Winter living improvements

[5ersabre]

Any suggestions on how to make cold months warmer and enjoyable?

[jtstromsburg]

Move south?

Sent by me

[puff]

What are your concerns or problems and we might be able to help with some suggestions..!

[5ersabre]

It gets below freezing a lot living in Texas desert weather temps can plunge very low. Keeping my RV warm has been a challenge. I have two floor heaters one in the living area and one in the bedroom. They keep the RV in the 60s depending on how cold it gets it gets colder. They struggle but I can't plug in another one in the main area without tripping a breaker. I am trying to utilize my free electricity vs using propane. Any suggestions on any area of insulation, heaters, etc.?

[puff]

I am not sure what you have for power running into the unit. Sounds like you are on the right track. I would identify what circuits you have in the unit and run a heater on each one. So, if you have three breakers you should be able to run three heaters. This of course depends on the watts of the heaters. Some times it is just trial and error. You can add a shirt or skirting around your trailer to help keep out the cold from the floor area. If you go real fancy and use wood or paneling you can insulate the walls of the skirting. I know some people have even put a heater under their unit to help. Heaters that blow heat are better as they move the air.
Hope all that helps..!

[Witch Doctor]

You might want to try and slip an extension cord from the pedestal 20 amp duplex between your slide and the wall at the bottom and add your 3rd heater to that.

[jbrostek]

While I do the same (running 2 electric heaters) I do not try to eliminate propane use. With the two 1500 watt heaters running plus the heat set to 68, the furnace in my 5er was only cycling about once every 45 minutes.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by jbrostek

While I do the same (running 2 electric heaters) I do not try to eliminate propane use. With the two 1500 watt heaters running plus the heat set to 68, the furnace in my 5er was only cycling about once every 45 minutes.

What I do is run a 1500 watt heater in the basement off the 20 amp duplex on the pedestal. It is thermostatic controlled and ceramic. Even with that going and the basement reading 60 degrees the 2 low port drains froze. the only way to stop that is to add to shut off valves on the low point drains inside the basement. and keep the water drained in them where they are exposed. Never new Pensacola Florida was going to be 18 degrees. Left the water drip in the galley with the valve open to the sewer, that is the only frozen thing I found. In the CG they they said to do it that way or disconnect the hose and leave the faucet drip on the pedestal........

[OldCoot]

As I have posted several times, wiring a switch to the furnace blower and run it without the burner to circulate the heat in the camper and also the underbelly and basement. When doing that, the only thing that can freeze is the low point water lines that are below the underbelly and not up inside the underbelly itself. Just heating the basement is not sufficient to circulate air in the underbelly. The tank heaters will help some IF they are working.

[puff]

Your water also can not just drip, it must be a steady stream. A dripping tap will still freeze a water line as there is not enough water movement.

[BiigDaddy]

You might want to try and slip an extension cord from the pedestal 20 amp duplex between your slide and the wall at the bottom and add your 3rd heater to that.



x2 on this one! I actually do that with my A/C in the summer. I can't run my A/C full tilt and a skillet or microwave, so I removed my A/C wires from my breaker box. I gave it it's own single breaker box (from a hot tub enclosure) and its own cord, which is attached to my main power cord. The trailer runs off of the 30A cord and my A/C is off the 20A outlet! It works flawlessly!!