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CLOC-AdminCan grey/black tanks be heated with electricity?
https://carriage-lifestyle-owners.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2647
Posted: 6:33 AM – Nov 14, 2015Hi all. I’m fulltiming in my Carrie Lite, which has the “Arctic” package or whatever and is suppose to withstand 4 seasons. My first winter in North Carolina last year, I thought I’d save LP by running my electric heaters. Ignorantly, I didn’t realize that the LP system is what heated the tanks. I spent about $500 on that learning opportunity. Anyhow, I’m in an urban park in North Carolina this winter with good electrical power that’s included in my monthly site rental fee.I’m trying to figure out if there is a practical way to use an electric heater and some kind of blower set up next to the furnace to push heated air through the ducting system that feeds the tanks. Plus as I did last winter, I have a little heater I leave in the basement that keeps other stuff warm. If this tank heater idea could work, then I wouldn’t have to listen to the 40K furnace kicking on and off during the night plus this would be much cheaper because my electric is included in my monthly rate. Since my tanks are double lined with insulation and venting hooked into the furnace, I don’t think using those “heating pads” attached to the lower side of the tanks would work, but that’s another question. If electric heating pads could work, maybe that’s the way to go, but I can’t see how they’d work on a double walled tank.
Any thoughts on a heater, blower, thermostat combination hooked in at the furnace? There is plenty of room between the basement and the bulkhead in this 36XTRM5. I’d want to build this as an option, so that the LP system could function while boon docking, etc. I used to build houses and it seems like a creative mechanical contractor could figure this out. I just wanted to check with the forum to smell test this idea.
Any thoughts?
Posted: 8:00 AM – Nov 14, 2015I would look into the tank heaters. most run off of 12 volts so you could also use them dry camping.
I had tank heaters on my first 5er and they worked very well.Posted: 8:04 AM – Nov 14, 2015I believe newer arctic pkgs use electric tank heaters AND use the furnace to warm the basement. One without the other may prove less than optimal in a cold environment.Posted: 1:21 PM – Nov 14, 2015I don’t know if this is something you’re interested in, but look at the Cheapheat system. It’s an electric add-on to your furnace. It will do what you want, I don’t know the cost.Cliff
Posted: 1:56 PM – Nov 14, 2015papacliff wrote:I don’t know if this is something you’re interested in, but look at the Cheapheat system. It’s an electric add-on to your furnace. It will do what you want, I don’t know the cost.Cliff
Cliff, Thanks! That is a neat little package and I have plenty of room. I changed out a 240 cooktop for gas, so I got an extra 240 breaker open for this application. I’m going to consider then closely. Looks like $1,500 all in. A 12% return and 5 months of use per year would be $36 saved to make this pay for itself. I’m planning on wintering out west quite a bit, so it seems reasonable, as RV stuff goes. Most RV stuff, including the trailer itself, is a chain pull to start with.
Posted: 2:30 PM – Nov 14, 2015http://www.motorhome.com/rv-how-to/addi … g-furnace/great article on the cheapheat. looks great
Posted: 5:40 AM – Nov 18, 2015Thanks all. I looked into the cheap heat extensively and talked to the owner, but decided not to go that rout. I think its a great idea and many folks will get good use from cheap heat, but its a personal decision. I had a good conversation on an Escapee forum thread http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=113389 just because it was already started. I can’t “warm up” to the fact that the furnace fan still has to run, plus the 5KW load on these little 50 amp trailer services is somewhat of a hog.This is what I plan to do to set up for mid/northwestern wintering (except the coldest 45 days perhaps), because I like mountaineering and snow sports, plus I like it warm.
I’d be at a 50 amp pedestal and use a combination of electrical space heaters and my 40,000 suburban gas furnace. I do have a Coleman heat pump in the living room, but assume it’s too cold to use it. I have a 1,500 watt electric fireplace and a few space heaters. I’m thinking that I’ll set my gas furnace at a low temp so it could support the electric heaters in the night or day. Initially, I was thinking cheapheat would allow me to avoid running my gas furnace “fan” so much. The disassociation of most any RV’s T-stat from the temps affecting the tanks is a design shortfall, which causes awkward operating issues, when one prefers electric space heaters. I realize that space heaters can add up to the same loads as the 240 volt cheapheat system, but I feel better about the space heaters being distributed over various breakers, rather than on a single double 30 amp breaker with about 21 amps per leg feeding cheapheat. I have no idea if my “loan distribution” theory is valid or not.
I’m thinking of installing a “Y” and a couple valves so that the existing single duct feeding the tanks may be split near the furnace to provide a second run. This second run would be hard ducting pushed about 12′ within the subfloor towards the rear living room. This should increase the btu output of the existing registers, etc. In addition, I’d install the Ultra-Heat Holding Tank Heater solution, or something like that, so that I have an electrical option to heat the tanks, or as a gas supplement, if in extreme temps. When temps are below freezing – day and night – the ultra heat tank heater solution runs off DC power, so it optionally runs while towing if needed, whereas it’s plugged into AC while at a park pedestal. I like this DC/AC variability. Unless extremely cold, the electric tank heaters seem fine without gas supplement, so I could get by during cold nights and not listen to the furnace screaming by using all electric. The furnace fan is a hideous annoyance that fills the complaint box around my rig.
My plan overcomes one weakness with cheapheat that I perceive, which is that there is no auto switch to return you to gas if electricity fails in the night. Of course, one can run out of gas too, but I control the gas supply, whereas I cannot control electrical failure. In a place where I suspect electrical failure may be an issue, I’d keep the gas valve leg open to the tanks, not to the living room leg as described. If the electricity fails, gas kicks on, I’m good in the morning and the complaint box remains empty. Everyone is different. When I have run out of gas, I just wake up cold in the morning. The cold does not wake me up, which would allow for manually switching cheapheat back over to gas. If cheapheat is a good idea, and it sure seems to be, than the cheapheat manufacturer or the Atwoods and Suburbans of the world may develop a central heating solution that that burns both electricity and gas and automatically switches back and forth, but not today it seems.
Sorry for the long post, but I wonder if I’m off base anywhere or whether others have ways to improve on this strategy.
Posted: 8:19 PM – Nov 20, 2015I installed cheap heat myself not hard IM not an electrical engineer or electrician just an old insurance man.
The help I need was to make sure I hooked wires to the motor correctly. works really good. Seems like more of a even temp.
Also added bonus I don’t have to tot propane tanks the way I used to.Posted: 4:58 AM – Nov 21, 2015Rumager wrote:I installed cheap heat myself not hard IM not an electrical engineer or electrician just an old insurance man.
The help I need was to make sure I hooked wires to the motor correctly. works really good. Seems like more of a even temp.
Also added bonus I don’t have to tot propane tanks the way I used to.Thanks for the input. Do breakers ever trip while running the cheap heat?
Posted: 8:24 PM – Dec 20, 2016I know this is an old post but still wanted to add my 2 cents. Last weekend in Dallas the temps dropped to 15 for 2 nights. I used 3 space heaters to keep the fifth wheel warm and plugged in a 120v lamp in the garage next to the water tank. Everything worked fine and the furnace was left off the entire time.
GregB.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX
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