After the encouraging results of a survey on Instagram about sleeping in a van in winter, I spent tonight in the Sirius “Orange” – at -7 °C.
The challenge
Although our two LIGHTstern Sirius are not officially made for winter camping, I knew that it wouldn’t be a problem thanks to the sustainable sheep’s wool insulation. The only question is: how much power does the auxiliary heater consume in one night at these icy temperatures?
So I charge the battery quite fully and bring my bedding into the camper in the late afternoon. Half an hour before going to bed, I switch on the electric auxiliary heater and heat the interior to 20 degrees.
After making myself comfortable in the camper, I set the temperature to 16°C and the fan speed to 3 (out of 8). I don’t have to change anything during the night. I only change the air direction from “feet only” to “feet + center”. This allows sufficient warm air to reach the rear of the van.
It is interesting to note that it does take some time to bring the vehicle, which has been frozen for several days, up to temperature. The mattress is really cold and downright hard at first. Accordingly, the room thermometer initially reads below 14°C.
After a while, however, we reached 18°C (with a set temperature of 16…), which is really pleasant.
The result
In total, the heating consumed 35% of the battery in 7 hours. That is about 14 kWh, which corresponds to an average heating output of 2 kW. Of course, that’s not heat pump level, because the good old Nissan doesn’t have one. But I think with this temperature difference between inside and outside, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Conclusion: Spending the night in a camper van in winter works perfectly with the Sirius!
