Can I run just the fan and heat the basement?

[Nbomar]

I have 3 space heaters I use to heat my entire road warrior (garage and all). My question is if I run those to keep it warm inside the camper and run the fan on the AC unit will it still circulate that warm inside air to the basement to keep the pipes from freezing. My furnace only keeps the bedroom and bathroom hot. Everything else stays pretty cool. I want even heat throughout but need the basement warm. It's going to be 20 degrees tonight so I don't want a busted pipe.


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[danemayer]

There's no convenient way to run the furnace blower if the flame sensor doesn't activate. Also, the furnace has an outside air intake, so absent flame, you'd be bringing in and circulating some cold air. And heat from your space heaters will rise, so unless your furnace air return is located high, you wouldn't be recirculating hot air from inside the coach.

Keep your space heaters as far as possible away from the thermostat that runs the furnace and you should be able to even things out, and the furnace will run enough to heat the underbelly.

ON EDIT:

Re-read and saw you were talking about using the AC Blowers. I don't see any way doing so would force any significant volume of air through the furnace return and into the 2" underbelly duct.

 

[jbeletti]

Because your rooftop air is only ducted (output) to the ceiling, it's not likely to circulate any warm coach air to the basement.

Now - what if you had a low mounted (wall or steps) return air vent and behind that vent, in the storage bay, you placed a small fan blowing into the storage bay in an effort to draw warm coach air into the bay?? Even if that worked, the likelihood of enough warm air getting into the actual underbelly where the tanks and more water lines are - is pretty slim, but your water pump and other plumbing behind the UDC may benefit.

Perhaps some sort of fan driven electric heater in the storage bay, pointed into the underbelly might help. But serious mounting precaution must be taken for that sort of solution.

 

[travlingman]

You will not be able to heat the basement that way. I would put a heater in the basement too. Open up the wall from the storage area to under part of living area and point your heater toward the rear of the camper. We have stayed in parks where electric included in fee and never used propane. But, we do have heat pads on the tanks.