not away in ours thankfully, but in the past when this hot its been a case of opening all windows and roof vents, but pull the blackout blinds down, then if on ehu put the fan heater on cold along with the fan from the fire, we are lucky enough to have roof extraction which is great for sucking the hot air out!
the real problem is getting the fridge to not overheat
Not away in van at moment, can't decide if that's good or bad really, I'm not a great one for grilling myself in the sun, so likely be loitering in the van more than I'd normally do!
Couple of years back after a hot spell, decided the van had the potential to get just too hot for comfort (for me and my dog), and looked at A/C options. Decided that a caravan specific A/C was too expensive for an aging van, and also too intrusive on my limited payload as a permanent fit, looked at the removeable split units, but thought too much faffing and performance not too impressive for the cost, so looked towards small domestic portable units which were also far cheaper than any other option.
Because it's portable, I only need to have it in the van when risk of high temps, so rest of time I've not compromised my payload. It stows for transport on the side lower bunk bed (I don't take the cushions with me, and normally use bunk bases as storage shelves/dog's bed), and is compact enough to place on floor opposite door for use without being a major obstruction. I've fabricated an exhaust vent seal that fits the roof vent above where it sits on floor, so vent pipe not a nusance going out of a window. Timer and remote control make it great for controlling from the seats/bed at other end of van.
Only used it on a couple of trips so far, but it worked well. When it's not in the van, it's used at home, so a good investment all round.
Couple of cautions perhaps on using a portable unit, make sure it fits through caravan door (mines a knats whassit clearance!), and consider whether you can lift it in and out of van! - mine weighs 27kg, and that's one of the lighter ones!
When not using the portable A/C, I do pretty much as Marg6 described, except I don't have a roof fan or gas fire fan! The blown air heating system is a GREAT advantage over radiators, as you can blow cold/unheated air from the 'heater' vents! It's very effective, as drawing fresh cooler air from the shade underneath the van.
I think part of the trick of keeping the van comfortably cool, is use the blinds/curtains effectively to stop it getting too hot in the first place, trying to cool a very hot van, even with A/C, is a challenge, and slow to achieve.
Have to disagree with Monty re AC we have returned to the van on numerous occasions and it’s been over 40 degrees, turned the AC on and in a matter of minutes it was like a walk in cold store.
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A roof top air con unit was one of my 'Must Have' design specifications when I was spec'ing out my conversion back in 2020/21.
I camped during the August 2022's heatwave when the highest daytime temperature reached 30degC+!!! Way too hot for me even in the shade.
I ended up spending most of the afternoons inside a darkened van with the air con on full blast.
I don't like the heat, and installed air con in my house when I moved there in 2006. Peeps were commenting that it was waste of money/extravagant as air con was not needed in UK (I had a mobile one when I was living in London).
I am not gloating now, not much anyway!
DK
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If it is very hot when we are away, we don’t worry too much about it during the day as we are usually outside. If we are at the caravan we keep most windows open but if we are out for the day, we just keep the roof windows open. However, as soon as the sun stops shining on the caravan we make sure all the windows are wide open, including the roof windows, and the caravan usually cools down to an acceptable level by the time we are going to bed. If we want to help it along a bit, we use a small fan and if it is ridiculously hot, we buy a bag of ice and put it in a bowl in front of the fan. The fan blows air over the bowl of ice and helps to cool the air.
We are away at the minute and have been fine with just opening all windows after the sun drops behind the hill. However, I am wide awake now at silly o’clock because of lightning and a strong wind that has whipped up from nowhere and is rattling the window blinds on the windows which are all on the half latch. I’m going to have to fully close them down one side of the van as the rattling is keeping me awake.
Away in ours and loving it, haven’t closed the windows or roof vents all week, hopefully the weather will hold until after Wednesday, instead of doing our regular hikes, just been doing 2-3 miles and drinking plenty of water and cider, it is windy and a little fresher today,, it would be nice if the sun shone for the next few months.
We haven't used our caravan at all yet this year, but we have just come back from a week in Corfu where the average daytime temperature was about 36 degrees. It was already 31 degrees by the time we woke up each day. We came home to find it nearly as hot here apart from overnight.
Our caravan does get hot when the weather is like this, but we are usually out all day when we are away with it. We leave it with the roof vents open then when we get back we open all the windows for a while.
Away in ours in Dorset, a little cooler being near the coast so ok with windows and vents open.
We have experienced higher temperatures in France so used a fan in the van. Luckily sites had pools so we could cool off. We don't go in peakseason.
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Of course, the effect on us of heat is heavily dependant on humidity levels! In 'dry' climates we can sweat freely and cool ourselves effectively, but in more humid climes, generally such as the UK, heat becomes more uncomfortable, and the more so as humidity rises, as we lose the ability to sweat effectively. It's why we are often more comfortable in the heat of say the Mediterranean, but suffer in cooler temps in the UK.
It's quite interesting, both at home and in the caravan, I have a weather station that gives Relative Humidity readings, and anything above about 55% and mid 20's C starts getting uncomfortable (to me anyway!), put on the A/C and the temp is slow to come down, but the humidity plumets very quickly, and that's when it almost instantly starts to get comfortable.
33° here in Benidorm. It's getting a little uncomfortable now, especially as I can't go in the pool as I burnt my leg on the bike exhaust.
A few years ago I made a fan board with 4 x 120mm computer fans in it. It goes in the roof lite above the bed and is fantastic at night. Uses only half an amp on low and pulls in the cooler night air. Without it I'd have to have AC.
I've also got a fan in the window blowing air in during the day, if I mist myself the evaporative cooling effect is lovely
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Topic: Extreme heat
via mobile 21/6/2025 at 12:26pm
