Really dumb question on furnace

[nellie1289]

when you are plugged in does electric do anyting to create heat or is it gas 100% of the time. I imagine the fan works better because of the electric(longer) but electric doesn nothing to create heat. used my heater for first time in 2015 last night.

[Festus2]

when you are plugged in does electric do anyting to create heat or is it gas 100% of the time. I imagine the fan works better because of the electric(longer) but electric doesn nothing to create heat. used my heater for first time in 2015 last night.

No, being plugged in has nothing at all to do with the operation of the furnace. It runs off propane and uses 12VDC to run the fan.

[hankaye]

nellie1289, Howdy;

Mr. Festus2 is very correct about the running of your Furnace being solely
12vdc and propane. However, 120vac, that you plug into at a campsite is
used to re-charge the batteries.

hankaye

[bsmith0404]

Wow that was a really dumb question :p

Just kidding. FYI, there are no really dumb questions when dealing with an RV, especially when dealing with the electrical system. Trying to understand the variances of 12v, 120v, and even some "electrical" items such as the refrigerator running off of propane can be very confusing.

[nellie1289]

Thanks all. I wonder how long propane lasts in general. It gets down in the 40's where I'm at right now and it runs at night and in morn but then it's plenty warm during the day. I have 14.2 gallons or 60lbs on board. Anyone have any experience with this? Electric is running water Heater. Thermostat is set at 70.

[bsmith0404]

It will vary depending on how often you open the door or if any of your windows have a draft, how much you cook....... Obviously size of RV will play into that as well. I have camped many times in the temps you are talking about, my previous trailer would go through a 30 lb tank about every 4 days. Lasts a lot longer with my current trailer, but we have an electric fireplace and an electric heat pump so the furnace isn't doing as much of the work.

[Whitewolf]

What bsmith said. We've been living in our 34' 5r for several months due to some reconstruction of our home. We have an electric fireplace and gas furnace. Before I went moose hunting for 2 weeks I made sure both 30lb tanks were full. Shortly after I returned we switched to the second tank. 2 weeks later I had to refill both. So currently I'm getting 2 wks per tank.
Electric fireplace runs day and night. Not much cooking on the stove except on the stovetop, and that's minimal.

[hankaye]

nellie1289, Howdy;

How much propane you use depends on a few variables one is what Ma Nature
sends your way, the rest is up to you (the things we each set for ourselves),
how warm do you feel it needs to be for you to be comfortable, how cool you like
it for sleeping, how much you cook, heat water for dishes, showers and everything
else you might find a use for your propane.
When I lived in Central Utah and the temps got waaaay down there in the
-30 to -40 range a 30# tank might last 2, 3 or 4 days ... maybe and if I was
careful. Then, when I set-up a 125 gal. tank it, would last a Month. Here in
Southern New Mexico (seldom gets below +10 F), the same 125 gal. tank lasts 4 or
5 months, so, ya see it all depends on the variables ...

hankaye

[arturob]

You might want to do a little test on your furnace. Go outside when the furnace is running and find the exhaust port. CAREFULLY bring your hand towards the stream of air coming out of the exhaust and see how hot it is. I believe from my reading that RV furnaces are at most 30-40% efficient so much of the heat you're generating with your expensive propane is going to heat the great outdoors. (At one point I used 2 30lb tanks in a week trying to keep 65 degrees inside at -1c outside). Problem number two is the furnace fan. Consumes about 7 amps and if it is cold outside it can run almost fulltime. A) noisy and B) will rapidly drain your batteries unless youre hooked to shore power. After running out of battery power (which also shuts down propane fridge) when we were boondocking at 4500' in December we decided to go with a Mr Heater Big Buddy catalytic heater. All the heat stays in the trailer, no power drain although you can hook up a high efficiency 1amp 12v fan. Only downside is we dont leave the heater on overnight usually so morning wake up can be chilly for the first hour or so. One additional caveat - many trailers use the furnace ducting to heat holding tanks. If you dont use the furnace, no heat to holding tanks. You can get a low power aux fan to blow air from main trailer cabin into basement - we are thinking of installing but havent yet. We have boondocked to -5c overnight without problem but I would be hesitant about going much below that.

[JRTJH]

You might want to do a little test on your furnace. Go outside when the furnace is running and find the exhaust port. CAREFULLY bring your hand towards the stream of air coming out of the exhaust and see how hot it is. I believe from my reading that RV furnaces are at most 30-40% efficient so much of the heat you're generating with your expensive propane is going to heat the great outdoors. (At one point I used 2 30lb tanks in a week trying to keep 65 degrees inside at -1c outside). Problem number two is the furnace fan. Consumes about 7 amps and if it is cold outside it can run almost fulltime. A) noisy and B) will rapidly drain your batteries unless youre hooked to shore power. After running out of battery power (which also shuts down propane fridge) when we were boondocking at 4500' in December we decided to go with a Mr Heater Big Buddy catalytic heater. All the heat stays in the trailer, no power drain although you can hook up a high efficiency 1amp 12v fan. Only downside is we dont leave the heater on overnight usually so morning wake up can be chilly for the first hour or so. One additional caveat - many trailers use the furnace ducting to heat holding tanks. If you dont use the furnace, no heat to holding tanks. You can get a low power aux fan to blow air from main trailer cabin into basement - we are thinking of installing but havent yet. We have boondocked to -5c overnight without problem but I would be hesitant about going much below that.

Have you considered a 12 volt "computer fan" to lay on one of the furnace duct vents located near your holding tanks? You could essentially power the "computer fan" with a small "motorcycle battery" and if your Buddy Heater is located nearby, provide "backflow cabin heat into the basement with no drain on your RV electrical system.

I haven't done this yet, but have considered it, just haven't found the right trip to "rig it up".....

[Bob Landry]

Keep in mind that it doesn't get brutal cold in Central Texas, but here is what I do. First, we always stay in CGs where we have electric hookups.
I installed a 20A service in addition to the standard 30A that powers two outlets, marked for space heater use only. Yes, it does go through a 20A breaker. What I still need to do is move one of the outlets over to the A/C breaker, since I won't run A/C and heat at the same time. The reason for this is that even a small space heater will require close to 20A at full heat setting and the heaters will trip the 20A breaker if I try to run them both at max. I think I have run my propane furnace two times in four years.
I also added a second 30A service and split the loads between the two breaker panels, leaving the inductive loads on the one that is protected by the EMS. The second panel is set up to combine the two inputs in the event I run into a place where there is only one 30A outlet. Otherwise they are separate and provide two 30A inputs. The two shore power cords are connected to the 50A pedestal outlet using a breakout box. With everything connected I have 80A of electrical service, not as good as a 50A, but it was much easier to install and it provides all of the power I need to run the trailer.

My propane is used only to run the fridge on travel days, occasional indoor cooking, and the outdoor grill and camp stove. The last 30lb bottle of propane lasted a year.

[nellie1289]

as an update I got home and due to the weather outside(foggy) it was pretty easy to see how much propane I used over the summer running the fridge and gas water heater and how much the last four days running the heat pretty steady. about 3/4 of one of my two tanks. I have the switch set to only pull from one tank so I was going to empty this one, then flip the switch over to the other tank, and burn that one out, then keep cycling back and forth. Am I missing anything on what to do other than turning the gas off at the tank that is empty and flipping the lever over to the other tank before I go refill it?

pics attached for ease of reference ...you can see the sweat line to know how much was left in that tank. the lever is switched to the right which is the tank in the pic.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_187772_0_cb35833930f6e4a220aff393c7523940.jpg

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_187772_1_7658d2b07536f70540e55509d4329f8a.jpg

[Pmedic4]

pics attached for ease of reference ...you can see the sweat line to know how much was left in that tank. the lever is switched to the right which is the tank in the pic.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_187780_0_cb35833930f6e4a220aff393c7523940.jpg

Seems like there is always someone asking how you tell how much propane is left in the cylinder - this is second best method, after taking it out and weighing it.:D

[mfifield01]

Anyone use the in line level indicators?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[cw3jason]

Just a side note: if you leave both tanks open, the valve will auto switch to the other tank so you don't run out of propane in the middle of the night and freeze. you will be able to tell when it switched by looking at your indicator. if it is red, the tank selected by the location of the lever is empty and you are running of the other tank. just move the lever to the good tank and it will turn green again. Then just turn off empty tank and remove for filling. Once full, re-install and open valve, this now becomes your reserve and when your primary tank is empty just reverse the process and repeat.

[nellie1289]

great info thank you for the novice!

[phinner]

If we're going to be hooked up to shore power (read: all the time!), we'll bring along an oil filled radiant heater. Cheaper to use their electricity than our propane and I imagine it would, generally, last quite a bit longer.

Oil Filled Electric Heater (https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=oil+filled+electric+heater&safe=active&tbm=shop)