Has anyone done the installation of adding a heat strip inside of there roof mounted A/C unit?

I was told that some of these roof mounted A/C units have heat. My Barth is a 1991 and has the 2 Coleman units on it.

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http://www.truckroadservice.com/

I had a fellow stop me while in Memphis walking thru the camp and wanted to know if I had ever used a portable heater in our Barth? I said had not, but one should be aware of Amp. pull first. Too I would probably look at a ceramic unit. Is there any reason such would not work well?? We owned a hardware store for 43 years and I always like the very small ceramic units. I also saw in one of the Barth's shown in the Gallery a strip heatter in the bed room, and I would quess it to be electric too. Comments ???? Dale

We have found the heat strips not as good as a fan-driven portable electric heater. We can put the heat exactly where we want it, and the thermostat turns it off and on as needed.

Watts is watts. A ceramic is no better or worse than any other of the same wattage.
A 1500 watt heater draws about 12.5 amps, which is OK for regular 120 volt outlets. You should have a voltmeter to check for drop, particularly if a microwave or hair dryer is used. Many campsites have lousy wiring that does not always deliver full voltage at high loads. Our heater has a fan, a thermostat, and three selectable settings or 500 1000 and 1500 watts.

When dry camping, we use a Mr. Heater on a 16 oz propane bottle. I have removed both furnaces, as I don't trust them for sleeping. Our rear bedroom is curtained off with a quilt, so stays quite warm. I converted to a double bed from twins, so we sleep together under the down comforter, away from the cold walls. We also use the bubble foil on the windows, so it is pretty warm. On freezing mornings, I reach out one arm to ignite Mr Heater, and stay under the comforter until it is warm enough to face the world. I don't like to get up until I hear the roof creaking from the sun's warmth.

I have heard many positive comments on the Mr. Heater. They are very popular amongst Arizona snow birds. You just need to take the bite off of the morning chill and they all boondock.



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Short cuts always take longer

I would worry more about an oxygen hungry unvented catalytic, or other propane heater inside the rig, than an rv furnace. Any of those things can be dangerous if you don't maintain them.

I have a friend who dislikes RV furnaces for the noise and wasted heat. He uses an unvented propane heater with a ceramic heating element. (You see a lot of them at rv swap meets, I don't think they're catalytic.) I used his rig a couple months one winter, had constant headaches, finished with a miserable sinus infection. Then I read an article in Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics that noted some people suffer that way with unvented heaters. I guess I'm one of 'em.

I've used several compact 110v heaters in rv's and boats, ranging in price from cheap to expensive. They all did the job. Got two cheap ones in our current rig. The supposed advantage of ceramic heaters is they don't get hot enough to burn things that might fall on them.

Can't prove it by me, one way or the other, I always try to keep them out of the way of anything that could fall on them.

I was always told that ceramic holds heat longer thus making the heater more effective, and too saves operating cost????

One watt of electricity yields 3.4 BTUs. With heaters, it doesn't matter how it is done. Different types of electric heaters can have their own advantages, but watts is watts as far as heat goes.

Olroy, you're right about the catalytic heaters, too. I don't like any type of combustion heater running when I'm sleeping.

[This message has been edited by bill h (edited October 04, 2003).]

Are you saying an element that holds heat longer will not draw current any less often than say, a ribbon heater? If my stove top cools slower my soup stays warmer longer. A watt is a watt, but after the electric draw stops the elements heat holding ability does affect the operating costs. A bike that coasts longer is pedalled less often, and this what I am saying.

If you run your stove for five minutes, it will put X amount of heat in to the room, no matter what its heat holding ability is. The amount of heat put in to the room is determined by how long the burner is on and how much electricity is drawn. An element that holds heat longer takes longer to warm up, so it evens out. A thick heavy pan has the same characteristic. It takes longer to heat up, and takes longer to cool down.

None of our electric heating devices are more efficient than another. I fear some advertisers have given some false impressions. But there are other features that make one more desirable than another for a particular situation.

The Law of Conservation of Energy (and the First Law of Thermodynamics) say, basically, that output equals input. That is, you can't get more energy out of an electrical device than you take out of the wall outlet. So if you draw X watts, you get X times 3.4 BTUs of heat. In fact, we often get much less useful work from an electric device than we took out of the wall, considering heat losses, friction, magnetism, etc. However, electric heaters come close to 100% efficiency. So, once again, the same number of watts will produce the same amount of heat.

Here is a site that more or less says that.

http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp?category=Appliance...&contenttype=summary

I apologize for not being as clear as perhaps I should be, here. Is there a physics teacher in the house?

Whew!

Anybody want to drink some hot spiced wine and look at a campfire?

I was an electrician for 40 years and Bill H is correct. "a watt is a watt". Propane also makes a lot of moisture, so get a nice cheap ribbon heater for when you're plugged into a service. Gotta admit though, our Barth propane heaters are a LOT more efficient and quiet than the ones in our old class C Dodge thing. Hey, Bill, I'd go for that offer if you want to meet us half way, say Wendover , UT. Oct 15th or so...;-))))
Cheers, John


[This message has been edited by John & Irene (edited October 05, 2003).]

I recently took a long weekend trip to Mount Orford Provincial Park East Of Montreal. During my usual preflight inspection I discovered that my furnace did not work. Since it was fall and I might need it I had it fixed, it turned out to be a faulty circuit board. While I was troubleshooting the problem one of my friends stopped by and said just use one of those little ceramic heaters that�s all you need. Of course then he stopped and said �Oh yea you dry camp most of the time�. He went on to elaborate that he always used one of those when �plugged in�. I was about to go out and buy one of these little heaters when I came to my senses! I had heat strips in my 2 AC units.

The moral of this story being on my 3rd Barth is that if I didn�t already have heat strips in my roof AC�s I would NOT put them in, I would just use a small standby heater. The strips do not put out enough heat to bother with them. The little ceramic or propane heaters are a lot quieter then the roof top units.

Oh yes� a BTU is a BTU, and a watt is a watt, it doesn�t matter to much how you count them until you pay your electric bill.

There seems to be a bit of skepticism regarding running factory installed propane heaters while sleeping. It seems to me that these units should be designed to operate safely so that problems will not occur. I would recommend a good carbon monoxide monitor however.

BillH, could you explain your concerns more completely please.

I don't mean to be an alarmist here. My concerns re furnaces are perhaps a bit irrational. I would not try to convince anyone else to my point of view.

I do not like the safety consideration of a leak in the combustor can. I do not like the heat loss to the outside. I do not like the battery draw. I do not like the noise, particularly when it starts up.

We are old tent campers from way back, so we do not mind a cold bedroom, as long as we can take the chill off in the morning. We still tent camp when the site is not MH accessible or the limits are under 30 feet.

I have no experience with built-in catalytic heaters, but I have a susceptibility to headaches, so choose not to experiment.

Mr Heater takes off the morning chill, so we are happy. And he is portable.

Our barth has heat strips in both a'c like them.Use them all the time when we need heat.Our sob has a heat pump in it, like it to.Don't use lp heat much.

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br2409

We used an Olymian catalytic heater in the 23' Shasta for several years, and liked it. The small size was fine, and we were told to get two small, rather than one large for a bigger unit. Yes, of course you should have a Carbon Monoxide detector, no matter what heating system you are using. Yes, you should leave the hatch up a scosh, though that rig had enough leaks that we thought it redundent. Condensation can be a problem if you need to run it for long time. (So can showers and cooking spaghetti.) They are VERY efficient on propane consumption, unlike the furnace blowing heat out the side. No electric needed; piazo lighter. The only problem I've heard about is pet hair "poisoning" the catalyst.
I noticed on Camping World site, that the Olympus is good up to 12,000 ft altitude, and the Mr Heater is only good to 6,500 ft. That could be a problem in places like Colorado. Hot chocolate anyone?