Electric space heaters
Just curious if anyone has a good safe electric heater to use to heat a 30' fifth wheel overnight? Would like to supplement the propane furnace on colder nights. Thanks, Curly
Forum Discussion
The problem is not the heater. most of them are safe now days (I like to avoid the ones that glow red however) Ceramics tend to be very compact. Oil filled very large. But all of them give exactly the same amount of heat for the same amount of electricity. all heaters are 100% efficient so if the maker says something like "3 times more efficient" they are lying. (The reason is in an electrical system all losses express as heat, with a heater this is the desired output so all losses are recovered).
Page 2: The Danger
Quick box or Unibox outlets use punch down connectors that are great at say 100mA or less (telephone current) but not so good when the amps hit double digits.
A 1500 watt heater is 12.5 amps I had one outlet overheat I've seen them melted down and wires broken and acing. Serious fire hazard AND I AM NOT AN RV SERVICE TECHINICIAN just what I've seen
I used assorted electric heaters. mostly hot (but not red) wire, some ceramic. for 15 years. But I also installed special circuits (3 of them) two were dedicatred circuit breaker via 12ga wire to a 15/20 amp duplex outlet (has a "T" shaped neutral slot) the third was 12-ga from a dedicated breaker to a GFCI (Kitchen 2) with a 2nd standard Duplex "Daisy" off the GFCI (Also GFCI protected)
Never smelled hot wire after that.
Page 2: The Danger
Quick box or Unibox outlets use punch down connectors that are great at say 100mA or less (telephone current) but not so good when the amps hit double digits.
A 1500 watt heater is 12.5 amps I had one outlet overheat I've seen them melted down and wires broken and acing. Serious fire hazard AND I AM NOT AN RV SERVICE TECHINICIAN just what I've seen
I used assorted electric heaters. mostly hot (but not red) wire, some ceramic. for 15 years. But I also installed special circuits (3 of them) two were dedicatred circuit breaker via 12ga wire to a 15/20 amp duplex outlet (has a "T" shaped neutral slot) the third was 12-ga from a dedicated breaker to a GFCI (Kitchen 2) with a 2nd standard Duplex "Daisy" off the GFCI (Also GFCI protected)
Never smelled hot wire after that.
