The Best Insulation and Climate Control for Vanlife

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One of the most important aspects of building a camper van is choosing the best insulation and climate control for vanlife to keep you comfortable in your home on wheels no matter the climate you are in. There is definitely more to choosing the right insulation than just what is going to be the best for temperature control, but we will get more into that here soon. Many people look over this aspect when building out their vans because they are ready to get to the part where they are adding all the cool things inside. So let’s just get right into why we feel this step is so important to being comfortable and safe while living on the road.

When we were building our first van we did a lot of research on what insulation is best for a van because we knew it would be different than a traditional home. We were quickly greeted with an abundance on mixed mixed opinions and by the end of our research we were left more confused than we were from the start. Things like vapor barriers, mold, condensation, and chemicals we quickly did know who to believe because everyone has so many conflicting opinions on the matter. Well, we are here to simplify every other post on the internet because honestly none of these things are an issue with the right insulation. The reason many of these things are such an issue in the vanlife space is because you are building thing in a metal box where there is a lot of condensations being formed from cooking, showering and even just breathing.

You are going to be creating even more condensation during the summer if you are using an air conditioner and in the winter if you are running a heater as well. This can become a problem because this is where mold can form and really wreak havoc on your van and your life. If you end up having a mold issue it can be very costly and destructive to have to fix (it’s behind everything) and also be very harmful to anyone in the space. Most likely you wouldn’t know about any mold happening behind the scenes until it got to a very bad and harmful state as well. Are starting to see why all this talk can become vey daunting and scary because you don’t want to choose the wrong thing for your van? Don’t worry because there is an insulation that takes all of these worries away.

Havelock Wool insulation is your solution to the best insulation for vanlife and solves all of the issues and questions you may have about how to insulate your van. There are definitely some people who have conflicting opinions on this and will say otherwise because of some sort of science or something that doesn’t really make much sense but we can tell you from experience that this insulation is the best and we have never had any issues. In fact, we will be using Havelock Wool for every van that we build in the future and recommend it to anyone who is looking to build a van of their own. It is also not just us, there is a whole network of professional van builders who use Havelock and countless other DIY’ers who stand by it as well.

Why Havelock?

Moisture Control

Like we said before moisture is going to happen in a van. You need a hygroscopic insulation that actively manages moisture, helping keep your van dry and free from mold, mildew and rust. Why wool is the best for moisture control.

R-Value

Havelock Wool measures at an impressive R Value PER INCH of 3.6. 2″ batts are R7. Thicker walls = higher R value. Why wool is such an efficient insulator.

Sound Absorption

Havelock Wool excels at absorbing road noise and reducing unwanted noise. All this makes your van, skoolie, RV a more pleasant place to be. How does Havelock absorb sound?

Sustainability

Havelock Wool is renewable, sustainable, biodegradable and compostable. It’s overall carbon footprint is extremely low. Environmental impact of Havelock

Easy of Use

With Havelock you don’t have to worry about harsh chemicals or fiberglass making it easy to use but also great long term for your small space. You don’t have to wear protective gear to install and it doesn’t make you itch like fiberglass or something else would.

We have been living in our van for over a year now and have been in some pretty hot climates and some pretty cold ones and we can say that Havelock has been able to keep our van a very comfortable temperature no matter where we are. We have a huge piece of mind knowing that we chose something that is meant to handle moisture and is fire-rated up to 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. In our van, we were able to double or triple batts giving us and R value anywhere from 14-21. We are very impressed by its capabilities and sleep much better knowing we will never have to worry about it again. If you aren’t sold on it check out this post where we go into a few other options that we would still recommend, just not as much lol.

Now you can’t stay completely comfortable with just the insulation so having the right climate controls in your van is very important. This is going to allow you to get the desired temperature in your van and the insulation is going to help keep that in and keep out the cold or hot depending on the climate you are in. Here are our recommendations for keeping comfortable no matter the season.

Air Conditioners

Heaters

Exhaust fan

Something else to consider in keeping your vehicle comfortable is getting good window covers to keep the heat or cold out and keep the heat or air in depending on where you are. We cannot recommend getting these from The Wanderful because they fit perfectly and really help insulate your campervan. They also now have bug screens that you can install on your back doors, sliding door, and over your front windows to allow a nice breeze to flow through the fan without letting bugs in to keep comfortable even on warmer days. This has been so great because using an air conditioner can really drain your battery bank, so being able to have a nice breeze blow throughout the van has allowed us to only use the air on really hot days.