"Are you warm enough in your van?!"

Following on from the most commonly asked questions that I receive when people find out that I live in my van - in at number 2 is this one. Allow me to put it this way; Yes.

Ok so I admit, transitioning to full time van living and moving in at the start of winter wasn't ideal so I understand everyone's concern when they ask - but staying warm is far from an issue. Now I've mentioned previously that when building this van, that off-grid functionality was the absolute highest priority, and before I'd even started the conversion, I knew I was having a log burner. A big one.

This is probably the most controversial aspect of my build and draws a lot of criticism. "That's way too big for a van!!". But there's a reason for that. See, I've stayed in a lot of glamping pods and quirky little weekend retreats over the years, and a few of them have had these cute little micro-stoves. Which are great, apart from the fact that you can't get more than a fist full of firewood in them at a time, and I felt like I was constantly feeding wood in to keep them going, and I just found them infuriating. So I went with a full size 5kw house stove, with the logic of you can always have a little fire in a big stove, but you cant have a big fire in a little stove.

The log burner is also a  critical life-line of my van and simplistic bare bones off grid living - in terms of my basic hierarchy of needs, it ticks off a lot of the most important ones. It's a lot more than just my source of heat; I can have no gas (LPG) in the tank or juice in the batteries, but still cook and boil water, make a brew, and dry my damp boots/jacket/towels etc. It pulls through a metric tonne of air, drawing in all the moisture and humidity, and kicks out dry heat - and as any van-dweller will tell you, managing condensation at this time of year is a constant fight. I can also scavenge firewood in a pinch, and so far has cost me very little over winter - splitting logs has become something of a therapeutic ritual for me. There's also something unparalleled in terms of atmospheric ambience of sitting by a log burning stove with just a couple of candles. You just don't get that with a diesel heater.

There are downsides of course - it's big, heavy, takes up a lot of valuable space, takes a while to heat up, and on a frosty morning I do miss the convenience of push-button heating - all in all is a true labour of love - but staying warm isn't one of them. Coupled with good insulation, rest assured, I'm more than warm enough in here, I won't go cold.