[Dazzler3370]

Hi pal,

Ive got a emmersion fitted in my tank however during the day it loses a lot of heat, but what it does do is radiate a lot of heat around the van at night when its on which prevents everything from freezing up.
I see that you have wrapped your tank to prevent heat loss.
Question...Does your tank being wrapped still give off enough heat to stop everything freezing up in your van.

Cheers
Dazzler

[Don Kee]

I’m (thankfully) not Nathan, but all it actually has to do is keep the back of your van above freezing and it’ll done its job of keeping your van from freezing at night.

So if uninsulated its raising the temp in the back of your van from -1C to 10C (I dont know the exact figures) then in theory you’re actually wasting alot of heat.
(i.e if the back of your van is roasting then your heating it up too much unnecessarily)

So you should be fine to insulate it I’d have thought, as you dont need you tank to release as much heat as it is to keep your van warm enough.

[nathankaye]

Hiya, yep ive wrapped the tank a couple of times in the silver bubble wrap type insulation.
My van is a fiat scudo to give an idea of internal van size and since having the immersion ive not had to worry about things freezing.  But then my pump, batteries and hoses have always been quite close to the tank as well. So when the first beast from the east came, my van and equipment was ok.

Ive now changed the van layout and weve had this mini beast hit over the wknd. My water in the tank on the friday was around 60 degrees ish by end of fridays work, maybe late 50's (didnt take a reading) but with not working over the wknd I didnt run the immersion over night and woke to a good helping of snow. We had about 2inchs and so dashed to van to check and all was well. By end of sat night the van temp near the back doors (furthest away from the tank) was showing around 5/6 degrees whilst outside was - 3.   Then sunday late evening I had the immersion on for Monday's work, so alls been good with this layout.

But it might depend on what temp youve got the water inside the tank to how effectice the ambient temp will be and the size of ur van

[Stoots]

I have one in mine without insulation.

When it's due to be below freezing I stick it on a couple of hours before bed.

The water is only luke warm at best in the morning but it keeps the back above 0 so does its job. Saves leaving a heater in all night and I'm not bothered about hot water .

[֍Winp®oClean֍]

I have often wondered tge same.  Been using an immersion for about 8 years now but never insulated the tank- specifically to keep the van warm and prevent any freezing. I have been a bit sceptical about Nathan's claimed water temps with the insulated tank but I may well have been wrong. I moved to a new house with a garage and have noticed a considerable difference in water temp just by having the van inside overnight. I think I might try insulating the top of the tank for next winter and see what difference it makes.