I have been living in my RV for a couple of months now and seems that I have spent more than I should have on propane. I typically fill my two 30lbs tanks and two 17lbs BBQ tanks. I know that with a bit of conservation one 30lbs can last about 7-8 days. That is with me turning it to 65 when Im away in the day and 70 when I am in and through the night. A BBQ tank only lasts about 3-4 days. I do not use gas for heating water, or do much cooking at all. I typically gets about 50° on average, but routinely dips into the mid to lower 40's and sometimes mid 30's. Mid winter days here are in the 60's but when we have routine fronts and rain roll though, like this winter, it stays in the mid to high 50's.I've read and been told these furnaces are gas hogs.But this seems a bit on the excessive side of usage.Can anyone advise here?I am soon about to hook up to a 200 gallon tank, it holds 160 gallons and costs hundreds to fill, I can't remember what it cost to fill it. Just don't want to pay a fortune for heating. I also will soon be using gas for a tankless water heater.

We have a 25 gallon tank that holds 20 gallons when full. We use it for heat, the fridge, and hot water (2X per day). Daytime temps here are in the 40s, nighttime temps are in the low 30s. We set the temp for 64 during the day and 62 at night. We have one sunny day every three days or so. Our rig is 34 feet long with two slides. At night we keep the shades down to help keep the heat in. The 20 gallons lasts 14 days.If we set our thermostat at 70, chances are it would last half that. But we would be able to sit around in shorts and a t-shirt. As it is, we wear sweats and are very comfortable.

UGL wrote: I know that with a bit of conservation one 30lbs can last about 7-8 days. That is with me turning it to 65 when Im away in the day and 70 when I am in and through the night.That's conservation? That's pretty warm, both day and night. I'm at 73 during awake hours at night, but it 55 overnight with a mattress warmer on.

I've figured out my average usage is about a gallon per day just on heating.With my current habits I can make the two 30lbs and two 17lbs tanks last 22 days. Based on that we have about 4 months of winter here and I'll figure about 120 gallons usage just on heating, $312. That seems a little steep to me.

30-35K btu furnace consumes about a 1/2 gallon of propane per hour. So in real practicle terms 5 gallons of propane only lasts about 10 running hours. Yes, they burn a lot of gas. Turn the furnace off when your gone and down to 55-60 at night.

Why are you changing to a tankless water heater? They do not work well in northern areas, where the incoming water can be around 45F. I guess in Texas the incoming water is closer to 65F? If you have 'free' electric, or low cost electric, use some electric heaters. I was able to safely use 3 of them in my 30 amp RV in the winter of 2007 in Portland OR. It was routinely 26F outside, and I could stay toasty warm inside. One of the 3 heaters was plugged into the power post directly via a #12 gauge extension cord ran through factory installed holes into the basement, and out the basement compartment door. My electric cost was only $0.10 per KW. So 22 KW is $2.20. This will produce about 80,000 Btu's of heat. About what burning 1 gallon of propane (95,000 Btu's) will produce inside (considering heat exchanger and flue losses). Check your local electric rates, might be cheaper to go all electric. If you can afford to replace the rooftop A/C with a heat pump, it can collect about 80,000 Btu's (in 5 hours) for only about $0.70. This is so much less expensive than propane or electric heaters. What I did when living in my RV and taking long showers is buy a tankless L5 water heater from Amazon for $130. It is a VERY basic unit, with little more than a heat exchanger and ignighter, and high temp limit switch to shut off the burner at 120F. So I could use that to fill my fresh water tank at the rate of about 1 GPM at 60F temp rise. Once the 100 gallon tank was full, I would use the water pump to take really long and hot showers! The tankless L10 is rated at 10 liters per minute (about 2.5 GPM) and what I would get next time to speed up filling the 100 gallon tank). I used the little L5 to fill my above ground pool with warm water too. Only have to remember to keep turning it off and back on every 20 minutes. It helped 'warm' the pool, but is not a pool heater. . .Good luck!Fred.

Furnace Gas Usage | Good Sam Community

24 Replies

BFL13
Explorer II
Feb 01, 2015
I was thinking more of having the batteries brought around to outside the trailer on a dolly where the furnace exhaust is and rigging some sort of big duct. Too complicated now we have plenty of battery capacity even in the cold.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Feb 01, 2015
Hi BFL,

A stainless steel heat exchanger in the battery compartment with zero back pressure design would be needed. Anything else may be an invitation to a CO poisoning party. (not my idea of a good time)

The OEM bank is open to the road on my RV. Pretty hard to heat with hot air.

BFL13 wrote:
My beef with the furnace is all the hot air being exhausted. I would like that to heat the batteries that are out there with reduced capacity from being cold, but haven't done anything about it.
BFL13
Explorer II
Feb 01, 2015
myredracer wrote:
If you happen to have a heated and enclosed underbelly, one or more ducts go from the furnace into the enclosed space and the heated air ends up going straight outdoors through cracks and openings. It's terribly inefficient. If the temps. don't go low enough to worry about the tanks or lines freezing, you could try installing a blanking plate on each duct run into the underbelly space. That's what I'm planning to do shortly. The ducts are easy to reconnect if needed.

I forget the details but ISTR it is important not to block a duct or the return air doesn't balance out or whatever the issue is. Be worth checking out in case there is something to that.

My beef with the furnace is all the hot air being exhausted. I would like that to heat the batteries that are out there with reduced capacity from being cold, but haven't done anything about it.
myredracer
Explorer II
Feb 01, 2015
If you happen to have a heated and enclosed underbelly, one or more ducts go from the furnace into the enclosed space and the heated air ends up going straight outdoors through cracks and openings. It's terribly inefficient. If the temps. don't go low enough to worry about the tanks or lines freezing, you could try installing a blanking plate on each duct run into the underbelly space. That's what I'm planning to do shortly. The ducts are easy to reconnect if needed.
mgirardo
Explorer
Jan 31, 2015
We went camping last weekend. Day time temps were 48 degrees the first day and 58 degrees the second day. Night time temps were 30 degrees the first night and 36 degrees the second night. I filled the propane tank before the trip and used 1/8 tank (56 pounds/13 gallons) of propane running the heater the 2 days.

We were in the camper most of the day the first day and the heat was set to about 70 degrees. The second day we were out for about 8 hours of the day and the furnace was off. My wife is cold in GA in the summer, so the thermostat is usually set to 68 at night. She still uses an electric blanket.

Like a few others have said, it sounds like your propane use is normal. I agree with the others that getting electric heaters and keeping the thermostat down lower would help conserve heat. However, the furnace still consumes about 1/2 pound/hour no matter what temp it is set at. Keeping lower just keeps it from running as often.

-Michael
UGL
Explorer
Jan 30, 2015
I may have forgot to mention I know have a 200 gallon propane tank on site and love it.
UGL
Explorer
Jan 22, 2015
I totally forgot about this article, I picked up a 1200 watt electric radiator, works ok, but need another 800 watt model for bedroom/bath end of trailer. I really don't run the furnace at all unless I wake up and its below 60, then I turn on the heater to 70, then turn it off after the cycle. I have come to like the cooler temps.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Dec 28, 2014
Hi CT,

Where I live cracking the window would wipe out most of the gains. That is another reason to go with the vented Platinum cat.

They are not really big enough to handle the entire heating load in my location.
CT_WANDERER
Explorer
Dec 28, 2014
Do you really save on propane with a cat heater compared to running a furnace, if you have to crack the windows? I was just wondering. I know, last year I ran our Mr Buddy heater. I did not crack the windows, but ended up with a lot of condensation on the walls. This year I am trying it with just running the furnace. Guess I will see how that works out in the amount of propane I use this winter.
time2roll
Nomad
Dec 28, 2014
+1 for using some electric for heat. I use a 1200 watt radiator style when the furnace is needed daily.

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Furnace Gas Usage

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