Insulation: How we keep warm in 2 degrees and cool in 95

We had some interesting conversations and debates about what insulative materials to use for the van walls and ceiling. There are so many potential materials and even more tradeoffs between price, insulative value, environmental pressure, etc... Here's some information about insulation and how we decided what to use.

Our desires:

We wanted a material for insulation with a high R value (basically, high R value = more heat will get through the material = bad because it does not keep the cold/hot air inside the van). We knew, from other vanbuild blogs and vlogs, that the metal surfaces exposed on the walls and ceiling should be covered in some sort of paneled insulation. For these surfaces (those were we could not stuff other insulative materials), we used Reflectix. The silver, shiny bubble-wrap-like material in this picture is the Reflectix; it is on the flat surfaces of the van. We also put this behind all our support beams to reduce the squeaking of metal on wood.

We also wanted our main insulative material to be eco-friendly. One main goal during our conversion was to do it as sustainably as possible, since this is something we both value and show in our lifestyle. We wanted to avoid excessive spray adhesives and any other substances/materials that could release harmful off-gases. We knew the van was going to be in hot temperatures down in Texas, and we did not want to be breathing in off-gas from our insulation. These two factors pretty quickly narrowed down our options. So our final choice.....

Havelock R7 Wool Insulation from havelock.com!

Caption: (L) Inside of the van looking toward the back with wool insulation in all possible surfaces. (R) An close-up view of the insulation of a wall and ceiling, with wool on the ceiling being barely held up by twine).

Why Havelock Wool?

We went with Havelock Wool for a few main reasons:

1. The company, Havelock Wool, was super easy to work with! They were knowledgeable on their website and on the phone about their products. They were also honest about product shipping delays, something we ran into problems with some of our other products.

2. Wool is a natural insulative material. This company has a sustainable production process: "We use repurposed textile machinery that runs on electricity. Further, wool is biodegradable and compostable unlike mainstream insulation which will sit in landfill" - Havelock Wool

3. Wool does a great job of removing moisture from the air and touching surfaces. Moisture control is very important in such a small space, especially when the inside of your build is wood, which is vulnerable to mold and mildew. This property of wool made is a huge benefit to us. We designed our van build for the long-term and we cannot/do not want to have to remove the walls and ceiling to replace molded wood. Plus, nobody wants to be breathing in mold and mildew wood in their home.

4. NO ADHESIVE SPRAYS!! We know this one might surprise you, but our insulation did not need any adhesive sprays. The wool came in sheets, which went easily up on our walls and ceilings with the help of some twine. We tied twine, another sustainability feature, to the small holes in the metal of the walls and ceiling, and sat the sheets of wool on the twine. It worked well after we got the hang of not knocking the sheets with our heads while moving around.

5. The wool tore easily and was easy to shove into every possible crevice we could get it in (see Adam shoving it behind the backdoor panels). Any exposed metal would conduct heat from outside the van and warm the inside of the van. With our potential of being in a variety of climates throughout our vanlife time, we wanted to seal these spaces with wool. The benefit of doing this is just additional assurance that we could control the internal temperature of the van instead of allowing the external temperature determine the internal.

Cost comparison:

The Havelock Wool was a little on the pricey side at first glance. Using this table below from havelockwool.com, we needed 3-4 bags, so we went with four bags to make sure we didn't run out. We recommend buying on the higher side. This way you can insulate a little heavier and you don't have to pay for shipping twice.

We spent around $650 on wool for insulation, four bags plus shipping cost from Nevada to Ohio. When calculating how much fiberglass or rolled Reflectix we would need to insulate the entire van, the wool actually saved us about $100! Enough insulative fiberglass on Amazon would have cost us $800 and Reflectix from the local hardware shop $750. Not only did we save money going with the wool insulation, we also had faster shipping, higher insulative values, and had a more sustainable product.

Our van is insulated very well. We've been able to stay cool in 95+ degrees in the Texas summer, keeping us hovering around 68 degrees inside with our portable AC unit. We also have been staying plenty warm in this unusual Texas snow storm. With temperatures at night getting into the single digits, we've been sweating inside with our internal temperature around 72 degrees. We'd say the wool works great!