Van Life with Mat Zero
We love when our mats head off on adventures of their own. Here’s a field note from one of our early adopters, who took Mat Zero camping in his electric VW van and came back warm and impressed.
"Over the last 12 months I’ve been gradually converting my 2003 VW T4 to fully electric. Caveat - whilst I’d love to replace the 2.5 TDI engine with a powerful electric motor with a range of 300 miles, what I’m actually talking about is “whilst parked”. A pretty modest goal in many ways, but a bottle of gas stores a lot of energy and at the outset I was unsure how far I could go.
I purchased an Ecoflow Delta, a 2 hob induction cooker and a collapsible electric kettle. With some old flexible solar panels I already had this worked pretty well during the peak summer months - the solar would ensure the battery had all the energy I needed. In late March of this year I came very close to finding the limit, running the battery very low, but happy with the overall experience I added an extra battery, doubling my capacity to 2kWh.
With some additional storage my thoughts turned to heating, and I first tried a portable space heater. Whilst it provided some comfort it was not wholly effective and the battery drain meant it was only really an option in locations with an electric hook-up. When offered the chance to try a Mat Zero I was keen to see how it would perform, and first trialled it in early May whilst camping in North Wales.
Despite the campsite having electric hookup I chose to run the van “off-grid”, running from the batteries only. In use the Mat was excellent; comfortable to lie on and with the power set fairly low it delivered a very pleasant warmth. I was able to sleep with my open sleeping bag over me like a blanket and obtained a great night’s sleep. In the morning the battery display showed I’d used 270Wh running the mat overnight, about 1/8 of my battery capacity.
I subsequently used the mat several more times before night time temperatures no longer required it, also using a second mat at times when 2 of us were sleeping in the pop top and every use has resulted in a good night’s sleep.
Since trialling the mat I’ve now added a flexible CIGS solar panel to the roof of my van, extending the charging time from previously. Off-grid electric van life (parked) is working well for me so far and it’s great to have a warming solution alongside a cooking one in the van".
Fantastic to see this and we can't wait to hear more stories from user when the pre-orders get delivered.
