Converting to all electric vs leaving the way the rv was built

[RamiDav]

I wonder how many of the coaches labeled all elect are truly all elect?

I suspect most of those have an Aqua-hot, so diesel is actually supplying
most of the heat and hot water.

We have an A/H and a residential fridge but still have a propane cooktop. We also have a countertop single burner induction unit that we seldom use.
In at least 10 yrs I have never bought propane, probably never will.

Without a doubt, the residential fridge is the one thing we would not want to be without.

If temps are very low will elect struggle to provide enough heat and
hot water? I suspect it will.

Ray
03 Windsor

[Gordon Dewald]

Originally Posted by RustyTools

rfg9585 - Please tell me/us more about your removable induction cooktop. I've been looking for on that can do double-duty inside and outside like that, but not having any luck finding one.

I think having that versatility would make the decision of electric vs propane a lot easier for some.

Thanks!

We have several portable induction cooktops. We have had reasonable luck with Nuwave cooktops.

[jondrew55]

Just my 2 cents but I'd never buy a used MH that someone had done an electric conversion on. There's way too many problems getting a standard factory unit repaired when the pesky gremlins come calling. Upgrading batteries, inverters and power control units are probably beyond most of us. There may be companies that do this, but I'd still be wary.

Not familiar with your coach, but I know my old Discovery 40G would have required having the windshield or slide removed to get a new Fridge installed. No small task if you were upgrading to a residential fridge (mine already had one).

Right now we're in a small travel trailer and I'm thinking of removing the oven, microwave and cook top and using the old oven space for additional storage, putting a convection microwave where the standard one was and buying a 2-burner cooktop. That still leaves the fridge (which could be replaced by a 12-V electric one), water heater and furnace. The water heater is gas/electric, and could be run by shore power or my generator. We never use the furnace in Florida, a couple of ceramic electric heaters are more than enough for the weather we camp in. But I'll probably not do any of this. The fridge works fine. We rarely use the over or cooktop (cook outside) and the water heater is fine as is. I'm no fan of propane. Just the other day I was getting ready for a trip and turned the stove burner on to get gas in the lines so the fridge would light. I must have accidentally turned two of the burners on and after being outside for a while I came back in and the trailer smelled of gas. Could have been a disaster.

If you really want this and have the means, I'd consider buying a new or used MH that already has all-electric from the factory.

[Ted DuPuis]

We had this same decision last year. We bought our 2000 Endeavor almost exactly a year ago. After several trips and learning how we use it, when we found floor rot that drove more significant remodel across most of it.

We eliminated the propane heater and the propane fridge, and replaced them with a significantly larger residential fridge. Our primary reasons for doing this were that we wanted a bigger fridge. We also found that we hated the propane heater. It was way too noisy and basically impossible to sleep through (for us) with it cycling.

We've done several trips with it since and have no regrets so far. I do intend on upgrading the rooftop AC/heat pumps at some point, as right now they won't operate on heat much below freezing. However we also generally don't use the RV if it's that cold out, so not a big deal. We also carry space heaters which do just fine after repairing all the air leaks and insulation that we've done (this is an important part).

The range and the water heater are still propane. We haven't had cause to replace either of them. The water heater is technically propane/electric. I think we are likely to keep that as-is if it goes out, as with 5 of us the propane heats the water up enough to keep up with our use for showers in the evening. When I looked into doing that with electric it just doesn't seem feasible. The stove we will probably also keep gas as my wife prefers that. I would check the current capacity required for an electric cooktop/oven if you want to put one in. That might be hard to keep up with, especially if running any other big power items like the water heater or rooftop HVAC.

We normally stay at campgrounds (although we are starting to find we're enjoying boondocking more). We don't mind running the generator and normally run it while driving anyway for the rooftop HVAC. What's nice with this combination is that, if we are someplace where we want to turn the generator off (such as when we stayed in the Badlands last month, where overnight it was cool enough to not need the generator) the inverter can happily power the fridge on the batteries with our small solar panel for a couple days, no problem. With the propane water heat, we can still take our showers in the evening. So, I think that what we have ends up being a good compromise.

I would ignore the thoughts about resale. It's your RV, do what you want with it that makes it more enjoyable for you. You didn't buy it for someone else.

Some videos of what I did on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaQ...wqXCoYw/videos

[rfg9585]

Originally Posted by RustyTools

rfg9585 - Please tell me/us more about your removable induction cooktop. I've been looking for on that can do double-duty inside and outside like that, but not having any luck finding one.

I think having that versatility would make the decision of electric vs propane a lot easier for some.

Thanks!

I ordered it off amazon. Its a Cuisinart. I rigged up a plug where the gas unit use to be so I could easily unplug when I take outside.

[TRH299]

If the propane system works, I can't see why anyone would want to completely remove it. One can add all the electric appliances they want, but why gut the working propane system? If one ever ended up in a old location, it would be nice to be able to have the furnaces still available for use. The hot water when running on both electric and propane has a super fast recovery time. Propane range works fine for cooking and seems like a waste of time/money to replace something that works fine. Obviously people can and will do whatever they want, but I just don't get why anyone would want to remove a working system. The residential fridge is the only appliance that makes some sense to install for some folks but that does not require totally removing the propane system... I would leave it in place as a backup even if I only ran on electric 95% of the time.

[Ted DuPuis]

Originally Posted by TRH299

If the propane system works, I can't see why anyone would want to completely remove it. One can add all the electric appliances they want, but why gut the working propane system? If one ever ended up in a old location, it would be nice to be able to have the furnaces still available for use. The hot water when running on both electric and propane has a super fast recovery time. Propane range works fine for cooking and seems like a waste of time/money to replace something that works fine. Obviously people can and will do whatever they want, but I just don't get why anyone would want to remove a working system. The residential fridge is the only appliance that makes some sense to install for some folks but that does not require totally removing the propane system... I would leave it in place as a backup even if I only ran on electric 95% of the time.

I mostly agree with this, but I'd make the point with the propane furnace that it's both 1) really loud and 2) takes up space that you could use for something useful, like a larger/residential fridge. That's why we decided to ditch it. We also don't go to Alaska in the winter.

[Fiesta48]

Last winter when they had rotating electrical shut downs I had lp gas and batteries as a backup. Did not have to run Gen either. Cheaper than electricity too.
No full electrical coaches for me.

[ArtJoyce]

We like the propane (gas) for several reasons. First we like gas stove tops, second is we do a bit of dry or boondocking camping from early fall to late spring. Its nice to have gas fridge, furance and hot water. We end up at most running the gen once a day for a few hours. But if its sunny days and not very cold we can go days with out the noise and smell of the gen.

[lynjohnson8]

In about a month, my 2012 Monica Vesta will be undergoing surgery.
Presently it is scheduled to have the gas cooktop removed and replaced with and induction unit – not removable. (as a sidenote this should stop about 90% of the rattling going down the highway.)
The portable induction units are extremely and expensive and can be purchased separately… You don’t have to take your cooktop out from your kitchen.
The old ceramic floor tiles are being removed and replaced with in floor heating under wood-looking laminate.
I’m also planning to install an Aquahot (or it’s equivalent) to heat the water.
But about the refrigerator… I would not look for a “residential” unit because I want to be able to exist off the battery. I have heard residential units are a huge power drain. Instead we are looking to upgrade the inverter and batteries, and switch from a electric/propane refrigerator to an electric 12V refrigerator, however we haven’t found a suitable model. The fact that the existing E/P refrigerator will run for months on the factory installed propane tank makes me second-guess it’s removal.
I am more opposed to open flame than I am propane… After all there’s diesel fuel underneath and gasoline in the motorcycle and the toad.
With the bigger inverter, we hope to run the AC for short periods of time with “soft starts“ installed for the roof mounted heat pumps.

Essentially a big change, perhaps ending up with having a back-up to the back-up by improving the electric, while leaving the props as a backup?? We’ll see.

[JJTL]

Originally Posted by lynjohnson8

But about the refrigerator… I would not look for a “residential” unit because I want to be able to exist off the battery. I have heard residential units are a huge power drain. Instead we are looking to upgrade the inverter and batteries, and switch from a electric/propane refrigerator to an electric 12V refrigerator, however we haven’t found a suitable model. The fact that the existing E/P refrigerator will run for months on the factory installed propane tank makes me second-guess it’s removal.

I would do some more research on residential fridge power consumption, could be quite a bit better than you're thinking. Not sure where you are hearing that residential fridges have a "huge power drain", but certainly can't help to get some more info .

You might find this video interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ7_VrBKbSo

And the accompanying blogpost: The Nuts and Volts of our RV Refrigerator | Beginning from this Morning

I share this info only because this couple actually hooked up an energy metre and monitored consumption over a period of time.

They found their Dometic RV fridge running on 12V averaged 5 kwh of consumption per day, compared to their old 10+ year old double door Whirlpool residential fridge that only averaged 2 kwh per day. Pretty interesting.

It is very common in the industry these days to run "residential" fridges off of inverters. Our 20 year old Signature came from the factory with a Whirlpool residential fridge which runs off inverter while traveling. Never even had a thought about energy consumption, but we do have solar onboard as well.

Food for thought. All the best with your upgrade!
Josh

[Ted DuPuis]

Originally Posted by lynjohnson8

But about the refrigerator… I would not look for a “residential” unit because I want to be able to exist off the battery. I have heard residential units are a huge power drain.

We haven't found that to be the case with the refrigerator we bought. It's not even a super efficient unit, in fact was one of the lower efficiency ones we considered. I'll see anything from 11-20A draw (@ 12V) from the house batteries when it's running, but being new with good seals, it's not running very much. That's the real key, how much it runs.

In practice, we've left it running with the RV parked outside and our 20 year old factory 60W solar panel, no generator or anything, for 2 days without problem. Yes the batteries go down some, but if we upgraded the solar panel that would be fine.

I had thought I would miss the flexibility of the propane, but we haven't missed it one bit.

[tomgauger]

I believe the value of my '01 Executive has increased substantially since getting rid of the gas fridge and the gas cook top.
The coach is now "all-electric, residential fridge and all LED." and I've been told by sales people that its value is significantly higher.
My problem is that the big tank is still onboard and I can't find anyone to evacuate the tank and remove it. The tank has been full since the selling dealer filled it ten years ago. I'd love to give the propane away!!!

[Davdeb1]

Originally Posted by carybosse

My wife prefers to cook with gas. However, we have a factory-installed electric (fake) fireplace and that was all we needed to heat the unit during a couple of colder campouts.

I think I would look at converting what you wanted to electric, but keep propane an option. No clue as to the re-sale value in any configuration.

Ditto, I put in a residential fridge. When it gets cold several time a year, it's nice to just turn on the gas furnace when you want to heat the place up fast.

I use my furnace maybe 4 times a year.