What effect does an electric heater have?

*loans wa8ymx a spare oil filled heater* Keep warm!

I thought the rule of thumb was 80% of total wattage for continuous use? Am I being too conservative?

If you have not already done so, I'd restrict the air flow for the fridge by blocking off the top two vents on the lower inspection hatch. I use a small light bulb on a tc-3 thermocube in addition to the restriction.

On 30 amps you have a theroeritical maximum capacty of 3600 watts and in practice about 3240. The first effect of a 1500 watt heater is to use up nearly half your available power leaving you with only 1740 watts for all other uses, Like the converter, and the water heater (YOU DO want to run the water heater since if it freezes.... Bad things happen)

The second thing it does is potential.. One of the non-inverter outlets in my MH smelled a lot like hot wires when I plugged a 1500 watt heater into it.. I finally installed proper 15/20 amp outlets with 12ga feeders and dedicated circuit breakers (Just that outlet on the breaker) to handle the high power loads (I have 3 of those outlets plus one the factory installed).

Note one of my HD outltes is powered independently of the rest of the house.

I'm gonna need 'em all, they are predicting SIX count 'em SIX degrees not tonight, but tomorrow night.

Hi,

My breakout box consists of one thirty amp outlet with a 30 amp breaker on one leg, and two 20 amp outlets on two 20 amp breakers on the on the other leg. It can lead to some imbalance--but not enough to concern me, and it is more balanced than just a 50 to 30 adapter.

I use the auxiliary power cords in summer time to run the water heater and the converter. Basically I no longer need to load balance, particularly if I add the inverter into the mix.

In the summer time, if I'm boondocking and need the air conditioner I can manage to run the water heater via the inverter/battery bank and recharge later from the generator while running the air from the genny. This works well when I'm in the mountains as generator output is reduced.

I love the flexibility I have to use minimal shore power of just 15 amps while having nearly fully capacity. It is also wonderful when I can find a location that has more than one 15 amp circuit. I often do not have access to the shore power breakers, so I monitor voltage closely.

Here are the formats I can run because I chose to use standard plugs:

OEM 30 amp
#1 Aux 20 amp
#2 Aux 15 amp

Or any combination of the above it there are a sufficient number of outlets, or a 50 amp outlet.

In the winter I use the same auxiliary cords to run extra heaters. I have a watt meter installed and have seen 6500 watts flowing into the rv, or about 55 amps. It does drop down from that number after the heaters begin to cycle. I think that's a pretty good "hat trick" for a 30 amp rv! *grin*

Moved from technology

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

It will cut down on propane costs dramatically.

Load balancing is a "fact of life" for a 30 amp rv. The heater is one more item to juggle. I prefer to use 1/2 size oil filled heaters myself. I have them tucked away in corners where no one can trip over them.

I replaced all but 4 of the 120 volt outlets with better quality units.

Many of us have added auxiliary shore power cords so we can plug in more than the OEM service. I added two--one for the water heater and one for the converter. Each extra shore power cord has additional outlets for powering heaters in the winter time. In the summer time it pretty much eliminates the need to load balance for me.

I use a "break out" box as well, so I can plug all my shore power cords into a 50 amp service. That lets me use the oem 30, 20 aux, and 15 amp aux all at the same time.

If I understand your "break out" box, you are splitting the two legs of the fifty amp 240v service into two 120v feeds. White Common with Red Hot on one and Black Hot on the other? Cool, if so, DW could dry her hair, a heater could run along with the air, and I could nuke a cup of coffee all at the same time. A hundred watts using all three pedestal plugs?

Be nice. I know just enough to be dangerous.

newman fulltimer wrote:
Iif you can run a hevy duty extension cord the the pedastal non.
If not you will have to do some power managemant you have to remember you only have 30amps

+1. I added a boating three-prong male receptacle to feed from the 20amp circuit on the pedestal. It is dedicated to DW's hair dryer OR a heater.

Like this but in white:

Amazon

When running the electric heater it helps to run the water heater and fridge on gas. Water heater on electric is a big draw.

To keep it simple, a 1500 watt heater will take half of your electric capability. When running, you must remember to use no other heavy use appliance that plugs in. Your microwave is on a separate circuit so it will probably work but that maxes out your power. You also have other phantom power users such as the converter, TV, etc. so this could impact as well on your power available.

When we used a portable heater, we simply unplugged it when using other appliances. It was a problem to remember and we blew a few circuit breakers when we forgot, but no permanent damage.

Hope this helps.

We're a 30 AMP also and I have found running two heaters on low one at each end of the MH works good to cut down on the furnace run time. This is usually go to the upper 20. We also watch of voltmeter to make sure voltage stays above 110 volts. Low voltage in any rig with a Generator transfer switch risk burning the transfer switch out if voltage gets too low for any period of time!

Hi,

It will cut down on propane costs dramatically.

Load balancing is a "fact of life" for a 30 amp rv. The heater is one more item to juggle. I prefer to use 1/2 size oil filled heaters myself. I have them tucked away in corners where no one can trip over them.

I replaced all but 4 of the 120 volt outlets with better quality units.

Many of us have added auxiliary shore power cords so we can plug in more than the OEM service. I added two--one for the water heater and one for the converter. Each extra shore power cord has additional outlets for powering heaters in the winter time. In the summer time it pretty much eliminates the need to load balance for me.

I use a "break out" box as well, so I can plug all my shore power cords into a 50 amp service. That lets me use the oem 30, 20 aux, and 15 amp aux all at the same time.