OUR STATIC CARAVAN STORY
Hey! We are Ali, Amy and Ollie and we’ve been living full time in a static caravan in South Wales (UK) since August 2020. Prior to that we were living in a 2-bedroom flat that we rented in the town of Pontypridd. We sited our van on Amy’s mum’s farm and we’ve just lived through our 4th winter! So thought we’d do a quick blog post on what life has been like so far.
DETAILS OF OUR STATIC CARAVAN
We bought a Willerby ‘Summer’ 2011 model for £6,500 (including delivery) from a company called Static Caravan Repairs near Swansea in Wales. It’s not a ‘residential’ spec van, meaning that there isn’t much insulation as this van is really built for summer use. Residential vans tend to be better insulated for year-round living. Our van, like many other static caravans, only have about 25mm insulation in the walls. Therefore, they’re not great for full-time living but there are lots of different ways you can keep them warm.
GAS HEATING OPTIONS
In our lounge, we have a small gas fire which runs off LPG. We currently pay £95 per 47kg bottle which lasts us about 3 weeks in the height of winter. Our LPG also runs our hot water and cooker. Some modern Static Caravans have central heating installed which is a brilliant option to keep warm in winter. The added bonus of central heating is that you normally have a radiator in each room which means that you can keep your van at a good constant temperature. So if you’re looking to buy a Static Caravan in the near future, check out what heating sources it has!
ELECTRIC HEATING OPTIONS
In our hallway area is one electric panel radiator. We’re not sure how powerful this is in watts, but it kicks out a good amount of heat when its on. So with our gas fire and the panel heater, those are the only ‘fixed’ heat sources in our van. There were no other heat sources in it when we bought it, so we purchased a couple of Oil Filled Radiators for additional heat for the past few winters. One was a 2kw heater and the other was 850w. We used to keep the 2kw in our bedroom and the 850w in Ollie’s bedroom. We kept them on a low setting overnight to keep the chill off but would crank them up when temperatures were below zero. Last winter (2022 into 2023) was far too expensive so we looked for other options.
DIESEL HEATER OPTIONS
What’s a Diesel Heater? Well it’s a version of the ‘night heaters’ that you normally find in trucks, ambulances and campervans. They run off 12v and burn diesel to pipe warm air into the space you want to heat. We’ve got a 2kw one in our campervan which works a treat. In November 2023 we decided to set a 5kw one up in our Static Caravan, and it’s been an absolute game changer. We now have warm air being piped into our bedroom, Ollie’s bedroom, the spare room and the bathroom. This has made a HUGE difference to our winter Static Caravan experience. To find out more about this option, check out the video below on our YouTube channel. Now that we’ve got the diesel heater, we rarely use the Oil Filled radiators. We calculate that the diesel set up will pay for itself this winter which is brilliant!
OTHER HEAT-SAVING METHODS
Something else we did was to add a skirting around the outside of the van to reduce the amount of cold air getting underneath. In addition to this, we also added insulation boards to the underside of the van. We made a video about this too, which you can watch below. This improved the cold feeling underfoot, but we also use numerous rugs and runners too. Another improvement that we made was to add double glazing. After the first winter in our van, it was apparent that we were losing a LOT of heat through the single-pane glass. So me made the investment to get new windows and doors. This made a HUGE difference.
WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?
We are definitely going to change the carpets in the two bedrooms for thicker carpet with decent underlay. That’s step one to get ready for winter 2024. We’ve also talked about possibly cladding the outside with insulated boards and covering them in feather-edge wood boards. This would be quite a commitment in time, effort and funds, so we haven’t made the decision on this yet.
If you’d like to follow along with our wider experiences of living in a Static Caravan full time you might like to read this blog post too.
GOT ANY OTHER VIDEOS OF YOUR STATIC CARAVAN LIFE?
Yes! We’ve been vlogging different parts of our static caravan life and you can watch these below:
New Home For New Adventures – the day that our static caravan arrived on the farm
Tour Of Our New Home – take a look round our 35ft x 10ft home
We’ve Got Double Glazing! – the day we had double glazed windows and door installed
WANT TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS?
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