Concerning the matter of air conditioning and staying cool, well, I hate to mention this again, but I do not tolerate heat well, and I know that staying cool is going to be an issue for me when I'm out there doing my van living. I have yet to come up with any viable solutions as to how I'm either going to keep the interior of the van cool when I'm in it during the summer (when the van is parked and the engine and factory AC are not running). The best I can figure so far is a kind of "Well, I haven't been the only heat-sensitive person to ever live in a van in a place where the summers can be rather warm.", which, in other words, is not much.
Civilization has come up with many many ways to stay warm....parkas, coats, hand warmers, sleeping bags, saber toothed tiger skins. But very little has been devoted to the act of staying cool. I mean *really* cool. But there are some ways, such as getting one of those cooling vests that are used by people who have cerebral palsy, and no, not one of those "evaporative" ones that isn't worth a truck. Those are cheap for a reason. I'm talking about one of those that come with ice packs and has pockets which you tuck them into. Now we're talkin'! Only.........where are you going to fereeze the ice packs on a daily basis? Anyone here have a freezer in their vehicle that is going to run that long on a daily basis? Or have reliable, daily access to a freezer?
Ice itself is not going to be a problem though; I saw a sign at a local Burger King touting an 8 lb. bag of ice for just $1. I'm thinking of maybe coming up with something like a 3 liter bottle of cooled or ice water which I can lay up against me as I sleep or do my thing in the van. I could also take a bag of ice water and Ace-bandage it to my leg or wrist. I've done that with solid ice packs before, the kind meant to be put in a cooler instead of ice to keep food or drinks cool, but if you're going to use an ice pack, the question is where do you freeze it to begin with?
Put something cool on your wrist and before you know it, the rest of your body can be significantly cooled, seeing as all your blood is going to pass through your wrist in a short amount of time. Still, I think this thing of actively cooling the body as such requires something more reliable and convenient of which I have not yet thought. Any one have thoughts on that or come up with something on their own that thus far works? The source of the coolness itself is going to have to be a purchased quantity of ice. I guess you could always just put ice into a "hot" water bottle and lay that against you, wrapping it in a shirt to make it as less-cool as you need or find comfortable.
I talked to a van dweller the other day who said before he goes to bed, he runs the engine and blasts the heat for about five minutes, then locks the van down and shuts it off. He said since the van is well insulated, this keeps it warm all night. Maybe that'd be a somewhat effective strategy to use with the van's factory AC.
A fan isn't going to be of a lot of help. I'm going to be in a mostly urban area, so sleeping with anything more than a pop-out window open or the front windows cracked is out of the question, so that means not a whole lot of circulation, which also means any fan in the vehicle is going to just be blowing hot air over me, which isn't going to be helping a lot. Sure it'll mean better ciculation.....of hot air. Big deal. Hot air is still hot air, circulated or not.
I could install a small residential window AC unit, maybe in the back window. I've seen that done plenty of times but found nothing here on how to actually do it. That would require external AC power, but trust me, if that's what it takes to stay cool, I'll find it when I need it.
Thanks,
J
Civilization has come up with many many ways to stay warm....parkas, coats, hand warmers, sleeping bags, saber toothed tiger skins. But very little has been devoted to the act of staying cool. I mean *really* cool. But there are some ways, such as getting one of those cooling vests that are used by people who have cerebral palsy, and no, not one of those "evaporative" ones that isn't worth a truck. Those are cheap for a reason. I'm talking about one of those that come with ice packs and has pockets which you tuck them into. Now we're talkin'! Only.........where are you going to fereeze the ice packs on a daily basis? Anyone here have a freezer in their vehicle that is going to run that long on a daily basis? Or have reliable, daily access to a freezer?
Ice itself is not going to be a problem though; I saw a sign at a local Burger King touting an 8 lb. bag of ice for just $1. I'm thinking of maybe coming up with something like a 3 liter bottle of cooled or ice water which I can lay up against me as I sleep or do my thing in the van. I could also take a bag of ice water and Ace-bandage it to my leg or wrist. I've done that with solid ice packs before, the kind meant to be put in a cooler instead of ice to keep food or drinks cool, but if you're going to use an ice pack, the question is where do you freeze it to begin with?
Put something cool on your wrist and before you know it, the rest of your body can be significantly cooled, seeing as all your blood is going to pass through your wrist in a short amount of time. Still, I think this thing of actively cooling the body as such requires something more reliable and convenient of which I have not yet thought. Any one have thoughts on that or come up with something on their own that thus far works? The source of the coolness itself is going to have to be a purchased quantity of ice. I guess you could always just put ice into a "hot" water bottle and lay that against you, wrapping it in a shirt to make it as less-cool as you need or find comfortable.
I talked to a van dweller the other day who said before he goes to bed, he runs the engine and blasts the heat for about five minutes, then locks the van down and shuts it off. He said since the van is well insulated, this keeps it warm all night. Maybe that'd be a somewhat effective strategy to use with the van's factory AC.
A fan isn't going to be of a lot of help. I'm going to be in a mostly urban area, so sleeping with anything more than a pop-out window open or the front windows cracked is out of the question, so that means not a whole lot of circulation, which also means any fan in the vehicle is going to just be blowing hot air over me, which isn't going to be helping a lot. Sure it'll mean better ciculation.....of hot air. Big deal. Hot air is still hot air, circulated or not.
I could install a small residential window AC unit, maybe in the back window. I've seen that done plenty of times but found nothing here on how to actually do it. That would require external AC power, but trust me, if that's what it takes to stay cool, I'll find it when I need it.
Thanks,
J
