I purchased a diesel room heater for my apartment. It looks like it would work great in a camper and burns 1.44 gallons a day on low, putting out 5000 BTU's. This could be the perfect heater for me, although I still prefer wood as it is more available, cheaper, and better from a survival standpoint. If fuel costs go up and we know they will, then I'd rather preserve my fuel for mobility than heat. Still diesel/kerosene/fuel oil heating is nice, thermostatically controlled and can be left unattended, and with monitoring, left on over night. This could be an ideal cold weather camping heater.
I've also give some thought to improving the thermal break inside my camper. I'd like to make it still better insulated and one idea I had was to double up the thickness of the walls the further isolate the metal framing and siding from the interior. this can be done by adding another layer of framing offset from the present framing, and simply bonding rigid foam insulation to the interior with a modest amount of framing. Wall, floor and ceiling insulation would increase from R9 to R18. I could even go more for the ceiling if I raised to roof a foot, and have R27 on the roof. This is about what a well insulated house would have for insulation. It might be way overkill but I like the idea of burning a fire inside, heating a water tank and keeping the interior warm with the radiant heat of the water tank over night as the fire died out. I might find that the interior would need a much smaller heater, or that a wood stove with water tank buffer would keep the camper warm over night. Perhaps a diesel engine and cab heater might be enough to keep both my pickup motor warm, as well as my truck cab, and the camper warm. One thing is certain, this level of insulation means is I could keep my camper warm in tempetures well in to negative numbers like -30 -40 degrees.
Note there is a woman in Norther BC that heats a primitive camper with a large wood stove. She claims to stay warm in -40 deg weather with all the windows open. I am a bit skeptical.
If diesel is the heat source then I will need a second or third fuel tank to serve the heater. There is space in front of each wheel well of my pickup bed for a 24 gallon tank on each side. 48 gallons would give me a month of continuous heat on the low setting of a Toyotomi heater at a cost of $5 a day.
A few other random thoughts on staying warm in extremely cold climates:
For extremely low temperatures like this, an airlock door would be essential to keep the heat in and the cold out.
How well would a diesel heater server to keep the interior dry?
Windows and doors, with R value of 1 would be the weak points. With storm windows installed, would a wood stove be able to keep condensation from forming on windows? Would a diesel heater be able to prevent this? Would bubble wrap between the storm and primary windows help? Reflectix? Would my idea of rigid foam panels work well, or would condensation form behind them?
Should I remove some windows--like the front three and insulate this area to improve my camper insulation?
How do I make a thermal break at the windows? Use wood window trim? Butyl tape?
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