NEW! Bobil Hydronic and Underfloor Heating - the ultimate campervan heating system.
- samistrider
- Aug 27
- 4 min read
Campervan heating systems have always been a compromise...
If you wanted easy hot water, the best way was to heat it electrically, with something like our Bobil Electric - an easy 230V/12V connection, but it eats away at your battery, even with big battery banks, especially in winter...hmm...
A diesel air heater gives great instant heat for your campervan, its quick and easy to turn on, gives instant heat in 5 minutes and warms you up. But the moment you turn it off, the air goes cold QUICK. And how to you get hot water for your shower?
Combining these 2 together is our bread and butter at Bobil - with our most popular kit, the Bobil Hybrid, allowing you to use your existing diesel air heater to not just heat the air in your campervan, but also utilize this heat to heat and store hot water in a hot water tank, with the option of electric hot water heating in the summer when you have plenty of power.
But is there a better way?
Turns out, you can have electric hot water heating, a more effecient diesel heater, underfloor heating...AND...not have your campervan turn cold the moment you switch the off the heater.
So how does this magic work?!
Introducing the Bobil Hydronic System
The Bobil Hydronic system is a compact heating unit that provides heat for water, air, and underfloor loops in campervans and boats.
How It Works
The system's heart is the Autoterm Hydronic Flow 5 Heater - it burns diesel to heat coolant (similar to a car engine).
This heated liquid flows through pipes to heat your water, air and floor.
Using our Bobil Calorifier it can heat water by passing coolant through the calorifier, where the water in the tank is heated via this coolant.
Hot coolant also passes through an air matrix - this uses a fan to blow air across the hot coolant lines resulting in hot air being blown out (exactly like heating in a car).
You can also pass this hot coolant via a special pipe travelling under your campervan floor, weaving it around and producing underfloor heat, keep your toes warm in the winter.
This setup means you get three types of heat from one system: warm air, hot water, and heated floors.
A more detailed breakdown...
The Autoterm Flow 5 Hydronic Heater
This heater in not like a regular diesel air heater. As mentioned, it heats a liquid (coolant) rather than air directly. It still uses diesel fuel and produces the same volume of heat (5kW roughly), but liquids can hold a lot more heat than air can, so it makes it much more effective of transferring heat into both the water and air.
We've chosen to use the Autoterm Flow 5 for its reliability, 3-year warranty and superb build quality. We've been using Autoterm heaters for our own conversions since 2020 and stand behind them.
Hot Air - Air Matrix
After the coolant is heated, the first place the hot coolant travels is to the air matrix. This means, if you need hot air, you get the full heat first, and maximise hot air output.
In fact, you can have several air matrixes dotted around your campervan (so one by the bed, one in the kitchen, one for your shower room) and connect them all together, allowing for true versatility.
One benefit of this system is that if you don't want to heat the air in your van (say its summer and 30C) but want to heat your water, then the fans can simply stay off, and the coolant will go straight into the calorifier, maximising hot water heating.
Hot Water -The Calorifier
Once the coolant has passed through any air matrixes, its next stop is the calorifier. This is a cylindrical hot water tank and stores your hot water. You can have a 15L or even a 25L tank if you have the space, providing ample hot water.
The water is stored inside the tank, and the coolant passes through an inner coil - the hot coolant and water never directly mix or touch, but the coil transfers the heat into the water.
This is extremely efficient and effective. You can heat 15L of water this way from 15-60C in only 15 minutes. And the 25L tank takes just 20 minutes!
And if that isn't enough, these calorifiers also have a built in electric element, allowing you to heat the water directly from your batteries (12V) or from your inverter/hookup (230V). This means in the summer, when you have ample solar power, you can forgo the heater altogether - and this can even be done on autopilot (more on that later).
Hot Floor - Underfloor Heating
And finally, the pièce de résistance - walking around your campervan barefoot whilst there is snow outside.
Pumping the coolant through underfloor heating pipe, and laying this down within your floor insulation, just below your flooring, means the coolant can heat up your floor.
This is made more efficient with the inclusion on aluminium heating plates, which disperse the heat from the underfloor pipe out farther. Need I say more?
Bobil Smart Controller - The brains of the operation
The true icing on the cake with the Bobil Hydronic System is making all these parts work together seamlessly, and smartly.
With our in-house built controller, which comes with the kit, this ties everything together, meaning you can:
Control the air temperature you want your van heated too, and have it maintained at that temperature automatically.
Set the temperature you want your hot water heated to and have that maintained too.
Controls the 12V element, allowing excess solar to automatically power the element when your batteries are full, for FREE HOT WATER!
Has a timer function built in, meaning you can have your heating turn on just before you wake up in the morning.
Maintain your floor at a pleasant temperature so you don't burn your feet!
With valves and software, the Bobil Smart Controller ties everything together, making it a true, user-friendly system that anyone could install and use.
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