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Welcome to the world of caravanning

As above, we have never needed heat i the awning. Even in the cold of October we find that once you are in the awning and out of the wind, a jacket or jumper suffices.

Needless to say, i would guess that any type of flame type heat in an awning would be considered dangerous

Buy a cheaper camping lantern and hang it from the awning pole to provide light, or some people just choose to use the outdoor light on the caravan.

As for plugging things in, what do you need to plug in? You could always just run an extension cable from a plug socket inside the van into the awning, but in 10 years caravanning, i cant recall every plugging anything in outside the van

Good Luck on your ventures

What I use for lighting in our awning works well and you don't have to keep buying batteries for it either. In the first link I use this type of 12 volt flourescent strip light and removed the crocodile clips then in the third link I fitted the corrresponding wires to a twin blade 12 volt caravan plug which fits into the socket shown in the second link which should be wall mounted somewhere inside the caravan. The light clips on the awning pole and the wires are clipped up below the awning roof with plastic freezer bag clips and then through the nearside window which can be then closed as normal. The wires just fit between the rubber around the caravan window without causing any damage. Plug it into the socket and you should have lighting although there may be an auxilary switch inside the caravan that you have to switch on to activate to the twin blade socket. I have used this idea for years as it uses little power in comparison to an awning light and can also be used if not on electric hook up as well as the power source comes from the on board leisure battery. 

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/redirect.asp?redir=http://www.towsure.com/product/12V_Awning_Pole_Strip_Light_8_Watt_350mm

http://www.caravanaccessoryshop.co.uk/product/12v-socket-for-parallel-pin-plug-beige/1126

http://www.caravanaccessoryshop.co.uk/product/parallel-pin-plug-12v-beige/635

Regards the heating, we only ever use an electrical fan heater if we are on electric supply but if solely reliant on 12 volt power we usually put on some warm coats although my feet always seem to suffer the cold. There are portable gas heaters you can purchase but if you do use one then you need an amount of ventilation for the carbon monoxide fumes to escape which is why I would rather stick to the warm coats and cold feet.

Quote: Originally posted by LlaniDavis on 18/4/2012

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Only going on what we and our friends do, but we don't heat them, lighting is either some freestanding lanterns or a gas lantern on a table, and what would you want to plug in?

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The beer fridge 

Del

when we sit out in the evening we take the kettle etc with us so no nipping in /out to make a cuppa. we also keep a cool box plugged in for beerr , pop etc. for lighting we either use the outdoor light above the door or the van lights themselves. works for us. as far as heating the awning goes its pretty hard to heat canvas up so we use a small halogen heater and it works great.  hope this helps

                                                atb Bill