Space Heater

The difference between the oil filled radiator and the forced fan heaters is a personal preference. I am always cold in a room with an oil filled heater - unless I am sitting right on top of the heater I don't feel its heat. With a forced fan heater, I can feel the heat. I can be further away and still benefit from it.

For another person, it's the opposite. For the OP, try them and see. If you like the forced fan, I find the tower style works better for me as it pushes a wider path of hot air than the small ceramic ones. I got one with a remote, so I can turn it on and off without having to get out of bed.

CA commercial rates are higher than residential. Closer to $6+ day. Still not going to break the bank.

deltabravo wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Don't be so blasted cheap and ruin the goodwill for others by abusing the system.

The fees the campground charges for each night of camping cover the cost of power, unless the park has metered power service.

If the park didn't want people using the full 30 or 50 amps of power, they'd out in lower amp service pedestals.

In other words, providing power is a cost of doing business. A park sets their nightly rates to cover what ever costs are associated with providing the services they offer.

Yeah, at average residential rates electricity is ~$1/W on an annual basis so a 1,500W heater costs a whopping $4/day, but wait, businesses generally pay 2/3 to 1/2 of residential rates so it's more like $2-3 a day. Not exactly going to break the bank for anyone charging for spots.

Well I do heat our RV with electric as it is part of our hosting gig. Using cheap heat at
5,000 watts on a 50 amp service (17,050 btu/h) keeps us at setting down freezing, likely even lower. Way safer than plug in portable heaters.

Gdetrailer wrote:
Don't be so blasted cheap and ruin the goodwill for others by abusing the system.

The fees the campground charges for each night of camping cover the cost of power, unless the park has metered power service.

If the park didn't want people using the full 30 or 50 amps of power, they'd put in lower amp service pedestals.

In other words, providing power is a cost of doing business. A park sets their nightly rates to cover whatever costs are associated with providing the services they offer.

Lynnmor wrote:
1500 watts is about the maximum allowed in an electric heater, all of them will put out the same amount of heat. When choosing the brand or style, you just decide how you want to direct heat. If one is not enough, buy another if you have adequate wiring and power available.

Ditto.

I added a new outlet on a dedicated circuit, specifically for a heater.
I could even re-do the wiring and run it from dedicated 15amp shore power cord plugged in to a 15amp receptacle at the RV park pedestal.

I abandoned my cord that stuffs in to a storage cubby, and added a marine style shore inlet. That mod frees up the original cord cubby, so adding a dedicated cord for that new outlet would be another mod I could do.

New dedicated outlet and circuit for heater

Marine style cord inlet

Radiant heat (cherry red element) heats the object it is pointed at. The air around the item (feet, for example) warms from reradiation. That results in a comfortable feeling from fewer watts.

I believe the oil filled heaters may be some what safer.

Lantley wrote:
Gdetrailer wrote:
5,000 BTU of heat out of one heater is a LONG, LONG stretch for heating an entire RV when considering it is a fraction of the heat a RV furnace can put out
While I generally agree with your point. You have to consider the efficiency of the lp furnace when comparing to a space heater.
Space heaters are 100% efficient. The lp furnace is far from efficient. I believe they are about 70% efficient and maybe as bad as 505 efficient.
If you hold your hand in front of the exterior exhaust discharge you will feel a lot of wasted heat being discharged to the outdoors.
That heat translates to $$$.
Efficiency ratings are a big deal when it comes to residential furnaces. RV furnaces are very inefficient compared to residential models.

:R

18,000 BTU input at 70% efficiency = 12,600 BTU = approx 2.4 1500 W electric heaters or 3600W.

30,000 BTU input at 70% efficiency = 21,000 BTU = approx 4.04 1500W electric heaters or 6060W.

You ARE typically RVing as a HOBBY, spend tons of money on a completely unnecessary RV which also has a absorbtion fridge which is about 30% efficient, a RV water heater which is barely 20% efficient, spend tons of money moving it with hyper expensive over the top tow vehicle then have the gall to worry about efficiency of the RV furnace?

Now, IF you are going to pay for the electric it WILL cost you much more than propane.. Resistance heat is not and never will be 100% efficient when you take in the WHOLE picture of just how that electric is created, transported and delivered to your plug.

Anyone with a all electric resistance heat home or business can attest to the fact that it uses more energy and costs more to do so..

I was involved in a church congregation which had a building that was solely heated with your 100% efficient resistance heat.. Electric cost was $4K (FOUR THOUSAND A MONTH!) and that was the averaging plan for a yr.. $48000 for the year!!!

Building temp was set back to 58F during non use periods and 68 during use periods..

Eventually after 25 yrs the heating system started having issues and parts became non existent it was decided to retrofit with gas heating system.

Electric bill dropped to less than $1K a month and the new gas bill was only $1K a month..

That IS a considerable savings and the new gas fired heating system paid it's self off in only three yrs.

Personally to me, folks attempting to use only electric to heat a RV at a campground are abusing the campground owners good will and there are many places that recognize that abuse and charge more or may have meters..

Don't be so blasted cheap and ruin the goodwill for others by abusing the system.

opnspaces wrote:

To further what Gdetrailer is saying. A portable space heater is limited to 1500 watts. That means if it is a fanless model you will get 1500w of heat output. But if you add a fan, that power has to come out of the 1500W. If the heater fan uses 100 watts, your heater is only going to put out 1400W of heat...

Sort of but not quite, consider that the energy consumed by the fan is turned into, wait for it, heat. Yes, heat.

mooky stinks wrote:
We use the oil filled radiator type. Although they're also 1500watts, they produce more heat than our ceramic heater ever did. They have 3 heat settings and a thermostat and the best thing is they're completely quiet except for a click when they turn on/off. We have 2 in a 31ft trailer and they'll keep it very comfortable down into the 30's.

it may feel like it makes more heat, and it may be more comfortable but 1500W=5100BTU in an electric resistance element heater. ceramic, oil filled etc. makes no difference.