Will my space heater shut down my furnace?

[drillagent]

The furnace vents into the tank areas keeping the plumbing from freezing. But the temp sensor for the furnace is located in the bedroom. The furnace isn't very effective at heating anyway, so I need to supplement with the fireplace and space heaters.

How do I run a space heater in the bedroom without shutting down the furnace risking frozen plumbing? Is there a way to switch zones on the Dometic thermostat?

[greende]

rjsurfer wrote:
How do you keep your furnace fan running? I don't think I have that option on my Cougar. The only manual option to keep the fan going is for the air-conditioning unit.

If I remember right that has nothing to do with the furnace.

Ron W.

Ron, I think it is the type of thermostat. My Cougar does not do that either. Not sure if we could wire in a "summer switch" into the furnace like I used to in my home furnace.

[rjsurfer]

How do you keep your furnace fan running? I don't think I have that option on my Cougar. The only manual option to keep the fan going is for the air-conditioning unit.

If I remember right that has nothing to do with the furnace.

Ron W.

[bigdon68]

RoyB wrote:
Thats what we do. Will set the Propane furnace to kick in if the inside temp drops below 35-40 degrees or so.

Then we run a couple of the oil-filled portable low profile heaters plugged into the 20AMP service at the pedestal using an extension cord running into the trailer.

Using the 20AMP Service does not interfere with the 30A or 50A service you have the trailer plugged into.

We hate the loud BRRR noise the propane heater blower makes and hate to burn up all of my propane. Our oil-filled heaters only go CLICK ever now and then... The oil-filled heaters also do not give off burnt dust smell or have a visible red hot core or flame to deal with. If we need to move some air around we will use the O2OOL 10-inch AC/DC/D-CELL fans sitting behind the heater.


Its better for us to use the camp ground electric then our propane hehe...

Roy Ken

We actually ran an outlet just for heaters. The outside outlet box is mounted on the rear frame and has a male outlet. Just run the extension cord from the pedestal to the outlet box and you are good as gold.

bigdon68

[richfaa]

Yes it will.

[bucky]

Mount a small ceramic heater in the underbelly with the cord exposed and run it off the pedestal when needed. It could be a very small heater, just protect the plug while traveling. Might make for warm floors too.

[kennethwooster]

I've used a heat lamp, and made sure it did not touch anything, It doesn't take a lot of heat for the underbelly unless the trailer is just not insulated very well. Even a light bulb will do the job, or turn on the baggage lights in the belly, as they will create a lot of heat. Still I'm very careful to keep the heater running part time.

[racedrvr]

I like Christopherglenn's idea best. I heat with space heaters and leave the furnace on manual fan only. It will constantly circulate the warm air in your camper and the underbelly. It gives more even heat throughout, and won't result in the furnace "kicking in" making lots of noise in the middle of the night.

[GoPackGo]

I seem to remember a forum member who has rigged a small fan to blow room air directly into the furnace return air intake, thereby circulating warmer air into the vent system and thus, also into the underbelly tank area.

I'm sure you could hook that up to a thermostat or a timer with multiple on/off times.

Maybe do a search to see what turns up.

Tim

[Dick_B]

I would caution against shutting off any more vents than those adjustable ones that came with the rig. Something about the necessary air flow thru the furnace.

[time2roll]

Give it a go and see how much furnace run time you get.
Adjust the electric to a lower setting as needed.
And don't put the electric radiator heater right under the thermostat.

[christopherglen]

Assuming one put the fan on Manual, wouldn't it push whatever heat (be it electric or propane) from the living space to the tanks? Other then the constant noise, assuming shore power - what is the downside?

[C-Bears]

drillagent wrote:
The furnace vents into the tank areas keeping the plumbing from freezing. But the temp sensor for the furnace is located in the bedroom. The furnace isn't very effective at heating anyway, so I need to supplement with the fireplace and space heaters.

How do I run a space heater in the bedroom without shutting down the furnace risking frozen plumbing? Is there a way to switch zones on the Dometic thermostat?

If yours is like mine, there is a sensor on the ceiling in the bedroom, but the Dometic digital thermostat also is a sensor for your other zone. In my case zone 1 is my living room/kitchen, and zone 2 is the bedroom/bathroom area.

You are 100% correct about needing to run the furnace occasionally to keep some heat going into the underbelly of a Montana. They have a 2" heat duct pipe that goes into the underbelly from the furnace.

Currently the temp here is 19 degrees with winds building to 30mph. We have ceramic heaters going in the basement, bedroom, and living room. We also have the fireplace on. About every hour I will turn the furnace up to 73 and let it run for 10 minutes or so, then turn it back down to 68. This way we are keeping the inside around 70 during the day, putting some heat in the underbelly, but not using much propane.

At night we set the furnace on 60 but keep the ceramic heater on in the basement and bedroom. This keeps the bedroom/bathroom floors warm along with the bedroom itself. The furnace will run about every 20 minutes at night so I know there is plenty of heat getting to the underbelly.

Hope this helps.

[Vet_Man]

Put the fan in the Man position to move the air.

[coolmom42]

Maybe close most of the vents from the furnace, to everything but the tank area. You may have to put something under them, depending on how they are made. Then set the furnace thermostat to some point warmer than you will keep your living area. That should make the furnace kick on some. Heat the living area with the fireplace & space heaters.