Reisemobil International magazine has asked its readers the "Question of the Month": "Banning gas cylinders from motorhomes: yes or no - what's in favour, what's against?"
The editorial team led by Karsten Kaufmann first took a journalistic and technically well-founded approach to the topic and showed that the gas-free camper is already quite possible.
But (quote): "A completely gas-free motorhome can work, but it comes at a price. Campers who like travelling in less sunny countries (low solar yield), or those who occasionally want to camp self-sufficiently for longer [...] should really consider whether a little LPG on board would not make sense."
The readers' answers to the "Question of the month" are also interesting. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the editors of Reisemobil International, led by Karsten Kaufmann, for providing us with the PDF containing the relevant extract from issue 5/2024.
Basically, the article contains more negative voices than those in favour of gas-free campers. We like to keep it with two readers' voices from the "neutral" section:
- "Ultimately, it doesn't matter which energy source leads to the desired result."
- "We see it more pragmatically, LPG stays where it makes sense to us, such as heating or cooking. If we can save LPG with solar power, we'll do it."
Our position / comments on this:
- The future of camping will not be gas-free in the short to medium term.
- There are already clean and sustainable substitutes such as Bio-LPG (or soon rDME) for the fossil fuel liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). And: the industry is working intensively to drive the changeover forward.
- Increasing electrification (with electricity generation from renewable energies) is totally welcome, but is not the only solution in the long term.
- A sensible energy mix - utilising the existing infrastructure and with increasing proportions of renewable energies - is the best long-term solution.