Winter RV camping
Winter RV camping: This information on winter RVing is provided courtesy of Tiger Run Resort, Breckenridge, CO. DianneOK, moderator -----------------------------------------------------------...
Forum Discussion
Interesting notes on the temp diff/btu pianotuna. Just a side note when thinking about heating - definitely look into solar for daytime use. Simple window collectors can provide as much as 800BTU/sq ft per hour during peak hours, less with lower sun angles, which by your measurements would provide at least a 1*C temp difference throughout the course of a day considering the added differential between outside/inside temp and the spread over both peak and off-peak solar gain.
I currently have some cardboard spray-painted black, apx 4'x2', covering about half of my kitchen window providing up to 12000btu each sunny day here in central NM. With the temp at 45*F outside, I'm getting upwards of 105*F air temp inside, and for the price of running a clip-on fan to distribute the heated air, I can bring the ambient air temp to 73*F throughout my 26' 5er on just that alone. It goes a long way toward cutting the chill without spending much green. Remember also that any excess heating in the day will have carry-over, via thermal mass, into the nighttime heating, cutting costs/energy use there as well.
I had a MUCH more efficient system, fully automatic using a thermostat, set up while wintering in central New Hampshire, so a more similar sun angle to yours, a few years ago:
http://vitali.110mb.com/Solar/
The premise is to monitor the air temp inside the collector using a thermostat designed for use with an air conditioner - when the temp in the collector is above the threshold, the thermostat sends the 7V signal to cool...the 7V is then just routed to the computer fans to blow the hot air into the camper. The one problem experienced there was on partly cloudy days, the system would continuously kick on and off, on and off... Additional thermal mass inside the collector could solve this problem, such as the use of heavier collector plates (I used 1/32" wood sheets).
A little thinking and a lot of experimenting can make for some pretty neat ways to save money and increase comfort levels.
For the skylight, try this: Remove the inside casing and stuff wads of crumpled scrap plastic in the space. Place a plastic sheet covering the inside portion of the vent area and brace it with the replaced casing. Roll up the edges of the sheeting to provide a seal when replacing the casing. This works doubly well - not only are you sealing off the majority of drafts but the wads of sheeting act as primitive insulation.
I currently have some cardboard spray-painted black, apx 4'x2', covering about half of my kitchen window providing up to 12000btu each sunny day here in central NM. With the temp at 45*F outside, I'm getting upwards of 105*F air temp inside, and for the price of running a clip-on fan to distribute the heated air, I can bring the ambient air temp to 73*F throughout my 26' 5er on just that alone. It goes a long way toward cutting the chill without spending much green. Remember also that any excess heating in the day will have carry-over, via thermal mass, into the nighttime heating, cutting costs/energy use there as well.
I had a MUCH more efficient system, fully automatic using a thermostat, set up while wintering in central New Hampshire, so a more similar sun angle to yours, a few years ago:
http://vitali.110mb.com/Solar/
The premise is to monitor the air temp inside the collector using a thermostat designed for use with an air conditioner - when the temp in the collector is above the threshold, the thermostat sends the 7V signal to cool...the 7V is then just routed to the computer fans to blow the hot air into the camper. The one problem experienced there was on partly cloudy days, the system would continuously kick on and off, on and off... Additional thermal mass inside the collector could solve this problem, such as the use of heavier collector plates (I used 1/32" wood sheets).
A little thinking and a lot of experimenting can make for some pretty neat ways to save money and increase comfort levels.
For the skylight, try this: Remove the inside casing and stuff wads of crumpled scrap plastic in the space. Place a plastic sheet covering the inside portion of the vent area and brace it with the replaced casing. Roll up the edges of the sheeting to provide a seal when replacing the casing. This works doubly well - not only are you sealing off the majority of drafts but the wads of sheeting act as primitive insulation.
