Keeping Your RV Cool
A cool family is a happy family, and this is especially true during a summer camping trip when you’re short on some of the modern conveniences that you might be used to. But keeping an RV at a livable temperature isn’t easy, especially when faced with the stifling heat of a humid Iowa summer. Experienced campers know that there are a few tricks you can use to keep your camper cool even during the hottest days, but only if you’re vigilant! Here at Camp Site RV, we’ve developed this short guide to make the process easy, even if you don’t have an air conditioner or much access to electricity. Of course, if you’d rather just upgrade your RV’s air conditioning system, or find a new RV made to beat the heat, we have those, too! Stop by our Cresco, Iowa dealership today!
Pick the Right Spot
One of the first and most overlooked considerations for keeping your RV cool is finding the right place to park during your trip. When you park at the grocery store you probably try to find a spot with some shade to keep your car from turning into a pressure cooker while you shop. The same principle applies to RVs. The more direct sunlight your RV gets, the hotter it will be. If you have to choose a place with direct sunlight, try to find one with less southerly exposure, as in North America, southern facing slopes get more hours of sun per day. Wind is another important factor to consider. Locations that don’t get much air movement, especially ones near stagnant bodies of water, can get humid and stuffy, and humidity is the enemy of a cool RV.
When & How to Use Ventilation
As previously stated, stagnant air and humidity are the enemies of a cool RV. But you don’t want to accidentally bring in too much warm outside air into your RV just for the sake of getting air movement. The trick is to have limited ventilation during the hotter hours by using fans and slightly cracked windows that will maintain some of the RV’s natural insulation against the outside heat, and then when the air cools off at night and in the morning, to throw open the windows and blast out all the hot air from your RV. It’s also helpful to use ventilation when you’re cooking indoors or taking a shower. Both your bathroom and your kitchen will likely have at least a ceiling vent and probably a ceiling fan in order to vent this air. Feel free to use these liberally throughout the day. Because they are at high points in your trailer, they will draw out more of the hot air that rises.
Avoid Producing Extra Heat
While ventilation is helpful for dealing with heat you create, you want to avoid creating extra heat altogether. The worst offenders for heat production in most RVs are cooking and showering. Cooking is an obvious one: you’re literally using the propane fire of a range or oven to heat food, a process which also releases humidity from the food, which builds up in your trailer. On this front, a pot of boiling water is about as harmful as turning on the furnace. The oven is practically indistinguishable from a space heater. Taking a hot shower can also be an uncomfortably warming experience, too. While a hot shower won’t necessarily make the trailer extremely hot in the same way a stove will, it will release lots of humidity, which can cause the trailer to feel much warmer as the mercury rises outside.
Save Heat with LED Lighting
The type of lighting you pick can have a surprising effect on your RV’s temperature. There’s a reason the original Easy Bake Oven used an incandescent light bulb for its heating source! Traditional light bulbs produce a huge amount of heat. To reduce the effects of lighting on the temperature of your RV, go for LED lighting. This type of lighting is highly energy efficient and produces minimal heat. It also produces a clean, bright light that works great for reading, board games, and other activities.
Staying cool isn’t so difficult if you follow some of the steps mentioned above. Of course, nothing beats a frosty new air conditioner for blasting away those scorching Iowa summers. Stop by Camp Site RV when you’re ready to talk cool summer RVs. Located in Cresco, Iowa, we proudly serve Cedar Falls, Iowa, Rochester, Minnesota, and La Crosse, Wisconsin.