Space Heaters in a fifth wheel

Yes it is OK to use. Just make sure you don't overload the circuit. We have had that problem a few times and its not fun.

One caution about running a dedicated extension cord back to the park outlet.

The park where I'm at has great power near as I can tell.. Some others disagree with me but one of the things that makes it good is this.

Mist parks you have something like this;

Box w/200 amp breaker-------Site box----Site box---_Site box----Site box

We have

Box with 50 amp breaker-----Site box
l. . . . 40 amp breaker-----site box
2 - 2 - .50 amp breaker----- site box

24 sites

Each site has it's very own breaker in the master panel

Now all sites here are 50 amp so it's all I can eat but .......

IF you were on a 30 amp sites (Actually 2 sites are less,, They are tent sites) you will trip the park's "Master" breaker instead of the one you can reset. If you come to a park like this.

Of course parks wired properly (like this one) kind of rare.

I have a small cheap heater fan that I use occasionally in my motorhome, mostly to take the chill off in the morning or when parked at home and I'm working on something. Like many here, I would be rather hesitant to leave it running unattended for very long—if only because it's a cheap heater fan and I'm not 100% trusting of its quality and safety.

Your electric fireplace is really just a space heater with a gizmo to project pretty looking flames in the window. If you want to get an idea of how much heat a 1500W electric heater will put out, turn on the fireplace.

Do check to see if the electric plug of an electric heater is warm or hot after a couple minutes of operation. If it's anything more than a tiny bit warm, I'd recommend using a different receptacle as it's clearly not making great contact, causing heating which, if it goes on too far, can lead to a fire.

It's strange that the furnace isn't ducted to the living room area at all, but I guess sometimes RV makers do some really strange things.

no furnace heat in the living room, that does not seem likely. and yes, use a $20 ceramic cube from walmart to supplement the heat.
bumpy

donn0128 wrote:
1500 watt electric heaters work very well as supplimental heat sources. I ran one almost all of last month while camp hosting. Setting the furnace to 60 or so at night to keep from freezing. Just be careful, you likely wont be able to operate much else if the heater is running.

As mentioned by others, the fix is to run a separate extension cord to the 20 amp outlet in the box and snake it inside past a slide seal. Then the heater is on it's own circuit. I've done this for a number of years with good results.

We have 2 different ceramic style heaters in our camper we use when camping in colder weather. If plugged into electric shore power (and you've paid for your campsite), then you are saving YOUR propane to run the furnace by supplementing with electric heat (that you paid for with the campsite).

However, one thing you do need to mindful of. Your camper can only pull so many amps (either 30 or 50). In my camper, I've tripped the circuit breaker (inside the camper) when I turned (2 heaters) at the same time on the same circuit. And do not attempt to plug in an electric skillet too! You'll pop the breaker! No problem. Unplug something and reset the breaker.

But to answer your question: Yes! You can very comfortably run an electric heater in your camper. Just make sure you have somewhere safe to put it. We put one on the kitchen stove top. That spot is made for heat.

Second one sits on the bathroom floor facing our bed room (our bathroom has 2 access doors). This way they are not surrounded by something that could catch fire, and they have lots of air flow.

The only problem I've had using space heaters is this: Motor home and Traier wiring often uses "Quick Boxes" these are not really up to a long term 12 amp load.. And I started smelling HOT WIRE.. Others have had outlet failre (so have I but that was a different issue)

On low or Medium (900-1000 watts max) you should be OK. but on HIGH (1500 watt) I would worry. IF you smell hot wire, SHUT IT OFF and post..

What did I do about it?

Well on my coach it was an easy job so I added a couple breakers and ran 12 ga wire.. one from each breaker... To proper house type 15/20 amp outlets in a proper outlet box.. Wire bent around a well tightened screw.

WOrks well.

We use the OIL-FILLED 1500WATT Electric heaters. I picked this model because they do not have an open flame or visible red hot core. They are quiet running and 1500WATTS of heat is 1500WATTS no mater how you produce it... I personally like the low profile version of this heater verses the tall ones.


If we need some more heat to be pushed around the room this type heater is perfect for sitting one of those O2COOL 10-inch 120V-12VDC-Dcell type portable fans behind them...

I feel this is the most safest type portable electric heater for us - Have no problem running it all night long or unattended in our trailers.

We usually run an extension cord in from the camp ground pedestal connected to their 20AMP SERVICE connections just for the Electric heaters when running from Electric sites.... This does not take away any power from our 30AMP Connections...

We use the Electric Heaters as primary and the propane furnace set to a low heat number for back-up...

As others have mentioned we can't stand the noise of the propane heater fan as well as the bite from the propane fumes generated from the propane furnace.

Also like said above if the temps are going to get very cold it over-night is a good idea to use the Propane Furnaces so the underbelly area around the tanks are heated to keep them from freezing up...

Roy Ken

Space heaters are OK for taking the chill off

IF you have an enclosed/heated underbelly only the RV furnace will supply warm air to that area.

So use furnace and supplement with space heater

We use two for cold weather and almost never use the furnace as it uses propane and we are usually on a hookup site. One is the standard little cube ceramic heaters, we use it during the day as it pumps out more heat and we only use it when we are around to keep an eye on it. It will heat things up quite nicely. We have a second Oil heater (looks like an old fashioned radiator). It is fan less has a lower wattage and in our opinion we feel safer keeping it on when we are not around or when we are sleeping. It does not heat up as fast or as hot but is good to keep it from getting too cold (at night or when not around), and the cube just gets used to top us up to a more comfortable room temp when we are near by.