in-wall wiring safe for electic space heaters?

Brad

Member
Are there any concerns of overheating the in-wall wiring when running a 1000-1500W electric space heater?
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Brad, I think that most of the wall plugs are on a 15 amp breaker. You might get by with only the heater on...but I dont think that you could plug in anything else. You might be able to wire in a dedicated 20 amp circuit with some 12-2 rolmex with a seperate plug. Bob
 

branson4020

Icantre Member
The 120V AC wiring in your coach conforms to the same basic electrical codes as your house wiring and is circuit-breaker protected to prevent the wiring from overheating. No worries.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
This question was discussed earlier. Hopefully, this link will get you there.

//heartlandowners.org/showthread.php/13866-Be-careful-with-your-space-heaters
 

beardedone

Beardedone
No concerns at all. I use them all winter long and never had an issue. Just make sure that your electrical load is compatible with the park amps. If you are on 50 amps - great, but if on 30 you have to watch a little more closely so you don't trip breakers.
 

SmokeyBare

Well-known member
Running a UL rated heater is not a problem. Just remember not to run the Drip Coffee Maker and the Toaster on the same circiut. The 110 Volt wires are the very same as are used in a house.
 

vangoes

Well-known member
Brad,
There is always the exception and we are one of them. For some reason, we had our wires burn completely up this winter in a junction box under our slideout when running a ceramic space heater. The breaker did not trip, and the other outlets on the circuit remained hot. I still do not know what caused the wires to burn out as it was the same outlet and it was the same heater that we have used the past three winters. Fortunately the junction box was on the outside of the trailer so there was no fire, fumes or smoke inside. This incidence made us really paranoid about running a space heater on the coach circuits so we spent the remainder of our stay running an extension cord through the window just for the heater.
 

RoadJunkie

Well-known member
The romex wiring is the same (presumably) as house wiring. The electrical duplex outlets, on the other hand, are not. After my bedroom slide shredded the romex wires adjacent to the mattress outlet, I had the opportunity to examine the outlet itself. The outlet uses a tapered "V" shaped opening into which the wires are driven. The edges of the "V" are used to slice the wire insulation as it is inserted and thus makes contact with the outlet connection. This technique is very similar to the in-line connectors typically used to add 12 Vdc power without severing the source wire. I'm not saying this is not effective, just different from your typical household duplex receptacle.
 

Bighurt

Well-known member
Are there any concerns of overheating the in-wall wiring when running a 1000-1500W electric space heater?

Only if anything else is on the circuit. Accounting for modest voltage drop a 15 amp circuit is capable of little over 1650 watts. I'm a fan of the dual wattage setting models, IE those with 750 or 1500 in some its high and low.

Its easy to remember; Volts x Amps = Watts. To account for a modest voltage drop use 110 for 120 volt circuits or 220 for 240 volt circuits. In any case this will keep you on the safe side.

At home I assume the vacuum is always plugged in to every circuit so that the wife never blows a breaker, killing my PC (alright PC is on its own circuit but you get the idea)
 
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