Using forward AC fan to distribute heat

I'm trying to find the best method for spreading the warm air around our new Gateway 3650BH. If I understand correctly our living area thermostat operates our furnace and blows air through the floor ducts. Our master bedroom thermostat only runs the forward AC and or overhead duct fan. Has anyone tried or will it cause any problems to have the forward AC running the fan only pulling in the heat from the ceiling area and blowing it back out throughout the camper overhead ducts. My understanding is that the forward unit blows air toward all of the overhead vents which I would think would help spread the heat. Any ideas or thoughts from those that know?
Thanks,
Dave

I can't see harming anything by trying that.
Turn it on and let us know how it works out.

Peace
Dave

Where does the front AC get its supply air from, If its from outside I think you will defeat your purpose. Just thinking.

jnbhobe said:

Where does the front AC get its supply air from, If its from outside I think you will defeat your purpose. Just thinking.

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In general, all A/C units recirculate interior air. If they pulled in 100 degree outside air it would be very difficult to ever cool the inside.

I think a 2014 Gateway will have Cir-q-lair ducting that draws in air from some ceiling vents and pushes it out others.

In coaches with non-ducted front A/C units, the air is drawn in from the bottom of the unit where the filters are located.

danemayer said:

I think a 2014 Gateway will have Cir-q-lair ducting that draws in air from some ceiling vents and pushes it out others..

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It has the Cit-q-lair on it. I will give it a try in a hour or so when I get back to campground. Just wanted to make sure I understood how things were working and that it wouldn't mess anything up by doing it. I'll let you know if I can tell a difference.Dave

Dave,
Last weekend was the first time we had a need for heat in our 3650BH. It took me a bit to figure out that the bedroom thermostat had nothing to do with the heater, but it makes complete sense now. We have two small space heaters from WM from our old trailer that we plugged in and ran on low most of the night (trying to save LP as much as possible). In the master bedroom we had a small fan sitting on the floor in the corner by the W/D closet, pointed straight up to the ceiling. That helped keep the air circulating. This setup keep us all pretty comfy. Next time out I'm going to try running the front AC unit on low fan to see how that works. I like your idea of the front unit sucking in the hot air coming out of the floor vent right there, I think that'll work well. I believe you'd need to put it in AC mode, fan low, with a target temp pretty high so the AC compressor doesn't kick on. Of course it's a lot louder than a tiny fan in the corner, but depending on your neighbors that's not always a bad thing. ;-)

In cool weather we operate the fan on the rear A/C that circulates warm air from the electric heater that we run under the A/C/fan intake.

Just a little feedback. Thanks for all the input.

After realizing that the master bath was like a sauna and the aft corner of dinette and the kids bathroom was chilly we wanted to move the hot air around.

Here is what we did:
Furnace running off main thermostat.
Forward AC FAN Lo selected on FWD thermostat.
Air mixed throughout unit really well. At first it felt cooler throughout the whole camper while the air mixing was getting established.
The furnace seemed to run less, once inside air temp stabilized.
I will say it is more like walking into a room heated by a heat pump than a gas furnace now. No real Hot spots anymore. Just even warm temp throughout.
Outside temp ranged from 27F-48F through the experiment over 4 days.
Only drawback I noticed so far depending on personal preference is the noise from the FWD AC FAN always running in Master. I personally didn't mind.

Thanks for all the ideas.

Dave

One other thing you can do is purchase some vents that you can close. The only place I have found them (for me) is at Home Depot. I did this in my 2008 and had to cut the hole bigger. In my 2013 3010 the plastic rim in the opening is the perfect size for the same vent. You don't need the part of what you buy....but that is life. I changed out all four in the bedroom so that when possible we can cool main part of coach with bedroom A/C. I.E. we close the vents in the bedroom so more air is forced out into coach. This really helps the noise level when we try to work on the phone or just watch TV.

I think this same thing would work with your heating idea. Close off the bedroom vents so that the heated air sucked into the A/C unit will be forced out into the coach. The bedroom is already "hot enough" since that is where the heat source is at. I am not familiar with units that have both inlet and outlet vents.....but it would still work I believe.

The only problem with these vents is that they are pricey....my memory is these vents are $30 each or so. But they work great.

One side note with this new coach on two moves we have found the round screw up closer part on the floor when we arrived. Probably just put it on the list to close them before we move. I could probably put some locktite on the threads to keep them from coming out but when they are hanging down, and if they are wagging that much, I am concerned that the plastic that is holding the threads might break.

Another nice thing about your running the fan idea is the background noise the fans produce.

We'll give running the front A/C Fan on Lo a try when we're in FL during the winter. Thx.

GWRam said:

Just a little feedback. Thanks for all the input.

After realizing that the master bath was like a sauna and the aft corner of dinette and the kids bathroom was chilly we wanted to move the hot air around.

Here is what we did:
Furnace running off main thermostat.
Forward AC FAN Lo selected on FWD thermostat.
Air mixed throughout unit really well. At first it felt cooler throughout the whole camper while the air mixing was getting established.
The furnace seemed to run less, once inside air temp stabilized.
I will say it is more like walking into a room heated by a heat pump than a gas furnace now. No real Hot spots anymore. Just even warm temp throughout.
Outside temp ranged from 27F-48F through the experiment over 4 days.
Only drawback I noticed so far depending on personal preference is the noise from the FWD AC FAN always running in Master. I personally didn't mind.

Thanks for all the ideas.

Dave

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