rockhillmanor wrote:
Probably not what you want to hear but you no matter what you do to that MH you will end up freezing to death.
I am from Wisconsin and very familiar with the winters there. Staying in a MH is not doable.
I went to Florida for the winter in my MH. They had a cold snap of freezing temps for several days. It was NOT pleasant being in the MH period.
And in Florida freezing temp warnings means only 32 degrees AND at that temp for ONLY for a few hours right before dawn. Unlike up North that when the sun goes down the temps drop immediately to below freezing for ALL night long.
The windows in a MH are not thermopane. AND you have an expansive area of the windshield to consider also. ALL the windows is where all the cold will come in.
Sorry I wouldn't even suggest that my ex mother-in-law stay in a MH in Wisconsin during the winter. :B
I was born and raised in Wisconsin so I am also very familiar with our winters. And believe it or not, it is actually one of the reasons we chose to come back home for good.. we love the winter!
I have had the same worry no doubt. Another reason we chose to go this route is that finding a new place to live NOT in a city and with a combat trained german shepherd is near impossible. We had a short period of time where we tried to no avail... and thus this idea was born out of need to start with.
From that need we decided that if we were going to do this, we needed to do it all out... and of course it also went with our way of thinking in terms of what the future holds regarding the economy and a number of other things going on.. We really wanted OFF grid and self sustained if at all possible from the start regardless if we found a place to rent to start with or went this way..
Here was a another deciding factor.. Having just spent the last two years at a missile silo base in Kansas where I was the tactical team lead, we both realized we needed and wanted to come home and be somewhere with season changes etc..
Of course I reasoned in my own head that since I am SERE trained, winter living is not a problem too! LOL Forgot about the wife in that regard!
We have and are located in an area well protected from winds, which is a big part of the cold issue.
I have been using liberal amounts of expanding insulation foam in the walls. It has been hitting the upper 30's for the last 5 nights here and it has actually been comfortable in here with the heater running every 40-45 minutes or so and for about 5 minutes each time. And it has been during this we realized how big a problem the windows are.. The last couple nights we also added a couple small cube sized ceramic heaters running on their lowest setting. That has dramatically increased the time between furnace activation. Those things pull 750 watts on low power which has caused the genset to kick in more as the battery banks discharge faster due to that draw (which is why I am considering adding 6 more deep cells to the bank). In the next few weeks I am going to monitor our use of the genset, draw of power and use of propane and we will steer usage to the lesser of costs and consumption in the coming few weeks.
The unit has a built in propane tank of approximately 40 gallons I think. In just the last 5 days, before adding the two ceramic heaters, and with the hot water heater in use and the stove, we have used a bit over 1/2 of that. The furnace has not had to run during daylight since it is in the 50's this past week but down into the upper 30's it has been. I figure once it has to run during daylight this winter, if we make NO other changes we would see probably a full 40 gallon use for a full week.. again without any supplemental heaters, without any more winterization.. if we just left things as they are right this moment.
That means with the two 100 gallon external quick release tanks, we feasible could run 5-6 weeks on one full propane filling. 240 gallons is about the same as you would find in a mobile home (as I have lived in one over a winter during military service in the dead of winter up north). That draw is not bad considering, especially in an RV. BUT I want better and I think with additional work we can and will drop that usage.
Thus my questions regarding something for the windows. We are considering replacing the current Z style draw shades (which are actually nice) with a 3 honeycomb type made specifically to keep hot and cold air from entering via older single pane windows. We are also looking at having some kind of velcro attached mylar and plastic combination cover to supplement that. We definitely want something that will allow us to remove or move so we can open or uncover windows on nicer days to get sunlight in.
I definitely appreciate all the feedback from all of you.. The more you all come up with the more my brains wheels start spinning with even more ideas and possibilities! I will definitely keep you all posted on what I do in case some of the ideas I put into use actual do offer some benefits you can all use!
Thanks again...
