Furnace and other heating options.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Defenestrator

The furnace blower runs off the 12V battery. It can be a bit hungry, though. Running full blast it'll empty the battery in under a day. Realistically it won't run anywhere close to constantly unless it's really cold, but it'll still eat into your power a decent bit.

i've dry camped for a week in my casita with just a 27m batt, ran the furnace every night, didn't kill the battery. I was using a 100W Renogy 'solar suitcase' to recharge the battery each day.

i've done the same a bunch of times in my Escape, but it has dual GC-2 batts (220AH combined), and 160W rooftop solar, so the batteries usually fully charged before I even wake up.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Defenestrator

The furnace blower runs off the 12V battery. It can be a bit hungry, though. Running full blast it'll empty the battery in under a day. Realistically it won't run anywhere close to constantly unless it's really cold, but it'll still eat into your power a decent bit.

Let's take a quick look at this. Typical RV/Marine battery is 74 amp hours. the Suburban Furnace is about 3 amps (Measured) vs 3.1 amps as listed in the manual. Now "How long will that last?" Usable current from a 74 am hour battery is about 37 amp hours. if you were to run it all the time it would take about 12 hours to the run the battery down. I know about you but that would drive me totally out the trailer.
Even when were in 5\ weather I would run the furnace about 10 minutes before it hot in my 13' to want to turn it off. About 30 minutes lto and hour later it go cold enough I'd turn it on. It would take quite a while to run the battery down.
Also as pointed out earlier the burner box takes fresh in and exhaust outside. Therefore there's no effect on the inside air other than temperature.
I always set it to turn on if the inside drops below 45° to 50°. One more thing I always keep a window cracked ai bit and ceiling vent open a litle. The volume of air in the 13' trailer is so small that I think it's a good idea to keep air circulating.
We've been using the trailer Since got 15 years ago the last 10 we've averaged about 100 nights per year.

[RogerDat]

I'm still looking into what I might use on the counter as a heater that won't bake me out and might be a tad safer than my 40 some year old gravity furnace. It still works ok and check out ok but.... let us just say while I don't mind dying peacefully in my sleep I'm not in a rush to do so. Wife would never forgive me if it caused the dog harm either so if I don't want to be buried in a shoe box in a land fill....

I would think even a 3,000 btu heater would be more than adequate. I would guess a candle could as it can in a car add about 10* F to the ambient temperature. Although there is probably more air space in a 13 ft. camper so not exactly sure. If it is 40* F outside and 50* F inside that should be sufficient for my needs.

Dog does complicate things in that I wouldn't want anything down on the floor where the dog could knock into it. Not a lot of floor space and it would be too easy for an accident so it has to sit on the counter or in the sink and not overheat the overhead cabinets. I imagine even a small propane lantern on really low should be good for a night even in pretty cool weather.

I saw a small maybe 5# propane tank at recent rally, I could see something like that with an infrared attached might be stable enough for setting on the floor and leaving on all night. Should provide several nights of heat. One of those can heat an ice shanty so camper should be no problem.

Frankly the furnace in the old Scamp is like the fridge. It is there, it should work but not really going to use it because it just isn't practical or an especially great solution for most use cases.

[stevebaz]

up graded candle.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cand...DqSEweOM2JmwcM

[Defenestrator]

Be very cautious of the candle method. That yellow flame is going to put out a fair bit of carbon monoxide, especially compared to the amount of heat you get.

[John in Santa Cruz]

ANYthing that burns in a closed space and isn't ventilating its exhaust gases to the outside IS A SOURCE OF CARBON MONOXIDE. an RV furnace has an exhaust port on the outside, and heats the inside air via a heat exchanger.

[stevebaz]

the furnace is pure overkill when we go to Quartzsite in January it 60-75 by day and at night gets down to the mid 30's or so I use my Attwood 2 every night. it keeps me and my wife and the dog warm and happy. when it comes on its like a blast furnace and heats up the trailer in 5 minutes or so and then shuts off for 45 minutes to an hour. then comes on again so it comes on for 12 to 16 times throughout the night and early morning. I keep my thermostat at 70 or so. I have no generator so i am powering everything by my 1 group 27 lead acid battery. I have 2 small 35 watt 12 volt solar panels I put out to charge my battery most clear days I am recharged by noon so within 6 hours I have replaced my consumption. I can go about 3 days without recharging if I had to. the sun is so low at that time of the year I have to hang my panels off the side of the trailer instead of flat on top. I put them up and down through the emergency hatch on top of the Scamp. I keep them up there by a rope straddling the hatch and bungee cord if i need to . wind out there in the desert can get heavy especially in the late afternoon. we are not in the trailer by day and at night we use Led lights and my small dvd player.

[Defenestrator]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

ANYthing that burns in a closed space and isn't ventilating its exhaust gases to the outside IS A SOURCE OF CARBON MONOXIDE. an RV furnace has an exhaust port on the outside, and heats the inside air via a heat exchanger.

True. The partially-covered candles exacerbate this, because they tend to be a bit short on oxygen so combustion produces way more CO rather than CO2. The catalytic heaters are at least carefully designed to burn hot and lean, minimizing CO production under normal operation.