thinking about adding electric fireplace in cabinet below the tv. I only have 30 amp not 50 amp. my questions are, has anyone done this, and are their places in the fuse box to add this? my brother has a factory built-in fireplace, but trips the breaker if he uses the fireplace and microwave at the same time. I have almost average intelligence, so I am comfortable doing the carpentry and electric install myself, but would like input from anybody that has done this.

I put in a toe kick electric heater, It's really a small electric furnace, and hook it to the same breaker as the air conditioner, that may sound strange but you are not gong to run them both at the same time.As long as the electric fire place uses about the same amount of amps as the ac, not more than 80% of the breaker, it will be fine.

You are going to need about 10 amps to run the heat in the fireplace. If you just want the ambiance it takes almost no power. On 30 amp service you will pop a breaker running the microwave, fireplace and your inverter/converter but might squeak by if nothing else is running.

Electrically, the fireplaces are usually just space heaters. If you can run a typical electric space heater, you could run the fireplace.Assuming you want it on its own breaker, you'd have to see if there is space for a breaker or the option of swapping a single breaker for a twin breaker in your electric panel. As Dusty suggested, if you don't have room for another circuit in the panel, tying into the air conditioner circuit makes some sense as you generally would not be using both simultaneously.I think you should be able to microwave and space heat and run the converter simultaneously if the batteries aren't really low and no other significant loads are present. It could be handy to put in a little AC ammeter panel of some sort to monitor your actual current consumption; I have installed one of these in my motorhome. I did put a low-amperage fuse in where the voltage sense line connects to the 120V system to protect the wires going to the meter in the case of a short circuit somewhere. Some of the EMS units also give a reading of current on their displays.

I added one in the cabinet below our TV years ago. We do have a 50 amp rig, but have not tripped the breaker when on 30 amp service. Yet. I just tapped into a nearby outlet that had little else on it and added a new outlet behind the fireplace. And that breaker has never tripped either.

We had a fireplace in our last motorhome. Of all the appliances in the motorhome, the fireplace got the most use. We used it almost every night to keep the chill off, Really miss it now but not willing to give up the storage cabinet. If you can find one with HI/LOW (800 watts/1500 watts) heat, you'll have no problem running on 30 amps. In reality, you can only draw about 25 amps without heating up the circuit breaker and causing it to trip. We always opt for a 30 amp site because of the cost difference and have no problem. We'll run on electric water heater and one space heater on low with no problem. It was hard to train the wife to turn off the water heater if she wanted to used the microwave or her hair dryer but (most of the time now) she remembers and we're okay. If it's a colder night, we'll turn off the water heater and turn on two space heaters with one on low and the other on high and we still have enough power to run the refrigerator on electric and keep snug using our electric blanket. We've got an inverter/charger I set as if we only have 5 amp service. It takes longer to top of the batteries that way but that's never been a problem and the battery LED charge indicator always turns green.

adding fireplace | Good Sam Community

poorboy
Explorer
May 08, 2019
thanks for the input folks, the tapping in to the a/c sounds like a good idea. don't know if there is an outlet inside the cabinet or not.
Dusty_R
Explorer
May 08, 2019
How many amps will the electric fire place draw, and what size breaker feeds the AC?

Dusty
DFord
Explorer
May 08, 2019
The fireplaces draw a max of 1500 watts. Some have a HI-LOW switch that cuts them back to 800 watts on low.

After trying to teach my wife to be sure the water heater was off before using the microwave on our last motorhome, I wired in a switch that either powered on or the other. Problem solved. They both used the same breaker with that modification.
George3037
Explorer
May 08, 2019
My TT is 30A and came with the fireplace option. I've been driveway camping the past couple weeks and run the fireplace at night. We've still had some nights where temps drop into the high 30's and the furnace comes on occasionally to assist the fireplace but not as much as it would without. I can see by my EMS-HW30C that amp draw varies between 10-16A depending on other devices I have turned on. I am plugged into a 30A pedestal. If the OP's trailer is connected to a 15 or 20A pedestal he may trip a breaker at times but I have not on my 30A dedicated circuit.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
May 08, 2019
George3037 wrote:
My TT is 30A and came with the fireplace option. I've been driveway camping the past couple weeks and run the fireplace at night. We've still had some nights where temps drop into the high 30's and the furnace comes on occasionally to assist the fireplace but not as much as it would without. I can see by my EMS-HW30C that amp draw varies between 10-16A depending on other devices I have turned on. I am plugged into a 30A pedestal. If the OP's trailer is connected to a 15 or 20A pedestal he may trip a breaker at times but I have not on my 30A dedicated circuit.

Unless they recently upgraded the EMSHW30C, don't rely much on the EMS current readout. The EMSHW30C current reading is notoriously inaccurate. The mfg will even admit it. It can read high, low or near accurate on the same load. I've seen mine read as low as <20A when drawing near 30A and as high as 35A when the known draws is 15A.
myredracer
Explorer II
May 13, 2019
DFord wrote:

Another BTW: RVs aren't covered by the NEC. You'd never get away using one of those cheapo RV receptacles in your house - and their production shouldn't be allowed. They're horrible!
RVs are most definitely covered by the NEC - ARTICLE 551- RECREATIONAL VEHICLES AND RECREATIONAL VEHICLE PARK covers all electrical requirements for RVs as well as RV parks. Here is an older free version of the 2005 edition NEC

There is nothing wrong with the SCD (self-contained device) in RVs (also used in mobile homes). The problem is those not knowing how to work with them and how to correctly terminate the wires on them, including the factories. Under UL standard 498 they must meet very stringent testing and every bit as stringent as testing for residential type side/back-wired recepts.
myredracer
Explorer II
May 13, 2019
I installed 3 permanent recessed electric heaters totaling 2,000 watts. I used a current sensing relay for demand control so that when the main 30 amp supply current gets above a preset adjustable level, the heaters are automatically disconnected. We can run coffee maker, toaster, MW and other loads and never trip a 30 amp breaker.

The limitation on breaker spaces in RVs doesn't exactly make sense. I installed a recessed vacuum unit and needed a dedicated 15 amp breaker and for the heaters, a 20 amp breaker. The only way around it is using tandem breakers which I have zero issue with doing.

For a dedicated heater of any kind, I'd install a separate dedicated receptacle for it wired directly back to the panel.

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