In-Soo-Lay-Shun (Insulation)

Sounds kinda like some Indian name, right?  (well, maybe not, but regardless, my apologies to our indigenous American friends)

The insulation for Ansel is mostly complete.  Once I have finished running all the wiring (next step) and before I put up the sub-walls, I will finish it off by stuffing insulation into the many nooks and crannies.

In the various van conversion blogs & videos that I consulted, people typically have gone to great lengths to insulate their vans.  While I appreciate the fact that you want to have good insulation if you are living in the van year-round, many times the insulation -- in my opinion -- seemed to be overkill and sometimes even irrelevant.  

My thinking is that if  it's very hot or cold outside while you are away from the van for an extended period, it will be very hot or cold inside the van when you return, no matter how well it's insulated.  And, once it gets hot or cold inside the van, it will not necessarily be easy to get it to a comfortable temperature unless you have independent air conditioning or heating systems...again, regardless of the adequacy of the insulation.  (Note: many van-lifers do have independent heating systems, but rarely independent air conditioning systems.  I'll have neither for cost and power consumption reasons.)

So, how will I manage the temperature in the van?  First, it makes sense to have at least some insulation, so I did put in insulation on all interior surfaces, including the floor.  But, in keeping with my mantra, I tried to keep it simple and cost effective (even then, I probably did more than I needed).  In addition, in warmer weather, I will rely on the ceiling fan and a wall mounted fan to stay cool.  If absolutely necessary, I can start the van and run the AC to help cool things down.  In colder weather, I have purchased a "buddy heater" to warm things up inside the van.  These things work great, and again if absolutely necessary, I can start the van and put the heater on high.  Finally, I have a zero degree sleeping bag to keep me warm while I'm sleeping.  That all said, I can choose when I go on a trip and thus to some extent avoid (or minimize) crazy severe temperatures. 

Overall the insulation process went pretty well, though it was not something I enjoyed a whole lot.  There was a lot of tedious, custom fitting, and I had some issues with getting the ceiling insulation in particular to adhere to the roof (not to mention the situation where I ran out of adhesive while installing the floor insulation). 

For those of you who might be interested (and if you're not interested, what's wrong with you?), I ended up using used five different types of insulation:

1. 3/4" Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) - I selected this for the floor insulation because of its high compression strength and slightly higher R-value.  Since I had some left over, I also used this for the side walls in the garage.
2. 1/2" and 3/4" polyisocyanurate ("polyisio") - I used this for the walls and ceilings.  I used the 1/2" for the cut-outs at the head and foot of the bed that I talked about in the previous post and 3/4' for everything else.  This stuff is extremely easy to work with.
3. Mineral wool ("rock wool") - This is a batt-type insulation similar to fiberglass, and I used it for the rear & sliding doors and also to stuff into gaps.
4. Reflectix - This is a roll type insulation similar to bubble wrap.  The R-value isn't great, and it requires an air gap, but I thought it would work fine for the wheel well covers (plus it looks kinda "spacey").
   
5. Spray Expanding Foam - Some of you might be familiar with Great Stuff (TM).  I used the Loctite brand, which is very similar.  Since mineral wool wouldn't likely stay in place for any gaps in the ceiling (unless I used an adhesive, which I didn't want to do), I used this instead.  It's extremely messy, but effective.

So there you have it!  In coming posts, I talk about the water system and the completion of the electrical system.  After that: cabinetry!  Still on track for my October trip if all goes well.

XPS installed on the wall of the garage.

Polyiso on the walls with mineral wool stuffed in around the edges.

Note the "triangular peak" in the middle of the insulation sections.  This is a result of the shape of the lower van wall sections.  Initially I cut each individual piece and glued in place, but then I discovered that I could score the insulation and simply allow it to "fold" over the peaks.  The center vertical piece of insulation is covering a structural support.

Reflectix insulation on one of the wheel wells.  (The tubing is for the water system which I'll talk about in a future post.)

Gluing up insulation on the ceiling.  Initially I had a problem with the insulation adhering.  While part of this was the long set time for the adhesive I was initially using, I realized the real problem was that the roof is slightly curved such that the insulation does not make good contact.  So, I cut the insulation into three segments and used a pole to hold the segments in place till they were secure.

Close-up of ceiling insulation showing the spray foam in the gaps.  After about an hour, it's easy to trim with a saw or a knife.

Ceiling fully insulated.

The "buddy heater".  Don't need it quite yet, but I got a good deal on it.