Heating Your MH
Hello I was thinking of buying an extra heater to heat the inside of my motorhome. Is there any good ones that you could recomenden. Is there any good ones out there, and if so what are they,...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
My work has a few electric heaters to run when the furnace breaks. I don't like the 'oil filled' heaters because they are heavy, large, and take 10 minutes after you unplug it to let it get cool enough to pick it up.
For my RV, I have 3 small fan electric heaters. They are not the tiny 'ceramic heaters' that put out air over 130F, but just the low cost Wal Mart heaters for about $25 each.
They have high and low heat settings, and a thermostat, for automatic operation. I had one next to my water tank to keep the tank and pump warm, along with much of the basement storage while living in the RV in Portland OR one winter.
I could have used propane at $2.75 per gallon, but electric at 10 cents per gallon was less expensive. To get 80,000 Btu's of heat inside the RV, it would take burning 1 gallon of propane (95,000 Btu's X 80% efficiency) or 22 KW of electricity. Electricity is only $2.20 and no tanks to refill. A heat pump only takes about 8 KW to get the same amount of heat, or about $0.80 per 80,000 Btu's.
As for electric heat strip in the noisy rooftop air, they are expensive - $130 plus installation cost, and noisy compared to the quiet fan electric heaters.
For dry camping, I use a silent Olympic Catalytic heater that does not use any 12 volt power. I do need to leave a roof vent open a bit, along with a window. It provides 6,000 Btu's of constant heat, keeping my 30' Bounder warm down to about 30F outside, when I would run the furnace a little bit each hour to keep the basement warm, and blow warm air to the back of the RV.
Have fun camping!
Fred.
My work has a few electric heaters to run when the furnace breaks. I don't like the 'oil filled' heaters because they are heavy, large, and take 10 minutes after you unplug it to let it get cool enough to pick it up.
For my RV, I have 3 small fan electric heaters. They are not the tiny 'ceramic heaters' that put out air over 130F, but just the low cost Wal Mart heaters for about $25 each.
They have high and low heat settings, and a thermostat, for automatic operation. I had one next to my water tank to keep the tank and pump warm, along with much of the basement storage while living in the RV in Portland OR one winter.
I could have used propane at $2.75 per gallon, but electric at 10 cents per gallon was less expensive. To get 80,000 Btu's of heat inside the RV, it would take burning 1 gallon of propane (95,000 Btu's X 80% efficiency) or 22 KW of electricity. Electricity is only $2.20 and no tanks to refill. A heat pump only takes about 8 KW to get the same amount of heat, or about $0.80 per 80,000 Btu's.
As for electric heat strip in the noisy rooftop air, they are expensive - $130 plus installation cost, and noisy compared to the quiet fan electric heaters.
For dry camping, I use a silent Olympic Catalytic heater that does not use any 12 volt power. I do need to leave a roof vent open a bit, along with a window. It provides 6,000 Btu's of constant heat, keeping my 30' Bounder warm down to about 30F outside, when I would run the furnace a little bit each hour to keep the basement warm, and blow warm air to the back of the RV.
Have fun camping!
Fred.
