Michael
Dad & NerdWater and Heating
Water
We've installed 2 x 86l tanks*. One for fresh water (left) and one for grey water (right). They are just between the back wheel boxes. Both are the base for the plateau at the seating area.
Why inside?
- We travel in cold areas too. Having them internally prevents the water from freezing. Additionally some heating air pipes laying around.
- We want to have a full size spare tire under the VAN.
- The "tummy" shall be as clean as possible without anything in danger to break if the terrain gets bumpy.
We knew from our experience that this volume shall be enough for 5-7 days, even if we may built later an inside shower (it's just preconnfigured).
The pump is a Lilie Soft LP4142* 11,7 l/min and works without any accumulator quite well. It's controlled by my control unit and can be switched manually or by a presence detector sensor.
The boiler is an Boiler Elgena Nautic Compact Air LE 10*. This one works with the hot air from the Diesel heater and additionally with 220V, 660W. From my past experience I know, that any 12V heating option is not worth. There is simply not enough power to heat the water in an appropriate timeframe. In the section "Electronic Control" you'll see that I had an sophisticated energy distribution control in mind.
The infill* is in the back at the inside too. It's not overwhelming practical. But having it that way, I didn't had to expose another hole (stealth) and I have the ensurance that only myself fills in what shall be in. It's directly connected with a 40mm tube* to the fresh water tank and with a 10mm (air-)tube to release the compressed air during the filling process.
Hand drafted detailed Plan (click)
Do yourself the favor and use the Spring band clamps* from Lilie. With the change between warm and cold the flexible material you use in a VAN the regular hose clamps will leak sooner then later.
I've used also all tubes* and connectors* from Lilie, which seems to be pretty robust and reliable.
As heating pipes I used the steal enforced plastic tubes. They are much more robust to work and live with.
In total we spend 1.600 € for all water related stuff incl. sink*, faucet*, electric valve*, sensors*, additional connection point* for outdoor shower*, and all the different tubes, valves, etc.
Heating
For the whole heating stuff I did a lot of research to find the optimum approach. We knew, that it's killing your sleep, if it's not warm enough but also if it's too noisy the whole night. Gas was never an option anyway.
At the end I went with a Planar 2D* with 2kW power as working horse. Heard a lot of positive stories and I knew that there was a new controller planned. But that alone would have killed the the WAF. So it was clear from the beginnen, that I had to manage a way to put air silencer* in front of the heater and behind too. That was really a challenge since there is not much room in the L2H2 to do so. Finally I ended up with the only option shown below with have to built the cabinets around it.
Again I had some energy distribution concept in mind and the heating was part of it. So I installed 2 air distribution blocks with a servo attached. The first one is to run the heater in summer to warm up water if we're low on energy, but release the hot air to the outside below the Sprinter. The second one controls, how much warm air is release to the "garage" depending on the huminity there.
Total cost for everything heating related was 1.250 €
Summary
The Water supply is totally fine and works flawless. The water pump* is decoupled from the ground, built in a closed area which is additionally soundproofed. So not much anoying noises.
You can't barely hear the heater* at all. The silencers* are a big game changer and work very well if you have both. With the special silent Diesel pump, you can hear only the air flow slightly. With my isolation concept the power of the heater is plenty. It was never too cool. With the new comfort control unit the control algorithms work much better. No worries anymore.