small all-electric travel trailer?

Gdetrailer wrote:
My comments in red below..

valhalla360 wrote:

rv bill-e wrote:
Need a TT no more than 21', will always have full hookups and never use propane. Does anyone make such a thing?

Propane Appliances:
- Water heater...but most have an electric heating element for when on shore power.

While you can use the electric heating element in a RV water heater, you need to realize that it is a very limited wattage (1200W (approx 5100BTU) max) and at 120V. Gas burner is a much faster heat up because of higher BTU burner (approx 30,000 BTU) Because of this it will not heat or recover very fast and you will have a very short limited shower on 120V electric only.

- Stove...if insistent upon no propane, would be easy to swap out.

Not a lot of good options for replacing the gas stove and oven when on 120V 30A shore power only, Gas stove burners are 6,500 BTU each for two burners and one single 9000 BTU burner.

Going electric only basically that amounts to a single "hotplate" limited to 1200W (5100 BTU) or perhaps 700W microwave oven with low wattage heating element (once again limited to 1200W or 5100 BTU.)

- Fridge...propane fridges have no issue running on 120v AC. Many newer models are dedicated 12v DC fridges.

Yes, fridge can operate on 120V only and should do so automatically as long as you have shore power. However, it comes at a price, uses a 325W heating element which adds to your electrical load and at this point assuming that you only have 120V 30A shore power isn't going to help your cause..

- Furnace...Probably won't find one without a propane furnace but a some air/con units have a heat strip built in. That and a space heater should handle things in a small trailer unless it gets really cold.

Propane furnace is pretty much standard issue not going to find many RVs with an all electric furnace. Some RVs may have a heatpump (reversible A/C) but those also may use a gas furnace as backup heat for times when heatpump is not able to keep up (40F and below).

A/C units with electric heat strips are also limited to one 1200W heat strip and are not effective replacement for propane furnace.

However if you are not camping/living in cold weather that can be ignored. While you can use a electric portable space heater, they are also limited to 1200W (5100 BTU) and you will find that one single electric space heater will not cut it in cold weather use. RV gas furnaces range from 16,000 BTU (for small RVs) upwards to 30,000 BTU for large RVs.

But honestly, propane is really not much of an issue. If we stay on shore power we get a month out of a 20# bottle when it's fairly cold (lows in the mid 30's), so is there some reason you are trying to avoid propane?

X2!!!

If you are using propane for only the water heater and cooking on the stove a single 20 lb cylinder should last you quite a few months of camping. I can easily get 3yr-4yrs out of a 30lb cylinder because I don't camp in cold weather and rarely use furnace or even stove.

The furnace is the hardest user of propane so if you are planning to do a lot of cold weather camping this will be the issue..

Most RVs are from factory designed to have a 120V at 30A shore power connection which really limits your power usage. As long as you are setup as 120V 30A shore power this now becomes a real problem for you! 120V 30A means you only have 3600W to work with. 3600W is close to 15,300 BTUs of heat, you would need 3 portable 120V space heaters and that would fall short of even the smallest RV gas furnace!

In reality, you would be limited to pretty much only two 1200W (and that might trip your breaker) and a couple lower wattage devices running at any given time and would not have much power left over for other items.

You would have to continually manage your electrical devices all the time.. Doesn't sound like much fun to fuss with constantly turning things on and off..

To make a RV "all electric" you would really need to upgrade the electrical system to "50A" with actually is 4 wire "split phase" 240V/120V and would give you 12,000W (approx 51,000 BTUs) to work with.

Personally, unless you are having to hike in to your camping spot on foot for 20 miles I would suggest that you at least try using a 20 lb propane cylinder to run your water heater, stove and possibly limited furnace use and see how long that will last for you.

Alternately, you can have a bulk 100 lb tank brought in and have a propane distributor fill at the site and bill you later if you find you need or use a lot of propane and you are not moving your trailer..

Certainly, you are going to have to manage the power use with 30amp.
- I assume with a 20ft trailer, it's a single guy, so water heater recovery shouldn't be a big deal.
- I much prefer propane stove to electric but you can buy a small countertop model and retrofit it without great difficulty...again the 30amp will limit the output you can use.
- Fridge really isn't a big deal. Compared to the other items being discussed, it's really static in terms of demand.
- For really cold weather, yes, there is no beating a propane furnace. Heatpumps don't do well in really cold weather. But for more moderate stuff, even down to the mid 20's, in a small trailer, a space heater/heat strip will do surprisingly good job.

Basically, even using propane, you have to manage your electric usage on 30amp, so not having propane doesn't really change that and not many sub 20ft trailers will have 50amp. I assume the OP is not expecting household type living if he is dropping down to a 20ft trailer, so a little hassle is to be expected.