Propane heat help

[D2Reid]

You said you run the furnace to heat the underbelly. When camping where electricity is included , can you use electric heaters and run the AC fan to push heat into the underbelly? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Keep in mind that the advice given here is for large 5th wheels. There are many differences depending on the model that you own. Huntingdog's advice on the A/C unit is correct, it's in the ceiling, tank in the floor. Some of the smaller travel trailers you keep things from freezing by opening the cabinet doors inside. It is always helpful when you put your RV model in your post.

We can keep the coach between 73-75* easily. At night we set the furnace thermostat at 69*

I think your Solitude may be better insulated than our Momentum. I am not sure the extra 4' in length has that much to do with it, perhaps layout is a factor also, our kitchen and living room are pretty well separated. I have run a 30# tank out overnight, subzero. I have 3 40# tanks now, and in mid teens at night can get 3-4 days out of one. Our cabin temp stays around 65 during the dark hours. We have an electric blanket, but I don't like using it. I want the cold to wake me up in the middle of the night should the heater fail.

[Steven@147]

Keep in mind that the advice given here is for large 5th wheels. There are many differences depending on the model that you own. Huntingdog's advice on the A/C unit is correct, it's in the ceiling, tank in the floor. Some of the smaller travel trailers you keep things from freezing by opening the cabinet doors inside. It is always helpful when you put your RV model in your post.




I think your Solitude may be better insulated than our Momentum. I am not sure the extra 4' in length has that much to do with it, perhaps layout is a factor also, our kitchen and living room are pretty well separated. I have run a 30# tank out overnight, subzero. I have 3 40# tanks now, and in mid teens at night can get 3-4 days out of one. Our cabin temp stays around 65 during the dark hours. We have an electric blanket, but I don't like using it. I want the cold to wake me up in the middle of the night should the heater fail.

Absolutely right Dallas I think the model and floor plan may have a lot to do with it. Our old 2950RL Imagine would never have been adequate for this type of weather. God I hope it doesn't get to sub-zero until we get out of here and get back south! I got woke up the other night when I felt it was too cold in the bed room, yup propane ran out and it was down to 58*. Took a lot of propane to get it back up to 69*. I should get the propane oneway valve installed where its missing so I could have both tanks on, as it is, the system draws from both tanks at the same time if they are both on. Gotta deal with a mixture of inverted flair and NPT fittings and relocate the main regulator to get it fixed. But once we get out of here and move south we will not use near as much propane.

When we first found out that we would need to spend some cold weather months up here i looked into a 100# tank, and the sturges stay adapter, then looked at just getting another 30#er. Now it looks like that we may get out of here by the end of December as planned, we'll just put up with the two 30s. At least we can get them refilled right here at the campground. The long range forecast to the end of December doesn't look too bad for cold and snow.

At this campground we are paying for electric. We run our fireplace and stand alone oscillating heater pretty much non-stop during daylight hours, furnace at 69* through the night, our electric bill for a month was $157 and propane $115.91 for the month. Today nice and sunny but still highs 40* lows 29-31* Not really too bad.
A lot of people here are using all variations of skirting, straw bales, plywood, foam board, vinyl and blowup air tubes. For the limited time we will be here seems too expensive to invest.

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You said you run the furnace to heat the underbelly. When camping where electricity is included , can you use electric heaters and run the AC fan to push heat into the underbelly?


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Yes.
We have been doing that for years. We use a ceramic heater with tip over shut off and a thermostat. And we keep it about a foot away from any walls or other items. We have a thermostat set for about 40ﾟ to turn on and the heater has a circulating fan in it as well. We also run a small electric heater in the bedroom at night. It's quite and we only need to heat the bedroom to a comfortable sleeping temperature. We use our propane heater, set to 45, at night. It will keep the very cold out of the bulk of the trailer as well as start warming the underbelly. But the underbelly gets colder faster which is why we have the electric heater down there. And propane in the morning to get the chill off of the inside of the RV and then we use our electric heaters throughout the day because they are cheaper than the propane heater to run.

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[huntindog]

Yes.
We have been doing that for years. We use a ceramic heater with tip over shut off and a thermostat. And we keep it about a foot away from any walls or other items. We have a thermostat set for about 40ﾟ to turn on and the heater has a circulating fan in it as well. We also run a small electric heater in the bedroom at night. It's quite and we only need to heat the bedroom to a comfortable sleeping temperature. We use our propane heater, set to 45, at night. It will keep the very cold out of the bulk of the trailer as well as start warming the underbelly. But the underbelly gets colder faster which is why we have the electric heater down there. And propane in the morning to get the chill off of the inside of the RV and then we use our electric heaters throughout the day because they are cheaper than the propane heater to run.

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I am trying to picture/fathom how you can have an electric heater in the underbelly.

[cod265]

We actually just moved into our RV and will be living in it on our property while we build a house, and we do have electric hooked up. We have the Grand Design Imagine (37ft) and are first time RV owners. We’re wishing now that we had electric heat. We have everything underneath our camper insulated so we wouldn’t have to worry about anything freezing. Next week, the temperature is supposed to be warmer (we’re in TN), and we usually only get down in the low 20’s/teens for a little in the winter months. I think my husband is going to buy a few bigger tanks, but it’s going to take some trial and error until we figure out how long they will last. Thank you so much for the suggestions!

sounds like we are doing the same thing ( building on new land) living in RV . What has worked for me was upgrading to 2- 100 lb tanks and replacing the existing onboard propane hoses with longer ones (you will need to do this to reach ) As far as fuel usage is concerned Im in a smaller 2600RB imagine and 100 lbs is lasting 1.5 -2 weeks. But other factors need to be considered ie: are you home all day? * one thing to keep in mind if you decide to upgrade you will need to transport the tanks to local filling station the tanks need to be kept upright if transport is NOT an option then best to hire out to local propane company and rent tank for deliveries.

[ThePowells]

We are using our heat for the first time since temps are now in the 30’s in our area. We are using propane fast and we’re having trouble gauging how long a full tank will last. We ran out of propane in the middle of the night and thankfully we had some back up tanks. Right now, we are averaging 3-4 days per tank. Is there anything we can do to make our propane last longer or is there something else we should be doing? Any info or tips to help would be appreciated.

We are doing the same thing, only different. We installed a new doublewide on a tract of land as a rental and in the same deal added a 22X55 three sided shed with a lean-to for SWMBO's Prius. Our our utilities are connected to the double wide and we had a 275 gal LP tank also installed. We chose this route rather than running heavier wiring to use a 220V dryer so we use LP for that also. We run the fireplace constantly and the heat pump down to about 45 then the LP. Since both our kitchen and bedroom are higher, the kitchen gets much warmer since the fireplace directs the air that way and the heat pump is also in the kitchen. The bedroom also gets a bit of convection from the entire living area and stays comfortable to too-warm. Since our nose points due south and that's where the bedroom is, I leave the A/C on as I sleep in the daytime.
If you are considering installing LP tanks, consider a 250 gal tank simply for convenience, also you supplier may have delivery charges for a smaller load farther away. The downside is that maybe you have to set the tank a little farther away (rules).

[JFF&KRN]

I'll chime in also. We use the fireplace heater when hooked up and set the house thermostat accordingly so if the fireplace doesn't keep up, the propane heater kicks in. This way i decrease the amount of propane used and use electricity. We also have an additional space heater, with fall over shut off, we use to help if needed. Our bedroom is upstairs in our 337 and was also in our 3030. works for us. we only run one tank at a time, so know when need propane. Switch over normally happens at 3 am, but at lest we don't run out. One tank usually last about 2 days if real cold, for us that is about 30.

[Nuffsaid]

The best addition I have made is an 8kw chinese diesel heater. I installed it in the front generator compartment and plumbed the heat into the basement area. The heat warms up the bathroom floor and cuts down on the drafts. I run the heater on low usually and can get almost 2 days of run time on a tank of diesel. I am planning on putting a Tee in the furnace duct to drive heat out through the chases to help with heating. There are lots of good videos on youtube about the heaters.