Keeping the RV warm

[Sir Henry]

Today is Thursday and that means my housecleaner is here. I usually plan on going somewhere but not being able to drive keeps me home. I decided to spend the morning in the RV. It’s really nice having it.

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I keep the thermostat at 40F so it doesn’t freeze inside. I turned the furnace on two hours ago and it’s been running 90% of the time. I’m thinking eventually everything will warm up and it will run less and less.

I’m really curious how much propane it will use heating it for football games and days like today. When I wintered over down south it took about a month to use the 33 gallons in the 40 gallon tank. It’s now connected to a 500 gallon tank.

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[dave77]

30 some gallons is about what my friend's 5th wheel uses in a month but she also runs a radiator type electric heater. Our Winters are a lot milder and shorter than yours but I'd think your 500 gallon tank would be more than enough for the Winter especially since it's only kept at 40F most of the time.

Does your 500gal tank have a gauge on it?

[John E Davies]

Nice setup, FYI - RV appliances are garbage, don’t rely on the furnace alone. Plug in a couple of small box heaters near the galley and bathroom, keep them set to a lower temperature than the main thermostat. That way you will have some heat if the furnace fails. Better yet, drain the tanks and winterize the plumbing and you won’t have to worry about expensive freezing damage. If you are not living in it, there is no reason to keep the water systems active.

A poorly insulated RV will blow through WAY more propane than your house, it is a very costly habit to try to keep it warm over an entire northern winter…..

John Davies
Spokane WA

[daytime dave]

A home not so far away from home.

[North Country Gal]

Yup, as we used to say back in my hippie days, "take a trip and never leave the farm".

[Sir Henry]

30 some gallons is about what my friend's 5th wheel uses in a month but she also runs a radiator type electric heater. Our Winters are a lot milder and shorter than yours but I'd think your 500 gallon tank would be more than enough for the Winter especially since it's only kept at 40F most of the time.

Does your 500gal tank have a gauge on it?

Yes it does. Both on the RV and the 500 gallon tank. The RV tank is more difficult to check and it will most likely go empty first and just have gas and not liquid. Then I’ll read the 500 tank. I suspect I haven’t even used the RV tank.

Yup, as we used to say back in my hippie days, "take a trip and never leave the farm".

Been there. Done that.

[John E Davies]

Forgot this, if you do decide to leave water in the systems and then you get hit with a real prolonged arctic blast, below 10 degrees F, it will then be FAR too late to do anything about it, since there will be no way to empty the tanks (frozen drain lines and valves). This happened to a number of RVers in areas with normally mild winters when that big cold blast came in Feb 2021, some had pretty severe ($$$$$) damage. Unless you have access to a heated building, where you could do it inside…..


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John Davies
Spokane WA

[Sir Henry]

I just checked the RV tank and the 500 gallon auxiliary tank. The RV tank is empty but feeds from the 500 gallon tank which is now at 65%. It’s really burning through the propane. I should turn the furnace off and just run it when I’m actually using it. It was winterized from last winter as this summer I didn’t use it. I do have some one gallon jugs of water for making coffee that I’ll bring inside the house.

The house propane has used 10% of one 1,000 gallon tank. Two of the tanks were filled and the third was installed after summer prices so I didn’t fill it. I filled the tanks September 25th so I’m doing good on the house. Of course it’s just fall and winter has yet to come.

[Hatchdog]

I just checked the RV tank and the 500 gallon auxiliary tank. The RV tank is empty but feeds from the 500 gallon tank which is now at 65%. It’s really burning through the propane. I should turn the furnace off and just run it when I’m actually using it. It was winterized from last winter as this summer I didn’t use it. I do have some one gallon jugs of water for making coffee that I’ll bring inside the house.

The house propane has used 10% of one 1,000 gallon tank. Two of the tanks were filled and the third was installed after summer prices so I didn’t fill it. I filled the tanks September 25th so I’m doing good on the house. Of course it’s just fall and winter has yet to come.

Wow, i think we have all understood that an RV goes thru propane quickly running the furnace but that’s an eye opener. In the areas of last summer’s devastating wildfires some folks are choosing to live in an RV until they can get their homes rebuilt. There’s been several news reports on insulating your RV for winter and after reading your results I sure hope these poor folks took the reports to heart. They’ve suffered enough already. Of course we don’t have Wisconsin winters here but it’s cold enough to get expensive buying propane.

[Sir Henry]

I just checked the RV tank and the 500 gallon auxiliary tank. The RV tank is empty but feeds from the 500 gallon tank which is now at 65%. It’s really burning through the propane. I should turn the furnace off and just run it when I’m actually using it. It was winterized from last winter as this summer I didn’t use it. I do have some one gallon jugs of water for making coffee that I’ll bring inside the house.

The house propane has used 10% of one 1,000 gallon tank. Two of the tanks were filled and the third was installed after summer prices so I didn’t fill it. I filled the tanks September 25th so I’m doing good on the house. Of course it’s just fall and winter has yet to come.

Wow, i think we have all understood that an RV goes thru propane quickly running the furnace but that’s an eye opener. In the areas of last summer’s devastating wildfires some folks are choosing to live in an RV until they can get their homes rebuilt. There’s been several news reports on insulating your RV for winter and after reading your results I sure hope these poor folks took the reports to heart. They’ve suffered enough already. Of course we don’t have Wisconsin winters here but it’s cold enough to get expensive buying propane.

I haven’t really done anything to help insulate the RV. I haven’t covered the air conditioning vents or skylights. I also leave both slides out. With the temperature below zero and it not getting above freezing I’m really wasting propane keeping it at 40F when I’m not using it. And I only use it to watch the Packer games. I turned the furnace off yesterday and the remote thermometer says it’s currently 19F inside. Tomorrow I’ll watch the game and heat it from 19F instead of 40. Hope it hears up fast.

On a side note the exhaust vent is really hot on the RV. The house exhaust is barely blowing warm air.