heating electrically

Don:

Have you been getting your all your electricity from Your solar-panels during this cold period?

Mark B.

We it gets really cold, we keep our furnace turned on and set around 60 and supplement with the electric heater so the furnace doesn't have to run as much, and it keeps it warmer where we are at. At night, we turn furnace down to 55 and have lots of blankets. If you have hookups, you can also use an electric blanket on your bed. Insulated curtains over the day/night shades help also. Just use a tension rod to hold them up and push the tension rod up under the decorative topper that is there.

At those temps I would say run it if you got it. Keep the furnace on and the electric heaters. Once you get everything in the trailer up to temp it should take less to keep it there.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Sorry, I'd never use ANY unvented combustion heater. My daughter is a CO survivor. I would use a platinum cat, if I were you.

Well later today I get my covers to block off the cab, all windows, all vents, and seal the side door. That I hope will cut down on heat loss some what.

Some of the covers can just stay put for the entire time. Just four need to be "removed".

Now that I think about it--I could leave the side door cover installed and always use the drivers door. It would be a pain.

and at these temps, any unvented combustion heater is going to be a potential source of lots of water for condensation issues. 3 quarts of water for every gallon of propane burned. Reason enough for us to not use a unvented propane heater in the trailer and minimize use of the stove/oven.

And yes,CO can be a killer. I have a friend who is a EMT and even with all his training he got hit by CO poisoning during a rescue attempt. Victim succumed to CO poisoning and my friend said even though he was aware of the situation and knows the symptoms they hit so fast he barely got the victim to fresh air before was almost overcome as well. Victim barely survived.

Hi,

Sorry, I'd never use ANY unvented combustion heater. My daughter is a CO survivor. I would use a platinum cat, if I were you.

Well later today I get my covers to block off the cab, all windows, all vents, and seal the side door. That I hope will cut down on heat loss some what.

Some of the covers can just stay put for the entire time. Just four need to be "removed".

Now that I think about it--I could leave the side door cover installed and always use the drivers door. It would be a pain.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

I'm running 3000 watts of heaters. Ambient was -20C (-4 f). Bedroom was 16 c (60 f). Kitchenette was 12.6 C (54 f).

I turned on the propane furnace and after 30 minutes it is still playing "catch up".

Bedroom is now 19.2 c (66.6 F) and kitchenette is 18.2 C (64.75 F)

Temperature outside is now -18.7 C (-1.7 f)

yup, your finding out that heat loss is a nonlinear function of square ft of living space. Contrary to what one might expect, the bigger the house (sq ft.) the LOWER the heat loss/sq ft of living space. Or, in the case of a trailer, the smaller the trailer/house the HIGHER the heat loss is per sq ft of living space. Heat is lost through the walls/floor and that area increases much slower than living area increases.

My 2400 square ft house has 10x the living area of my trailer (slightly over 240 sqft) , but somewhat less than 4x the wall/roof/floor area. Couple that with window area etc. and it shows up. house has a 90KBTU furnace to keep our house comfortable and it seldom runs even 50% duty cycle. The 30K BTU furnace in the trailer needs to run a higher duty cycle to keep the trailer warm. So that difference in wall area coupled with lower R values and larger % of windows really kills ya in a trailer.

Trying to heat a tin box can be difficult. We use Little Buddy as it puts out a great deal of heat. But you need to insulate as best you can. Rugs on the floors helps a great deal and long johns

Don

Suggest you move west across the mountains
Looks like even colder north Canadian weather is headed your way
Over the mountains
40F this morning - Night time coldest to date this fall 25F