Furnace Flow / Efficiency

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
Howdy, it has been real cold here in So Cal the last week or so and this weekend our heat pump wasn't keeping up too well so we decided to spend a night or two in the BH. The lows were into the 25F range for a couple of hours, hard on the fruit and avocados. We used everything we had to keep that rig warm, the furnace, electric heater and the fireplace. My concern is that the air coming out of the vents was warm / hot there didi not seem to be much force, is anybody else experiencing that, or are our expectations too high?
 

billd

Well-known member
Roger,

My wife and I are using our BH this week also. There is warm air, but the flow is not strong execpt for one vent in the living room area. I am going to look at the duct work this weekend to see if I can see any gaps or blockage. I am thinking of getting new floor registers to close off one in the living room to get more air to other places.

Bill
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
billd, how are you going to get at the ductwork, is you belly liner off? I have already changed out the registers...
 
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billd

Well-known member
I will pull the registers and use a light and mirror to inspect some of it. I will pull the covering in the front to look back from the bedroom area. Wont be perfect but it might show me something. I wont pull the underbelly this time.

Bill
 
K

Ken Washington

Guest
Roger,
You can use a small mirror to look down the duck work and maybe a flash light at the other end will help you see if it is open. Some on this forum were saying that they have found that the furnace is not attached to the floor causing air to escape. Hope this helps!

Ken
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
I have to say that our furnace works GREAT. Lots of air and the registers get HOT. I told my wife I think you could burn your bare foot on them and she agreed. But the propane guy and be are on a first name bases now. Have gone through 21 gallons and climbing in about 2 weeks. Keeping the all the shades down is helping a lot now. Hopefully we will get out of this cold spell.
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
Good for you Chopper, and thanks Ken I will try the mirror trick, we must have some kind of air escape 'cause than fan will not quit for anything. Good luck on warming up Bill, it is SNOWING off to our west and coming this way, so if you are east of Calif DO NOT put you sweatsuits away!!!
 

HappyKayakers

Well-known member
We've been in the Texas panhandle since October of last year, fulltiming in our 3600RL. This rig is definitely not designed for cold weather nor was it advertised that way. I've plugged up all the roof vents, added insulation between the subfloor beams in the basement, more insulation under the edge of the kitchen slide. When we remember, or are home, we open the shades on the sunny side of the rig. At night we set the furnace to about 65, close the pocket door from the bedroom to the kitchen, open the bathroom door all the way (to get heat from that register) and use a small ceramic heater in the bedroom. I can feel heat coming from all registers but the least airflow is the one at the base of the sink next to the bed.
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
Happy, we have the same rig, we love ours, how much air flow do you have at your registers? Ours get hot, but not very much air. I put in adjustable vents and that helps a little. Does you system make it to 65? Ours runs all night......
 

jpmorgan37

Well-known member
Hello all;
I don't know about the BIGHORN but in my Landmark, the furnace was not bolted to the floor. There were two brackets on the back side of the furnace so I screwed it to the floor and it made quite a difference in the airflow out of the registers. I also pulled several of the register covers off and rearranged the foil that they had "attached" to the ductwork and the sub floor. That helped a little. Now I have good flow and hot air from the registers. I didn't opt for the fireplace because we needed the cabinet space. We are very happy with the heating and cooling systems so far and have been in temps from 108 to 25.
John
 
J

Jim_1899

Guest
I have been camping this winter in 20 to 30 degree weather and my Bighorn stays warm. I have themostate in the living room that shows the time, temp and humidity. When its cold outside I like it around 67 degrees inside. I have been trying to figure out how much propane I burn but with just going for 2 or three nights at a time I don't know.

We do have down blankets that we use at night that makes it very warm at night too.

Chopper Bill, I know my propane guy by first name too. He works at Uhaul and fills them without taking out the tanks. 21 gallons in 2 weeks is pretty good. My popup would use a small tank every 2 days in really cold weather.
 

Tom of Ypsi

Well-known member
I had the same problem with my Landmark, the furnace had a gap between it and the floor. Took off all of the registers and stuck a vacuum hose in the vents also, took out a lot of saw dust. We use the fireplace and the furnace does not run as much. We put a small space heater in the bedroom with the door closed at night with the heat turned down to 60 to save on propane.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
We must be pretty lucky with our furnace. Even though the temps here in Corpus Christi aren't normally this cold, the last few nights have been low to mid 30's. We quit using our electric space heater because everyone here says it's cheaper to use the LP. Right or wrong, I don't know but our furnace is doing great. Especially in the crapper. We leave that door open 24/7. Our furnace cycles on and off and never has run constantly.
QUESTION. Does the burner cycle on & off according to the heat in the fire box? I think I hear our burner ignite several times during a heat cycle but the fan doesn't go off until the room air reaches the thermostat setting and the fire box has cooled down. I know our home hydronic furnace worked like that. Any thoughts???
 

HappyKayakers

Well-known member
Uncle Rog said:
Happy, we have the same rig, we love ours, how much air flow do you have at your registers? Ours get hot, but not very much air. I put in adjustable vents and that helps a little. Does you system make it to 65? Ours runs all night......
Uncle Rog,
We have good air flow through all registers except the one next to the bed, it's very weak but you can feel hot air. We make it to the set temp and the furnace shuts down normally. I also swapped out all my registers for adjustable registers but normally leave them wide open. I wanted to be able to close them in the summer so the AC wouldn't fall through the floor.
 

Redcoat1

Junior Member
Sundance Heating

I have a Sundance and have had the same problem, lots of heat and air flow at the very rear of the trailer and very little in any of the other registers. Dealer had a look and said no ducts are crushed. I would hate to spend much time in below 0 temps cause I know it would be cold.
 
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