Night Heater

There are plenty of bits of kit in Vanilla that get more attention.

The solar panel. The Victron gear. The fridge. The projector. The induction hob. The gadgets. The orange details.

But when the temperature drops and the door slides shut for the night, there is one piece of equipment quietly doing the serious work.

The Webasto diesel heater.

And the more I use it, the more I realise just how important it is.

A campervan is brilliant when the weather behaves.

Throw the doors open, make a coffee, sit outside and life is easy.

But Britain has other ideas.

Cold mornings. Damp evenings. Wind rattling around the campsite. That particular sort of weather where getting out of bed suddenly becomes a negotiation.

That is where the Webasto earns its keep.

I normally run Vanilla at around 21°C, which turns the van from a cold metal box into somewhere genuinely comfortable.

Not “coat still on” comfortable.

Proper comfortable.

The sort where you can sit inside in the evening, watch something, make food, read, or simply listen to the weather doing its worst outside.

🔥 Outside: British campsite. Inside: 21°C.

That is a very good arrangement.

One of the clever things about the Webasto system is that it uses diesel from the van rather than needing a separate gas heating system.

That suits Vanilla perfectly.

Diesel is already sitting underneath me in a large fuel tank. The heater only needs a relatively small amount of fuel to produce a surprising amount of heat.

There is still an electrical side to the system, though.

The fan, fuel pump and electronics all need power from the leisure battery.

And this is where the Webasto becomes part of the bigger Vanilla power system.

The Interesting Bit: Overnight Testing

Recently I have been putting Vanilla through some proper real-world testing.

Not simply switching equipment on for five minutes and declaring victory.

I wanted to know what would actually happen overnight.

So I ran:

• the compressor fridge
• LED lighting
• the Webasto at 21°C

…and left the system working for around 12 hours.

That is much more representative of a cold evening away in the van.

The Webasto cycles as required rather than simply running flat-out all night. Once the van reaches temperature it backs off, then wakes up again when more heat is needed.

Meanwhile the fridge is doing exactly the same sort of thing.

This is exactly what I wanted Vanilla to be capable of.

Of course, heat is only useful if I am not flattening the leisure battery in the process.

Vanilla currently has a 110Ah AGM leisure battery, with the Victron equipment giving me a very good view of what is happening electrically.

During testing I have seen the battery voltage dip to around 11.69V under load.

That led me to another little refinement.

Webasto minimum voltage: 11.7V

I have settled on around 11.7 volts as a sensible minimum voltage setting for my setup.

The important thing here is that the heater can momentarily pull more current during startup and shutdown, particularly when the glow plug is operating.

That can cause the battery voltage to dip briefly.

Set the cutoff too high and the heater could shut itself down unnecessarily.

Set it too low and I could discharge the AGM battery considerably further than I really want to.

11.7V feels like a sensible safety net.

It allows the system to work properly without treating the leisure battery like a disposable item.

This is also where the recent solar upgrades begin to make even more sense.

During the night the leisure battery is obviously doing the work.

Then daylight arrives.

The roof solar panel wakes up.

The Victron SmartSolar MPPT begins putting energy back into the battery.

Suddenly the system becomes a cycle rather than simply a drain.

Night: fridge + Webasto + lights.

Morning: solar begins replenishing the battery.

That is exactly the sort of off-grid setup I have been trying to build.

Not unlimited power.

Not fantasy numbers.

Just a campervan electrical system that quietly looks after itself.

There is something slightly amusing about campervan technology.

We can spend hours discussing solar wattage, battery chemistry, charging profiles, current draw and cable sizes.

Then the best equipment simply disappears into the background.

The Webasto is like that.

You press a button.

A little click starts underneath the van.

The fan begins.

Warm air arrives.

A few minutes later you have forgotten it is even running.

That is probably the biggest compliment I can give it.

Cold Morning. Warm Van.

There is one moment when the Webasto really proves its worth.

Morning.

You wake up somewhere beautiful.

There might be frost outside.

The windows are cold.

The campsite is silent.

But inside Vanilla it is warm.

The fridge is still running.

The battery has survived the night.

And shortly afterwards the solar panel starts collecting whatever daylight Britain has decided to provide.

Then the kettle goes on.

That is campervan luxury as far as I’m concerned.

Not marble worktops.

Not enormous televisions.

Just warmth, power and coffee when you are parked somewhere miles from home.

The more I test the van, the more I stop thinking of its equipment as separate gadgets.

The Webasto, fridge, leisure battery, solar panel, Victron SmartSolar, Orion charger and SmartShunt are all becoming parts of one system.

Drive the van and the alternator helps recharge it.

Park up and solar takes over.

Night arrives and the battery runs the essentials.

The Webasto keeps the living space warm.

Then daylight starts the cycle again.

It is exactly what I wanted when I started developing Vanilla.

A campervan capable of getting away from the mains cable without turning every evening into an electrical maths exam.

The solar system is fascinating.

The Victron data is wonderfully geeky.

The fridge is essential.

But on a freezing evening somewhere in the middle of nowhere?

Give me the Webasto.

Because sometimes the best technology isn’t the thing with the most impressive specification.

It’s the thing that lets you close the door, turn the temperature to 21°C, and forget that winter is happening outside.

Vanilla powered. Vanilla heated. Adventure continues.