Electric heater vs using furnace in fall?
Need advice from experienced campers since wife and I only started this year and have camped only 10 nights due to P/T job getting in the way after retiring....We have a 2014 Keystone Bullet 285 RLS T...
Forum Discussion
Some thoughts...
One 1500 watt heater (12.5 amps at 120 volts) will not be enough and 3000 watts will be more than needed for a 30' TT. The Bullet floor plan is below.
Two would work but would depend on where they're positioned. Unless you were somehow able to circulate air, your bedroom and bathroom can be icy cold but the living area nice and toasty. Portable heaters, having a built-in stat, only sense the temp right at the heater which can make for uneven heating. Big problem is, you won't have floor space for a heater near or in the bedroom and will have too much heat in the living area. Except for getting uneven heating front to rear, set the heaters at maybe 2 x 1000 watts.
A furnace is used to heat the underbelly space in a TT. This heat also heats the floor a bit which in turn radiates upward. Forgetting about chances of temps. dipping below freezing, when the temps are down around 40F +/-, your feet and lower legs can feel uncomfortably cold. You'll possibly want slippers or heavy socks and possibly a blanket over your legs when sitting and watching TV. Some aren't bothered by this tho.
You could run 3KW of heating but would have to be careful about load management. Without a remote LED display on an EMS or ammeter that you can watch, you'll be flying blind on the actual total current draw. You can't accurately use the current draw at 1500 watt rating since actual output varies as square of the voltage. At say 110 volts, you've lost 16% of the rated wattage and the current draw would be 10.5 amps. Low voltage in CGs is very common but may not be as bad in winter when there aren't many at a CG. A plug-in voltage monitor would be a good idea if you haven't got one.
Using a 30-50 amp adapter would be a good idea, then if a "main" breaker trips, it will be the 30 amp one inside the TT. This way, you'd never have to run outside to reset the pedestal breaker (which is probably the one that will trip). You could consider installing a 20 amp power inlet on the exterior and running a completely separate circuit to the 20 amp recept. on the pedestal.
A 30 amp breaker will not trip the instant it reaches 30 amps because breakers have an inverse time-current characteristic as shown in the graph. Better image here. For ex., you could draw 40 amps for several minutes or longer (at 120 volts). Point is, you could run a microwave or hair dryer for several minutes and be okay. As voltage drops, the time will be extended somewhat too. After a while, you'd get to know what you can get away with.
If drawing high loads for extended time periods, be absolutely certain that the blades on your shore power cord are clean. If pitted and dirty, poor contact can result in overheating and a meltdown. If a 30 amp recept. looks iffy, find another site with a better one or if it has 50 amps use that.
I installed 3 permanent heaters totalling 1750 watts in our 29' TT at the beginning of the season and have not had to use the furnace once, even when down to around 38F at night. Has not felt marginal either. After 56 nights of camping, have used less than one tank of propane. Have 500 watts in bedroom, 250 in bathroom and 1000 in living/kitchen area. It provides excellent and very even heating from front to back. As mentioned above, only downside is feet feel cold. If interested, info. & pics on KZ forum. Best mod I've ever done. Have a furnace that may be for sale, lol.
Don't forget to factor in that you will need to crack a window and roof vent to move CO2 and moisture out. Do not try and seal it up tightly to retain heat. The last thing you want is mold and rot. And don't ever be thinking that TTs are fairly well insulated 'cuz they're not. If you like mods and lots of work, you could always remove the underbelly and upgrade the insulation. You could even install tank heat pads and do a few other things to be able to camp in sub-freezing weather.
The occasional CG will not allow you to use electric heaters but how would they know.
One 1500 watt heater (12.5 amps at 120 volts) will not be enough and 3000 watts will be more than needed for a 30' TT. The Bullet floor plan is below.
Two would work but would depend on where they're positioned. Unless you were somehow able to circulate air, your bedroom and bathroom can be icy cold but the living area nice and toasty. Portable heaters, having a built-in stat, only sense the temp right at the heater which can make for uneven heating. Big problem is, you won't have floor space for a heater near or in the bedroom and will have too much heat in the living area. Except for getting uneven heating front to rear, set the heaters at maybe 2 x 1000 watts.
A furnace is used to heat the underbelly space in a TT. This heat also heats the floor a bit which in turn radiates upward. Forgetting about chances of temps. dipping below freezing, when the temps are down around 40F +/-, your feet and lower legs can feel uncomfortably cold. You'll possibly want slippers or heavy socks and possibly a blanket over your legs when sitting and watching TV. Some aren't bothered by this tho.
You could run 3KW of heating but would have to be careful about load management. Without a remote LED display on an EMS or ammeter that you can watch, you'll be flying blind on the actual total current draw. You can't accurately use the current draw at 1500 watt rating since actual output varies as square of the voltage. At say 110 volts, you've lost 16% of the rated wattage and the current draw would be 10.5 amps. Low voltage in CGs is very common but may not be as bad in winter when there aren't many at a CG. A plug-in voltage monitor would be a good idea if you haven't got one.
Using a 30-50 amp adapter would be a good idea, then if a "main" breaker trips, it will be the 30 amp one inside the TT. This way, you'd never have to run outside to reset the pedestal breaker (which is probably the one that will trip). You could consider installing a 20 amp power inlet on the exterior and running a completely separate circuit to the 20 amp recept. on the pedestal.
A 30 amp breaker will not trip the instant it reaches 30 amps because breakers have an inverse time-current characteristic as shown in the graph. Better image here. For ex., you could draw 40 amps for several minutes or longer (at 120 volts). Point is, you could run a microwave or hair dryer for several minutes and be okay. As voltage drops, the time will be extended somewhat too. After a while, you'd get to know what you can get away with.
If drawing high loads for extended time periods, be absolutely certain that the blades on your shore power cord are clean. If pitted and dirty, poor contact can result in overheating and a meltdown. If a 30 amp recept. looks iffy, find another site with a better one or if it has 50 amps use that.
I installed 3 permanent heaters totalling 1750 watts in our 29' TT at the beginning of the season and have not had to use the furnace once, even when down to around 38F at night. Has not felt marginal either. After 56 nights of camping, have used less than one tank of propane. Have 500 watts in bedroom, 250 in bathroom and 1000 in living/kitchen area. It provides excellent and very even heating from front to back. As mentioned above, only downside is feet feel cold. If interested, info. & pics on KZ forum. Best mod I've ever done. Have a furnace that may be for sale, lol.
Don't forget to factor in that you will need to crack a window and roof vent to move CO2 and moisture out. Do not try and seal it up tightly to retain heat. The last thing you want is mold and rot. And don't ever be thinking that TTs are fairly well insulated 'cuz they're not. If you like mods and lots of work, you could always remove the underbelly and upgrade the insulation. You could even install tank heat pads and do a few other things to be able to camp in sub-freezing weather.
The occasional CG will not allow you to use electric heaters but how would they know.
