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BobJones · 09-28-2019, 06:54 PM

Hi Folks!

Every time I cook something on the stove I find the motorhome gets pretty warm. The other day I saw that the main burner puts out 9,000 BTU's. This heats the motorhome up pretty fast.

Now that it's winter, I've been using the furnace which is rated at 26,000 BTU's. As you can imagine, it uses quite a bit of propane.

Question, since the stove puts out 1/3 of the BTU's and heats up the unit fast, isn't it actually using 1/3 of the propane that the furnace uses ?

twinboat · 09-28-2019, 07:12 PM

The big difference is that the stove burner Is consuming oxygen and giving off harmful by-products and moisture to the inside of your RV.

The furnace, although less effecent, is heating the inside air thru a heat exchanger.

The furnace is pulling in outside air for the burner and sending the moisture and harmful ehxaust gases back outside.

At the same time, that heat is being transfered to inside air, thru the heat exchanger, that comes out the air ducts.

If things were equal, the larger BTU burner would run a shorter time, for the same amount of heat.

153stars · 09-29-2019, 07:40 AM

I have used my stove to quickly take edge off in the morning. No more 30 min.. You probably end up going in and out in that morning anyway.

Ivylog · 09-29-2019, 01:52 PM

A RV furnace is only 70-75% efficient while your burner is 100% if you survive. Don’t run it to long not that a RV is all that air tight.

BobJones · 09-29-2019, 01:55 PM

Thanks everyone! Especially Twinboat, that was one of the best answers I've ever seen

I won't use the stove as my primary heat source

But I was curious about the details behind it.

grindstone01 · 09-29-2019, 02:08 PM

Your RV furnace is very inefficient. Not only is the furnace heating the storage compartments and duct work but you also lose heat out the exhaust vent to the outside.
Think of the stove output of 9000 BTU's going directly into the RV, whereas the furnace 26000 BTU's only (estimate) 9000 BTU's get into the RV.
Warming a RV with the stove is not a bad thing for a short time, however I would not advise leaving the stove burners run overnight. On cold days, we try to use our oven/stove and even the crock pot for cooking and get double usage from the heat. On hot days, we try to cook outside to reduce the AC expense. We use a Mr Buddy propane heater as a sole heat source in our RV and can run for 5-7 days on a 20# bottle.

Timaz · 09-30-2019, 06:50 AM

HEAT HEAT HEAT!....Winter time NO...it's still 95 in Phoenix this week. LOL

BobJones · 01-13-2020, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

The big difference is that the stove burner Is consuming oxygen and giving off harmful by-products and moisture to the inside of your RV.

The furnace, although less effecent, is heating the inside air thru a heat exchanger.

The furnace is pulling in outside air for the burner and sending the moisture and harmful ehxaust gases back outside.

At the same time, that heat is being transfered to inside air, thru the heat exchanger, that comes out the air ducts.

If things were equal, the larger BTU burner would run a shorter time, for the same amount of heat.

I just wanted to update this thread with more real-time experience. I used the burner on the stove for heat for some time but found that I was not able to think straight after a while and often slept on the couch !

After some consideration I came to the same conclusion, the stove burner is fine for short periods. That's it. What I did find though was a TON of moisture was created when heating with the stover burner. As a result, my dehumidifier had to run pretty well all day (480 watts). After realizing my brain didn't work as well as it used to I filled the propane tanks and went back to the furnace.

Here's the thing. Propane use is up, way up. Mind you, it's -3 outside and supposed to hit -10. However, humidity in the unit is down, way, way, down. This morning I took my regular half hour shower (steaming hot) and within a few hours the moisture in the shower was entirely gone !!!

So the furnace really does remove a TON of moisture. The dehumidifier will not even come on if I'm using the furnace. I'm back to using an oil filled-radiator as a supplement to the furnace and now I can think straight again.

Anyway, this is probably self-evident after what twinboat said but I just wanted to confirm it with my experience. The stove burner should only be used for short-term heat such as helping the furnace get the temperature up to speed if you've been out for the day or some such.

153stars · 01-13-2020, 07:27 PM

In negative digit temps the outside air will be very dry the furnace is not removing moisture your just not adding humidity. The relative humidity is much lower with same exact air at higher temps . You will more comfortable in 70% humidity during cold weather than 55% . The human body puts out a lot of water in resperation so it needs to be removed. Some humidity is not a bad thing .you just don't want the coldest parts of RV to be sweating or getting damp. Moving some air around in rooms not occupied with a small fan once in a while will help to even out and remove dampness that may be forming on walls, windows and bedding ect. putting back in the air if it needs to be removed by the dehumidifier.
If you do take edge off with the stove keep the burners less than full for more complete combustion. Blue flame heaters have a quite soft blue flame and draw a lot of extra air around the flame for complete combustion.

We have gas fired inert gas generator/boilers at work and have to walk fine line for zero O2 ,complete combustion and least possible CO . I am actually building a sampling unit for O2,CO and combustibles right now. From the generators 99.7% nitrogen+CO2 gets cooled thus dried. Its like a faucet 1/3 open coming off intercooler. Even though we have seen the amount of water for decades , when cooler is working its best ,we still get fooled into thinking there's an intercooler leak.Its hard to believe the amount of water they actually produce.

Once as teen, I was CO poisoned driving a used car back to dealer I was working at. Just a few breaths near a forklift exhaust makes me woozy until this day.