why all the debate about heaters? seems easily answered..

[Willy]

Woke up this morning and it was a bit below 19 F.. -7.1 C. Nice 'n toasty inside tho, cuz of my skookum furnace! ..Willy.

 

[owl]

OP, where are you? This is your thread, feel free to chime in.

 

[Sameer]

I am grateful for my Mr. Heater this morning.....!!

 

[Unchained]

I'm grateful for mine tonight! I just picked it up today, with early Xmas $$ from Mom & Dad, and am now lounging about in a tee shirt and yoga pants when the temp outside is in the high 30s and dropping fast (Wha? I have to test it properly, don't I? :angel

And did I mention how much I love my parents???

I got a Little Buddy, and live in a large 5th wheel with a screwed up pocket door, so I put up a 'thermal block' curtain from Walmart to cut the living rm and kitchen off from the (now) heated bed & bath. It works great and the 30+ degree temperature difference between the two is making me rethink raiding the fridge!

 

[bvanevery]

35*F at night is not even a challenge, in a car. I have a summer weight rectangle bag with no top, and a winter weight "-15*F" (yeah right) bag with a broken zipper. It worked when the zipper worked, but I don't like being mummified anyways and won't get another one. I get in the summer bag, then put my feet into the bottom of the winter mummy. I use the winter mummy as a glorified blanket and my feet keep it in place as I sleep. I don't wear terribly special clothing.

A van has more airspace than a car. Also I have a dog, adding some body heat. A van might be less comfortable, same problem as a bigger tent vs. a smaller tent, but I doubt it would matter much.

Handling 20*F took more engineering. I made my dog get in the folded down back seat with me, instead of him sleeping in the driver's footwell like he usually prefers. I covered both of us with my winter bag / glorified blanket, sort of making a "protective wing" with my arm. This worked ok, we made it through the night and I got real sleep. From this I learned an important principle: heat rises. All that mummifying stuff isn't the big thing that matters, it's keeping the heat from rising away above you. So if you're mostly mummied and you're sleeping sideways or on your stomach, your breathe-hole isn't facing up and that's way better than pointing it up and having your heat go straight up. My dog and I basically made a "heat dome" and that worked ok.

Then a friend of mine gave us a fairly substantial queen-sized comforter. Not sure what the fabric type is, but it performed well. Now we don't have to get into especially funny positions to get the "heat dome" effect. 20*F not a problem anymore.

If you need to go lower than 20*F, you're solving the wrong problem. Leave the geographic area. We go far enough south in winter that we only have to deal with 20*F "every so often". Currently that's Charleston SC. A few days of it isn't gonna kill us. If it's an ongoing pattern, why bother? We'll go to Florida.

Also 20*F coastal is not the same as 20*F inland. On the coast, that's the temperature just before dawn. Inland, that's the temp most of the night.

 

[jeanontheroad]

I don't mean to start a ruckus, but are we the only ones who invite the neighbors to plug in if we are running the generator to keep warm? Our generator easily puts out more juice than we need, and someone who would be freezing without being plugged in to us is not going to resent the noise.

 

[Sameer]

That is a wonderful thing to do! Why would that start a ruckus? We are all part of the same Tribe. When I started out on the road a year ago I had very little and soon acquired what I needed through trial and error. An example would be that I had no idea the desert could be so cold at night. I finally bought my Mr. Heater and am now 'warm as toast in the evening'. The law of karma is always at work...when we do good things...good comes back to us...!

 

[jeanontheroad]

Sameer: wonderful thing

Me: If you think about it, it's really not that big a deal. If we are topping off our batteries, it costs us less than a buck to top off someone else's house battery and nothing at all to charged another laptop or phone. If we are running our furnace all night, it may cost us 3 or 4 bucks more to heat your van or tent. So, make us coffee in the morning.

 

[akrvbob]

bvanevery,

The issue isn't sleeping warm at night, that's easy. It's what do you do all night before bedtime.

In the winter it's dark at 6:00 pm and bedtime isn't until 10:00 (if you go to bed early, you will wake up early and be awake and up when it is coldest). From sunset to sunrise is 13-14 hours and you sleep for 8. Sitting around in the cold for 4-6 hours is very unpleasant. Your hands, nose, feet get cold. I live this way to be comfortable not endure it.

I want heat in the evening so I can sit around and read, watch TV or surf the net in comfort. If it's 20 degrees outside that means having a heat source.
Bob

 

[Donedirtcheap]

bvanevery,

The issue isn't sleeping warm at night, that's easy. It's what do you do all night before bedtime.

In the winter it's dark at 6:00 pm and bedtime isn't until 10:00 (if you go to bed early, you will wake up early and be awake and up when it is coldest). From sunset to sunrise is 13-14 hours and you sleep for 8. Sitting around in the cold for 4-6 hours is very unpleasant. Your hands, nose, feet get cold. I live this way to be comfortable not endure it.

I want heat in the evening so I can sit around and read, watch TV or surf the net in comfort. If it's 20 degrees outside that means having a heat source.
Bob

You got that right Bob. As I get older I want the temperature to be as consistent as possible. I'm going to be warm even if I'm living in a refrigerator box or under the overpass. No way around that one. It makes me cringe to hear of some of these people toughing it out at 20 degrees.

 

[bvanevery]

If we are running our furnace all night, it may cost us 3 or 4 bucks more to heat your van or tent. So, make us coffee in the morning.

You are in a different budgetary category than some of us. I think last fall I may have managed to survive for $250/month for everything, including food, supporting my dog too. Your $90..$120/month on what I consider "unnecessary" heating would derail such a tight budget. That kind of money would buy decent sleeping bags and thermal gear in a hurry too. Now that I've finally got food stamps my actual cash expenditures are descending into the realm of the truly trivial. I bet I can get down to less than $100/month now. Again I sure as heck wouldn't spend it on "unnecessary" heating.

---

bvanevery,

The issue isn't sleeping warm at night, that's easy. It's what do you do all night before bedtime.

In the winter it's dark at 6:00 pm and bedtime isn't until 10:00 (if you go to bed early, you will wake up early and be awake and up when it is coldest). From sunset to sunrise is 13-14 hours and you sleep for 8. Sitting around in the cold for 4-6 hours is very unpleasant. Your hands, nose, feet get cold.

When urban camping, I'm finding it's typical for me to leave a library or mall between 6..9 PM. I often have to drive my car a few miles anyways to get to a recreation and sleep site where cops won't bother me. I turn the heater on and by the time I've drive 3..4 miles the car is not freezing anymore. It might even be slightly warm. I don't open windows, I keep the heat. I sit around in my sleeping bags and I keep wearing my winter gear. My laptop gives off a little bit of heat. It's often enough for a couple of hours, before the cold gets annoying. Then I hunker down and go to bed.

I live this way to be comfortable not endure it.

I want heat in the evening so I can sit around and read, watch TV or surf the net in comfort. If it's 20 degrees outside that means having a heat source.
Bob

If it's 20*F frequently you should just leave the geographic area. If it's 20*F once in awhile, do the brief commute trick like I described, then go to bed earlier that night. Wake up in the morning, drive to somewhere you want to be to warm up, get on with life. There's nothing to endure here, it's just state of mind. I don't see any point in staying in climates that are consistently 20*F at night. You've got wheels, go south.

 

[Sameer]

I agree with Bob...I run my Mr. Heater on low until I go to bed. Although I know it is safe to run while I am sleeping...I still have reservations. I use my 0 degree sleeping bag as a comforter covering a blanket and another comforter so I am warm at night without the heater...In the morning I turn it on high to heat my van, and since I have the large model, it is warm enough to get out of bed in about 10 minutes and then turn it back to the low setting...My heater is expensive to run but it is worth it to be comfortable....

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

I think if bob goes any more south he would be in mexico

 

[bvanevery]

Consider up/down as well. Coastal conditions are milder than inland.