At What Point Do You Start to Take Anti-Freezing Measures

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by grindstone01

All you need is a light for a heat source.

That only works in some climates. Drop temps to -20F and that light bulb will be looking for a coat to keep itself warm.

[grindstone01]

Originally Posted by richard5933

That only works in some climates. Drop temps to -20F and that light bulb will be looking for a coat to keep itself warm.

I would not be staying in a RV at -20F, and not with any water in the pipes anyway.

Note - As a kid, we kept a 100W light in the pump house shed and never had a freeze up in mid Mich.

[NXR]

I just bought a bunch of incandescent 60-watt bulbs at a flea market because you can't buy them anywhere else. Maybe a halogen would work as well.

Ray

[NXR]

Originally Posted by We_B_Tripn

We have made an annual December trip to the Hershey, PA area the past two years to visit friends for the holidays in our Bay Star. Like Gary, I run a small space heater (Honeywell Heat Bud) in the wet bay plugged into a thermocube. It kicks on at 35 degrees and off at 45 degrees. If it is going to be really cold, I run a second heater in the bay in front of the wet bay since that is where our water pump is located.

Bill

Thank you very much for posting that. I actually just bought a Honeywell Heat Bud for that purpose but had no idea how it would work. I have not gotten a thermocube, though. That might save me from forgetting.

It got down to 35 on our last trip and I put my weather station remote sensor in the wet bay. Since it's open to the heated tanks it was a bit warmer, but only three degrees warmer than ambient. My basement compartments are uninsulated rotocast.

Fortunately I have a 120 VAC outlet in the electrical bay, the next one over. So I'm going to run an extension cord out the same hole as the shore power cord and into the wet bay using the same hole as the sewer hose.

Thanks again!

Ray

[richard5933]

Small electric heaters are so inexpensive nowadays, such as a small cube heater. They come with fans to circulate the heated air and in my opinion will do a much better job of heating a wet bay than light bulbs. I have a 1000w electric heater connected to the outlet with one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I set the thermostat control to turn on the heat when the temp goes down to 35 and off again when it climbs back to 40. That way I'm not having to run it all the time but it keeps things in the safe zone. These come with a sensor on a few foot long wire, and I place that sensor at the bottom of my tank where the outlet is to make sure that the heat is getting all the way to the bottom. Otherwise, the top of the bay would be toasty and the bottom could still be freezing.