Keeping the wet bay warm

[OmniDynmc]

I came across a gentlemen on another forum who built (and well documented) a mini RV out of a cargo trailer and he experimented with taking a transmission cooler + CPU fans and plumbed them in a small loop between his hot water heater intake/outtake to allow the hot water to heat his small trailer. My wife and I are going to start full time RVing (in Colorado, yeah I know crazy) and instead of sticking an electric heater in our wet bay / front storage compartment I've considered trying the above idea as it seems like it would be safer (with the furnace as backup if temps really drop since it heats the bay).

Has anyone tried this? In a roughly 10x12 cargo trailer the guy claimed when his hot water heater was set to medium temp it kept his whole trailer around 74 degrees all night. I'm thinking if I can add a thermo controller and perhaps a fan controller (or just arduino with relays) to manage the circulating pump and fan speed I should be able to use it to keep the bay above 50 for very little cost. The water heater is both gas and electric and normally I only use electric but it's one of those "claimed 20 gallon" ones with the quick recovery so I'm thinking as long as the thermo controller doesn't keep the pump circulating constantly it should be somewhat efficient, though not fast heating.

 

[cookie]

Well, my thoughts are that if the fan is blowing air through a finned cooler it is taking the heat out of the water. So then your water heater will have to fire up to replenish the heat. So whether you are running your water heater on LP or AC it will cost money.
Then consider purchasing a circulation pump, fan, heater core (transmission cooler), fan controller etc, where is the savings?
Not to mention the build.
IMO a simple clamp on shop light with a 75 watt bulb will give enough heat to keep your basement warm enough. Probably under $20.

Peace
Dave

 

[GOTTOYS]

Why try to reinvent the wheel? All these parts won't give off any more BTUs than an electric heater and won't be any less expensive to operate. You only get so many BTUs from electric heat no matter what method you use to extract it. I run my furnace. It also heats the underbelly and water lines. Keep it simple...Don

 

[Bob&Patty]

Tap into your heater plenum and pipe the hot air though some flexible ducting to the basement.

 

[jbeletti]

If by "wet bay", you mean the UDC where the water connection is, in below freezing temps, I turn on the DC pancake light that's in there. It has a halogen bulb that burns hot.

 

[jmgratz]

If by "wet bay", you mean the UDC where the water connection is, in below freezing temps, I turn on the DC pancake light that's in there. It has a halogen bulb that burns hot.

I do the same. The little bulb really helps. I also keep a wireless thermometer in the UDC to be able to monitor the temp.

 

[nonamer]

I do the same. The little bulb really helps. I also keep a wireless thermometer in the UDC to be able to monitor the temp.

I agree would really work efficiently a simple small bulb really do wonders.

 

[TravelTiger]

I do the same. The little bulb really helps. I also keep a wireless thermometer in the UDC to be able to monitor the temp.

We leave the light on in the UDC as well, does fine. I think ours is just the amber 916 bulb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hrntfxr]

Do LED lights really give off enough heat??