Managing Climate Change While Camping.
I would like to share with you some of our ideas that we implemented to deal with the harsh climate of change.
The two main extremes of weather is the heat and the cold and how to deal with that. Most travelers move to a warmer climate heading north in winter and going south in summer, this is still the best approach to deal with climate change, but sometimes you are caught in heatwaves or extremely cold situation that you need to manage.
Dealing with the cold is easier when living off the grid as warming yourself via a campfire is a good effective way to keep warm.
There is also warm clothing gloves or beanies to keep warm. We have found 12v thermal throw rugs very effective as you can wrap them around you outside but they are a very effective electric blanket of your bed to keep you warm via 12v power, great for the camping life.
There are many different types of heater we have tried the gas buddy heater very good but inside always worrying about carbon monoxide poisoning, we have a carbon monoxide monitor to warn us earlier but the worry was always there.
In times gone by, there has been incidents, in the news about people dying in rooftop tent and normal tents just because they used a gas heater to keep themselves warm.
The expert suggest a heater that brings outside air into the cabin area are the safest to use so we settled on a Webasto diesel heater, which I installed, the hardest problem was cutting the hole into the floor of the camper trailer.
The unit is fairly quiet as it uses a muffler and an induction silencer. We feel very warm even on the coldest night and is a very good complement to managing the extremes of the cold weather, this has worked for us.
Now the opposite end to the cold is the heatwaves this is a lot harder to manage.
Last summer we got caught up at Lake Panamaroo at Minindee, out side of Broken Hill as the temperature top 48°C this was a very unpleasant time.
In the day time we would seek out trees to sit under have 12v fans which only blew hot air. The camper trailer was to hot to go inside and found ourselves jump into the truck and running air conditioner to manage the heat.
At the time we were waiting for mail to arrive but it always takes along time to arrive. Things that we tried was tarps over the camper trailer roof with mirror reflective foil, but only lasted 24hrs before all the glue holding the foil down peeled off, yes they could not stand up to the heat and was sent back.
We also got a Coleman shade awning cover to sit under the product was good and large but at the end of the week it was fading and the tie down ropes was falling apart that was also sent back.
At night was the worst time with temps between 32 and 36°c it was not comfortable to sleep. 12v fans hot air, Transcool evaporator was slightly better than the fan but the humidity was so high with little cooling effect. We bought and Eva Polar cooler with high hopes but with the extreme heat was only just helping to cool as long as you had your face right up to the vent.
We then tried an portable air conditioner, 2.5kw which required a generator to run it. Problems was noise of the generator, running out of petrol at 0200hrs waking up in the heat and refueling the generator then going back to bed.
Other problems when the generator or the air conditioner got over 40°c they would not start requiring me to put a 12v fan on to cool them off to start.
This was effective but very disruptive to sleep for everyone one. When all the mail arrived we moved further south which was the only effective way to manage the heat.
While at Lake Panamaroo we had heatwave after heatwave conditions.
Now to manage this year heatwaves we have brought a new invention called the Zero Breeze portable personal air conditioner which runs on 12v power a true refrigeration air conditioner that is portable this is great news while living off grid out in the outback Australia.
I have been currently trailing the Zero Breeze. So managing my 12v power supply overnight is my biggest issue, no sun to draw power from, and we do like to sleep in.
The Zero Breeze has a lithium battery option pack 40ah will run the Zero Breeze up to 5hrs on one battery, so we bought two for each unit making 10hrs of running overnight on its own power reserves and in the day time it is being charged via the inverter, which is hooked up to the battery bank in the truck being charged via the solar power.
When thinking logic its running cost is zero, but its hardware cost is expensive. It does make you more comfortable still need to pull the doona up at night because you are cold.
I have not so far tested to the extreme temperatures but as this is not a room air conditioner but a personal air conditioner and rated up to 43°c it will cool you down if you are sitting in front of the vent.
Gay-Maree was doing medical typing yesterday in the camper trailer, which was 36°c with the Zero Breeze on her she stated she was very comfortable in there where she spent 5 hrs. The Zero Breeze running off the inverter no battery used at that time.
We are finding the Zero Breeze useful and quiet, at night an exhaust hose goes outside to vent the heat and a water drain hose also goes out for the water that condensation produces.
The Zero Breeze sits upon its own battery power supply overnight, this helps with managing solar and wind power needs. The Zero Breeze is portable and can go outside to keep you cool, its light weight and no heavy or bigger than my Bluetooth boom box speaker.
Still by far the only way is to look at the weather map of Australia an keep moving destination, to stay cool.
It is getting harder to find a chill change in Australia but NSW has Orange, Bathurst and Tumbarumba. The Antarctic maybe better but no roads there yet!
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