Radiant Heated Floors in Your DIY Camper Van
Camper vans are essentially metal boxes that are raised off the ground by your tires. As wind and cold air whips around, and under, your van, it results in ice cold floors. Trust us. While a proper subfloor and thorough insulation can help this, some van builders opt to take it one step further and install under floor heating.
This guide delves into the current options available for DIY van builders to install radiant floor heating:
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12V Heated Floor Mats
Heating mats are placed between your subfloor and top floor. This is what is used in most homes for in floor heating; however, the only difference is this is a 12V version compared to 110V. The underfloor heating fabric by Expedition Outfitter is 1mm thick, flexible and draws low power. While it is rather easy to source 120V versions of under floor heating mats, we do not suggest doing this as the power draw would simply be too much. From our research, 120V under floor heating mats draw around 1500-3000W of power.
The only 12V underfloor heating fabric / mat we found is by Expedition Upfitter. If you find additional, please share them in the comments for others to utilize!
Cost
$250 per mat (19.5″ x 39″). As an example calculation, we would only install this in the “living area” of our camper van which is about 25″ by 85″ so we would get between 4-6 and cut them. This would equate to $1,000 – $1,500.
Additional Considerations
- Each heating fabric mat is about 19.5″ x 39.3″ (500mm x 1000mm).
- All mats must be wired individually and not daisy chained.
- Each mat draws about 80W per hour.
- You can shorten the length of each mat (39.3″), but not the width.
12V Underfloor Heated Mats
These mats create radiant heated floors in your camper van with little power draw. Installation is simple & they do not take up additional space height in your living area.
Photo Source: Expedition Upfitter
Columbia RV Hydronic Heating Floor System
Hydronic heating systems are taking over the camper van market. They work at high altitude, the provide a larger output of hot air compared to standard air heaters, and they enable on demand hot water. Another benefit of these systems is that they can easily be extended to provide in floor heating with an additional coolant loop. If a hydronic heating system is already on your radar, this Columbia RV Hydronic Heating Floor System is the best way to get in floor heating.
How it Works
A hydronic heater will heat a reservoir of coolant. That heated fluid will then be pumped through loops underneath your floor. Thin heat exchanger plates placed over the tubing will help it disperse heat across your floor.
Using hydronic heating system for radiant floor heating is energy efficient at around 50W when the pump is running.
Cost
This hydronic heating floor system starts at around ~$3,700 (no top floor) and for an additional $500 – $1,000 you can add a CNC cut top floor.
Additional Considerations
- A hydronic heater does NOT come with this heated floor. It is ready to integrate with an existing hydronic system of your choice. This will be an additional cost of ~ $4,000.
- This heated floor will replace your subfloor as the PEX tubing grooves are cut into CNC fiberglass reinforced composite with insulation qualities and then covered with marine grade plywood.
Photo Source: CamperVan HQ
Van Life Tech In-Floor Radiant Heat System (CALDERA)
Van Life Tech has a similar solution to the Columbia floor heating solution above. It works on the same premise of hydronic heating and pumping heated fluid through pipes under your floor.
The main difference in this system is the materials used and that you can customize it to fit with your plumbing system needs. For example, you can route potable water lines through it in addition to coolant lines. The material used is LEED certified poplar lite-ply which is 40% lighter than standard plywood.
Cost
The CALDERA floor system from Van Life Tech is $5,450.
Van Life Tech CALDERA Floor System
To the right, you can see how the Van Life Tech CALDERA system is structured.
Photo Source: Van Life Tech
So, Do I Need Heated Floors in My Camper Van?
Heated floors are definitely a “nice to have” and not a “must have”. Even for winter van life! Eric and I chased deep powder for two years in our camper van and a strong heater, thorough insulation, and good down slippers (these are the best!) was just fine. However, if you run cold and have the budget, I don’t think you will ever complain that you have heated floors 😉
If you found this useful, you might enjoy some of our other guides on related topics:
How To Do Winter Van Life (from people who have actually done it!)
Camper Van Heater Guide
How to DIY Your Camper Van Subfloor
Thanks for being here! Happy building!
Eric + Colby
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Comments 2
How do these systems effect installation of cabinets, rear passenger seats, etc?
Author
These should not affect how you drill into your floor, just don’t hit the lines, of course 🙂 The coosa subfloors specifically are engineered so that you can lag bolt straight into them for anchoring.