Cheap heat

[drfife]

A 40# propane cylinder fills at 9 gallons. At $4/gallon you can fill one for $36 or two for $72.

[BRS50]

Sorry a little off on that propane fill the 40# bottle would hold about 10 gal of propane @ $3.19 my dual fill would be about $68 with tax.

[BRS50]

I guess it's actually in between 9 and 10.

Propane has 4.2 lbs per gallon.

40 ÷ 4.2 = 9.53 US gallons of propane

[MJ56]

When I first read about this system, I also thought it was pricy, but a very marketable, well engineered system for an add-on electric furnace element.
Upon reading again, I understand that for $1500 you get it installed with a warranty that it will work. Or DIY for $500.
My first opinion is that is a lot of money for space heaters and some parts to install in a plenum.
I now see that what you are really paying for is some great engineering and a great warranty. It is a great solution in applications where it's needed.

With all this talk of numbers and efficiency, perhaps someone can answer this. When using a light bulb for heat source, like in a wet bay, would it not be most efficient to use a heat lamp bulb designed to make heat, not light?

[Tumble Weed]

My cheap heat is doing better than any space heater.
I had 2 space heaters and now I don't have any. I also set it up myself.
It's doing a great job I'M glad we bought it.

[jamvir]

I am thinking that if we ordered a new rig with 2 A/C units, a heat pump in both will run around $700. So if we got the Cheap Heat system instead of the heat pumps, the Cheap Heat system would be approximately $800 more.

Would the Cheap Heat be more economical to operate than the heat pumps?

Jim

[PJL]

I changed my order when Excel 1st offered the Cheap Heat option, canceling the two heat pumps and paying a few more bucks for the Cheap Heat. I did this for all the reasons already stated in this thread. Picked up my 5er a month ago, and so far no regrets on adding the Cheap Heat. I've been in sub zero temps and it kept the rig warm. I did a test at one of the floor registers to measure the air temperature at the vent, and I recorded 119 degrees when using Cheap Heat, and only got 89 degrees using propane. (BTW, This difference makes no sense to me, as I would have expected warmer air with the 40k BTU propane furnace).

I will tell you the Cheap Heat system does draw a lot of amps when running (no surprise). My monitor shows an increase of 21 amps on Line 1 and 19 amps on Line 2 when the Cheap Heat furnace is running. Now 2 amps of the Line 1 increase appears to be tied to the blower, as I see this 2 amp increase when the propane furnace kicks in as well. Anyway, if not paying for electric, this isn't a concern. If paying for electric, it will cost quite a bit more to heat the whole rig at night using Cheap Heat versus simply using a space heater in the bedroom.

If you don't have to cost justify your purchases to anyone, you will love having the Cheap Heat system if you visit cooler climates.

[BRS50]

Well the Cheap Heat sounded like an option we'd like until I spoke with Bryan yesterday. It turns out that the Cheap Heat is not compatible with the two stage furnace. IMO one of the top features of a luxury coach is the two stage furnace. If I were to list my least favorite things about our previous non- luxury Arctic Fox FW the noisy single stage heater cycling on and off would be high on the list. (To make things worse with no big basement it was positioned inside the coach under the stove) I don't think I want to give up the quieter two stage furnace for the Cheap Heat option. Since we rarely camp in sub freezing temps and the heat pump AC's provide electric heat but without heating the underfloor areas it looks like we'll go with those. They'll do the job for most chilly days or nights and if we're out and it's in the low 30's (when heat pumps aren't that great in sub 40 degrees) we'll just go propane to heat the under carriage .

[rockintom]

Originally Posted by BRS50

Well the Cheap Heat sounded like an option we'd like until I spoke with Bryan yesterday. It turns out that the Cheap Heat is not compatible with the two stage furnace. IMO one of the top features of a luxury coach is the two stage furnace.

Oh my....thanks for the sharing. I'm with you. I like the lower noise level in the night with the 2 stage furnace. rockin'

[BRS50]

After posting about the Cheap Heat not being compatible with the 2 stage furnace I came across some conflicting info. A 4/18/13 article in RV Business is headlined "Cheap Heat Adaptable to 2-Stage Gas Furnace. The piece says:

CheapHeat add-on hybrid furnace system to work with the new two-stage gas furnaces. According to a press release, the new 2013 two-stage electric
conversion kit will now work seamlessly with the Atwood two-stage digital and Suburban two-stage analog thermostats.

I'm meeting with Bryan today trying to finalize an order for a '15 Excel so I'll ask him about this an see what he says.

[rockintom]

Originally Posted by BRS50

After posting about the Cheap Heat not being compatible with the 2 stage furnace I came across some conflicting info. A 4/18/13 article in RV Business is headlined "Cheap Heat Adaptable to 2-Stage Gas Furnace. The piece says:

CheapHeat add-on hybrid furnace system to work with the new two-stage gas furnaces. According to a press release, the new 2013 two-stage electric
conversion kit will now work seamlessly with the Atwood two-stage digital and Suburban two-stage analog thermostats.

I'm meeting with Bryan today trying to finalize an order for a '15 Excel so I'll ask him about this an see what he says.

I think you may be right. The RV Comfort System website shows the Suburban SH-42 as compatible. Let us know for sure. Thanks, rockin'

[BRS50]

We did finalize our order today and the Cheap Heat can be used with the 2-Stage furnace, it just needs a $100 additional component to work. It was an additional $650 to go Cheap Heat with 2-Stage furnace instead of heat pump AC's. For now I stuck with adding the heat pump option for the two AC's. My wife liked the idea of separate heat options for bedroom and lower level. With the ducted air it shouldn't be too noisy. My light sleeping wife cranks up a sound machine at night so even if it added to her white noise she wouldn't mind. We ordered for Sept delivery so I've got time to change my mind.

[rockintom]

Thanks for the update! rockin'

[Tumble Weed]

Here you can down load it from this site.

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