Silent heating

Todster

Active Member
Evening all,

I'm interested to hear what everyone uses for heaters in their trailers for winter camping. Specifically what type or brand of additional electric heat have you bought that works?

We're shopping for something that's hopefully fairly quiet. The oil based radiant heater we had would make a loud click every 10 minutes when the thermostat cycled. Would spoil the dogs and keep me awake.

Any suggestions?

Thanks


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alwaysbusy

Well-known member
Something small, compact, QUIET and heats well. I'm looking for one also but I don't think they put all these specifications on one unit. :D
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Like Mike, we also have the Pelonis B6A1 Ceramic Disc Furnace - three of them. If you shop them off-season you may be able to find them closer to $80.

In addition to tip-over shutoff, it also has internal cutoffs in case of an over-temperature condition. And I think I recall that the surface temperature of the front grill is lower than the ignition temperature of tissue paper.

It is thermostatically controlled, but instead of cycling on and off, the smart circuitry adjusts the power level, producing the necessary amount of heat.
 

Gaffer

Well-known member
Use the furnace. Space heaters are not a good idea while you are asleep or gone. Pets make it more true. Ask any fireman.
 

Oregon_Camper

Well-known member
Disclaimer...we are not full timers, so I'm not fully versed on this.

Having said that...why not use an electric blanket at night and then the furnace in the morning and space heaters as needed when you're in the RV?
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Disclaimer...we are not full timers, so I'm not fully versed on this.

Having said that...why not use an electric blanket at night and then the furnace in the morning and space heaters as needed when you're in the RV?

If temps are near freezing, you must run the furnace overnight to make sure the underbelly gets heat.


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Todster

Active Member
We like our Vornado heaters. They are different models, but the one in our bedroom is this one: http://m.homedepot.com/p/Vornado-AV...tomatic-Climate-Control-EH1-0104-06/300461518

Because it has a variable speed fan, it's not overly harsh sounding when it kicks up to run. It has a low fan speed to helps circulate the air in the room and keep the temp overall more consistent.


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Looking into these also


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Todster

Active Member
Use the furnace. Space heaters are not a good idea while you are asleep or gone. Pets make it more true. Ask any fireman.

Thanks for the opinion. We generally do. In the upcoming trip people will be sleeping on the bunks in the back. There is 1 heat register and it's the furthest from the furnace. If I could make it better I would. In this case I will supplement with an electric heater to take the edge off.


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Todster

Active Member
Disclaimer...we are not full timers, so I'm not fully versed on this.

Having said that...why not use an electric blanket at night and then the furnace in the morning and space heaters as needed when you're in the RV?

Never thought of this and yet so simple. Will check into it.


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Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
Off and on for over the last 6 years, we have been living in our camper full time because of still being in the work force. Over the last 5 winters, we have heated our camper with a system called CheapHeat. It's an electric system that is modified to work with the existing furnace system. The heated air runs thru the existing ductwork so the basement and underbelly gets heated like it would have with the propane heat. This is the second coach we have had the system installed on and would do it again on the next coach sometime in the future.

FYI - it's so quiet that we don't even hear it running.
 

travlingman

Well-known member
We use the fireplace and then an oil filled heater. Oil filled makes no noise. Put it in kitchen and heat goes into bedroom too. In the basement we use a space heater and put it behind the wall so the heat goes to water center, tanks and lines. This also heats our bathroom floors and shower floor. Ours has the Yeti package too. The only time we have used the furnace is when it went below 0. Actually went to -13 that night with wind chill of -30. Set themostat to 70 and furnace kicked on about once an hour.
 

BusManRG

Well-known member
I can't imagine being in our unit in temps some of you have mentioned so this is more out of curiosity than anything else. I've seen many of you in different threads mention placing a space heater in your basement/underbelly to protect against freezing. I guess the furnace wouldn't run often enough to provide enough heat? And isn't this practice dangerous?? We really never leave a space heater running unattended, let alone for hours on end in the belly of the trailer. And just recently in a thread regarding the fireplace, many have said they only use the heat feature if they are around. Am I missing something or am I just overly cautious?

Sandy
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
I can't imagine being in our unit in temps some of you have mentioned so this is more out of curiosity than anything else. I've seen many of you in different threads mention placing a space heater in your basement/underbelly to protect against freezing. I guess the furnace wouldn't run often enough to provide enough heat? And isn't this practice dangerous?? We really never leave a space heater running unattended, let alone for hours on end in the belly of the trailer. And just recently in a thread regarding the fireplace, many have said they only use the heat feature if they are around. Am I missing something or am I just overly cautious?

Sandy

Personally, I have some pyrophobia so I can't imagine leaving a space heater unattended in the belly. We have reflector light with a 100 watt bulb mounted over our pump and water lines behind the basement wall, and it keeps that area very nice and warm, even in temps in the 20s and teens.

We also don't leave the fireplace on overnight.

We do have a Vornado space heater we run in the bedroom overnight, but it has a continuous low speed fan to circulate the air, a thermostat, overtemp protection and tip over protection, so I feel ok with it.




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danemayer

Well-known member
I can't imagine being in our unit in temps some of you have mentioned so this is more out of curiosity than anything else. I've seen many of you in different threads mention placing a space heater in your basement/underbelly to protect against freezing. I guess the furnace wouldn't run often enough to provide enough heat? And isn't this practice dangerous?? We really never leave a space heater running unattended, let alone for hours on end in the belly of the trailer. And just recently in a thread regarding the fireplace, many have said they only use the heat feature if they are around. Am I missing something or am I just overly cautious?

Sandy
I've tried a ceramic disc heater in the plumbing area with poor results. It doesn't get heat into the underbelly and rising hot air confuses the main thermostat for the coach.

Instead I set up a foamboard mini-skirt to enclose the part of the trailer under the main plumbing areas. I've placed a block of wood on the ground and set the heater on that. The thermostat on the heater keeps the enclosed area warm, and the underbelly stays warm as well. The block of wood is in case of melting ice or snow or other water sources that might get the ground wet.

I would not put a standalone heater above the coroplast.

Btw, even with the furnace running most of the time, you'll only get so much uplift in temperature above the outside air temperature. My experience is an uplift of 15-20 degrees (F). So at zero (F), the underbelly is well below freezing no matter how much the furnace runs - at least on our coach.
 

travelin2

Pennsylvania Chapter Leaders-retired
We use a combination of the furnace, fireplace and a ceramic heater when temperatures near freezing or lower.
We've left all of them on overnight when temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing. The ceramic heater is set on the low setting, the fireplace and furnace are both thermostatically controlled so that the furnace runs often enough to help heat the underbelly. The ceramic heater stays in kitchen area on the circuit opposite the fireplace. A brooder lamp aimed at the pump and plumbing behind the basement wall makes a ton of heat. When it's forecast for that cold we add water to the FW water tank and disconnect the hose.


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