Comfort Ideas
Energy Independence
	Tread lightly, yet carry enough to be independent.  This way you can stop wherever you want,  for however long you want.
Your Energy Budget
	Determine how much power all your conveniences require.  Know you can stay at a place for a week if you choose.  Know these resources you will require.  We like to use a lot of light so we budget 15 amps of electricity a day. We can generate this from our solar panels, alternator or our battery charger.   For cooking, refrigeration and heating water, we use propane, our big tank lasts 30 to 40 days.  We usually carry enough water for a week.  All this gives us the flexibility to stay in one place a week if we want.
Electricity
	Electricity is a wonderful convenience.  We have two batteries, one for starting, and one we call our "house" bank to power our lights, fans and other goodies.  These batteries can be charged three ways, from the engine's alternator, solar panel and our battery charger.  We have a simple battery switch that allows us to use either battery separately, both at the same time, or to shut off the whole system.  We simply switch to "both" to start up the engine then both batteries are being charged.  When we stop we switch to the house battery and keep the starting battery in reserve.  Simple but effective.
Propane
	For cooking and refrigeration, propane worked very well for us.  We run a simple two burner propane stove that had a thermocouple (to turn off the gas if there isn't a flame).  It is easy to use, light and we were able to cook gourmet meals with it.  We chose propane for our refrigeration also.  It never let us down, every month, I just filled up the tank and we were ready.  We always had a window or hatch slightly open and ran a propane detector inside just to be safe.  Once a month, I did a leak down test to make sure there weren't any leaks in the system and changed the flexible hoses every two years.     I have used fuels such as, kerosene, white gas, and even alcohol stoves and I think propane is safer.  Kerosene stoves tend to be difficult to light and I have had white gas and alcohol flare up on me.  We use an "Aladdin" lamp for light, they are wonderful but delicate.  Bring lots of mantles and glass chimneys.
Water
	We had a small built in water tank.  Actually it was a flexible tank made of Neoprene nitrile by a company in France.  It is light and was easy to check to see the water level.  This was our drinking water system so we attached a filter and pump to it.  All our water was filtered.  I didn't know just where our journey would take us and I wanted our filtration system to even filter radioactive materials, no lie, our filter would do it as well as viruses.  You never quite know where your water is coming from and even if the water is good may still upset your stomach.
Shower
	Our showering system was really simple.  We learned this from some transoceanic sailors.  Water is scarce there and you want to use it wisely so we made a pressure washer out of a bug sprayer similar to theirs.  We would simply heat up water, pour it into the sprayer, pump it up and it gave us a great shower and used less than a gallon.  Your skin even tingles.  It was super at the end of a hard day especially when it is hot and humid.  You could probably even buy a stainless steel sprayer and put it directly on the stove and skip a step.  I never had much luck with one of those "solar showers", they use too much water and  don't rinse the soap off as well.     Modifying the garden sprayer is easy.  The only thing I changed was to put in a much longer reinforced hose, remember the water is under pressure   I would release the pressure from the tank when finished.   The pump mechanism rusted after about a year because I used the tank also to store water, you may want to look for one with a stainless mechanism.     I did run into a really nice pressure shower made in England.  If anyone is interested, I can see about bring these in.     Other ideas include hot water heaters or calofiers, or instantaneous hot water heaters.  A "calorifier" acts like a small hot water tank.  They have a couple coils inside the tank that flow coolant through and heat the water so you recover waste heat from the engine.   These are great ideas but a little over the top for just taking a shower or two.
Rooftop Tent
	This is a great way to be comfortable on a long journey.  Think of it as the stateroom on your land yacht because that is what it is.  Anytime you want to rest and get away, it is there for you.  We don't just advocate them because we sell them but the other way around.  We advocate independence and adventure.  These are simply another tool to help you experience places you might not otherwise see.  You become part of the experience, open to meeting people and experiencing their culture.
Getting a Good Night's Sleep
	If you can sleep well, you can do anything.  The two features your tent needs is insulation and ventilation.      Ventilation will keep you cool in warm climates.  In sub-tropical and tropical locations you look for any breeze you can.  We found that a fan can make a great difference in comfort on hot and steamy nights.  If it is 85 degrees out, a wind chill will allow you to sleep.  We really like a fan made by Hella and designed for trucks.  It uses about 1/3 of and amp on high so you can run it all night and not draw the batteries down much, again our 15 amp per night budget.  They are quiet and powerful.     Insulation is important anytime.  The ground is sometimes very cold or very warm and an insulated pad is as important as your sleeping bag.  An insulation pad will make sleeping on the ground more comfortable.  The same idea applies on our roof tents, the base has a foam core under the mattress to minimize condensation and control temperature.  The mattress can then be made for comfortable.