2004 Discovery 39J can't keep it warm in winter!

[omarawatch]

If i read the manuals on teh furnace right, it tries to use propane heat to get it 'close' and then electric to maintain when it cycles on. I have two furnaces front/rear, both appear to act the same.

This is a problem when you park for more than two weeks at one location all hooked up and parked for good - you run out of Propane!!!!

Anyone else experience this? ANy way around this setting in the furnace? Of course i fear the heating coils are just too small in the furnace as in their infinite wisdom they maybe designed it to fully heat by propane, but for long storage in cold that's bad news!

Suggestions?

[jbrinsfi]

Originally Posted by omarawatch

If i read the manuals on teh furnace right, it tries to use propane heat to get it 'close' and then electric to maintain when it cycles on. I have two furnaces front/rear, both appear to act the same.

This is a problem when you park for more than two weeks at one location all hooked up and parked for good - you run out of Propane!!!!

Anyone else experience this? ANy way around this setting in the furnace? Of course i fear the heating coils are just too small in the furnace as in their infinite wisdom they maybe designed it to fully heat by propane, but for long storage in cold that's bad news!

Suggestions?

1. If you are running on shore power, pick up a small space heater for the interior cabin and run a low wattage light bulb in the wet bay to keep things from freezing.
2. If you are staying for more than a few weeks at the same spot, contact a local propane dealer and see if you can get them to bring you a large capacity stand-up tank and the will probably service it for you as well.
3. If it is very cold you will need to look into an insulated and heated water line into you your rig.
4. Start driving south until you hit the ocean.

[Mr_D]

Do you think you have electric heating coils in the furnace? There is a conversion to do that but I have yet to see an RV come with it. Some air cons have heat strips and one maker of heat pumps offers them.
A furnace is a big user of propane. I always kept 800/1500 watt electric heaters and use them when ever hooked to shore power.
Even with the present rig and it's AquaHot I keep a heater around to keep the front door area warmer for he cats.

[KF5UMC]

Look closely to the thermostat display...when placed in HEAT Mode ours shows 2 types for heat for each zones and can be changed by using the MODE button. The first option is Electric (heat) and the second is Gas (heat) when the switch is place in Heat.

When placed in Electric the signal from the thermostat will turn on the heat pump in the roof mounted air conditioner. Heat will start coming out of the ceiling vents IF the outside temp is 30 degrees or less of the target temp set at the thermostat. The thermostat manual will explain this. If the mode is electric and temp outside is too cold for the heat pumps the thermostat ELECTRIC display will FLASH and the GAS will take over.

We use the heat pumps to save on propane and also a small space heater connected directly to the power pedestal via a heavy power extension cord.