This cold weather illustrates poor insulation

[tuffr2]

I have tested my poorly insulated and sealed trailer. 28 degrees no wind, the furnace runs 80% of the time. Location north Florida. Using electric fireplace and 2 small electric heaters work down to 35 degrees.

2011 SunnyBrook Bristol Bay with 'All Season Package'.

Just wondering what others are experiencing? How often does your furnace cycle? What 5er do you have?

[JayC]

Mine cycles about once or twice an hour as the temps fall. We've had 18-19 degrees the last two nights and only run the electric fireplace for additional heat.

[mhs4771]

We're in Central Florida, 48 outside/70 inside with just the Fireplace. Have the Furnace set for 60 but didn't come on lastnight or today.

[jesilvas]

Using heaters like that won't send heat to your holding tank and cargo bays so they run less as they don't heat as large an area.

[Fred1609]

Even though our rig has a "Polar package".... I accept that this is more of a marketing tool/gimmick than anything....With the slideouts I am under no illusion that my rig is energy efficient....

[J Birder]

I stupidly left the slide open and got 4" of snow on it. Then the snow softened and froze into solid ice.

I turned the heat on, expecting that it would melt, or at least soften the ice. I got the inside up to 70° and left it that way for 24 hours. It didn't melt a bit of the ice. The insulation must be better than I thought.

Joel

[tuffr2]

I think the 'All Season' package is having 2 A/C units for summer cooling. The A/C units have heat strips for extra heating. I think that is the 'All Season' package...not any additional sealing or insulation. Also no consideration as how long the furnace runs or how often it cycles on and off.

The single pane windows should have told me I would have to tough it out during cold spells.

[caissiel]

I have a Heartland Big Country 39ft and 35000 BTU propane furnace. Windows are double glassed though. I never check the furnace cycle but it starts often with 1 deg differetial thermostat. We are cossy with no draft and temperature swings.
Daytime 70 and nigh time is 60.
Our unit is tested at 0 f so i am satisfied it does it with its furnace going wide open.
We have traveled at that low temperature on batteries and stayed comfy all night. Not hot but good. With all slides in though.
We have a desk slide we can bring in for colder weather. It can help on floor heat lost.
They are not houses as the huge storage area has large doors wasting some more heat. We keep it full so it becomes a good heat sink for morning dip on temperature.

[Blacksmith9]

The single pane windows should have told me I would have to tough it out during cold spells.[/QUOTE]

How can they call it an all season package with single pane windows? Dual pane windows make all the difference in the world. JMO

[mikell]

I have a 2010 Keystone Alpine and am fulltiming in Michigan and it hasn't been above 0 since Friday. I have an oil filled heater in the basement on low and the fireplace on high no issues so far . furnace doesn't run much. I covered 3 windows that we didn't need with foil insulation and the others I covered the bottom half. Put foam plugs in the roof vents and opened the wall between the basement and the crawl space. Only issue was the water heater rusted thru and filled the comoplast with water / ice and knocked it to the ground. Took a day to make a temporary repair till spring and installed a new heater

[450Donn]

I think most RV's are insulated about as good as can be expected. Most have far less than 2X4 exterior wall construction so what do you expect? R17 is about as much as your going to get in a 2X2 stud wall. And manufacturers simply do not use the best of materials to insulate their products. After all they are designed for recreational use, not full timing in. There are ways to make them better, but unless you plan to tear the outside wall material off and start over it is not going to happen. BTW, what are the R values claimed by your manufacturer for your unit?

[jesilvas]

Originally Posted by Blacksmith9

How can they call it an all season package with single pane windows? Dual pane windows make all the difference in the world. JMO

Because "four seasons" and "all season" is not an industry standard term. It's a sales term.

[tuffr2]

I would say most of cold outside air leaking in the trailer is coming from under the slide. That and the single pane slider windows.

I have a good seal on the right, left and top of the slide. But if I lift the carpet on the floor of the slide I can feel cold air. Also the floor is coldest right in front of the slide.

How is the underside of the slide supposed to be sealed?

[myredracer]

Units that are fiberglass and have rigid foam insulation will be better than aluminum sided trailers. With wood framing, they shove batt type insulation in the walls and don't do a very good job of it. Same in the ceilings.

And there's air leakage and trailers aren't very well sealed up. You've got the drainage slots in windows, holes in the floor for piping, gaps in slide seals, etc. that let air in. But in the winter you should have some vents and windows cracked open a bit to let moisture out otherwise you will can end up with condensation in the ceiling and walls that can cause some serious problems. Someone here recently had water raining down from their ceiling because of this.

They could use better insulation like polyisocyanurate (aka "iso board") but they don't. Garage doors with this have R12 value. They typically use the cheapo expanded polystyrene stuff with R value of R4 per inch. One thing about the polystyrene stuff is that it absorbs moisture. With cold enough temps outside and high moisture level inside, moisture can condense on the interior side of the exterior cladding and roof.

Camping for a few days in the winter should be okay but if you're living in one, you may have issues.

RVs just don't make the best of winter abodes. Some are just better than others. MHs can be pretty bad in cold weather with various components not working well or at all.