Best electric heater options

[Tom]

Good information here which should make anyone leery of using unmonitored space heaters, especially at the max heat setting and with 15 amp circuits. In the future I think I'll run mine only at the low setting.

Once question concerning the second link John kindly provided. It said not to use electric space heaters in a GFI protected circuit. I've never heard this before. Can any of you electrical experts explain why a normal circuit is OK but not a GFI.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Tom

Good information here which should make anyone leery of using unmonitored space heaters, especially at the max heat setting and with 15 amp circuits. In the future I think I'll run mine only at the low setting.

Once question concerning the second link John kindly provided. It said not to use electric space heaters in a GFI protected circuit. I've never heard this before. Can any of you electrical experts explain why a normal circuit is OK but not a GFI.

Sure, simple answer, relay contacts whether they are in a transfer switch, a transfer relay in an inverter assembly or in a GFI are the 'weakest link" in the electrical supply circuit. They "snap closed/snap open" to protect the circuit. In doing that, they arc and can build up carbon on the contacts. That carbon produces a "poor connection" and causes heat buildup. So, the "relay contacts" in the GFI are prone to overheating and Sundance recommends not using an outlet that is GFI protected.

Ironically, in home use, space heater manufacturers recommend using a GFI if there is water near the space heater.

Unfortunately, an owner who has little knowledge of electrical components can read the "literal interpretation" and follow it to the letter and cause more harm than good. Sometimes the manufacturers are worried about the "lesser of two evils" (water vs heat buildup in the GFI) and "err on the side of caution" rather than completely omit the statement about protecting the appliance from water intrusion. I suppose it's safer for them (not the user) to have the caution rather than open the potential for a suit if they omitted the statement about the GFI protection. If a GFI is in use, their legal staff can always blame the GFI manufacturer for the problem to "shift the blame" Sad part is, the owner who was in the bath tub or sitting in his RV when the wall burst into flames is still without his RV or tub......

[outwest]

Originally Posted by Bob Landry

I agree. If the wire is properly sized and protected with the correct size circuit breaker, and you are not going to find any examples otherwise in a factory built trailer, the circuit breaker will trip long before the wire overheats to the point of causing a fire. as far as an outlet being made of "inferior" material", you can't buy any electrical parts or materials that are not UL approved, unless maybe you are in some third world country.
The only fires I have heard of was where a heater was placed too close to a combustible material and that's a case of stupidity, not an equipment or materials defect.

In addition to what some other posters have already written - I'm friends with an electrician (in Wisc) that bought a roll of romex at Menard's and began wiring a house. After installing some runs, he went to hook into the breaker box and discovered that some of the wires he had just run from the spool were missing the ground wire. Upon further examination, the ground wire wasn't a continuous wire in the romex. Instead, the chinese manufacturer had merely put in segments of wire, cheating the vendor (in this case, Menard's) out of a huge amount of copper. If they're willing to do that, I'd bet good money that they'd be willing to skimp on the gauge of the hot wires.


I had a space heater that began melting an outlet in the house a couple of years ago. Either it was drawing more than the 1500 watts it was rated at or there was more load on the circuit than I was aware of. Either way, though, it was an important lesson.

[Tom]

Thanks for the explanation John. Since I only have 2 utility curcuits in my trailer and one of them is a GFI, that won't allow the use of but 1 space heater.

Having said that, though, I have in the past used the microwave plug to run a space heater since it has it's own dedicated circuit. Not sure if the plug in the current rig is easy to access or not.

Fortunately, I'm not a big cold weather camper anyway. Since the wife is a school teacher, most of our camping is in hot weather- really hot weather.

[rhagfo]

Originally Posted by chris7913

check out http://www.rvcomfortsystems.com

Originally Posted by Richard6959

Chris, do you have one of these CheapHeat systems? Just curious how well it works, how well it blows if its ducted etc.

Don't know about Chris, but I have one installed and LOVE it!
They are add-on units to your existing propane furnace, once installed the furnace will work on either gas or electric.

I completed install myself with very solid in homeowner electrical experience. We then spent the month of January Hosting at the Oregon Coast. Temps ranged from very low 20's to a couple days of 50's, but mostly 20's to 30's. We have a 50 amp service and the unit set to the max of 5,000 watts (17,060 BTUs). Our 5er is what I consider a three season unit as the under belly is NOT sealed (yet), we do have tank heaters for the exposed tanks.

We had no power issue with the furnace running and using the microwave, HW on electric, and refer running on electric.
I also have the necessary wiring in place to switch over to 120V/30 amp application. I figure it would take about 10 to 15 minutes to make the switch.
We never had an issue keeping the 5er at our comfort temp of 68 degrees.
During the month the only propane we used for heating was what ever we used in the 2.5 hour drive from home to the park, as we now "pre-heat" the unit while traveling. Our total propane useage for the month was 4 gallons. This was for cooking, and fast HW recovery, DW used the oven often for cookies and roast.

The biggest issue I had was the location of our furnace, to have access to the heating element I needed fabricate a 3" extension to the duct work.

These two pictures show the furnace with the duct extension and Cheap Heat unit installed.





This is the 3" extension I made took about an hour without the use of a sheet metal brake.



This sketch shows the other improvement, in that I now have better airflow over the gas heat exchanger and when on gas the furnace puts out more heat.