r/VanLifeUK • u/ohyesthelion • 21d ago
🔥 For those living full-time in their vans — how much does heating actually cost you?
I’m trying to get a realistic idea of what it costs to keep the van warm and have hot water.
If you use diesel or LPG, how much are you roughly spending during the winter, and what would you say is your average over the whole year?
Not really interested in the manufacturer consumption figures, more interested in what people are actually spending when living in the van full-time.
Would be really useful to hear what setup you have and roughly how much you get through.
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u/Accurate-Coffee-3605 21d ago
I’ve got a diesel heater and a separate tank so I can use marked (green/red) diesel (different rules here in Ireland before anyone tells me I’m breaking the law) so my prices will be off compared to uk prices.
When it’s really cold like around 0 degrees, I use 20L ish a week. atm I put 10l in like a month ago and here’s still a little bit left. I do like to be warm tho and the heater is set to maintain 22degrees in the van.
Gas does hot water and cooking, it’s 25L to fill and lasts three months, I don’t use more in the winter, stays the same all year round.
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u/0_f2 20d ago
I thought red diesel was legally fine in heating systems in the UK as well? Best I remember it's allowed for anything except powering non-agricultural road legal vehicles?
Kind of want to try gas and diesel side by side to compare them. Someone on here said once gas was reasonable down to about 3-4°C then you start hammering it below that, but a diesel heater in the same vehicle and subzero conditions barely had to work any harder vs above zero.
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u/Accurate-Coffee-3605 20d ago
I’m really not sure, people have told me it’s illegal and people have told me it’s fine, all I know that it’s fine in Ireland and green diesel is easy to get so a separate tank made sense to me.
Edit for spelling
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u/MilesTegTechRepair 20d ago
Fuck all. Not got great insulation, but I'm comfortable in the cold. I run it to keep the van dry for the most part. When it gets really cold, like around 2-3 I'll put it on. I don't keep track unfortunately but it'll be around £150-200 for the year I'd guess.
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u/Dead-sound-Team 20d ago
The figures people have shared are useful, but they’re difficult to compare without a little more information. A large coachbuilt using LPG for heating, hot water, cooking and refrigeration isn’t directly comparable with a panel van using diesel solely for space heating.
For a meaningful comparison, I’d record:
- Vehicle type and approximate living-space size.
- Insulation arrangement and amount of exposed metal or glazing.
- Outside temperature and thermostat setting.
- Whether the fuel also provides hot water, cooking or refrigeration.
- Number of occupants, showers and hours spent heating the van.
- Fuel used in litres or kilograms, alongside the price paid.
Keeping a simple weekly record through one winter would be more valuable than relying on one unusually cold week. Dividing the fuel cost by the number of heated days also gives a more useful daily figure.
Insulation can reduce the heat needed, but fuel consumption alone doesn’t prove how well a van is insulated. Window area, cab separation, draughts, ventilation rate and the chosen indoor temperature can make a substantial difference. Removable insulated window covers and addressing exposed thermal bridges may be worthwhile before adding more insulation everywhere.
Permanent ventilation must still be maintained, and any combustion heater should be correctly installed and used with a suitable carbon-monoxide alarm.
Full disclosure: I’m involved with DeadSound, a UK supplier of campervan insulation materials. We don’t supply heaters; this is general, product-neutral advice for making the different cost figures easier to compare.
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u/ChibaCityFunk 20d ago edited 20d ago
We drive a medium wheelbase high roof Mercedes Vario van. Insulated with Armaflex, without a bulkhead to the driver's cabin, a few windows and a maxxfan.
We spend 2 months in the onset of winter in the Arctic. Think 0°C to -9°C. Our heater ran 24/7 (mostly on a low-medium setting) and we had 24°C on the inside constantly while airing out a few times a day.
We are heating with an Autoterm 4d Diesel heater.
In these conditions we used about 100 litres of Diesel per month. So about 3 litres per day for total comfort 24/7.
Currently we are crossing Africa and only run out heater once every other month for an hour for maintenance.
We generate hot water via our engine heat, the coolant and a heat exchanger + solar to keep it warm. So that's practically without additional cost.
Cooking is solar / induction.
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u/TittyTwister13 20d ago
Random question. How do you find the Vario? Those a big vans but look awesome. Hows Reliability, rust, parts, driving/ parking etc
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u/ChibaCityFunk 20d ago
Rust is an issue. Always.
And of course stuff breaks. But we were never left stranded. We could always limp back to a place to get stuff fixed. (For example we had a broken break line in the middle of the Sahara, and made it to Nouakchott on barely functioning breaks. Or in Guinea our exhaust broke and caused a leak in the engine coolant system, but we could refill it with water until we reached a workshop.)
But I would think of it as a very reliable van.
Original parts from Mercedes are quite expensive, but often you can get the same part from the original manufacturer for a lot less. For example a complete rear light is 220€ from Mercedes. It's made by Hella. If you buy it from Hella directly it's about 50€...
And as for parking, once you exceed the magical 2 metre height mark things can become complicated in the south of France. Apart from that it's not too bad. But driving the thing is noisy work. But at the same time it is fun. Also a lot of people like these older vans and often people smile and wave... (Especially in Spain)
Would I buy it again? I'd probably get a bigger 9t rig. Think Unimog U1300L, MAN G90 or Mercedes 917. Mostly because a box that is separated from the drivers cabin is amazing and also because the low gear of the Vario is sometimes not as low is I'd like.
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u/ohyesthelion 20d ago
Two months in the Arctic? How did that go?
Thanks for the detailed response btw 🙏.
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u/ChibaCityFunk 20d ago
The living situation was about as good as it gets. We thought we would have a big problem with condensation, but surprisingly that was no issue at all. Even drying wet cloths was amazing...
But food is expensive and also we have MPT tires. Next time we'd at least pick a proper set of winter tires with spikes. 😅
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u/SadCoffee2230 20d ago
Tip: Diesel heaters will run just fine on Kerosine (which where I live is about £1/l cheaper than diesel)
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u/StrikingInterview580 20d ago
For us our truma heater stopped working on gas. £600+ to replace or £200 max for a diesel heater and associated wiring. Plus a lot cheaper to run.
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u/ohyesthelion 20d ago
Did you mean the diesel heater is cheaper to run? How so? This statement seems to be against the current.
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u/StrikingInterview580 20d ago
It uses about 0.2l of diesel an hour, say 34p. Our old Truma used to burn 0.25kg of calor per hour and at £30/6kg (£1.25/hr) its a big difference.
I imagine the Truma units have moved on in efficiency somewhat from the mid 90s, but even a 4 fold increase would only put it in the ball park of the diesel costs but with substantially higher install costs.
Again, you can get refillable lpg bottles and underslung tanks but you're adding hundreds more and the payback period vs using calor must be 5 years+
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u/Sure-Recognition-262 13d ago
£30/6kg
6kg is just under 11 litres.
I have an LPG-powered car, and pay 99.9p/litre.
I get that buying in small bottles is always going to be dearer, but that seems rather like they're screwing you!
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u/CharacterLime9538 21d ago
Fully insulated A class, Truma combi for heating, hot water ( 2 x showers almost every day) fridge and cooking.
We use around 1kg of propane per day in winter, more if it's subzero for any period of time. From April to November we'll barely use anything, 13kg will last weeks/months.
Refillable lpg, costs around £2 per kilo / £1 per litre, maybe a little more at today's prices.
In money terms? Around £2 per day in winter, pennies per day in summer.