Staying Warm

pnichols wrote:


Of the two types of electric heaters we tried - the radiant heat type was far superior in making us feel comfortable immediately and continuously. The radiant heater was physically much larger, but if we were to do serious cold weather camping and mix some electric heat in with propane furance heat ... I'd definitely want the electric heat watts to be of the radiant type.

It seemed to us like we were getting way more comfort per watt with the radiant heater.

x2
We are using one of those inexpensive oil filled radiant heaters now and it is doing a great job on our smaller RV. We block off the cab with reflectix and the cab over has it on the windows but our two large windows are uncovered--left those covers at home.
When using shore power the electric heater is a great comfort--if we are boondocking we usually leave the propane heat very low, set about 45 degrees when it is below freezing outside. Then in the morning we turn up the temp to get comfortable.
We are short of space in our smaller RV, but the radiant heater fits between the toilet and the bathroom sink cabinet. We lay it down for travel and pull it out into the kitchen area to warm the whole rig.
I was hoping to camp in colder weather too. I put 12 volt heaters on the gray and black tanks and covered them with reflectix. But it has not been cold enough to turn them on yet. Maybe when we get back to Colorado and camp without electricity.
We turn on the hot water heater in the evening to do the dishes and then turn it off, even when the night low is close to freezing the water is still a bit warm in the morning.
Don't think it would be that much fun to camp in near zero weather though. Would rather stay home in our cozy house in those temps.