This story starts with a family travelling and exploring Australia. We are a family of five who have crammed ourselves into a tin can (our beautiful caravan/home on wheels) to chase the ever-elusive dream.
With our five-year-old twins and our four-year-old ‘surprise’ in tow, we were super-excited to pack up our house, pack our caravan, and head off into the countryside. Little did we know that packing our whole life into 21ft would be so challenging.
It quickly became evident that not only did every item need to be carefully considered, each item also needed to have dual uses.
As caravan owners previously, we understood that comfort off-grid equalled longer times spent off-grid. Longer times off-grid meant more money saved.
So it was essential that we installed anything that encouraged airflow to help with those hot, sticky nights we knew we would encounter.
This is when we looked upon the Canada-made Sirocco II fan. With its multidirectional airflow, three different speeds and timer function, we knew these fans were a must. In fact, we installed six in our new home/circus on wheels, one on each side at the end of the master bed, one in the living area opposite the kitchen, and one at the foot of each bunk.
After living in our van for less than a week, it became quickly apparent that these fans were absolute lifesavers. Not only did they cool us for two months straight (24 hours a day) as we travelled up the west coast, it turns out they had multiple uses.
1. COOLING FOOD
As a busy family with three young kids, we find meal times hectic! The constant demand for food, water and attention is enough to send anyone grey and/or bald. Each morning, I clumsily pour the porridge into the bowl, throw it in the microwave and head to the bathroom. Too many minutes later, I find whatever I was prepping to be scalding hot. Nothing a quick blast under the Sirocco II won’t help! I turn the nearest Sirocco II on ‘high’ and hold the porridge under it while stirring. It works!
2. DRYING THE WASHING
Being on a constant holiday isn’t quite how it sounds. Unfortunately, the mounds of washing don’t go away. I’m so grateful for our washing machine and use it most days.
However, we don’t always have the idyllic weather that you see on social media. This means that although I can wash cycle after cycle of, if the weather is terrible outside, I have no way of drying our clothes and towels. Cue my pegless clothesline, which I string from end to end inside our caravan, to dry our washing while we sleep.
I then recruit the help of every Sirocco II for this mission. Each fan is pointed directly at the washing, switched onto its highest setting, and therefore creating a breeze for our washing. I know how ridiculous this sounds but waking up to fresh dry washing is absolutely worth the effort. Trust me.
3. BEATING HUMIDITY
Usually, the kids are in their bunk area breathing up a storm! The combination of three snorting children in a confined space, in addition to a bathroom about 1m from their beds, leads to humidity. A lot of it!
I’ve read of other families struggling with condensation and mould in this area of their caravan due to the high levels of moisture in the air and lack of circulation.
So here is our solution. We point the top bunk fan outwards (towards the bathroom, so we don’t freeze our top bunk child). We leave the fan on all night, every night, effectively circulating the air in that area. We have never had problems with humidity or condensation.
4. COOKING ODOURS, BE GONE
Next on the menu are my cooking skills. I’m not a chef by any means, but I can definitely appreciate the layout of our beautiful caravan kitchen. Our sink/stove, full-height pantry and fridge fall into a perfect triangle, which honestly makes cooking inside such a breeze. But cooking inside means the delicious aromas of my not-so-amazing cooking skills hang around our caravan like a bad smell.
In addition to having my exhaust fan on, I cook with my windows open to allow for a breeze. To assist, I switch the Sirocco II opposite the kitchen to ‘high’ and blow the delicious aromas straight out the numerous windows on the kitchen-side of the van.
People say they don’t cook inside their van because it leaves a smell, but I can assure you that even I, with the nose of a beagle, can smell only freshness in this van!
5. USE YOUR SIROCCO II FOR WHITE NOISE
Lastly, as you might be able to tell, I love to chat. Part of travelling is the ability to pull up and make friends along the way.
This seems to be at the envy of our children, who appear to have an issue with Mum and Dad socialising while they should be sleeping. We have found the best way to deal with this is to use our fabulous Sirocco II fans as white noise.
We pop each fan on in each bunk (pointed towards or away from the children depending on the temperature) in order to create white noise.
It really is pure genius as it allows us to have a life after the kids’ bed time. They fall asleep while we are allowed to socialise around a campfire outside. It really is a blissful life!
So as you can see, there are many ways to utilise your Sirocco II fans. They are fabulous little food cooling, dehumidifying white noise fans. Highly recommend.
– Kat and Stu Sobczyk, ‘Retreating Into the Sunshine’
