Carliving.info - Staying warm and cool

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Staying warm and cool

Generally in Australia staying cool is a bigger problem than staying warm. This is because we tend to have a warm climate. Unless you live at one of the cold spots of Australia such as the snow fields, Canberra, Bendigo or Ballarat you probably can stay warm by using warm clothing and a sleeping bag at night. But as I expect readers from all around the world to read this, I have included all the information I have on staying warm.

Choosing where to park during hot or cold weather is one way to help adjust to the temperatures. In hot weather park in the shade, in cold weather park in the sun. The internal temperatures within a car can dramatically rise when parked in the sun during hot weather. While it easy to stay warm during cold weather it is a lot harder to stay cool during hot weather.

Staying warm.

Having slept in a van during many cold nights I can tell you that it is very hard to keep the interiour of a vehichle warm on very cold nights. I've more or less given up trying. At night it is far more realistic to keep warm in bed. During the day you just have to dress warm. I have three dunas and several spare blankets. I have found that two dunas tends to do the job. Almost certinly however a hat is required as well.

On reasonably mild nights a sleeping bag will help to keep you warm. Fleecy pajamas and a woolen beanie or hat will also help keep you warm. It has long been known that most of our heat escapes the body from our head. If you can cover your head a night this will dramatically reduce the amount of heat that escapes from your body. While some people swear by long johns, fleecy pajamas or track suit pants will do almost as good a job.

There are sleeping bags and there are sleeping bags. Cheap ones will rarely provide much insulation but some times that's all you can get A cheap sleeping bag though csn be complamented with a blanket over the top. You generally won't get a good qality sleeping bag at a discount store, camping stores tend to have ones with proper heat ratings. Geneally they are rated by the temprature you can use them in. A zero degree sleeping bag can be used in freezing westher. In Australia you probably will need one rated for 20 degrees Celsius. I used to have a nice feather down sleeping bag, but eventally it wore out. Now days most sleeping bags are filled with modern artifical fillers. This makes them very flamable, so keep them well away from fires.

Woolen blankets provide much better insulation. As wool has gone out of vogue a lot now they can be hard to get. You can generally find them in opportunity shops or second hand shops. Wool can smell a bit if it becomes damp so air them out regularly. You can fold the woolen blankets up inside or outside of a sleeping bag to provide extra insulation. Blankets are cheap, particularly if you pick them up from second hand or discount stores. One to avoid though are those horrible useless cotton blankets with half a million holes in them that seem to be very popular with hospitals. The holes just let the heat right through.

Some charities will give you blankets for free if you ask politely and can prove a reasonable need.

Heat blankets.

You've probably seen those foil type blankets used by fire fighters to protect themselves from radiant heat and by bushwalkers to keep themselves warm while out walking. You can normally pick them up at disposals stores or camping stores for a few dollars although now that people have been buying them more often, they are getting more expensive. Demand is stripping supply. These blankets should be used in addition to normal blankets. I've used one when staying overnight in a cave. I don't recommend using them on their own because they just don't do a good job. A sleeping bag and one of these blankets is a good combination, as is a woolen blanket and one of these thermal blankets. Another point to note that these blankets will trap moisture inside your sleeping material.

Warm clothing.

Dress in layers during cold weather. Thankfully it almost never snows here. I can manage to wander around in normal trousers, t- shirt, skivy and a jumper. Even on the coldest days a polar fleece track suit that will cost about $30 will keep me warm. In climates where it is colder though, I could imagine that warm clothing means a lot more than a track suit. Water proof jackets, thick trousers, thermal underwear and waterproofed shoes may be required. I used to own thermal underwear but these days I just don't need it. A fleecy track suit during the day and fleecy pajamas during the night work just as well. I also tend to use dunas or quilts at night so I am never cold.

Heaters.

You can buy gas heaters such as the Coleman Black Cat and the Pro Cat. These catalytic type heaters are also manufactured by other companies, and have been around for quite some time. They are being introduced widely on the market only recently though. The Pro-Cat has a large heating surface and a battery powered fan. One trick used by campervan owners a lot is to place a small bare terracotta or clay pot upside down over a camp stove. The pot heats up and radiates heat throughout the van. It is important to use a bare clay pot though as glazes and water trapped inside the pot may make it shatter or explode. I suggest the first time you try this is with the gas on low and stand well back from the pot. That is until you need to turn the gas off.

When using gas inside a vehicle, always ensure you have adequate ventilation. Read the safety section for more details.

Hot water bottles.

Some heat sources such as some camping heaters can be used reasonably safe inside an enclosed space if monitored and attended. You should never use a stove or gas heater inside of a car when you are sleeping. It is far safer and far more efficient to heat up water for a hot water bottle or bottles and use them to keep you warm at night while you are sleeping instead. There will be no worry of accidentally knocking over the stove / heater in your sleep, and no worry of carbon monoxide. Hot water bottles will keep you warm for long periods of time, particularly if they have a fleecy or woolen cover. You can also get metallic hip flasks and fill them with much hotter water than a hot water bottle. Covering them with a couple of layers of socks will allow a bearable amount of heat to keep you warm for long periods of time.

Sources of hot water for hot water bottles include:
Heating water on a stove. Either a camp stove or normal stove will do.
Heating water on a fire. You can heat water on a log fire outside of the vehicle.
Hot water tap in the toilet of shops, restaurants, petrol stations, truck stops.
Hot water service in a vehicle.
Heat exchanger unit.
Hot water siphoned out of your vehicle's radiator.



Home made hot water bottle heated using engine coolant



Heat Packs.

I have also purchased and tested those small self heating packs. The saturated liquid in them is a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, so it is perfectly safe if it spills. These are filled with a saturated liquid and a small metal tab. When you click the metal tab it sets off a reaction that turns the liquid in to a solid and releases heat. You can extend the period which it takes to release the heat by providing insulation. Once again, wrapping them in a couple of socks will help keep them and you warmer longer. To recharge them place them in to a pot with a dish cloth in the bottom (to make sure the plastic does not touch the bottom of the pot and melt) and slowly increase the heat until the contents of the heat pack melt and become completely transparent. You won't need to boil the water in your pot, it will need to be hot but not boiling. You may as well use the hot water from the pot for a hot water bottle.

On cold nights a couple of these heat packs and a hot water bottle should keep you warm all night. Use the hot water bottle until it goes cold, then use one heat pack and later the other. Of course more heat packs and hot water bottles will keep you warm longer. Heating the water should only take about five minutes so this is a reasonably economical use of your camp stove. In addition if you can find a source of taped hot water you can recharge your heat packs in hot sink water. A set of barbecue tongs will help you handle them in the hot water.



Heat Pack before activation.



Heat pack during activation. The reaction spreads out from the metal tab.



Heat pack with reaction complete. It will release heat for up to an hour afterwards if you wrap it in a sock or two.



Boiling the heat pack to recharge it. The forks keep it off of the bottom of the pot, ensuring the plastic does not melt.

Insulation.

Most cars and vans don't have much insulation. Generally there's nothing much between the inner and outer skin of most cars. Not surprisingly it is also very hard to get anything in there in terms of insulation. In some cases it is not a good idea to put insulation between the metal layers of the car. This could make it difficult to access wiring, could impede air from escaping areas where it needs to be used for cooling and you could also trap moisture in the car, causing rust. You may have to settle for insulation attached to the inside of the car.

Probably the most professional way to do this would be to attach insulation to the inside skin of the vehicle. and then create a second interior skin. I can imagine though that would be expensive, and unless you do a good job it may not look too good. But looks are secondary to practicality and comfort. With a thin layer of foam mattress type insulation and some plyboard with a wood veneer finish you could insulate the walls, ceiling and floor of your vehicle. If you are fitting out a van from scratch this could really make a difference.

You can also visit buildings with air conditioning or heating.

Heating for seriously poor financial situations.

Bubble wrap is a great insulator. So are garbage bags if you tape them around blankets or a sleeping bag. They will keep you dry in rain.

Bad heating ideas.

Fire. This is a bad idea. You just do not want to have an open fire in your vehicle. You don't even want to have an unstable stove or a wood burning stove in a vehicle I have seen pot bellied stoves in some larger motor homes though. I personally would really want to think twice about using one. Certainly I would never use one in motion. I've seen small charcoal stoves for sale and heard mention of people using them in vans. I don't think this is a great idea either. Naked flames can set fire to all sorts of things. In addition, the smoke tends to permeat everything.

Condensation.

I have found condensation to be a problem in wetter climates like Europe. It tends not to be an issue in Australia, because we have a pretty dry climate. Just open your windows to let through a breeze and things dry out. In Europe it is the opposite. Open the window and a breeze blows in the damp.

My van has five computer fans wired directly into a 15 watt solar panel. When the sun shines, the fans power up and vent the van. The result is a good flow of air when the sun is shining. When it is night or cloudy these fans don't run. This tends to keep air flowing through the van well. You can buy similar van vents that run off of a small solar panel. They can usually be installed easily if you have the tools to drill through metal. They are normally installed in your roof.

I did find that when in Europe I had constant problems with the duna getting damp. I used to have to throw it in dryers all the time. Then I discovered the rear under bed heater in the van and used that. Hanging it up inside the van while travelling was some help too. I used to have a small removable clothes line inside of my van in Europe. During the day as I'd drive I'd put the heater on full and then hang up the duna (Ozzie version of a quilt) over two lines so it was well seperated. I'd boil in the van some days but it did dry it out a bit. For best results I used to hang the duna and it's cover seperate.

Staying cool.

Don't forget to wear sunscreen and a hat in hot weather. A hat with a broad rim may look daggy, but it will keep the sun off of you.

Drinking lots of water will help to cool you down. Drinking lots of water is almost always good for you. The only situation where drinking lots of water is bad for you is where you drink too much too fast or where the water is tainted. Drinking two liters of water evenly spaced over an hour is about as much as you would want to drink. After that you should slow down. If you drink too much water too fast you can deplenish natural body salts. This is why sports drinks contain minerals and salts.

Winding down your windows in some places will help cool you down. It can also attract mosquitos and other annoying insects. Fly screens can be easily cut to the size of your windows and attached with magnets or Velcro, gaffa tape or other methods. Fly screens can be rolled up and stored when not in use.

Hot water bottles can also be filled with cold water. I have found that filling one and using it as a pillow cools you more comfortably than placing the cold object against almost any other part of your body. You can also freeze hot water bottles and use them as an ice pack. Some places have water coolers available to the public. You can fill your bottles with cold water at these locations.

Ice packs of course will help to keep you cool. If you have a ready access to a freezer you can cool blocks of ice to use as ice packs. You can also buy ice cubes but they don't last as long as a solid block of ice of the same weight. Even a bottle filled with cool water will help keep you cool.

A small fan will keep you cool as well. In my camper I have one that is wired directly to a small solar panel mounted on the roof. The sunnier it is, the more the fan blows. It helps keep the van cool during warm weather.

A misting water bottle will help keep you cool and moisurised. One of those trigger pack ones will do the job. Even a damp face washer will help to cool you down.

Using reflective sun shades will help reflect sunlight and thus heat out of your vehicle. This will help keep it cooler.

Visit public buildings with air con. Libraries, shopping centers, gymnasiums, swimming pools, restaurants, or other buildings you can access.





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