Staying Warm in the Motorhome

Our motorhome comes with two ways to heat it:  Heat Pump and two LP (Liquid Propane) furnaces.

One way to get warm and stay warm is to use the Heat Pump, or to run the air conditioner backwards, with an electric hook up. This is from eHow.com:  During the winter, the heat pump extracts heat from outside air and transports it inside the house (RV) where the ductwork distributes the heat throughout the home.

When we are using the Heat Pump, the warm air blows out through our ceiling vents, just as cooler air from the air conditioner blows out of the ceiling vents.

Heat pump does not work when the outside temperature goes below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Because we are boondocking, we are not hooked to electricity at night and don't want to run the generator so we are not using our Heat Pump.

On to LP heat.  We have an LP tank with 30 gallon capacity.  According to specs, it is to be filled to 80 percent or 24 gallons.  Because of the size of our motorhome, 40 feet, we have two LP furnaces.  One heats the entire rig and one in the back that heats only the bedroom and bathroom.  The LP furnaces are vented so they are not very efficient. they blow some of the heated air to the outside. We can keep all the windows shut tight when heating this way. 

We don't use both furnaces together.  It makes no sense to heat the bedroom when no one is there. Eric runs the furnace in the bedroom to warm up the room just before we go to bed.  He's concerned that running this furnace during the night would wake us because it's louder than the other one.  The living area furnace runs off and on during the night but this one is located where we cannot hear it running very much. 

We have portable LP heaters.  Eric bought a Camco Olympian Wave 8 Catalytic Propane Heater. 

This heater requires no electricity.  It works well at higher altitudes.  The gas source is our LP tank.  Eric had some alterations make to our LP line to run it. We have to crack a window when we use this heater. It is safe to use and is rated for indoor use but it needs oxygen from a window opened a small amount to run. If the oxygen gets too low it will shut itself down. Some people think it's not safe but that's mostly because people are not familiar with it. It is a proven safe technology that is great for boondocking since it uses no electricity.

The Mr. Heater Buddy Heater is about the same thing except it uses disposable one pound propane cylinders. 

Propane cylinders can get costly.  We use no electricity when we heat with this.  The motorhome is vented when we use this heater by cracking a window same as the Olympian wave does. It also has a low oxygen shutdown safety sensor.