Over wintering caravan - suggestions please.

[Jcloughie]

I think that with sitting outside for some time the temperatures throughout the vans fabric would probably normalise and interstital condensation would not occur.

Of course heating the inside would then create a temperature difference between inside and out but then this is what happens in normal use anyway. Its not as if vans have cavity walls

Yup a minefield and we have to hope we don't put a foot in the wrong place.

I agree with the normalisation.

In a sense a caravan actually does have cavity walls. Filled cavities. But they don‘t breath like house walls. Or achieve the same ‘U’ ‘R’ or ’K’ values. Having near impervious surfaces may be part of the problem.

John

 

[Sam Vimes]

Monitored the caravan for a few days. No sign of any condensation forming.

This is without any heating or 'damp boxes'. The damp boxes I have had run out of crystals a while back but when I went to refill them this morning they had a considerable amount of water in them anyway. Regardless I've refilled them and put them in the caravan along with the monitor to see if they have any affect. I'm monitoring the RH outside the caravan separately which is 99% at the moment.

 

[ChrisUK]

Thanks for your replies.

The current damp will be fixed under warranty and we're just waiting for the dealer to get the parts. However, while further damp problems in the structure may not occur in the future the possibility of damp/mould being present internally could still be a problem and its this I want to minimise.

Good air circulation is one aspect that I can do something about easily and yes it currently looks like its been vandalised.

It sits in a car port and I've often wondered about enclosing that but it would have to be air tight in order to combat the high humidity we get in the winter months - its currently 95%. My large shed which is adjacent to the van gets damp so I can't store things like tools in there. Even paper gets a bit soggy after a while.

Vans by design leak air - more than I think they should. I'm sure they could be designed so that don't need so many vent points in them.

Maybe we should tow it somewhere warmer and drier in the winter but I'm not quite ready for trips abroad in it yet.

Does the car port stop rain driving on to the van? If it does I can not see what the dealer could do to fix condensation. What parts do they intend to fit?

 

[RogerL]

I think that with sitting outside for some time the temperatures throughout the vans fabric would probably normalise and interstital condensation would not occur.

Of course heating the inside would then create a temperature difference between inside and out but then this is what happens in normal use anyway. Its not as if vans have cavity walls

Yup a minefield and we have to hope we don't put a foot in the wrong place.

Keep it unheated, then there's no temperature difference between surfaces - park the caravan deliberately off-level that way there's no flat horizontal surfaces for rain water to pool on and any rain will rub off all the joints.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Does the car port stop rain driving on to the van? If it does I can not see what the dealer could do to fix condensation. What parts do they intend to fit?

The car port stops most of the driving rain.

I don't think I mentioned anything about the dealer fixing condensation, that was something that had just occurred to me and maybe there was something I could do about it.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Keep it unheated, then there's no temperature difference between surfaces - park the caravan deliberately off-level that way there's no flat horizontal surfaces for rain water to pool on and any rain will rub off all the joints.

Yes, I did some tests and unheated is the way to go. Periodic heating just causes condensation on cooler surfaces until they heat up which takes too long to be economical.

Good tip about not being level.

Part needed to fix current damp problem is a complete new front window assembly. Plus some re-painting, although I couldn't see anything wrong.