Space heaters.

Please don't forget to turn
All those portable heaters off if you leave your camper for extended time. These portable heaters put extra draw thru the campers electrical system, some are not as heavily built as others and can over heat the circuit. I'm a volunteer fireman and see or read in the news paper at lease one home fire was caused by an electrical portable heater. Please check into the Cheap heat system at rvcomfortsystems.com. This system is built heavy duty and keeps my 36 foot camper evenly heated and the basement also. I hope everybody has a great spring greeting. Please stay safe and happy trails!!!

Hi GoPackGo,

Replace the return air grill on the furnace with a fan. On my rv that circulates warm "living space" air under the cabinets and pushes some air along the furnace duct work. I chose to use a dual window fan unit which is controlled by a mechanical thermostat that lives beside the water pump next to the outside wall of the RV.

The fan unit draws just 23 watts and works better than a 1500 watt fan based heater which I tried using inside the cabinet.

GoPackGo wrote:


2. If it's really cold you will want to make sure you get some heat to the underbelly area to keep your lines and tanks from freezing.

If you primarily use elec heaters then you may want to somehow circulate the warmer cabin heat to those unheated areas. The problem you can run into is that if the elec heaters are keeping the cabin temp nice and warm, then the furnace doesn't kick on which means no heat is getting to your water tanks/lines.

I just stated full timing this year so I only have 3-4 months of experience, but here's my .02

1. Know what the cost of propane is at your location and also what you will be charged per kilowatt hour of electric. My electric rate is .17/KW and propane is $4/gallon.

2. If it's really cold you will want to make sure you get some heat to the underbelly area to keep your lines and tanks from freezing. That probably means you will want to make sure your furnace kicks on periodically as it generally sends some heat to that area. If you primarily use elec heaters then you may want to somehow circulate the warmer cabin heat to those unheated areas. The problem you can run into is that if the elec heaters are keeping the cabin temp nice and warm, then the furnace doesn't kick on which means no heat is getting to your water tanks/lines.

I use an oil filled heater and really like it. I set it under a ceiling fan so that the warm air circulates better.

The beauty of bringing your own oil-filled space heater is you can run an extension cord out to the camp ground pedestal and use the 20AMP service which has its own circuit breaker. Won't interfere with your other pedestal service.

Also for us it was always nice to use the Campgound Electric instead of your Propane when you can...

Roy Ken

We have a Delonghi MicaThermic heater. It has no flame, no glowing parts, consumes no oxygen, makes no carbon monoxide, is very lightweight, and makes no noise at all, as there is no fan. It is the size, shape and thickness of a flat screen TV and can be wall mounted. In fact, we have ours mounted in our TT bedroom where the TV would be mounted. It provides ample heat, but does not provide immediate quick heat. One heater kept a 26 foot TT very warm when the nights got down to about 25 degrees Last fall.
Here's a photo:



And here's a link to the heater on Amazon: Amazon link

Although we bought two of these at an outlet store for considerably cheaper - $20 each.

My electric heaters are controlled by LUX WIN-100 thermostats.

I use a 1500 Watt oil filled radiator as the primary heat source; thermostat set for 77°F.

Secondary heater is a 1250 Watt "utility" heater with the thermostat set for 72°F.

The propane furnace is the backup and its thermostat is set for 68°F. It only came on once during the last winter and ran for about 5-10 minutes (OAT was -22°).

I full-time in my trailer without a propane heater.

I have two $20 ceramic heaters from Walmart (can get something very similar on Amazon though). Last winter I work camped at Amazon in Kansas and there were three nights when it got into the single digits. With the two heaters in 17' of RV and Reflectix up in the windows I could keep the living space inside about 50 degrees warmer than it was outside. When it got down to 10 outside that meant it was no warmer than 60 anywhere in the RV. Any colder than that and the plumbing running in my walls would start to freeze, there was no good way to heat inside those walls. Fortunately it never stayed in the single digits more than a night, things would thaw out the next day and I had no permanent damage.

So basically, yes you can full-time in cold weather without propane. It's not always very fun though. ;)

Camping world has a real nice mini-electric fireplace. I want one.

I used one 1500 watt last night, it is still running... I did not bother with any other heat last night.. Very comfortable. (49 I think outside at 5 am.. In-Accuweather says 44 just now).

A Vornado heater set on high worked wonders for me. Since the plumbing was winterized, and I was running the generator anyway, I just went with that.

If you have a place for it, this adds a little charm:



I got the one with both the 750 and 1500 watt settings.