heat in rear of transit custom van

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

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i would like to try and find a way to get heat into the rear of my van during winter, in particular the cold icy days.

the reason for this is because my tools (cleaning sprayers, carpet machine etc) can ice up and need defrosting before use. although it's a SWB transit custom, the space in the back is cut into 3 smaller sections so it's not that large of an area i'd actually look to heat.

i'm not looking for heat over night, but more just when driving, and perhaps, during the day when parked on site, i can run power out to whatever option i go with to heat the van up some more.

my first thought is to some how get the stanard front cabin heat that comes from running the van, to direct one of those settings (to the feet option most likely) to get to the rear of the van.

anyone done something like this before? not sure how doable that is, plus i actually like the foot heater the most during winter, so it'd be sad to lose that.

another thought is about some battery powered heater, that i can charge during the day and then the next morning, switch it on as i drive to a site. anyone know of a good option that would have the power to actually make a difference and not kill the battery within 10 minutes?

finally, i do actually have an extra car battery of some sort in the van. it was installed by the previous owner, and there is a standard uk plug in the rear of my van. i've not looked into this, but from what i understand, additional batteries in a van run from the other battery, using the extra unused power? and that if you run down the additional battery, it wont then run down the original van battery? I probably sound really stupid with this, i'm not a motors person and never had a uk plug powered in a vehicle before.

if it's the case that i could use this additonal battery and plug a heater into that, again,would i expect to get much usage out of it, or just drain the battery within minutes using a heater?

thanks for the help
 
unwashed potato! said:
finally, i do actually have an extra car battery of some sort in the van. it was installed by the previous owner, and there is a standard uk plug in the rear of my van. i've not looked into this, but from what i understand, additional batteries in a van run from the other battery, using the extra unused power? and that if you run down the additional battery, it wont then run down the original van battery? I probably sound really stupid with this, i'm not a motors person and never had a uk plug powered in a vehicle before.
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The additional battery may or may not be charged from the alternator, or you might have to charge it separately with a mains adaptor - if it is a regular car battery rather than a li-ion or deep cycle/leisure battery (which are usually good for somewhere in the region of 3000 cycles) then it won't survive more than about 100 or so cycles of running a heater before you have to replace the battery. You'd need to know the specification of the inverter connected to the battery which is powering the UK plug as to what you can plug into it but I suspect it'll be somewhere between 100-500 watt - if you are lucky 1-2kwatt. I suspect the battery capacity is in the range of 100-200ah so you won't run a heater for long - probably 1-2 hours or so off that.

EDIT: In a van insulation is going to make a massive difference - even the regular heating and/or a 500-1kw heater will quickly warm it up and keep it warm if it is insulated well, if not you'll lose the heat almost as fast as it is generated.
 
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In our old wood bulkhead transit I put a pc fan into the bulkhead to take heat to the rear, it worked alright with the center heater fan blowing at it.

There's probably a much smarter solution available!
 
Rroff said:
The additional battery may or may not be charged from the alternator, or you might have to charge it separately with a mains adaptor - if it is a regular car battery rather than a li-ion or deep cycle/leisure battery (which are usually good for somewhere in the region of 3000 cycles) then it won't survive more than about 100 or so cycles of running a heater before you have to replace the battery. You'd need to know the specification of the inverter connected to the battery which is powering the UK plug as to what you can plug into it but I suspect it'll be somewhere between 100-500 watt - if you are lucky 1-2kwatt. I suspect the battery capacity is in the range of 100-200ah so you won't run a heater for long - probably 1-2 hours or so off that.
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ok thanks. i'll go and take some photos tomorrow and see what details are on it.

it was used by a plubming firm to charge their drill batteries, so make of that what you will.
 
I know some folks have taped a tumble dryer pipe over a dashboard vent and fed that into the back of the van.

Water won’t freeze until the temp hits a consistent 0C. I carry a lot of water in the back of my van and only heat it overnight if the temps threaten to go below 0C. If it’s below 0 during the day then it’s too cold to be working and the water will freeze in any hoses I reel out
 
Have a look on eBay for diesel night heaters (I'm assuming your van is diesel) you'll find plenty around £100 or thereabouts, they are basically what trucks have to keep cabs warm at night which they do very effectively and use very little diesel even when left to run all night.

It'll keep the whole of the van warm, and just as I find during the winter with a hard frost, I can leave the heater on low overnight and get not a warm cab in the morning with no ice or misting on the windows.
 
Honestly even though your use case is different, I will say there's a reason 99% of van conversions go the diesel heater route instead of any other kind of heating.

Pretty much any other option I can think of just wouldn't be suitable or safe to be something left running to heat the back while you drive.
 
unwashed potato! said:
thanks. i'll be honest, i'm nervous about leaving a burning diesel powered heater running unsupervised over night
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Your really overthinking that one, I've been a professional driver for roughly 30 years and have not yet heard of a fire caused by a night heater, as their primary role is to keep a vehicle warm while people sleep in them they are very safe.
 
Depends on the size of the compartment I guess but would an electric blanket or two work? Either 12v to run straight from the car when running or 240v off whatever power setup that is, or both?

unwashed potato! said:
thanks. i'll be honest, i'm nervous about leaving a burning diesel powered heater running unsupervised over night
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Could just run it during the day? Bit OTT imo but no need to use overnight, it's just how they're marketed.
 
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Scania said:
Your really overthinking that one, I've been a professional driver for roughly 30 years and have not yet heard of a fire caused by a night heater, as their primary role is to keep a vehicle warm while people sleep in them they are very safe.
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Had these fitted to uplifted test vans (Vitos and Sprinters) full of kit that couldn’t tolerate low temps for the best part of a decade without issue. Van conversion company (James Alpe) said they’d fitted hundreds over the years and never had an issue or heard of them causing problems.
 
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