VAN LIFE - How To Beat The HEAT (without AC) S05E06

We're on the move through northern Europe and currently facing an extreme heat wave. In many parts of Europe temperatures are already above 30 degrees this morning and it's predicted to get even hotter. Living in a tiny metal box can be extremely challenging and even dangerous in this environment but we have crossed more climates than most and along the way we've learned how not only to survive but thrive living the van life in 37 degrees celsius. Great day to be living outdoors I tell you. We are attempting to drive around the world. You guys are invited too so subscribe and buckle up. It's one heck of a ride. The great yellow sun is reflecting in your deep blue eyes. The day has begun. You spin around, you spin around. We knew today was going to be an extremely hot day so when we came into this car park to park we looked at the compass to see which side was east and where the sun would be rising and so we parked initially over here which would have been in full view of the sun. The sun is rising early because it's summer and we would have got really hot and it would have been the thing that woke us up, the heat in the van. We were able to get a bit more shade and we were able to have an extra hour in bed in the morning whilst it was still comfortable. I mean we were still awake but we weren't forced out of the van having to open all of the windows and everything like that. What's the temperature in here? It's still 26 degrees. What time is it now? Nine o'clock. Yeah we would have been up at about 7 30 if we'd have been parked in the sun. Top tip for lazy van life people who like lie-ins on the weekend. Of course avoiding the sun is a great strategy but obviously there will be times when we have to park directly in the sun. This is where the insulation we installed does a fantastic job at reducing the heat that does make it inside the combi. I did a lot of testing whilst building our tiny studio and I won't bore you with the details but basically radiant barrier insulation needs an air gap between the outside of the van and the foil. When it's done correctly it makes a massive improvement on the temperature inside the combi. But you know what makes even more difference? Paint. You wouldn't believe how much cooler the white parts of our van are compared to the blue. It's astonishing and something to keep in mind. Out of everything that we're going to be talking about in this video the most important thing to keep the van cool is to block out the sun from the windows. Really it's made such a huge difference in keeping cool in the van. We've been using these for the last since we started and we made these specifically to fit our windows. It's made of like just insulation material so we keep the foil on the outside to block out to help block out the sun and on the inside it's just a nicer color so it's not so intense inside. It makes an amazing difference like it when we have the windows covers down you can really feel the heat coming in through all the windows that are around the combi. So we've put magnets around the outside so it's just really easy to use it just kind of clips on the inside and it stays on really well. Ben's mum did an amazing job and took weeks making these. She did an incredible job so thanks to Norma for making these for us. They've been working like a treat. 37 degrees celsius 99 degrees fahrenheit. Flipping hot day in anyone's books. Great day to be living outdoors I tell you. Our main water tank feeds into our shower system here. When we have a hot shower when the weather's not quite as nice as this we have to remove the shower but because I'm not going to be using any gas I'm just going to be having a room temperature shower and just pull out this straight out the back of the van which is much easier. So on the combi we have limited space but we have a 37 litre water tank down there which is basically just for showers and dishes and stuff. We use a lot more water in the summer so we have these collapsible water bags they're really strong this one holds about 10 litres and that means that we can extend our water capacity if we want to stay longer off grid somewhere. We can carry about 60 litres extra water for really hot days like this. We have a whole system overview video about our water system for extended off-grid travel so if you want to see that I'll link it up there. A hack that we use to keep cool in summer in the combi when we don't have air conditioning is we put like a wet cloth in the freezer and it keeps really cool for a while so you can just when you're sleeping especially and it gets really hot you just put it on you with the fan on you and it's really cool nice to just put on your face and cool down. Say cool one more time. Cool. Cool. Cool. We also have we never used to have a freezer or a fridge in our other van so this is a game changer for when it's hot because we get to have ice which is great and ice cream too. So we're so lucky aren't we? Blessed. Blessed. So we've got lots of tricks and hacks that we have learned along the way living in a van and we put it all into a van life guide book for you guys so if you're interested in knowing how to keep cool and warm in those winter days and summer days then go check out that book because there's lots of information there for you to learn about how to deal with these conditions. Go check it out if you want. Or don't. Or don't. Or don't. Or keep watching our videos and we'll just give you more tips and tricks along the way. Oh dear. Sounds good. We've also got one of these little fans set up the back here for Alaska when we're driving so we keep the window open for her as well and this little fan going to keep her cool. All my pants are still hanging off outside. These side windows in the Kombi are really great like they make a big difference keeping it cool. Do they have a name? A special name? It is like our air conditioner here but they are really because we had a bee just come straight through like obviously the windows are shaped like the wind comes straight on you but then we collect all the bugs along the way and a bee came straight in the window and stung me on the finger. Yeah I know. Leah's been so paranoid about bees and wasps and then one actually stung her straight away like landed and stung her. Yeah. I don't know if you can get that. Anyways. Dangerous. Dangerous air conditioning. So the heating and cooling in the Kombi is rather limited. We have two knobs and it just opens a flap in the front lets air in and that's about as efficient as the cooling in the Kombi gets and of course when we stop moving it gets really hot really quick. Living without AC might seem horrible to some of you but we've learned strategies to maximise cooling in the Kombi. We're in maximum cooling mode in the Kombi. We've got every single window open, the back door open, the fan up. Fan's not on but and the shade's out, the awning's out but it has made a huge difference. It's nice to get this cross breeze. We haven't really had to go to this extreme of having all of the doors and everything open until this point. It's nice to test it out to see how cool and comfortable it is in here because all of the walls and everything you can tell that the insulation has worked really well so it's definitely kept the temperature down. It's good. So I think when we do get to hotter places we'll be able to survive. When the day gets really hot it's common sense to minimise the amount of time you spend sitting in the van. You can catch a breeze in the shade in a hammock or learn from the Spanish and have a siesta until the day cools down and you feel a little bit more productive. In extreme situations we find an excuse to run errands where there is AC, something like a supermarket. Here in the Netherlands the people seemed especially grateful for the excellent summer weather and looked to be spending their time as close to the water as possible. Okay, Leo is taking time out so Alaska you are navigating. We are about to go and meet a Kombi Crew member because they have a very special package for us. We're also about to drive across this incredibly unique road. It just juts out right across to the Amsterdam mainland. There's probably a better word for that but it's extremely long and looks like it just goes out to sea so I can't wait to drive this. And it's sunset now. Looks like the bridge has just gone up below. Jesus Christ how many people there are. That's where all the Dutch people are. The bridge has just gone up behind us which means there's no traffic coming through. I was the last one to go across before they raised the bridge to allow the boats to come through. It's quite impressive watching them do that. We don't have one of those in Jersey so it's quite cool. The Afsluitdijk isn't your typical motorway. The road extends for 32 kilometers or 20 miles and serves as a dam which protects inland Holland from flooding during storms which is important because nearly 17 percent of the Netherlands is actually below sea level. With oceans for miles and nobody else on the road this was an unforgettable drive. Look at this. It's magnetic right? Marcel's got something that we haven't even got. There's Marcel. Hi! We are in the north Netherlands with Marcel. Sorry I didn't get your name. Karin. Karin. Hi. I had to get a drone sent somewhere and Marcel has kindly allowed me to have that sent so we are back airborne again. Marcel also has something else really cool. Look at this. It's getting dark but hopefully you can see this. Nice. Kombi. Destination is on the left. One night Alaska. One night. Come on you big sook. That's what you call a sook in Australian right? Yeah. Leah look at the front of the car. Oh my god what the hell happened? I know I hit a storm. Holy moly. Is that mosquitoes? Across the dyke at night. Before I was getting back in this Kombi we really needed to clean this up. Absolutely nailed by these bugs. I don't think they're mosquitoes but coming across the dyke was an impressive drive both ways. Going there the sunset was just phenomenal. Coming back at night time the bugs were like nothing I've ever seen before in my entire life. It was absolutely insane. Even crazier than Alaska would you believe and Alaska was pretty bad. So time to get this cleaned up. We would have loved to stay longer in the Netherlands. The people were really friendly and the towns that we passed through looked lovely. It's definitely still on our bucket list. We're hoping to come back someday soon but for now we're heading to Germany. But we are taking a few souvenirs with us. It's just cooled down so much. A storm's coming in. It's been such a hot week. So Marcel sent us away with a care package from the Netherlands because we can't spend a lot of time in the Netherlands and unfortunately we'd like to spend longer. So thanks for that. Yeah cheers Marcel. We'll see what he's given us. Ah look at this. Beer. 10 percent. It's practically wine. That's cool. What kind of cheese is it? Is that like a wheat bread? It looks like it's got caramel or something in it. Yum. What is that? How do you say that guys? Let's try these collard greens. So one of the most important things about night time preparation to keep the sleeping area cool is air flow. It's the best thing you can do and so we like to keep the air flowing in one side of the combi and out the other side. So we have these vents that basically jam at the top of the window. Very easy to install. Oh yeah it's gonna rain. It's raining. So basically we can have this out whilst it's raining. We can have the window open and it doesn't allow any mosquitoes in because there's a mesh on the other side. So it's really secure. It can't be pushed in and yeah we can have our windows open and it's nice and cool which is nice. The main thing we try to do when it's really hot outside is we camp near a body of water or at least we go there for the day and cool off. When we're camping next to a body of water we just freshen up in the water which means we save water in our van because we don't use the shower as much and so we are able to stay in places a lot longer. The good thing about thunderstorms is that everybody evacuates this lake and the beach. We've got it all to ourselves. Top covid travel tip. Today's bath is in the thunderstorms in a lake in Germany. It's quite warm in the lake isn't it? Oh sorry about that. Where's it gone? Where's it gone? Where's it gone? It should be alright by me. It's worth mentioning that all of these facilities are in a free German campsite. Like that whole lake behind me. These showers here. It's really coming down. Oh it's really coming down out there. A nice proper summer storm. It's the first one we've had in the whole time, the whole summer. Proper storm. This fan plays a massive part in our ventilation and keeping us cool and the reason we actually had a perfectly good fantastic fan, we took it out and we put in a max fan. This model we will link below because it's the for the least moving parts and it's the cheapest but it's absolutely essential for van life because we can have this open when it's raining like this because of the design of it. It's crucial for keeping the airflow going through the van and it's also great for when we're cooking and particularly on days like this where it's really hot you often get a summer storm like we're having right now and the ability to be able to suck all of the moisture out of here is really important to stop condensation and mould which definitely happens. So this is the main fan for bringing in the fresh air to the van and contrary to popular belief most of the time we have it sucking out not blowing in. The only time that we have it blowing in is if i'm standing directly underneath it and just got blasting it on my face. So basically what happens is our max fan is pulling air in. We have the side windows here which are the only way the air can get into the combi so the air the hot air is rising in the combi it's being sucked out through the fan the cool air is being sucked in through the windows and is falling down through here forcing more hot air up and it just goes like that. Of course we have the windows in the front so the air can also come through here and be sucked up from the front. It's just delightful honestly it's very surprising how how hot of a temperature we can stand in this combi with all the provisions that we have it's extremely comfortable in here. The fan on the roof is great for keeping out the main heat that accumulates in this van but it doesn't really send air over your body and that's the thing that makes the biggest difference when it's really hot. So we have these usb powered fans they're low powered fans so they don't have a big drawer and a battery and we can have them super close to us and they're not very noisy and they're safe so these are brilliant for van life because they run off of usb and it's got two speeds you can move it in any angle and you can have it close to you at night time so that you can sleep well it's absolutely a game changer for van life i recommend you get one of these. It's handy to have those fans especially when you're working like we try not to work on days where it's really hot because computers just generate so much heat in the van. Leah do you know how hot my computer is running at right now 99 degrees celsius like literally one degree below boiling point. Yeah our computers overheat all the time when it's too hot in here so we try our best to uh maybe work in the afternoon when it's not so hot. It doesn't always work but the wind is a bit hectic this is mental. First sign of autumn for us so it's pretty awesome to be here in Germany. So one of the things about parking in the shade is obviously you're not getting any solar which is a bit of a problem on a day like today when it's a little bit cloudy actually and there's not a lot of solar up for grabs so you've got two options the one that we adopted was the provisioning option which meant that we basically provisioned our system to be able to handle more time in the shade parked under a tree under a bridge just basically out of the direct sun so we calculated that in when we were basically planning the system. If you're building a system we have a free calculator that comes with our guide to off-grid electrical systems that you can basically put in how long you want to spend out of direct sun without running out of your batteries what your average load is for all of your appliances and then you can figure out what kind of setup you need for your own off-grid electrical system. The other option if you aren't going to provision a big system is to have portable solar panels which basically allow you to put the solar panels out to the side in a sun spot and allow you to charge whilst you're parked in the shade which is really really handy. The downside is obviously you have to set up the panels every time and that's why we adopted the fixed panels so that we could basically be charging all the time even when we're parked at a shop. It also provides shade on a day like this and believe me having fixed panels on the roof makes a massive difference. She's taught Alaska a new trick and who says you can't teach old dogs new tricks. Alaska can now get this stick off the bottom of the water. She's got it she found it on the bottom with her feet now she's trying to grab it up she goes under and comes up with the stick. What the heck. Who says you can't teach old dogs new tricks. That's my girl. We're continuing to push east on our attempt to drive around the world and who knows what the road has in store for us but that is a story for next time.