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Warming up van during freezing temperatures at night

Veselin Dimitrov

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How to warm up my van to keep the WFP sys from freezing during nights in winter time? I need to keep my van over zero degrees. Since in Bulgaria temperatures are reaching normally -7 to -15. I don't want take the car to a closed garage, because this is extra money I have to pay. I hope guys, some of you can help me with this issue...

 
My mate does that but connected to a thermostat to come on when it drops below a certain temperature just to keep the frost at bay

 
Buy a greenhouse heater. I've had mine for 4 years now. It can be set to keep the temperature just above freezing and thus allow you to work in the morning.

 
Buy a greenhouse heater. I've had mine for 4 years now. It can be set to keep the temperature just above freezing and thus allow you to work in the morning.
Is that electric?

They were also available in Kerosene (Paraffin) and they left a smokey residue inside. You also had to leave a window open a little to supply oxygen to the burner.

 
How to warm up my van to keep the WFP sys from freezing during nights in winter time? I need to keep my van over zero degrees. Since in Bulgaria temperatures are reaching normally -7 to -15. I don't want take the car to a closed garage, because this is extra money I have to pay. I hope guys, some of you can help me with this issue...
Wow. And we thought we had it tough.

A few years ago we had a very cold snap which lasted about 6 weeks. We couldn't work wfp and managed doing a little tradition work cleaning commercial shop windows. But it was a bad time for us.

I kept one van frost free with an electric 800 watt heater on a frost stat (just kept the van above freezing.) That van has a large duvet over the tank which covers the pumps on the side of the tank. The duvet also covers the hose reels as well.

The second van we pumped the water out of the tank, (we left about 50mm in the bottom.) As the pump was just above the tank, I was able to run the pump and unscrew the water pump filter bowl. The pump then started sucking air and the air pushed the water out of thepump and pipe to the van port. We emptied the filter bowl and screwed it back on. We then left the van to the elements. The remaining water in the tank froze solid but it did no damage.

The IBC tank in the garage was full and didn't have ice in, but the water inside the transfer hose lying on the garage floor froze solid so we were able to get water even if we wanted some.

My son in law used to do the same as this during cold nights as he had no way of heating his van, but our temperatures weren't like yours. He brought his hose reel and poles inside to keep them warm.

The Americans suffer low temperatures and most window cleaning is seasonal. Our friends who lived in Connecticut had their windows cleaned twice a year inside and outside, once in spring and once in Autumn. He said that his window cleaner used to clear his driveway of snow every night in the winter as needed.

I've worked in cold temps by keeping the water flowing, but wouldn't do it now I'm older. Broken bones from a bad fall can take ages to mend as you get older. I remember once the jets of the brush froze when I stopped for too long, so I had to change poles and let that one thaw out in the van. I have a diesel air heater which I can direct heat into the back of the van if needed.

Sorry, not terrible helpful, but we just don't have experience of those types of temperatures on the North Coast of England.

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Thank you very much to all of you I had long window cleaning day and finally I'm in front of my tablet. It's so nice to see so many different opinions about this problem. I think I will find an electric heater with a thermostat and this will do a good job. It seems to be the cheapest way of warming up ones van

 
In the south of England (UK) we only get minus temperatures for a few weeks in the winter. It's currently going down to minus 6 which is particularly cold for this part of England and what we've had in the past several years.
My van freezes solid (apart from the tank because it's 750 litre), so I have to put an oil filled radiator in over night to keep the pumps and hoses from freezing.
My tank is so big and I've got so much equipment that I don't even have space to insulate the van.
I highly recommend an oil filled radiator and not an electric fan or element style heater, because then the risk of fire is much lower! Also make sure you have a fairly modern extension and use a new radiator or at least make sure it's a new fuse.. you wouldn't want to wake up to a blown up van lol it would be better to wake up to a frozen one!
 
I have one like this, at least he was there to deal with it -

 

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