VIDEO: Tips for keeping your motorhome or caravan cool in summer

How to keep your motorhome or caravan cool in summer

Keeping your leisure vehicle nice and cool during those long summer days and nights can be quite a challenge as caravans, motorhomes and campervans can quickly become very warm with only the slightest amount of direct sunlight.

In this video, we share some top tips on how to keep your motorhome or caravan cool, as well as yourself, any pets, and various on-board equipment. We’ll also take a look at some equipment and accessories that can help in keeping things cool no matter what your budget.

First of all, let’s start with some practical cooling tips inside the leisure vehicle.

Practical cooling tips inside your caravan or motorhome

The most obvious tip is to open windows and doors, but also to use any fly screens too. This will encourage air to ventilate throughout your leisure vehicle, and having the fly screens down will also limit direct sunlight into your ‘van.

Hit the shade

Try to position your vehicle in the shade if possible but if you’re camping in a spot that has little shade, keep the skylights closed and the blinds down too. Keeping these open will only encourage direct sunlight and hot air to enter the habitation area of your caravan or motorhome. If you have any windows or skylights that don’t have fly screens, use blinds wherever you can.

An awning or canopy will also provide a shaded area outside your caravan, campervan or motorhome when it gets stuffy and hot inside your leisure vehicle, as well as stopping the sun hitting that side of your leisure vehicle.

If you’re using an awning, open the panels and doors to again encourage airflow.

Switch off electrical devices

Remember to switch off any items that might generate heat, such as chargers or electrical equipment. If you’re not using the hot water tank, then switch off, although slight, this still generates heat under the seats. Also switch off lights and see if it’s worth switching bulbs to LEDs as they will give out less heat.

Cook outdoors

When it’s warm outside it’s the perfect excuse to take your cooking and eating outdoors and limit the amount of heat from your onboard cooker and stove. There are plenty of cooker alternatives that you can use outside your ‘van or under the shade of a canopy or awning.

Keep things clean

A top tip is to keep your caravan or motorhome roof clean as a dirty roof will be hotter roof!

Stay hydrated

Also keep plenty of water in the fridge for yourself and any furry companion. It’s a great idea to keep your pet’s water refreshed and perhaps drop in an ice cube in their water bowl or a frozen treat that they can have to keep cool.  Remember never lock a pet in a leisure vehicle, even if the weather is only slightly warm. Leisure vehicles can become extremely hot, extremely quickly.

How to keep your motorhome or caravan cool at night

Keeping cool in the evenings and night times is much the same as during the day, except now is the time for bug management too. So open skylights and use flyscreens wherever possible.

Have a couple of windows open that can encourage a draft to run through the vehicle, this will largely depend on the direction of any breeze and the layout of your caravan or motorhome. If you have small children, keep windows near their beds closed to reduce the possibility of midnight escapes and limit any midges or other bugs biting the children.

Keep lighting to a minimum, this will reduce heat and also limit the attraction of any insects. To create more ventilation and air flow, use small desk fans (battery or mains powered ones from reputable manufacturers) strategically placed inside. Always follow the manufacturer guidance when leaving fans on for long periods.

If you have air conditioning installed then close all blinds and skylights and select “Night mode” and a low fan speed to keep the noise down.

It’s important to keep everyone hydrated in hot weather so have a regular supply of cold drinks and ice, and food with high water content such as fruit and vegetables.

Keeping yourself cool is obviously important, but there is one piece of equipment you will depend on more as the temperature rises, and that’s the fridge.

Keeping onboard equipment cool

Fridges and freezers can also struggle as temperatures rise, so here are some top tips to encourage the fridge to carry on working in the heat.

If possible, position your leisure vehicle so the back of the fridge is not in direct sunlight. If the fridge is struggling, then consider switching to gas instead of electric. Gas is far more efficient and can work better in hot conditions. If the fridge can’t keep temperatures cool inside, then remove the fridge vents from outside, and position a desk fan at the bottom vent, under an awning or cover to protect it from the elements. This will encourage ventilation and cool the condenser on the back of the fridge.

Don’t be tempted to set the fridge to its maximum cold temperature as this will work the fridge even harder in a difficult environment. Instead, set the controls to about three quarters of the way around.

Another option is to use an extra fridge or a coolbox. The benefit of these is that they can be placed in a shaded area, can store extra drinks and food, and are portable and handy for days out too. You can always turn your fridge off in the day when using the coolbox.

Cooling equipment for a caravan or motorhome

• Air conditioning units

With hotter summers from global warming, air conditioning units are becoming more popular in caravans and motorhomes for keeping cool. They provide chilled air to be blown around the interior of your leisure vehicle and are a great way of cooling temperatures down.

Another benefit of air conditioning is for those of us who suffer from allergies, such as hayfever. They can take solice in a clean space where pollen and other small particles are not allowed to circulate inside.

Air conditioning units can be installed on the roof, or mounted under seating or bed lockers, depending on your leisure vehicle’s construction and layout. Some don’t consume much power and, in some variations, they can also provide heat in the colder months.

The downside is they are expensive, they can be noisy and they do take a significant chunk out of the available payload.

There are portable air conditioning units that are slightly cheaper and can be moved around your ‘van but they won’t have the same cooling power as mounted air conditioning units.

Tips for using air conditioning units are to ventilate your vehicle before powering up the appliance, and then close all doors and windows when it’s turned on.

Although it can be tempting to wack the temperature down low when it’s boiling outside, to obtain a healthy indoor climate, make sure the difference between the inside and outside temperature isn’t too large.

• Evaporative cooling units

Evaporative coolers work by blowing air across a damp surface. Units like this, hold a tank of cold water and fans blow across a filter that is submerged inside.

You can create more cooling air by adding ice to the water tank.  These units are great, but can be noisy, and will need refilling with water from time to time. Although some do have quiet speed settings for sleeping and are low wattage so perfect for using in a leisure vehicle, particularly if you’re off grid.

• Desk fans

The cheapest way of circulating air in a leisure vehicle is a portable fan. These come in a variety of shapes, sizes and designs and can be moved to different areas of the vehicle as needed.

• Hand fans

Hand fans are small, lightweight and great for hot days outside when all you need is a slight breeze.

There are even handheld misting fans which spray a fine mist into the air or your face ad body.

• Cooling mats

Cooling mats can help pets sleep in hot weather as well as using light cotton bed sheets on your own beds, or cooling pillows and mattress toppers.

• Cooling sprays

Cooling sprays are also great for instantly cooling your skin in hot weather or spraying them inside your ‘van to help dampen the heat.

Keeping motorhome habitation areas cool

If you’re touring in a motorhome there are extra steps you can make to reduce the temperature in the habitation area.

These include using a windscreen cover that is insulated. These are great in cold days and nights for retaining heat and reducing condensation, but also good in hot weather too for bouncing off the sunlight that would have otherwise been absorbed in the cab.

Many modern motorhomes also come with air conditioning in the cab. You might well be thinking this could be used in the motorhome to keep cool. In reality you shouldn’t.

The vehicle air conditioning is designed to work differently, in that it chills when the engine is running, unlike a habitation air conditioning unit that runs on mains power.

So, to run the vehicle’s air conditioning will mean having the engine running, and even then it might not work as in some cases the engine will need to be revved at a slightly higher rate. Cab air con systems only provide small short burst of chilled air through the vents in the cab whereas habitation air con units are designed for use over long periods with a cooling output that’s more efficient.

Over to you…

Have you got any tips on keeping a caravan or motorhome cool or any equipment you use to lower the temperatures in summer? We’d love to hear them, Please share in the comments box below…