My previous two posts may give the impression that I’m down on propane. Or would prefer to keep it out of the van. And it’s true that many builders feel exactly that way. One of them is George of The Humble Road. And the Transit Forum has plenty of builders who would never allow propane to besmirch their otherwise beautiful van.
I’m not one of them. First and foremost, both Elizabeth and I greatly prefer a gas stove to an electric one. It’s more responsive, easier to see what going on, and just easier to cook on. I also want to use a propane furnace to heat the interior of the van. The alternatives are electricity (fine, if you have a kajillion-amp-hour battery) and van fuel, either gasoline or diesel. The Far Out Ride people have both a gasoline-powered furnace made by Webasto, and a propane furnace that they installed when it looked like the Webasto was having serious problems. They eventually resolved the problems, and now prefer the gasoline burner. But when I read about what they went through to get there, and how finicky the Webasto furnace still is—even when dialed in properly—the simplicity of a propane furnace is very attractive.
George also uses Webasto furnaces (or similar units from Espar), but I think that’s mostly because he’s down on propane, at least in a van. In other builds, the field is divided and scattered. Some like furnaces powered by vehicle fuel, some like propane, some stay in southern California and don’t think about heat at all.
The Far Out Ride’s propane furnace is made by Propex, and it looks really good. They like it just fine, just prefer the Webasto. Of course, just like the refrigerator we rejected, and the water heater we’re still considering, a propane furnace needs fresh air to burn and a place to send its exhaust. Unlike those other two appliances, however, the Propex heater needs only small holes in the van, two 1½-inch circles cut through the floor, rather than big rectangles in the walls and ceiling. Definitely more attractive.
Not only that, but in collecting images for this post, I discovered that Propex has a new and improved model, the HS2800. More heat, more efficiency, more quiet. I think we have a winner.
In addition, for those mornings when it’s just a little too chilly, but not really cold enough to fire up the furnace, we’ll have a heating element in the floor. Toasty toes. When Elizabeth first suggested it, I did some research and found there are plenty of 12VDC, under-floor heating pads available. They draw not much current, and come in many different sizes and layouts. I haven’t gone back to pin down the right one, mainly because there’s no point in heating a section of the floor hidden under a cabinet (or the refrigerator!), and we have yet to settle on a precise layout. Once we do, we’ll know the size and shape of the heating element we need. And since the floor is one of the first parts of the van to build, you’ll hear all about it.
Elizabeth
Henry