on it but before we do let's make sure we have it facing the right direction so this is the way that the noggle will fit right here so we need this part to be inside okay so this side goes here and then we put these through like that and [Music] tight this is what it looks like i'm just going to loop this back in for the time being i will end up cutting this but i want to make sure everything fits correctly first now we put the noggle onto it and twist it into place let's see right there this is the fun part we take this extra piece of hose and we loop it through the back here this is what it looks like when it comes through to the back we have the securing strap and then we also have these little pieces over the side that we could actually secure into the headrest so i think i'm going to do that [Music] and since nobody's currently riding in the passenger seat we can secure it to the safety belt and we're done okay now it's time for us to try it out let's turn it on hi everything seems to be good here it's not blowing it off what is this what is this we have a little bit of a breeze coming through to the back of the cab the real question here is how does it feel oh oh it feels good it feels real good back here that actually means though that while i am driving down the road i can be heating or cooling my space with the noggle and then whenever i get to my campsite i'll already be ahead of the curve now previously what i was doing is i was just blasting as much air as i could and it was circulating through the space but because i had a curtain here it wasn't fully getting back here as much as i would like it to but now i can actually pipe it in so it will be an absolute comfort level of 10 right as soon as i move to the back i am using the noggle in connection with all the other items that i showed you this is an instant game changer because that means not only will i be winning the fight against condensation but also keeping climate control all through dimples here instant game changer like i said guys thank you ladybug out for introducing me to this one now i know a lot of times whenever we look at van builds again we think that they have to be completed and finished to a t and sometimes as we're building along as we go that just is not the case so if you are a person who doesn't know what kind of insulation to use you're questioning if you even want to put insulation in or you're in a tiny space like i am and don't know if that's going to take away too much of your room before you do it consider these options i'm not saying they're the be-all end-all nor am i saying that these are going to be the perfect fit for you but i'm just telling you dimples and i now are at 20 000 miles and it's a continued work in progress we're always changing things we're always adding things and we're tackling things step by step as we go just like today's video where we installed something new you can do that too it's okay that said i hope today's video is helpful to anyone who is watching if you have enjoyed today's video make sure that you leave a thumbs up hit the subscribe and check out all the description box below because i have listed everything that i showed you in today's video now if any of these things kind of piqued your interest and you have further questions i'm always receptive to comments below so ask away and i'll see you guys next time so though i might take a nap in the back this feels so so good now not worried about summertime in texas at all ever ever again

Channel: BunnyPlaysHere

Views: 21,923

Keywords: vanlife, van life, van life conversion, van life tips, van life hacks, van life products, products that work for van life, nv200, nv200 conversion, nv200 camper conversion, nv200 campervan, nv200 minivan, minivan conversion, van conversion, van conversion tips, van life how to, how to stay cool in van life, how to stay warm in van life, van life condensation, no build van build, no build van conversion, insulating my van, how to keep condensation from your van

Id: lUAb4VCUHl0

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 09 2021