Van 2.0 - Insulation

This van needs to hold up to Canadian winters. That means comfortable in -40° (conveniently that's where Fahrenheit and Celsius scales are the same).

In the old van, I used XPS foam board insulation, 3" on the ceiling and 2" on the walls. At ~R-4.7 per inch, it was plenty of insulation for New England.

For this van, I used Froth-Pak spray foam insulation kits to get the job done, bringing the foam to roughly 4" on the ceiling and 3" on the walls. At ~R-5.6 per inch, this is considerably more insulation, and should have a meaningful impact against the cold. It will also prevent the van from heating up significantly in the summer, a nice benefit.

The insulation is paired with a Propex HS2211 propane furnace. It's a heat exchanger which keeps combustion outside the van, and continuously heats and re-heats the air inside the van resulting in very efficient heating: 2kw of heating power, and it can run full blast for 60 hours on a single propane tank. This is the same heater I ran in the old van and was continually impressed by its performance, so it was no question to add it to the new van as well.

Here are some pics of the insulation process. It was insanely messy, goopy, smelly, and successful.