If you have a double cab base car, of any make, every kilo counts. A wet heating system (Alde) is too heavy, and with a properly insulated cabin it is also completely unnecessary. The little Truma S 2200 convection heater we fit as standard in many of our cabins is fine down to -30. It's extremely light, efficient, reliable, silent and uses no power. It's not trendy but it's perfect for this application - why make life hard for yourself?Toshbins wrote:We have a boat, and has been mentioned earlier in the thread, the condensation problem is a least as bad as in a camper. The real worry is the condensation in all the areas that you can't see or get to like behind cupboard panels, round the water tank etc.
In our experience, shutting the sleeping area off from the rest of the boat, just makes the problem worse. The ceiling above where we sleep literally runs with water. We open the sleeping area to the rest of the boat and keep a window open. In the morning we dry the windows and aluminium frames with a towel which we dry outside. That way we are taking the water away, rather than turning on the heating to evaporate it back into the air.
I'm reading threads like this with interest as we look for our first camper. We like the sound of the Alde heating, but our list of wants is getting very long, so we may need to compromise on something.
The problem with boats is rather different as even a poorly insulated camper is much better insulated than most boats (certainly most GRP or steel ones anyway). Very few boats have good, if any insulation. Etaps are the exception, they have foam insulation everywhere and we have spent hundreds of nights in one of these, summer and winter, using the heating and not using it. Condensation appears on the 'windows' and hatches (non of which are double glazed of course) and on bolts and metal fittings that bridge the insulation - exactly as you would expect. The warmer it is inside, the colder it is outside, the less ventilation you have, the worse it gets, but only on those parts that are forming the cold bridges. Boats with no or limited insulation get condensation everywhere, exactly as you describe.
If you are worried about condensation don't get hung up over the heater, focus on the actual cabin construction. The heater is almost irrelevant. A genuinely well insulated cabin hardly needs any heating to keep it warm and toastie inside and you're getting the better part of 300 btu free heat from each of you anyway. If there are two of you that's enough to stay comfortable throughout a typical cold autumn night without even thinking about needing a heater.
Best wishes
Gary
