What space heater do you have?
What space heater do you recommend and why? On the days where ya rig needs a little extra heat, what have you guys bought to take care of it? I'm in the market.
Forum Discussion
- We had a Smart Infrared heater at home that worked so well we procured one for the coach. It works great. Good luck in your decision.
RLS7201 wrote:
Buy the cheapest and smallest 1500 watt heater you can find. All those more expensive heaters are just marketing. Non of them are rated for more than 1500 watts. If you want decor with you heat, then spend more money. I have two 1500 watt heaters from Walmart with thermostats and tip over switch. Less than $20 each.
Richard
X2camper19709 wrote:
Any ceramic cube heater from Walmart with thermostat and tip over safety switch.
I've been using ceramic space heaters exclusively in my MH for over 10 years now. I think they heat the best and were the safest.
Just a note of warning.
In the past ALL of the ceramic heaters had tip over switches.
I just went to buy a new one and found out that 99% of them on the shelf now do NOT have tip over switches anymore.
The new safety feature is that when they tip over they will shut off AFTER it reaches a certain temperature which is right at when it CATCHES FIRE. IMHO certainly not acceptable in a MH.
I checked out the UL site for clarification. And yes UL approved the new change. Eliminating the tip over switch function was to keep costs down and more profit for the manufacturer and they went to UL to get it changed. And sadly UL complied with their request.
So read the label carefully on you heaters to see if the safety feature is a 'tip over switch' or not. I could not find one of the new tower ceramic heaters WITH a tip over switch.:(- We have a Vornado AVH2 It is VERY quiet and does a great job with the heat Setting being very close to the actual inside temperature you are trying to maintain.
pianotuna wrote:
Hi,
A 50 amp service allows 6000 watts on each leg--so in theory you could run a total of 8 1500 watt heaters. Of course, that is over kill. It would also require you to know what leg each outlet in the RV is on. (which is no bad thing to know.) It is best practise to not use more than 80% of the available wattage on a continuous basis so the 6000 watts per leg drops down to 4800 watts, or about 3 heaters per leg.
Those of us with 30 amps often add auxiliary shore power cord(s). At the moment I'm using 4000 watts divided between the oem 30 amp, a secondary 20 amp, and a third 15 amp shore power cords. I have them plugged into my 50 amp break out box.BillyandKris wrote:
Our next camper will be 50 amp and I THINK you can run two electric heaters at once with that. Maybe someone can shed light on that subject for us???
The easiest way to calculated how many amps a unit, or any unit takes is:
FOR EVER 100 WATS = 1 AMP at 110/120 volts,
Therefore a 1500 watt heater takes
1500 watts Divided by 100 watts = 15 or 15 Amps.:h
LennyHJohno02 wrote:
Get something ceramic, thermostat is good, tip-over switch is absolutely necessary! ocillating feature is another good choice.
Excellent choiceBig Katuna wrote:
Someone said 1400w is watts is 1400w is 1400w. Not all space heaters are equal. Ceramic heaters are more efficient than resistant wire so at the same watt rating, ceramic puts out more heat.
We use our electric fireplace most of the time but the little oscillating ceramic heater with the temp setting is nice. Warms a big area, very quiet and shuts off rather than getting you too hot.
The ceramic heaters put out the same BTUs as the cheapo hot wire heaters. They are all 100% efficient. The ceramics are more SPACE efficient. They can make a 1500w ceramic heater nice and small.
I bought a cheapo from harbor freight that is a lot like the one from Wal-Mart but is 1,3000 or 1,500 watts. The 1,300 setting is all I use due to the camper wiring.
The only reason I am tempted to get a more expensive unit would be for a digital thermostat.- 1500 watt electric resistance heaters are 100% efficient at converting electric to heat. That does not mean that they are the best or even the most efficient. 1500 watts of heat is equal to approximately 5200 BTU's of heat.
Now if you use a single hose heat pump, you can get 9500 but's of heating using only 950 watts of electricity because the electricity is being used to run an air compressor instead of being used as resistance only. The heat pump is much more efficient than a resistance heat source. Here are the specs. Portable heat pump
Unlike roof top heat pumps, the single hose heat pump draws air from the inside of the coach, and it will work just fine no matter what the outside temperature drops to. We have used ours in locations where the outside temps were in the teens. - Awsome! Thanks for all the ideas and feedback.
- Any ceramic cube heater from Walmart with thermostat and tip over safety switch.
