Summer is the perfect time to take a vacation, but it’s also the hottest time of the year. If you’re not careful, your camper will basically start feeling like a greenhouse, especially in the humid Indiana summers. The easy way out is to mount the biggest air conditioning unit you can find on the roof of your camper and blast frosty air inside. But you won’t always be able to count on electricity, and if your AC unit goes out, you don’t want it to ruin your vacation. Below, we’ve outlined the three essential concepts for keeping your camper cool: keeping heat out, limiting heat production, and efficient ventilation. If you need parts or services for your camper, stop by Modern Trailer Sales. Located in Anderson, Indiana, we proudly serve Indianapolis, Noblesville, Fishers, Muncie, and Carmel. Stop by or give us a call today!

Keeping Heat Out

There are two main ways your camper will absorb heat from the outside: through the atmosphere and through direct contact with sunlight. There isn’t much you can do about absorbing heat from the atmosphere aside from buying a trailer built with more insulation. However, if you want to limit your exposure to direct sunlight, there are a few things you can do.

First, you’ll want to park your trailer in a location that receives as little sun as possible. Of course, finding shade is the best way to do this. You should be careful about parking your camper directly under tree branches, though, as high winds can bring branches down and damage your camper. Instead, try to find a location with directional shade so that you’re protected from the sun through the hottest hours of the day. You can also try to find a face with minimal southern facing exposure. In the Northern Hemisphere, south-facing locations get substantially more hours of sunlight than northerly facing ones.

In addition to where you park, you’ll want to keep your windows blocked from the sunlight, too. Light cancelling window curtains are the best solution, but even thick fabric curtains, window blinds or Roman shades are a good option. If you have a motorhome, a reflective sunshade is key.

Limiting Heat & Humidity Production

You’ll also need to limit heat production inside. Cooking and showering are the two main sources of heat in most trailers. Showering usually won’t produce too much heat outside the bathroom, but it can release a substantial amount of humidity into the air, and humidity increases the amount of heat you feel. Try taking cold showers with the vent on, or even better, showering outside. When it comes to cooking, using the stove and oven will release both heat and humidity. An oven may as well be a furnace and a pot of boiling water is like a radiator. Try doing more of your cooking outdoors on the grill or over a camp stove.

Another common source of heat indoors is lighting. Traditional incandescent lighting is startlingly inefficient, using only about 10% of its electrical load to make light and 90% to produce heat. By replacing any incandescent bulbs with LED lights, you’ll greatly reduce the amount of heat created by your lights.

Efficient Ventilation

When the air cools off at night, you’ll want to switch to ventilating your camper as opposed to insulating it from the outside. This only works when the outdoors becomes cooler than the temperature inside, so hold off on this until you can feel the difference. Throw open your windows and turn on the fans. If there’s any breeze, you can open windows on the windward and leeward sides of the camper to create a cross draft which will help to suck hot air out of your trailer and replace it with cool, fresh air.

Keeping cool during the hottest months can be a bit of a process, but it’s certainly possible if you’re willing to put in the work. If you just want a new air conditioner, that works too, and Modern Trailer Sales might be able to help you find the right model. Give us a call at our dealership and service center. We’re located in Anderson, Indiana, near Indianapolis, Noblesville, Fishers, Muncie, and Carmel.