Caravan gas water heater – hot water system

Caravan gas fired hot water heating from Flexiheat UK

A caravan gas water heater provides essential hot water to ensure your caravan or “home from home” has the warm water system to ensure you can shower, at the correct water temperature, and more importantly at the correct hot water flow rate. There’s nothing worse than a poor showering experience as you enjoy your stay in your caravan or holiday home. The other main purpose of caravan water heaters is to provide adequate hot water for dishes or washing up – an area which many of the low-quality water heaters struggle to achieve (more on this further down the page).

Our CE approved gas water heaters for caravans, with the latest innovation provide all the benefits of an instant and unlimited supply of warm water in a cost effective and compact way.

Water heaters

Firstly, we have to define what a caravan water heater is – the device, heats the domestic hot water up to temperature for such uses as showering, bathing or for the sinks, whether it be hand wash sinks or kitchen sinks – this is referred to as sanitary water or domestic hot water – DHW for short.

So gas fired water heaters for caravans, have to cover the water hot demand for your caravan – Here are some figures and numbers that your water heater has to cover –

A standard showerhead flow rate is 7 or 8 Litres a minute – and the standard temperature is 40 Degrees C

Sink taps – 4 litres per minute capacity– standard type

Cloakroom or basin “spray type taps” – 2 litres per minute capacity- again at 40 C temperature

Bath mixer taps – modern bath taps have an approximate operating demand rate of 12 Litres per minute capacity-  at 40 Degree C.

Kitchen sink taps – 4 to 6 litres per minute but at a heated temperature of 50 Degrees C

Because 50 Degrees C is the temperature required to effectively remove grease from cooking utensils, plates, cups etc.

Thus, it is very important that your caravan gas water heaters can achieve this temperature, with a flow rate to fill the washing up sink in a reasonable time.

So the on demand water heaters heating power or capability of your caravan water heater needs to be suitable to the demands required of it. You get back from swimming in the sea or pool, and you want a nice shower experience for example.

Caravan gas hot water heaters

Caravan water heaters come in two main types, electric powered or gas powered

Electric heating element / Electric water heaters

These use electricity to heat the water directly – but come with lots of potential issues that you need to be aware of –

1. The struggle with the capacity to produce warm water instantaneously, as most caravans only have a 1 Phase / 240-Volt electricity power supply – with a maximum draw of 32 Amps – you cannot produce enough thermal energy, from the electric water heater / electric caravan water heater to satisfy the large capacity hot water demands such as a shower adequately – You need 7 Litres a minute for a standard shower.

2. Another downside is that electricity energy prices are also the most expensive, especially when compared to gas or more specifically LPG (propane) that is the fuel of choice for static caravans.

3. There are electric powered water heaters for boats, or a motor home, with an additional heater element that also include a hot air heater – but these only have a 5 Litre capacity, and take approximately 50 minutes to heat this volume of water from 15C to 60C – which is only enough water for a sink, and nowhere near enough for shower let alone for two people to shower after each other. This is a specialist market, and the truma ultrastore water heater / truma heaters compact heater /carver cascade water heater  are the electric water heater units you want for a vehicle panel van conversions or boat installation.

Gas water heater for caravan – Capacity

Gas caravan water heaters make up the largest part of the requirements for caravan water heaters, as they provide many benefits such as the capacity to provide many litres of heated hot water, as well as fast heating of the water system to an accurate water temperature. They are highly efficient, which saves you money and more importantly work correctly. They produce hot air generated by the combustion process, and these flue gases to give them their official name, must be evacuated from the caravan water heater, via a flue system.

The most popular are –

Propane gas water heater for caravan

With LPG being the predominant gas used on caravan and holiday home parks, where static caravans or static holiday homes are located, this has resulted in LPG or Propane gas water heaters being the most popular water heater for this sector.

The LPG caravan water heaters that we offer are of the highest quality , and heat the water in the most efficient manner and work correctly, our most popular unit is the SFK water heater, which is equipped with a caravan water heaters class leading 16mm diameter heat exchanger water ways, which ensures very low pressure drops, guarantees lower risk of clogging, greater thermal efficiency, and greater ease of cleaning of the equipment . – which is especially important in areas with hard water. Just double check the following map of the UK and Northern Ireland.

Hard water areas of the UK, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland

Propane Gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)

LPG gas or Propane gas as its also known, is the perfect gas to use for caravan water heaters, as the gas is readily available and very common in the UK- other many benefits of the gas are; –

• LPG gas is easy to transport
• The gas is clean burning – the burners have a longer life; hence maintenance is lower.
• An effective and efficient gas with direct firing systems as the heat loss is minimal.
• LPG is easy to store, in cylinders or a bulk tank – No spillage risk as opposed to oil heating for example.
• Propane has a low boiling temperature of minus 42ºC, making it perfect fuel for use in lower temperatures and well suited to power a heating boiler or water heater for caravans.

Propane cylinders with gas regulators feeding a static caravan

They can be hidden away from sight like so (regulators hidden as well as pipes)

Caravan on demand water heaters – gas fired

The most popular water gas heaters we do for static caravans is our SF14 model, which has a 24kW output, and is available not only as a propane water heater, but also natural gas if so required. This instantaneous domestic hot water heater produces hot water on demand and gives you an instant and unlimited supply of hot water. This makes this water heating system one of the most efficient, with an “A” rated energy efficiency class and results in you saving money on your caravan water heating needs.

This caravan water heater is an instant water heater or tankless gas water heater.

The dimensional details are –

SF14 LPG water heater from Flexiheat UK

Hydraulic connections – at the bottom of the water heater

Aesthetically pleasing design

SF14 Low NOx from Flexiheat UK

Advantages of our caravan water heaters

• Copper wet chamber heat exchanger that prevents thermal inertia
• Reduction of initial water over temperature with low flow rates
• 16mm diameter heat exchanger water ways
• Room sealed lpg hot water heater – the water heater flue is twin wall – and heater flue kit makes the lpg gas hot water system room sealed.
• Electrical protection level is IPX4D for this equipment
• Ease of access for maintenance / servicing the equipment
• We do a vertical cowl extension, should the caravan the wall ribs prevent you using our standard horizontal cowl extension
• Cost effective water heating equipment for your caravan
• Compact equipment in size
• Water heater white colour
  

  Internal picture of our on demand water heater for static caravans – with large 16mm Copper wet chamber heat exchanger that prevents thermal inertia and blockages.

• Possibility of remote shutdown with our internet / Wi-Fi enabled controllers

Caravan Water Heater Performance

Simply said, the volume of hot water generated by any hot water heater is exactly proportional to the temperature rise of the hot water required. As an example, consider the following:

Showering temperature is 40 Degrees C –

Dish / Kitchen Water is 50 Degrees C – to ensure grease is removed from the utensils

Here is some data on the temperature of the mains cold water in the UK, at different times of the year

Mains cold water inlet temperatures for the UK by region Source – Energy Saving Trust – 2008

So, the required water temperature rise, is known as “Delta T “- this is abbreviated as this sign “ΔT” – And ultimately the lower the temperature rise, the more warm water the device will produce – In the summer when the incoming water is warmer – it will produce more litres, and in the winter, when the incoming water is lower, it will produce less – it’s a simple as that.

Here’s our performance data of our SF14 water heater, at various temperature rises.

Thus, to achieve 40C warm water in the summer, for the majority of the UK, you need a Delta T of 20C – thus our unit produce 15.82 Litres/min – enough to run a bath or 2 showering heads at the same time.

And more importantly, for people who inhabit a static caravan in the winter months – when the delta T is 30C – then you have 10.82 Litres/min – again more than enough to run a standard showering head (which is 7/8 Litres /min) – So we have you covered when you need warm water the most – in the winter!

Frequently asked questions

What is the best water heater for a static caravan ?

Without a shadow of doubt, it is gas fired water heaters – because the flow rates are higher in gas-fired water heaters than electric ones. Also, gas water heaters are much less expensive to operate than electric water heaters. They are more expensive to purchase than an electric water heater. However, based on energy savings, gas water heaters typically pay for themselves in roughly a year.

Static caravan lpg water heaters ?

Static caravan lpg water heaters are by far the most popular water heater used in static caravans , as lpg is readily available, and cheaper than using electricity to heat your warm water requirements.

Caravan Gas Fired Water Heater

We carry stock, and use a small pallet service to deliver anywhere in UK, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

Should you require any more information or prices on the best caravan gas water heater / lpg water heater for caravan, then give our sales team a call on 01202 822221.A full inc vat invoice is supplied for all items supplied. For our latest news follow us on Facebook or Twitter for our latest special offers.