Camper Van Heaters: Diesel, Propane, or Electric, and Which to Choose

Diesel, propane, or electricity: where the heat comes from

80%. That’s how much of the propane supply heating would eat up on a winter camping trip, according to an Eberspächer brochure [1]. The brochure doesn’t say how it got that number, and it comes from a company that, as it happens, sells diesel heaters. Still, it asks the right question: before you pick a heater, pick the tank it’ll draw from. That’s the question behind the “Winter” step of our guide to planning a camper van trip.

A diesel parking heaterA self-contained heater, permanently installed, that runs with the engine off; also called a diesel air heater., also called a forced-air heater, takes its fuel from the vehicle’s tank: a metering pump feeds it to the burner, and a fan blows the warmed air into the living space [1]. A propane heater works the same way, fed by the van’s propane supply. An electric heater, finally, has no flame and no exhaust, but it needs an outlet, and a house battery is no substitute, as we’ll see below.

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What the spec sheets say: fuel, battery, and noise

Let’s run the numbers for a 10-hour night at constant output, from the lowest to the highest setting on each spec sheet. The thermostat cycles the heater off and on, so real life lands somewhere in between, depending on how well the van is insulated and how cold it is outside. Amp-hours are counted at 12 V. Most of these spec sheets are written for European models; where Truma publishes a North American version, we say so.

Two rows deserve a second look. Propane isn’t necessarily the most frugal on electricity: at full power, the VarioHeat draws 54 Ah in 10 hours, more than twice the Air 2D, though for nearly twice the heat [2, 3]. Those amp-hours go on top of the power budget for your house battery, where heating becomes one of the biggest line items in winter.

As for noise, on paper there isn’t any. Eberspächer touts, for its Airtronic 3 heaters, a virtually silent fuel supply thanks to their new metering pump [1], Webasto the extremely quiet running of its Air Top Pro 25 [6], Truma a night mode where the heater runs at low speed [3], and none of them publishes a decibel figure. Their claims at least tell you where to listen: the metering pump, and how hard the heater works at night. My advice: listen to an installed heater before you buy, and check where the pump will go, ideally far from the head of the bed.

On the money side, a night on diesel is easy to price out. At $6.292 a gallon, the US average on-highway diesel price for the week of November 2, 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration [7], a night with the Air 2D costs about $1.66 to $3.99. For propane, the math depends on what you pay at the fill station, which varies by dealer and tank size: divide the price by the pounds of propane, then multiply by 2.2 to 6.4 lb.

Electric heat: yes on shore power, no on the battery

Plugged into shore power, electricity heats with no flame, no exhaust, and no fuel to refill. The pedestal still has to keep up. Good Sam, the RV owners’ club, lists what each outlet supplies at 120 V: about 1,800 or 2,400 W from a 15 or 20 A household outlet, about 3,600 W from a 30 A RV receptacle, and about 12,000 W from a 50 A receptacle, which delivers 50 A at 240 V, or 100 A at 120 V [8]. That’s for the whole van, so check what your site offers when you book.

Truma’s Combi D 4 E is built for Europe’s 230 V hookups. Its North American counterpart, the Combi D comfort plus, lists 7.1 A at 120 V for its 850 W setting and 14.2 A for its 1,700 W setting [5]. The low setting runs on any of these outlets; the high one leaves just 100 W for everything else on a 15 A household outlet, so a 20 or 30 A outlet is a better bet. Good Sam adds a habit worth keeping: switch off the pedestal breaker before you plug in or unplug the shore power cord [8].

On the house battery, the math is unforgiving. A 900 W heater running for an hour uses 900 Wh: 70% of a 100 Ah lithium battery at 12.8 V, at a current of around 70 A. A 10-hour night would take seven of them. Our guide to the camper van in winter reaches the same conclusion with a 2 kW space heater.

What each option costs

The manufacturer pages cited here show no prices, and an aftermarket install depends on the heater, the vehicle, and the installer: get a quote. Truma sells its North American Combi D comfort plus to RV manufacturers for factory installation [5]. For a ballpark, the price lists of two European van builders give dated figures, in euros, for vans sold in Europe. Malibu, a brand of the Carthago group, fits a Truma Combi 4 propane heater as standard across its Van 2026 lineup and offers two other heaters as options in its French price list [9]; Vantourer fits a diesel heater as standard, the Truma Combi D 6, and offers an electric element as an extra in its Belgian list [10].

Switching from propane to diesel, altitude kit included, costs €605 more between Malibu’s two options, on a new van sold in France. For an aftermarket install, ask for a quote that spells out the heater, its install kit, the labor, and whether the heater carries UN Regulation No. 122 approval.

What European type approval requires of a combustion heater

The reference text in Europe is UN Regulation No. 122, which covers vehicle heating systems and their operating safety [11]. Autoterm and Webasto display this approval on their spec sheets [2, 6]. What it requires reads like an installation plan:

• combustion air is never drawn from inside the vehicle, and its inlet must not be able to get blocked by luggage or dirt;
• the exhaust outlet sits where its fumes can’t get back in through vents, heated air inlets, or open windows;
• the warm air blown into the living space must be no more polluted than the air taken in: in testing, no more than 20 ppmParts per million: 20 ppm means 20 volumes of gas in a million volumes of air. more carbon monoxide than at the intake point;
• the heater carries a label with the manufacturer’s name, the model, the output in kW, and the fuel, and comes with an owner’s manual and, if it isn’t factory-installed, installation instructions;
• a visible indicator shows when it’s on, and a safety device limits the fuel supply, to 4 minutes at most for liquid fuel, if the flame fails to light or goes out [11].

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For propane, the same regulation points, when the heater can run while driving, to two European standards: EN 624 for the appliance and EN 1949 for the vehicle’s gas system [11].

My advice: have it installed by a technician trained by the brand. The manufacturers nudge you that way too: Autoterm extends the Air 2D’s warranty to 3 years or 2,000 hours when the install is registered by one of its certified service centers [2].

Diesel heaters turned away for lack of instructions

In the UK, the Office for Product Safety and Standards, the British government’s product safety regulator, has published several reports on imported Vevor-brand diesel heaters. In January 2023, a car parking heater, the WF-5001, was found to pose a serious risk of asphyxiation because its installation instructions were inadequate: fumes could leak into a poorly ventilated vehicle. Import was refused, and a January 2024 update says the brand recalled the heater from buyers [12].

In August 2023, another model, the XMZ-D1, was refused at the border and destroyed: inadequate instructions and warnings, and no warning to keep the exhaust pipe away from combustible or toxic materials [13]. In November 2025, it was a portable version, the XMZ-W-D3, shipped without any safety information. The report points out that a diesel heater should only be used where there’s enough ventilation, otherwise the user can be exposed to potentially fatal levels of carbon monoxide [14].

Carbon monoxide: the alarm and the rules

Each year in the United States, more than 400 people die from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning not linked to fires, more than 100,000 visit an emergency department, and more than 14,000 are hospitalized, according to the CDC [15]. The gas is odorless and colorless, and the CDC notes that it’s found in the fumes produced any time you burn fuel, stoves and furnaces included; a van’s diesel or propane heater burns fuel too. The CDC also recommends having heating systems and other gas, oil, or coal-burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year [15].

The CDC advises installing battery-operated or battery back-up CO detectors near every sleeping area, and replacing them as the manufacturer instructs [15]. For an RV, the UL 2034 standard covers carbon monoxide alarms used in living spaces, recreational vehicles included, according to UL Standards & Engagement, which publishes it [16]: that’s the listing to look for on the box.

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Which heater for which kind of trip

• Winter weekends. For two warm nights near the ski runs, the diesel air heater is my pick: it draws from a tank you can fill at any gas station, takes no room in the propane locker, and its 8 to 24 Ah a night stay within reach of a well-sized house battery [2]. Just check the elevation rating on its spec sheet.
• Full-time van life. Over weeks on the road, hot water matters as much as warm air. A combined diesel and electric unit, like Truma’s Combi D 4 E in Europe or the Combi D comfort plus in North America, heats both, on diesel off the grid and on shore power at the campground, but its 2.64-gallon water tank and roughly 34 lb need room [4, 5]. Propane still works, as long as you count the refills: at 2.2 to 6.4 lb a night for a VarioHeat [3], winter gets measured in trips to the propane dealer.
• Campgrounds with hookups. If you mostly sleep plugged in, electricity is the simplest answer: no flame, no exhaust. Match the setting to the outlet: 850 W runs almost anywhere, 1,700 W wants at least a 20 A outlet [5, 8]. A combustion heater still earns its keep on nights without a hookup.

For the nights themselves, a sleeping bag rated for the right temperature lets you turn the thermostat down, and every number in this guide with it.

The rule fits on one line: choose your heater by what you can fill or plug into where you sleep, and install it so the air it burns and the exhaust it puts out stay outside.

Julien de Jurquet

Vans, RVs, biking and calculators

Julien de Jurquet writes for Outfarer about camper vans, RVs, biking, and calculators. He reads manuals cover to cover and never lets a number slide without its unit, so your choices rest on math, not promises.

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