Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 12:17:26 -0700
Reply-To: Gary Shea <shea@GTSDESIGN.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Gary Shea <shea@GTSDESIGN.COM>
Subject: Re: Winters in the van...
In-Reply-To: <B9FFC7C6.7A77%eric@seniornet.org>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, at 10:49 [-0800], Eric Spletzer (eric@SENIORNET.ORG) wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who responded. Turned out to be a great thread.
>
> After attending a workshop on hydronic radiant heating this weekend, I'm
> somewhat interested in the possibility of using this. I'm shooting from the
> hip here - so if I'm missing something. Please let me know. Humor me though
> - this could have potential.
>
> What if there was a submersible water heater/pump that would heat your water
> to say.... 130 degrees. Not hot enough to melt your tank, but enough to
> keep it really warm. This (130-140 degrees) is roughly the temp that goes
> through the radiant piping in a home. Then you could use this pump to
> circulate the hot water through KITEC tubing that you lay under your carpet
> in the cabin.
An interesting idea... but I'm afraid there is a fatal flaw. Humans are
very aware of radiant heat, which is why hydronic heating is so popular.
The way you get radiant heat with a hydronic floor is by saturating a
large thermal mass with a low level of enery which it radiates
semi-uniformly. The key is the amount of thermal mass. The equivalent
hydronic floor for the van is unfortunately a 3" layer of concrete under
he carpet. Yikes!
Gary
> This is basically the concept behind a hydronic radiant heating system in
> your home. If you did this in the van, it could be a permanent
> installation, and all you have to do is turn on the heater and you serve two
> purposes: keep your water warm and unfrozen, and heat the van safely at the
> same time.
>
> Drawbacks I can see right now:
> 1. The water you get from this sink would be really hot and I don't know if
> you can get a pump/heater that you can use on potable water. (But you don't
> really want cold water in the winter anyway.)
> 2. To install the piping correctly, you would fill in the spaces in between
> the pipes with plywood or something similar, which might suck in the case of
> an accident.
>
> Now that said - it's not nearly as simple as an electric blanket or a lil
> block heater from WalMart - but could be a realy cool (er... Warm) way of
> keeping your water handy and keeping the van warm.
>
> Any thoughts/comments/noticeable problems with this?
>
> --eric
> ----------------------
> '85 GL Camper (Moby)
> San Francisco, CA
>
>
>
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