Furnace Gas Usage

[UGL]

I have been living in my RV for a couple of months now and seems that I have spent more than I should have on propane. I typically fill my two 30lbs tanks and two 17lbs BBQ tanks. I know that with a bit of conservation one 30lbs can last about 7-8 days. That is with me turning it to 65 when Im away in the day and 70 when I am in and through the night. A BBQ tank only lasts about 3-4 days. I do not use gas for heating water, or do much cooking at all. I typically gets about 50° on average, but routinely dips into the mid to lower 40's and sometimes mid 30's. Mid winter days here are in the 60's but when we have routine fronts and rain roll though, like this winter, it stays in the mid to high 50's.

I've read and been told these furnaces are gas hogs.
But this seems a bit on the excessive side of usage.
Can anyone advise here?

I am soon about to hook up to a 200 gallon tank, it holds 160 gallons and costs hundreds to fill, I can't remember what it cost to fill it. Just don't want to pay a fortune for heating. I also will soon be using gas for a tankless water heater.

[MrWizard]

UGL
the amount of LP you are using IS NORMAL
you can switch to a catalytic heater to use less LP
or you can switch to portable electric heat
or you can turn down the thermostat
on demand is NO more efficient during use than a regular tank style heater
it does give a steady supply and if you like long showers (the biggest benefit), you will use more propane
turn of the WH when not using it

[Trackrig]

OP - your post says that you leave your heat set at 70 deg during the night. You should put some flannel sheets on the bed along with another blanket and turn the heat down to 60 deg. An electric mattress pad is also a good way to go.

You said you weren't using propane to heat water, therefore you must be using electricity that can handle at least 15 amps. After the water is up to temp, turn the hot water heater off and use some electric heaters. Move it back towards the bedroom at night.

In our MH we have two furnaces. We turn the front down to about 50 at night and the rear one is set at 60. It works great. I'm not familiar with your TT to know if you have two furnaces.

One 1200W electric heater (it oscillates and has a fan) heats the front half of our MH without a problem down to 26 degrees without a problem.

Bill

[pianotuna]

Hi,

If there is shore power and it is unmetered it is a no brainer to use it for space heating. If not, then do a cost comparison.

I do heat nearly 100% electrically.

[ScottG]

Your furnace is only 60~70% efficient so it really is inefficient.

[tvman44]

Those furnaces suck down the propane, they are not very efficient.

[Golden_HVAC]

Why are you changing to a tankless water heater? They do not work well in northern areas, where the incoming water can be around 45F. I guess in Texas the incoming water is closer to 65F?

If you have 'free' electric, or low cost electric, use some electric heaters. I was able to safely use 3 of them in my 30 amp RV in the winter of 2007 in Portland OR. It was routinely 26F outside, and I could stay toasty warm inside. One of the 3 heaters was plugged into the power post directly via a #12 gauge extension cord ran through factory installed holes into the basement, and out the basement compartment door.

My electric cost was only $0.10 per KW. So 22 KW is $2.20. This will produce about 80,000 Btu's of heat. About what burning 1 gallon of propane (95,000 Btu's) will produce inside (considering heat exchanger and flue losses). Check your local electric rates, might be cheaper to go all electric.

If you can afford to replace the rooftop A/C with a heat pump, it can collect about 80,000 Btu's (in 5 hours) for only about $0.70. This is so much less expensive than propane or electric heaters.

What I did when living in my RV and taking long showers is buy a tankless L5 water heater from Amazon for $130. It is a VERY basic unit, with little more than a heat exchanger and ignighter, and high temp limit switch to shut off the burner at 120F. So I could use that to fill my fresh water tank at the rate of about 1 GPM at 60F temp rise. Once the 100 gallon tank was full, I would use the water pump to take really long and hot showers!

The tankless L10 is rated at 10 liters per minute (about 2.5 GPM) and what I would get next time to speed up filling the 100 gallon tank).

I used the little L5 to fill my above ground pool with warm water too. Only have to remember to keep turning it off and back on every 20 minutes. It helped 'warm' the pool, but is not a pool heater. . .

Good luck!

Fred.

[donn0128]

30-35K btu furnace consumes about a 1/2 gallon of propane per hour. So in real practicle terms 5 gallons of propane only lasts about 10 running hours. Yes, they burn a lot of gas. Turn the furnace off when your gone and down to 55-60 at night.

[UGL]

I've figured out my average usage is about a gallon per day just on heating.
With my current habits I can make the two 30lbs and two 17lbs tanks last 22 days. Based on that we have about 4 months of winter here and I'll figure about 120 gallons usage just on heating, $312. That seems a little steep to me.

[2oldman]

UGL wrote:
I know that with a bit of conservation one 30lbs can last about 7-8 days. That is with me turning it to 65 when Im away in the day and 70 when I am in and through the night.

That's conservation? That's pretty warm, both day and night. I'm at 73 during awake hours at night, but it 55 overnight with a mattress warmer on.

[dahkota]

We have a 25 gallon tank that holds 20 gallons when full. We use it for heat, the fridge, and hot water (2X per day). Daytime temps here are in the 40s, nighttime temps are in the low 30s. We set the temp for 64 during the day and 62 at night. We have one sunny day every three days or so. Our rig is 34 feet long with two slides. At night we keep the shades down to help keep the heat in. The 20 gallons lasts 14 days.

If we set our thermostat at 70, chances are it would last half that. But we would be able to sit around in shorts and a t-shirt. As it is, we wear sweats and are very comfortable.