electric central heat

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by TDiGuy

Hi ladyFitz
Here is a link to the one of the heaters I have been using.
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices
It draws 11.9amp uses 1368 watts is rated 5100btu and is similar to eden pur. I don't like that fact that it is only high power.... I got a second one from
menards and it is cheaper but has a high and low button... it uses 1280watts on high and 788 on low... draws 11.9amps per killawatt ez.. and is also rated 5100btu. I also have an electric cube by titon that draws 5.8amps and 566 watts on high...
The cube element heater is in the basement.
Each heater is on a different circut and I turn them off to use the micro...
One word of caution... they do put off an odor for the first few hours... It bother me alot so i put them in the house for the first few hours...
Last night my gas furnace did not run... the temp at sunrise was 17' outside and 68' in the bedroom...basement was 62'... I had moved the bedroom one closer to the bedroom in a straight shot instead of in the kitchen... then I ran my day/night blinds down past the trim which made them seal out the cold draft around the thermopane windows in the bedroom. It was a warm moist heat... They heat the water in the air so it is important to have about 40% humidity... my gas furance would dry out the air...
my nose is not dry and itchy too... It also is a lot less noise. the fans on the lifesmart are hardly noticed. The furnace fan would wake me up at night...
These are way better than last year when i used cheap $20 electric element heaters... The furnace would still run with them...
jeff
jeff

Thanks for the link. Aapparently, you got one heck of a deal on them.

Any appliance that generates heat, such as a heater, furnace, stove, etc. will put out a burnt odor until the manufacturing residues are burned off.

Those seem to be nice heaters. Once armed with a part number, I checked the description and reviews on Amazon. The reviews were less than kind but there were only five reviewers which isn't enough to form an opinion from.

They are a bit pricey. I would hate to spring for 5KW worth (actually only 4500W unles one goes ahead and gets a fourth unit) however. And I would still have the problem of where to put them and plug them in. That doesn't mean they wouldn't work for someone else.

[Paw John]

I still can't see where someone using three portable heaters to heat the inside of the camper. I'm like you LadyFitz moving around the inside of the camper and having to becareful of knocking them over. Also to have one in the basement scares me. I can live with my heater blower noise. my Cheap Heat system is an even heat and I think that the next time I have it running I will cover the heater vent in the bathroom under the thermostat. this should help the heater and keep it from cycling so quick. When the wife and I go camping we bring our Yellow Lab Name Ali, She is 3 & 1/2 year old. Also the Grand Kids like to camp with us. So Thats why I went with the Cheap Heat system. Still working to clear up all the wood and tin from my old shop. Then I can put my camper back on the pad.

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by Paw John

I still can't see where someone using three portable heaters to heat the inside of the camper. I'm like you LadyFitz moving around the inside of the camper and having to becareful of knocking them over. Also to have one in the basement scares me. I can live with my heater blower noise. my Cheap Heat system is an even heat and I think that the next time I have it running I will cover the heater vent in the bathroom under the thermostat. this should help the heater and keep it from cycling so quick. When the wife and I go camping we bring our Yellow Lab Name Ali, She is 3 & 1/2 year old. Also the Grand Kids like to camp with us. So Thats why I went with the Cheap Heat system. Still working to clear up all the wood and tin from my old shop. Then I can put my camper back on the pad.

At least I wouldn't have to worry about a basement.

[mikell]

We have the Keystone Alpine with a heat pump and so far it's worked great down top 30 and for short periods below. Were in South West Michigan and the furnace has only been turned on in the morning a couple of times because the heat pump takes a while to come up from the 67 night time setting to warm enough to get out of the shower

Originally Posted by LadyFitz...

You might be thinking of me. When I'm ready to order my TT, I'm going to try to get it without any A/Cs (the wiring would already be inplace but i would have to pull new thermostat wiring). The roof top unit of a heat pump is $200-$250 more than a conventional A/C. The lower unit is roughly the same price. Thermostats will run more since RVs usually have mechanical ones installed and heat pumps usually need a digital thermostat (how much more depends on how sophisticated a thermostat one wants). The total cost more for a heat pump than a conventional A/C would run roughly $300-$350. This does not factor in labor and that the factory credit for not installing an A/C will be less than the retail cost of the A/C.

Replacing an existing A/C with a heat pump instead of another A/C would be even more expensive because the both the roof top unit and the lower unit would have to be replaced, plus the thermostat. If the A/C is still good, it would be hard to justify the expense from a cost effectiveness standpoint.

Heat pumps are far more efficient than resistive heating. You get far more BTUs from a KW of electricity. If depending on electric heat only, the increased cost of the heat pump will far more quickly amortized than the Cheap heat unit (frankly, it's not likely the cost of the Cheap Heat will ever be amortized over its life, especially if one has to pay for installation) as long as it is used only in mild weather (40 degrees up). Heat pumps fall off in efficiency as the outside temperature drops and are ineffective when the temperature drops far enough (the figure varies from unit to unit). I've see the low temperature cutoff for RV heat pumps reported as being 30-40 degrees on the RV forums I haunt.

To deal with that problem, residential heat pumps also have heat strips to either boost the heat output as performance falls off or replace the heat pump (or both). RV heat pumps do not have that option. The thermostats usually have the option to manually switch from heat pump to furnace.


For me, the heat pumps will be well worth the investment because They will be a new installation instead of replacing exisiting A/Cs the extra up front expense will be amortized in two or three years. If I install the Cheap Heat, it will never pay for itself in fuel savings. It's expense would be justified in the convenience of having supplemental central electric heat that can be automatically controlled when the temperature gets too low and by not having to frequently refill propane tanks.

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by mikell

We have the Keystone Alpine with a heat pump and so far it's worked great down top 30 and for short periods below. Were in South West Michigan and the furnace has only been turned on in the morning a couple of times because the heat pump takes a while to come up from the 67 night time setting to warm enough to get out of the shower

Thanks for that feedback. Was the heat pump a roof top model or basement? What make was the heat pump?

[mikell]

It's a roof model that came on our unit. Dometic Brisk Air and it has been working wonderfully down to 30 degrees.Products - Dometic

I highly recomend it our furnace has only been on 3-4 times in the morning only.

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by mikell

It's a roof model that came on our unit. Dometic Brisk Air and it has been working wonderfully down to 30 degrees.Products - Dometic

I highly recomend it our furnace has only been on 3-4 times in the morning only.

Again, thanks!

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by mikell

It's a roof model that came on our unit. Dometic Brisk Air and it has been working wonderfully down to 30 degrees.Products - Dometic

I highly recomend it our furnace has only been on 3-4 times in the morning only.

I downloaded the literature available on the Dometic site you linked and breezed through it. Just for the record, the product brochure stated that 35° is the low temperature threshold (that doesn't mean your units don't go down to 30°; settings can be changed). Using a Dometic thermostat, the unit will switch from heat pump to the gas furnace below that threshold.

I'm still leaning towards getting Colemans. The concensus in various forums on whether Dometic or Coleman A/Cs are better is that both are pretty much equal in quality. I have a 4800 btu Coleman package unit I installed on my mobile home that has been going since summer of '96 (it's a heat pump but I use only the A/C since the furnace works just fine; the heat pump was only $100 more than A/C only and is a quickie back up should the furnace ever fail). The only service it has needed besides oiling the outside fan motor annually (the inside fan motor is permanently lubed) was to recharge the refrigerant back in '07. That is hard to beat for reliability! The other reason is Coleman has a larger selection of 12v thermostats available than Dometic.

I still need to check out the multizone thermostat that Dometic showed in one of their downloads to see how it works. Something else I saw that was interesting was there is a stage DIP switch setting on the heat pump that the directions said is not used. It would be interesting to know just what that setting does.

[Paw John]

I will be putting my camper back on the pad and plugging it in tonight. I will be able to get some Amp draw from the heater system next week. My son is offshore untill next Thursday. So I should have the reading by Saturday the day before Christmas. Thanks for all your input and I hope every body has a great holiday.

[LadyFitz...]

I found directions for Dometic's Comfort Care Center (fancy term for fancy thermostat) and it looks promising. It appears that by locating the remote sensors for each HP in the same location, each of the two zones can be set to make the two HPs behave as a two stage installation by offsetting the temperature limits for the zones by a couple of degrees. No extra circuitry needed.

I also found directions for a Comfort Care Control 2 thermostat that will also allow automatic switch over from cool to heat but I can't find anyone who sells them.

Btw, the directions for installing the HPs and operating the thermostat say the low temperature threshold is 30°. Dometic's brochure also says that phine cable can be used for connection but the installation and operating instructions say not to use phone cable.

[mikell]

Everuthing I read said good to 30 degrees but I seem to notice that it doesn't heat well above 72 at that input temp. Works for me and thats all that matters

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by mikell

Everuthing I read said good to 30 degrees but I seem to notice that it doesn't heat well above 72 at that input temp. Works for me and thats all that matters

72° is where I keep my home thermostat set so that also would work for me.

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by LadyFitz...

...I also found directions for a Comfort Care Control 2 thermostat that will also allow automatic switch over from cool to heat but I can't find anyone who sells them...

I fired off an email to Dometic about the CCC2 thermostat's availability and they said any RV dealer will sell them but they will have to order them. I don't know if Dometic just doesn't want to retail them or if it's too new for the retailers to have enough demand to justify stocking them yet. I didn't ask since I still would have to order one if I decide to go with Dometic instead of Coleman.

[LadyFitz...]

Originally Posted by LadyFitz...

...Power for it is easily obtained. The furnace is located in the same undercounter space as the electrical panel. If I'm lucky, I can replace the main double pole breaker with a quad half pole breaker that has the two center half poles bridged for 240v (that would be the 50A main) and the outer half poles bridged (that would become the 30A breaker for the Cheap Heat). Some brands carry that kind of setup but it remains to be seen if I can find one to fit the panel that will be in the TT I get. If not, then a separate panel will be needed...

It looks like I am going to get lucky on a power source if I decide to install the Cheap Heat. The 2011 model of the TT I want to get uses a Dynamic Industries 4500 series Intellipower panel. It can take a variety of breakers but the TT comes with Cutler Hammer/Bryant type BR or BRD breakers installed. I did a little nosing around on the internet and found out both Lowes and Home Depot sell a type BR quad breaker bridged to form two 240v breakers, one 30A and the other 50A. If that breaker will fit the panel, as I expect it will, and Jayco doesn't change panels by the time I'm able to get my TT, then I won't need to use a separate panel to feed the Cheap Heat. Just pop this little puppy in place of the two pole 50A main, feed the panel through the 50A breakers in the quad and feed Cheap Heat from the 30A breakers.