Community Forums

OLYLEN · 10-09-2016, 07:22 AM

If the batteries run down that fast you need more battery pack or get a small Honda Gen to run all night on 1 gallon of fuel. If that cold and no heat in the bays, most three season RV's heat the bays with the furnace, you will have broken pipes. In moderate temps down to 40 at night run the Gen till 10pm, start the Gen at 6am to make coffee. Most of the newer furnaces run about 8 amps, 8 times 8-10 hours is 80 AH's so you need at least about 160 - 200 AH's of battery bank to keep you so you don't ruin the bank by too much discharge. Also one must monitor other 12 volt usage in the evening after Gen is off. Also one can drop the temp to the fifties in really cold times to extend the furnace run time and supplement the heat with some vented heat system. It is not comfortable to go at night but for us older people it does increase flow. LOL
Just need to experiment with what can work for your RV to be the the most comfortable as possible.

LEN

Pepper2 · 10-09-2016, 07:32 AM

NEVER! Same for your s/b.

baraff · 10-09-2016, 08:33 AM

Dry camping recently in the mountains of Colorado, we would just fire up the furnace in the morning and let it run to 68º or so. Once the sun came up, the coach warmed up quickly. It was in the mid 30's at night.
If you can't run your furnace overnight without running your battery down, you need new batteries, or else you've got something else running that's draining it down. In three days of dry camping we never even came close to running the batteries down, and we ran the furnace for a good hour each morning.
I would never use an oven to heat the MH. (But then we don't have a gas oven anyway).

UTTransplant · 10-09-2016, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paz

Because the furnace will quickly run the batteries down if you are dry camping.

Ummm. We dry camp all the time and use the furnace when we need. We calculate our amp hour needs based on what we need which includes the furnace. We then charge our batteries as needed.

To the OP, don't use the stove. Not safe.

Waiter21 · 10-10-2016, 06:04 AM

Solution to using oven to provide heat.

When you wake up in the morning, turn your oven on and preheat it to 350 degrees, This might take 30 - 45 minutes.

When your absolutely sure the oven is warm and preheated properly, put some cookies in the oven and bake them until they are golden brown.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool. Don't turn the oven off yet, because you'll be baking another batch as soon as your OK with the first batch, which may take an hour or so for them to cool enough to test.

Continue baking cookies until its nice and toasty warm or I've eaten all the cookies. whichever comes first.

ALTERNATE CHOICE

If Cookies are not on the schedule for the day, perhaps you need to boil water to poach eggs , make coffee, or heating water to wash dishes..

Turn on all three burners, and place a kettle of water on the burner. Allow the water to boil until you're ready for the water.

WARNING

Anytime you bake cookies or boil water for coffee in a closed up MH, You really need to open a vent or window to supply fresh air.

ALSO never bake cookies or boil water if your not there to keep an eye on things. If the burners blow out, but the LP is still turned on, the cookies could be ruined if the stove explodes.

Our kitchen has a CO (Carbon Monoxide) alarm. ALL MHs should have one... This adds an additional safety factor.

dvmweb · 10-10-2016, 11:59 AM

We heat up food.
To heat moho we use the furnaces. That is what they are for. Safer.

2013 FleetWood Expedition 38B
2015 Fiat 500 Pop stick

VAParrothead · 10-11-2016, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paz

For dry camping, get a high-efficiency, catalytic heater like the Olympian Wave or a Mr. Heater. Catalytic heaters are available in various sizes, they don't use any electricity, and they do not produce appreciable quantities of carbon monoxide.

X2. We have, and use, a Mr. Heater taking the proper precautions, of course. It's a much better option than using the oven, which is *not* recommended.

okcnewbie · 10-11-2016, 01:31 PM

Never ever ever.........

But you could get up and cook some bacon and eggs on the stove. This would take the chill off. Especially if you're cooking for a group.

Drewd · 10-11-2016, 10:14 PM

I dry camp in Colorado at high altitudes, usually 10k and above and my heater runs almost all night.

2 Group 24 batteries discharged below 50% and that was not acceptable.

2 232 amp hour 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series fixed the issue for us. In addition, we got a PD 70 amp converter and moved it within 2 feet of the battery bank. This cut down our generator use significantly.

We no longer use a generator. We have 400 watts of solar and almost 700 amp hours of battery capacity via 3 switchable battery banks. We use only 2 banks at a time and rotate them on a daily basis so all are exercised evenly. We can go 3 days on the two batteries and the third bank gives another day or so of usage before we need to fire up the generator.

If I had a larger 5th wheel with space to spare, I'd consider a small wood stove. I used to heat my apartment with wood and would place a block of coal in it which would burn all night keeping eveything nice and toasty.

upload pics

Another option:

Have a couple of these share the bed with you.

imgurl

Arch Hoagland · 10-11-2016, 10:56 PM

Carbon monoxide poisoning Symptoms - Mayo Clinic

It could kill you.

TdogKing · 10-12-2016, 10:04 PM

We have Boondocked in the So Cal desert in the winter for 30 some years. We never run the heater at night and have enough blankets etc that we are comfortable. Who ever wakes to use bathroom around 6:00ish or so they turn on heater and when we get up in a hour the coach is warm. We too use a Big Buddy heater on mornings we just need a little heat. We have 4 Golf Cart batteries and 11amps of Solar panels but the heater switching on and off all night keeps me awake too much.