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Hello,

My partner and I recently bought a static and love it so far.  We are currently staying in it.  The early morning are getting a little colder and the condensation was quiet bad this morning - even the warddrobe doors in the main bedroom were damp this morning.  The worrying thing is, it is quiet early in the year, so a time advances, the colder it will obviously get.  We will stay until the end of the season - which will be 31st October - but from March next year, we plan to live in the static until the end of the season - which will be, October.

We are a bit concerned that March and April will be 'trying' months, in that they are likely to be fairly cold.  At present, we do not have DG, nor central heating.  The later we may install at a later period in time.  However, the DG we are thinking is more the priority.

We have noticed that there are many air vents in the van that must mean tremendous heat loss - but safety is of paramount importance, so they must remain clear.  Does anyone genuinely think that installing DG will greatly reduce the condensation and give a warmer feel to the van?  We really want to spend a large amount of time in the static, but really do need some sound advice on what it takes to make it cosy for the winter months, plus any tips on combating condensation would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

David.

Many thanks, will take what you have said onboard - any constructive help is always appreciated.

David.

i think you have raised issues which are all related. draughts through vents can be cold but actually work to reduce condensation and act as REQUIRED vents for gas fires etc (the amount/size of vents is related to the number/size of appliances burning gas) - see if you can reduce the actual draught by diverting the direction of the vents or having new ones installed directly where they are needed - near cookers, fires etc and blocking those under furniture which cause drafts when you are sat watching tv etc. insufficent vents could cause more damage  and increase condensation

double glazing will help to reduce cold, draughts and condensation, but then again so do heavy curtains!!!! i assume dg will increase the value of your van or make it more saleable in years to come, but if you have an age restriction on site and not many years left, it might be a false economy. if you dont and intend keeping the van for some time, and the van is reasonably modern and just what you want, then dg seems a good option long term.

as your van has single glazing i assume insulation standards were at lower levels than now, remember your van was probably never designed to be used all year round, so the walls themselves might be contributing to the issues of coldness.

when unoccupied for the winter, we remove all the curtains from our van, leaving the van to warm up and cool down naturally rather than close all the curtains - we find this works better than closing the curtains and leaving bowls of salt around and the van never smells musty when we arrive to open it up and doesnt damage the curtains!

with regards to heating when its really cold, we use a paraffin heater - WHAT, i hear you say !!!!!!!!!!!! yes, a paraffin heater, its controlled electronically, so we set it to come on long before we get up, it is virtually odourless (especially if you buy the odourless paraffin) - you just get a faint smell for a couple of seconds when it fires up, but we're asleep so never notice it. it also has a fan so blows heat all through the van and is thermostatically controlled so goes off when it reaches the set temp and comes on when it goes below

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INVERTER-3016-Indoor-Paraffin-Heater-3kw-ODOURLESS-/160532367162?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Hearing_Cooling_Air&hash=item256079873a 

hope this helps you

dave

to be honest we dont use the specific 'odourless' but we try to use low odour, on the basis that the difference between the two is very little. you can buy odourless easily in france but never tried to buy it in the uk. prices for paraffin are about the same in the uk/france (odourless is about 25-30% more expensive in france - our van is in france)

we bought a paraffin heater in france for our van and found it so good that we bought one for home aswell (electric storage heating, no gas supply!!!) - it only gets used rarely but when it is used it makes a massive difference

price wise, we are paying around 90p a litre, we had it on a lot last winter (remember the snow?) mainly so we could eat in the conservatory and it cost around 50p per day. if you compare heat loss from a conservatory to a caravan i suspect they are similar, so that may give an indication of running costs.

have you checked underneath the van re the amount (if any) of insultaion?, that might be a good place to start as would fitting carpets over lino/tiled floors. carpets also have the advantage of being comfortable under foot and keeping out drafts making living in the van so much more comfortable!

i would also go around the windows and check for draughts. a little bit of silicon can go a long way and dont forget to oil all door and window hinges/catches to make sure they close properly - relacing any rubber trims if needed (and if you can get them!) - sometimes the rubber strips slip/move around the frame leaving small gaps where the draft can get in - even more so around doors and you can just slide them back into place. we have a heavy curtain to our front door (completely glazed), when its closed it stops any draughts/cold spots and we have an unwritten rule to our friends, if the curtain on the front door is shut - DONT COME CALLING!!!

(dave makes a mental note to himself to buy a load of heaters and flog them to caravan owners LOL)

best wishes and enjoy your van - we certainly do!

do you have any form of skirting around the underside of your static?  That would reduce windchill coming from below and may help with condensation too.  After all many caravans have canvas skirts for this reason.

rather than blocking the vents on my old static we fited cheap

bath sponges inside them, this still allowed air through but stopped

gale force drafts. it also made the need to use the heating on high

to hot so set them about half way.

we saved money and were a lot warmer

gas fire was only used for fast heating up of the van

the main heating was oil filled rads.