Has anyone used bubble wrap to cover the van windows and is it a success to keep the van warmer in the height of winter.??What about cooler in the summer months???
Jay&Dee
-- Edited by JayDee on Friday 12th of May 2017 08:18:42 AM
Hi Jaydee.
Im unsure about bubble wrap for insulation.
The standard for any insulation to reflect heat needs to be reflective. Ie. Similar to the make shift sun visors we put up in our wind screens to keep the sun out.
We have a full set of fitted window covers in the back of our cruiser and it keeps the temp pretty consistant, on hot and cooler days.
Hope this helps.
Kezngaz.
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The windows will comprise, what?, 10% of your caravan's surface area so unless that remaining 90% is well insulated you are wasting your time messing with 10% and if the 90% is well insulated you probably don't need to bother with the windows. Sorry :(
To answer your question: bubble wrap would be a fairly good insulator providing the bubbles comprise a large part of the sheet rather than the space between them being the dominant factor.
Ordinary curtains or blinds do a fairly good job on windows too.
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Heat travels in thee ways, radiated, convection and conduction. Heat mainly gets to us via the sun, it is radiated, travels trough vacuum and through any clear (ish) material. To stop radiated heat you have to reflect it back. Convection heat travels by warm gas, or liquid moving around, e.g. warm air raising, so its all ways hotter near the ceiling. Air currents, water currents etc. Then heat travels by conduction, try picking up something hot with gloves, its OK for a while, as the material of the gloves is a poor conductor of heat, now wet the gloves and try the same trick, you will get burnt, because water is a good conductor of heat.
So in order to tackle the heat loss problem, you have to look at what kind of heat you want to stop loosing (or gaining).
At night time there will be very little radiated heat so reflective surfaces would do nothing. So you have to look at convection currents, and conduction. Air is a poor conductor of heat, so the Europeans double or treble glaze their windows, as are some in the RV vehicles, this puts a layer of air, between the conductive layers of glass or plastic, and so conduction is reduced (but not radiated heat).
The other heat we have is convection currents, to stop this we need to stop the air (or liquid) from moving, we do this by using foam (the bubbles of air in the foam), this would by the way stop both convection, and conduction, curtains help stop convection currents. However any way of trapping the air helps reduce heat loss by convection, and so using bubble wrap would be ideal, several layers of bubble wrap, but remember heat rises by convection currents, so the roof vents need to be treated as well.
I use 50mm foam in the roof vents, to stop heat loss or gain and have a layer of reflective foil glued to the outer side to use when the sun is shining.
Hope this helps.
Ive been looking for the silver bubble wrap as well must be some thing they only sell in the USA
If some one know where to get it please let me know where they sell it
I only need a few meters
Used to sell a product called Air-cell, I believe it's still available nowadays but under another name now . Silver both sides with bubble wrap inside .A great product that I'm sure would suit your needs . Pretty sure it's still available at the big green shed . Dhutime
-- Edited by Dhutime on Thursday 18th of May 2017 12:19:43 AM
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If Air-Cell is what I'm thinking of, my neighbour just used it under the new metal roof for his workshop. Brilliant stuff. Quite thin but still in excess of R2.
Maybe roofing suppliers may be a possible source. Assuming of course we're talking about the same Air-Cell
Jim
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saw this stuff at Clark rubber today, available 5mm thick with reflective one side only. Its semi-ridgid yet can be rolled or folded. Couldn't notice any smell but in a rubber store its hard to tell. Only vailable at 1 metre width rolls as far as I could see. Interested in others comments about such a product for windsheilds as above
https://www.clarkrubber.com.au/formshield
-- Edited by Bagmaker on Wednesday 24th of May 2017 07:15:04 PM
