Underfloor Heating in Caravans

[CarolineSimon]

Has anyone got underfloor heating in their van? If so how do you find it, is it worth while having it as an option on a new van?

We use our Van out of season and the thought of a warm floor is quite tempting as we can add it onto our new van, but not having had it before we are weighing up the pros & cons to it. Apparently it only works on Mains hookup as well.

Thanks,

Caroline

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi Caroline & Simon

We had under floor heating on our previous Fendt caravan but on this new Fendt model it does not appear to have it.

I can`t say we actually used it that much and we caravan all year as the heater and blower round the caravan was all that was required.

I do not think I would pay extra for it in the future but if it came as standard then we would possibly use it on rare occassions and yes it works on mains hookup.

 

[CarolineSimon]

Thanks Joyce,

I should have asked you when we were chatting at the show as I forgot you had a Fendt!!

It's with the little ones I thought it would keep the floor warmed especially for the crwling one & when we have to get up in the night to them!!

Caroline

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi Caroline

As I do not have little ones I did not think of it from that aspect.

Yes the floor was warm but not that much and not really through the carpet more when you touched the floor where there was no carpet.

I do not think we ever kept it on through the night. We have a blower fan that we put on at night very low which keeps coming on and off through out the night if the temperature goes down.

I do not really like having heat on where we sleep and the German caravans are very well insulated as you know, we only use the fan in extreme conditions.

By the way I see you stay up late too! or is your excuse the children..

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello all,

A major manufacture looked at underfloor heating, using an electric elenemt withing a carpet. I was engaged to do some tests on the arrangmet, and I was not very impressed.

There were a number of major drawbacks, firstly, the carpet did not heat up evenly, and if anythoing was placed on top (cast off shoes etc) the area of carpet became quite hot. It was easy to over heat small areas, and that affected the construction of the carpet.

The second drawback was the amount of heat that could be liberated to actually warm the caravan. The element was rated at 500W per squatre meter but the carpet material acted as an insulator, so the effective heat liberation was down to about 150W per Sq Meter. In a typical van that equated to about to between 300 to 400W in total.

Teh carpet had built in on off thermostat, and the floor of the caravan is quite light weight and has little thermal mass, so temperature changes in the carpet were noticable to the occupants

as teh stat turened on and off.

 

[greenplum_5088396]

That sounds more like an electric carpet to me???