TC Furnace & Basement Ducting Questions

What I have done at home that would work with your camper is I heat the basement and let the heat rise to heat the upper area. You could do this with some larger vents from the basement to the living area and then run all the heat ducts down. My question is why? If you are only out in the shoulder season then you do not need a lot of heat to stop things from freezing. All you need to do is keep it a little above and a little heat will do that. I have left campers without heat and with water in them when it is -10C outside and they have had ice crystals in the water but it never froze. Add just a little heat and the ice melts when the temps get to freezing.

The biggest thing in the winter is to find dump places and to keep you valves thawed. It may be better to use a antifreeze to flush with then worry about full water service.

As a side note having your water freeze does not do the damage as long as you leave taps open. The damage is done when the water starts to thaw but does not fully thaw, then you get blockages that do not release and when it refreezes the water cannot expand down the line so it must burst the pipe. If it is only slush it will never burst the pipe.

As for the noise, I would love a furnace mounted in a closet that is silent!!!!! The worst thing is the starting and stopping noise all night. A quiet furnace would be GREAT!!!!

Photomike wrote:
... snipped ... If you are only out in the shoulder season then you do not need a lot of heat to stop things from freezing. All you need to do is keep it a little above and a little heat will do that.

I tend to agree. Another solution is to simply burn a 60w incandescent light bulb in the basement area (assuming you have 120v hookup of course). The heat from a 60w bulb will keep everything in the basement from freezing. Farmers use this approach in their water well pump houses even with ground level pumps. You might also consider a teeny space heater. Both solutions assume you can position and support the appliances properly to avoid burning your TC down.

I check my basement model for the tank compartments ducting and even it has 2" duct going int, there is no opening for return air.
Meaning via all the gaps around the pipping and loose connection where the compartment is attached to the camper floor - the design was pumping hot air into the woods.
I don't camp in sub-freezing temperatures, so beside sealing the mentioned gaps (what was limited by access) - I add gate valve to the duct, so all my hot air goes inside camper.
When you start checking - the camper is design for big heat/AC waste.
The cord compartment was open to vanity compartment, so with open vanity door- the wind was running around.
The furnace itself blows hot air straight into steel cover that is directly exposed to the outside. How is that for energy savings?
I put extra insulation and seals whenever I can, but I don't see the end of the job.
Point is that most of campgrounds don't meter electricity, so when we camp with electric hookup - it is the campground that is paying for heating or cooling the area, not camper interior.

Photomike: Thanks for the reply. I am intrigued with your idea of heating just the basement.

sonuvabug: I should have clarified that I do not have shore power 98% of the time I am camping.

Kayteg1: My camper is fiberglass shell design, and is actually quite well sealed for air loss. However, there are a lot of un-insulated theremal wells (pretty much all the compartments are un-insulated plastic bins protruding into interior, with vented/uninsulated doors). I am not very concerned about efficiency, only with freeze damage and how loud the current system is.

I do not currently want to consider ventless heater options.

Thanks All, Roger

RKB wrote:


sonuvabug: I should have clarified that I do not have shore power 98% of the time I am camping.

Thanks All, Roger

If you are running the built in propane furnace 98% for inside heat the internal ducts are designed to help keep things from freezing.

I kind of figure that with the way the Northern Light is built, if I have the living space comfortable temperature the rest of the unit ought to be ok temperature.

I always wonder when I have shore power I get out a ceramic space heater which provides no forced air into the basement or valve areas.

(I have a 2014 NL 9.6SE)

- Mark0.

Google: atwood two stage furnace
The low speed fan stage is much quieter and uses less battery energy.

I have same furnace, By placing one diode on the power lead to the fan it slowed down the rumbling noise. Experimenting with one or two more diodes slowed the fan down too much, but one was perfect in reducing the noise that kept me awake.

60 watt bulb in basement can be a fire hazard just like a job we had going.... two studs burned halfway thru but did not burn the house down. They just smoldered all weekend. It was multimillion dollar house getting built too.

I have an Eagle Cap 995 that came with an ineffective flex 2” duct into the basement....With ambient temps around 6-7 df basement temps would drop into the mid-20’s with interior t-stat set at 70df...

The fix was to open up a spare 4” outlet on the furnace plenium and run a new duct into the basement - I also added a 4” butterfly valve to this new duct... Now basement temps stay within about 7-8 degrees below the interior...Furnace operation, run times and interior temps remain unaffected, yet the floor stays warmer and overall interior warmth distribution is more even.

Bottom line here was that the 2” factory duct has too much internal resistance to be of any practical value...

3 tons

covered wagon wrote:
... snipped ... 60 watt bulb in basement can be a fire hazard just like a job we had going.... two studs burned halfway thru but did not burn the house down. They just smoldered all weekend.

Yup ... that's why I wrote "Both solutions assume you can position and support the appliances properly to avoid burning your TC down".