Date:         Sun, 5 Nov 1995 13:09:23 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         raven@halcyon.com (Mark McCulley)
Subject:      Heating with electricity

Been following the thread about winter camping, propane heaters and all. I
once put one of those Coleman gasoline catalytic heaters in my bus for a
1.5 hr journey to do some cross-country skiing. By the time we got out of
the vehicle to ski we were sick as dogs. Sold that heater at a garage sale,
never used it again. Now here's what I'm thinking about to heat my
Westfalia. I purchased a small (8" cube) electric ceramic heater at Home
Depot for about $20. Has a thermostat and a fan/lo/hi switch and provides
1500W/5200BTU. Why not get an aux battery and an inverter to power this
thing? I haven't run through the calculations yet to see how long the
battery would last, maybe this isn't feasible. In the meantime, I'm going
to use the heater while the Westy is plugged into our house when we have
guests next week (Westy serves as guest house too). If it's enough to take
the chill off (not trying to make a sweat lodge), maybe I'll do the
battery/inverter thing. Sure beats the installation hassles of the propane
heater, plus it's "clean" heat!

Disclaimer: I live in a maritime climate where it almost never reaches 0 F.
Alaska, Minnesota, etc, is a different story. I have seen an old bus with a
small wood stove...

-Mark McCulley
'74 bus
'87 syncro Westfalia