House Trailer Build

[Lord England]

"Historically, very similar homes were used by travelling shows and carnivals, and were pulled by horses. If I had a scanner, I could share a photo from 1904, showing 'Lord' George Sanger' s Circus arriving in town, with Sanger and other showmen, wearing crazy victorian uniforms, stood on the roof of his ornate wagon with a live lion and a lamb!"

I want to see the picture of the crazy victorian showmen!

Keep up the posts - its a really interesting project.

[Caravan Monster]

No problem Lord England, I'll bring the pictures next time I visit Hill Castle.

Progress report:

Mostly interior work at the moment-

Making up removable ceiling panels, electrics and insulating



I did use sheeps' wool insulation in the end. On first impressions, I am very pleased with it. It is safe to work with- you just cut it with scissors. Water vapour transfer exceeds any other type of insulation- ideal for timber construction:

[Caravan Monster]

Interior cladding completed (apart from the gap on the left):



It looks a bit like a sauna now!

[lemmiwinks]

Lookin' good Caravan Monster!

[Caravan Monster]

Thank goodness the Bus Barn is back! It' s been a while. I' m moved into my new home now, and it' s nearly finished.

Goodbye old home, off to be recycled



Hello new







Unknowingly, my design was not disimilar to those used in the past:

http://www.winlow.co.uk/html/the_old_caravan.html

or maybe more like this:

http://www.history.sa.gov.au/chu/progra ... aravan.htm

One question. Is it necessary to earth the (aluminium) roof when it is thunderstorm season and the trailer is one of the tallest objects in the vicinity?

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Nice and simple and the dog likes it to. Great job

[Sharkey]

I can see that I'm going to have to look at this thread at work where we have a high speed connection so I can view all the great photographs. Dial up would take the rest of the week... Guess I missed this whole topic during my absence?

As for grounding (earthing) the roof, it depends. Usually, vehicles are considered a safe haven during thunderstorms, as they are insulated from direct contact with the earth by the tyres, and the metal frame and skin form a "Faraday cage", which disallows the electrical energy from the strike from entering the interior. If your construction is timber, then this may not apply, and earthing may be indicated.

I'd recommend that if you are parked up stationary for an extended period, earth the roof, but also consider putting up some lightning rods that are well earthed if you have frequent storms. My guess is that earthed or not, an aluminum roof would be at least partially vaporised by a direct strike. Better to intercept the lightning with a stout rod before it gets right down to the living space.

In my line of work (broadcast engineering), lightning strikes are all too common. We ground everything, and in the most secure method possible -but- better to not be struck with a bolt at all than to have to dissapate one. To that end, installing static drain devices has been proven to reduce lightning strikes significantly. These usually consist of multiple sharply-pointed rods, well grounded, arrayed near anything you wish to protect. Some of the commercial products look like a crown of thorns, or a bushy toilet brush (made of stailess steel, of course). The idea is that all the sharp points decreases the resistance of the surrounding air, and lessens the creation of ionoised air, which creates a corona, the precursor to an actual strike. Most times the main bolt will go elsewhere to find it's path to earth.

[Caravan Monster]

I've just completed a re- fit in the wagon. Double glazed windows went in a few years ago. This month, much more insulation went in the roof and 2" cellotex under the floor. I've changed the furniture into a more succesful configuration too. So everything is ready for winter. It was already warm and I've never needed to turn my 750 W heater to more than half power, so I'm hoping for great things this winter.

Trouble is, when the weather is warmer and the hot air gets inside, it really retains the heat and stays warm, even at night when the outside air temp. cools, it's still hot inside. The newly added insulation is only going to accentuate this problem during the summer.

So... my question is, does anyone have suggestions for small scale cooling / air conditioning to use in my home ? Bearing in mind it is a small air volume - dimensions are approx 7' x 7' x 16' and I would like to continue the theme of being energy efficient. I should add that the roof is bare aluminium sheet, which reflects a good deal of sunlight / heat during the day. Are there alternatives to the conventional gas filled heat exchanger air conditioning that are worth consideration ?

[Stealth Camper]

I have thought about that same air conditioning thing for a teardrop style trailer....5' x 10' x 4 feet tall. Very small volume.

One of the ideas I have had is to try a Peltier device - apply a voltage and one side gets cold, while the other gets hot. Blow a fan across into the space. Lots of experimentation for me to do yet, but these things are used in small portable refrigerators, so I think a few of them would cool a small space. And reversing the voltage would then heat the space.

That's the theory anyway. Not sure about the practical application yet.

Love your trailer! Have you towed it much? Does it do well on the road?

How does the wool insulation work? I don't think we could get that here in the States.... haven't seen it or heard of it anyway.

[rlaggren]

Been gone a while but I'll just jump back in w/a dumb question:

How about a vent in the roof? Hot air goes up & out, cool(er) air comes in at the windows. Various other passive (cheap to run) solutions include paint the exterior a light color, install a "summer roof" over the existing w/an inch or air space between (doesn't need to thick or insulated - just want the shade). Not passive but still cheap - fans; if you don't want a hole in the roof, find a "window" fan to put in one end, suck air through the trailer.

Not that AC isn't nice and all, but it's costly to install, relatively high maintenance, is a real power hog and can sometimes be pretty hard to "get right" cuz the capacity needs to be matched with the BTU gain of your space - if it's too big you just short cycle and it dies itself extra quick.

Cheers <g>

Rufus

[Dusty]

Yeah, I'm with Rufus , nothin' like a hole in the roof to vent the heat out.

[Guest]

I think the problem is due to the interior of the structure absorbing and holding heat so well. Even with fans drawing cooler night air through the windows and door, I've never been able to cool the interior very well. Capturing the cooler evening and early morning air does work to an extent: leave everything open at night, then close everything and shut all the curtains before locking up and going to work. When I get back, the interior is cool, but then opening and closing the door whilst doing chores lets the hot exterior air in which soon warms things up. That's when a source of cold would help. I know some ac engineers - I'll talk to them, but not sure they will have a solution because even portable ac units are much too big, and like Rufus says, conventional ac installation would not work well in such a small space.

@Stealthcamper: the Peltier device sounds interesting, but the search results I have read so far suggest it is very power hungry, which I would like to avoid. To answer your question, it's never left the yard it was built in - I'm sure it would tow ok at very low speeds. More intended as a solution to sky high housing costs in the uk being incompatible with being self employed and having an unpredictable income. Although I am toying with the idea of building something similar on a japanese truck and going mobile. The economy is getting worse in the UK, and work more scarce. Having little in the way of responsibilities or ties, maybe going to where the work is would be one way forward. Might be an adventure anyway

For the record, I uploaded current photos. I think the exterior is weathering well. And I'm glad I freshened up the interior. It may be small, but it's such a peaceful little space.

[Caravan Monster]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ooops, hadn't logged in

Oh yeah, Stealth - I got the sheepswool insulation from http://www.blackmountaininsulation.com/ ... contact-us who do trade in the US. It's insulating properties are not quite as good as fibre glass wool insulation, but it's breathability is excellent (an important consideration in timber framed construction) and it's about x 100 more pleasant to handle.

[rlaggren]

> [cool off at night, close up during day...]

That's how we have always done it in Chicago in an 100 year old 3 story house. It works very well for about a week provided the night temps get back down below 70F by mid night. The house does warm up gradually so if it remains very hot longer than a week we need the AC.

However. In your case, your small structure (small = good <g>) is something you have complete and relatively easy control over so you should be able to do well even though your smaller mass will heat up faster - it will also cool off faster.

One of the _major_ heat sources is sun coming through windows. STOP IT B4 it gets through! Even after it gets through, light color interior shades help a lot. Outside you want shutters, shade trees, awnings, anything to keep sun out of the interior.

Fans really do help just by keeping air moving. You don't want a breeze (usually) just air movement. Your ceilings don't look high enough to get the thermocline above your head, so it's OK to mix all the air in the room.

Do (re)paint the outside some very light color. Makes a significant difference.

If there is any local breeze at night, put an air scoop on a window to direct and funnel the air through the living quarters.

Shade as much of the structure (as well as the windows) as possible. Move under trees; but do not locate near any large structure the receives (and reflects) sun - it will get hot and radiate onto you just like the radiant heating they install in houses. My sisters house is about 15' from a neighboring house to the north that receives sun light most of the day; starting about 11AM you can feel that damn furnace heating you up when you stand in a window or door looking at it! Even the ground will get hot and send it on to you; vegetation or a lawn is MUCH better than tarmac.

Put on skirts to shade the area under the trailer.

Install a "summer roof" and a "drainage wall" on vertical battens over the existing roof and walls with 3/4" or more air space. If it's a permanent installation it s/b screened across the whole top and bottom openings. Temporarily you might use white tarps but they let a lot of light (and heat) through; canvas might serve better. Keep _both_ sides of any thermal barrier white - white reflects more and emits less IR. Ideal would be a good mirror but white paint is usually more practical. When I drive across the desert I install aluminum foil bright side up on the entire roof of the car and most of the windows using spray adhesive. Makes a HUGE difference.

At night sleep as low as you can - air will be hotter higher in the room.

The air temperature is not really what gets thing hot - it's almost all from direct or indirect sun.

Rufus

[somewhereinusa]

I don't know if you have a similar product available where you are but, this product made a huge difference in my bus.

http://www.hytechsales.com/prod2150.html take a look around the whole site, kinda hard to navigate.

I don't know how much difference it would make since your roof is somewhat reflective. In my bus that originally had a yellow roof, the difference was, that after
the coating, even with the windows closed, the inside temp was about the same as outside air temp(bright sun light outside temp 110 deg F). With the windows open and some air movement, it is like
sitting under a nice shade tree.

Before and after pic.

All of the white is Buskote and most of the windows are double pane. I also have two roof vents. I haven't yet added any extra insulation to the inside.
I also have noticed that when it was yellow you couldn't stand to touch the surface when in the sun, after the coating you could rest your forearms on the surface
and it's only slightly warm.