Nothing beats being toasty warm in a southerly gale on the Canterbury plains or being nice and chilly camped out at Cape Reinga

Increasing comfort during winter is best acieved by reducing heat loss. We all want to be nice and cosy after a days skiing or ice swimming…(yea, right!)

For this article, we’ll assume your vehicle is an older model bus or truck and that the bus is basically finished inside. I do this because I have not yet built a housebus from scratch and can only surmise how best to insulate between internal and external panels. Perhaps a motorhome builder or coach builder could advise of best practices when it comes to installing insulation in the build process.

Most people would assume that if you take the moisture out of the air by heating it up, then everything will be nice and cosy. To remain relatively healthy however, we actually need to keep some moisture in the air. Although a well-insulated coach requires less heating and has fewer cold drafts, less condensation is always going to be good both for you and your vehicle.

Water condenses on cool surfaces taking the moisture out of the air. Cooking, showering and other activities tend to raise moisture levels, but the moisture can quickly drop to unhealthy levels overnight when the heater has been on full blast. Adequately insulating the motorhome helps to eliminate this problem by keeping the moisture in the air, where it belongs, and not pooling up behind the settee.

Windows
On most buses, windows are the main culprit when it comes to heat loss. Most older buses have single-pane glass with no insulation qualities whatsoever. Most new buses and motorhomes come already fitted with double glazed windows, so is not such a problem. An option avalailable to existing bus and truck owners is to replace the windows with storm windows. Its amazing what a layer of air betwen panes can do for comfort due to enhanced heat retention.

Do it yourself storm window kits are available at most hardware stores and can be easily applied to your vehicle. Why don’t I just hang curtains or blankets over the Windows? Indeed this is an option and will work though to a much lesser degree. Used as an additional source of insulation, curtains and blankets certainly help, but should not be seen as the complete answer to preventing heat loss via windows.

Vents and holes
We’ve all seen those little bumps on the roof of a bus or van that spin around? Air vents. Designed primarily to provide air to the vehicle when in motion. Air conditoning units have pretty much made these items redundant but the older vehicles still have them. Be sure, you are losing valuable heat through these vents unless you apply insulation to them. Cover it up with some foam board or seal the vent altogether.

Wrap your water pipes and fresh water tanks in insulation blankets and materials. Though freezing is not really a problem in NZ, we occasionally get an icy snap and you need to make sure everything is well protected before heading out to the bush. Freshwater tanks should be given at least some sort of protection against freezing either by keeping them within the heated interior of the bus or by heat-ducting into areas where the tanks may be kept.

Have a look around inside and behind your cabinetry, squabs etc for air gaps and possible exit points for heat. Look around entry points for cables, pipes etc and caulk off with urethane foam sealant.

One of the best places to lose air is via the pilots cabin. It is largely difficult to offset heat loss via the large windscreen(s). Some alternatives are to place extra padding (underlay) and thicker carpet on the floor and footwells and sealing all those holes where everything comes into the cabin. Wires, cables, controls etc.

This section of the vehicle can be closed off in extreme conditions, but if its part of the lounge, and still needs to be used, then the use of full wrap around insulated curtains to cover side windows and the windscreen should be used. To get the most out of this, the curtains would need to be sealed to the dashboard and sill at the bottom. Use velcro or design your own special rail system to affix the curtains both top and bottom.

If your vehicle is compartmentalised (a word?) eg, bedroom at the back, amenities, kitchen then living-dining, then you should look at heat transferance methods to ensure heat is spread evenly around the vehicle. Nothing worse than going from a nice cosy den into a freezing bedroom. Place conduits, air-vents, in the adjoining walls into these to other areas. The higher the better. Heat rises so moves better if allowed to closer to the celing areas. use of a small DC powered fan will assist in the circulation of the warmer air.

If you have any tips about insulation, leave them in the comments section below.