This is a good point, but the most important insulation would
be the floor, as that is where the heated pipes would reside.

The basement of my house has 2" of styrofoam under the
concrete floor to insulate it from the ground.

Thanks,
Chris

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 10:48:18 -0500
>From: David Brodbeck <gull@CYBERSPACE.ORG>
>Subject: Re: Winters in the van... HYDRONIC HEAT
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
>On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Eric Spletzer wrote:
>
>> Except with Radiant heat, you're not just heating the air,
you're heating
>> the surfaces of the van, which won't lose their heat when
you open the door.
>
>Unfortunately, steel conducts heat pretty well.  You'll have
a hard time
>keeping up with all the losses to the outside, unless you
spend a lot of
>time insulating your van.  Do that, and you may find you
don't need nearly
>as complicated a heating scheme to stay comfortable.
>
>
>             _ _
>  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)
Ypsilanti, MI
> / _` | | | | | |  +-----------------------------------------
------------
>| (_| | |_| | | | @ cyberspace.org
> \__, |\__,_|_|_| "BSD is for people who like UNIX.  Linux
is for people
> |___/             who hate Microsoft." -- Brendan Howes