Heating in cold temperatures

i all,

I know I’ve brought this up before but thought it worth discussing in a wider context.
So...we are camping out in the Spanish interior, mostly making use of campsites so that we can have the comfort of electricity for heating - mainly for the dog who suffered on an overnight at the Alhambra in Granada.

Tonight the temperatures are again plummeting below -5 degrees C.

So.... what do people do in these circumstances?  Put it on mix (Gas + Elec) as we did to get it up to temperature?  Or leave it on Elec 1 (low power)?  Low power doesn’t even seem good enough to keep the dog OK.

Any thoughts?

Apologies for duplicate photo


Fixed for you. No probs. 

I Carry a ceramic fan heater as a back up. Much warmer than  heat 1 on truma  , I turn of  the truma  , fan heater 750 ---1500  w with thermostat

Hi Molly3

That’s a good idea.  Does that work ok on low ampage campsites?

Small oil filled radiator 700/800w. ??

Yes, it does get very cold down that part of Spain at night.
Don't forget that: Mixed operation (Mode), Gas and Electrical operation is only possible in Winter mode i.e. you must have water and heating on at the same time! Hence if you are using mixed mode without the water heater switched on then the system will default to Gas! 
Low power is about 900W (3.9A) - which is generally what we found most Spanish campsites electrical supply will tolerate.
Our solution was to raise the heating to the required temperature during the evenings using gas and then switch it over to Elec 1 (900W). Whilst this is about the same output as a small oil filled rad the onboard Truma heater does have the additional advantage that the heater fans are blowing hot air through the van. 
For us, this seemed to maintain a reasonable temperature throughout the night with the temperature set at 15C whilst we were in bed.
Maybe the dog needs an extra blanket?

Last year we were down to -7 at Teruel and used heating on gas which kept us very warm. In the UK we too use a small oil filled radiator, but we find carrying one of these to Spain impractical, so use the Truma. Not sure of your layout, but we have an EK Broadway and our dog usually sleeps in the cab area. We use the two single bed setup, and if it’s particularly cold we move his bed into the space between the beds, in front of the vents. Of course he’d much prefer our beds!

Electric heating overnight is quieter than the gas, which can be noisy when it fires up. If we have EHU we set electric to 12C which is adequate.

Enjoy Spain.

Thanks all.  

Molly I will look into ceramic heaters.

Liam that’s pretty much what we did last night in the end, using the gas to boost, then turning onto electric.  Probably will stick with that idea.  I am mortified that I didn’t think of dog blankets specifically but we did have one on our bed and that’s what he got to be tucked in.

Harry we have a fixed bed layout and the dog sleeps near the cab area.  I will probably move him to nearer the heater, though he won’t appreciate it if we stand on him in the middle of the night!  12 degrees was what we used overnight last night.

Dog currently enjoying the fire at friends house in Cantabria!

So you have heating AND fridge problems?

Haha yes I suppose so!  
No heating problems this evening next to cosy fire.

Doonhamer5 wrote:Hi Molly3

That’s a good idea.  Does that work ok on low ampage campsites?

Yes it dose  on 750 w it draws less than the truma and warms up quicker. Only downside it dose not warm the toilet

Molly3 wrote:

Doonhamer5 wrote:Hi Molly3

That’s a good idea.  Does that work ok on low ampage campsites?

Yes it dose  on 750 w it draws less than the truma and warms up quicker. Only downside it dose not warm the toilet

Wedge the bathroom door open an inch or so to air the bathroom. On many bathroom doors, you can twist a towel from inside to outside handles that will do the job

Temperatures only down to 2 deg C overnight in this bit of Spain but, given the enormous selection of solutions for keeping humans warm available ( thermal undies, bedsocks, fleecy blankets etc etc ) I would be very surprised if the pet section of your nearest China shop hadn’t got keeping dogs warm overnight taped.

We put the gas on flat out just before we get up and then, bathroom door open, a 1 kW fan heater until the sun takes over about 9.30 am. At night, if we close windows etc beforevthe sun goes down, we can manage with the van electric heating alone.

Just a thought: our cab area is very cold whatever heating we have on. I keep wine etc behind the seats and it really does not need chilling.

Why buy another appliance when your heating will do the job, set the thermostat low and leave it on. 
Rich..

RML wrote:Why buy another appliance when your heating will do the job, set the thermostat low and leave it on. 
Rich..

Reliability in our case. We spent one winter with a burnt out element on the Truma and another with a blown fuse. In neither case could we sort it in Spain and, without the fan heater, would have been cold.

NB Even if you don’t carry a spare heater carry a spare UK 3 pin plug.

That’s a cautionary tale Quilter. We too worry about the Truma packing up whilst we’re in Spain, but leave the oil filled radiator at home due to payload/space issues. Will get a fan heater as a backup in future. The spare plug is a good idea too.

A spare plug is always handy. We’ve had a couple of kettles fail and, of course, both had welded plugs so we could not put them onto a new Spanish kettle.

Quilter wrote:

RML wrote:Why buy another appliance when your heating will do the job, set the thermostat low and leave it on. 
Rich..

Reliability in our case. We spent one winter with a burnt out element on the Truma and another with a blown fuse. In neither case could we sort it in Spain and, without the fan heater, would have been cold.

NB Even if you don’t carry a spare heater carry a spare UK 3 pin plug.

I kind of agree with you as we carry a fan heater for use on hook-up but I wouldn't leave it running at night . For this, and only when it's really cold, I leave the Truma on gas or electric at a low setting. I don't believe in carrying things just in case, with the exception of a toilet cassette, most things can be sorted and there is a good network of motorhome and caravan dealers in Europe.  We're currently in Spain mostly free camping with a mixture of cold temperatures on the plains and warm on the coast.  
Rich..

Thanks everyone for all the advice!  Lots of great suggestions that we will take on board.

Quilter wrote:A spare plug is always handy. We’ve had a couple of kettles fail and, of course, both had welded plugs so we could not put them onto a new Spanish kettle.

Spanish to uk adapte? we have one on the previous fan heater we bought...

bolero boy wrote:
Spanish to uk adapte? we have one on the previous fan heater we bought...

Have you checked the earth connection goes through the adapter ?

If our electric kettle packed up we would use gas until we arrived home. 
Rich..