Cold Cold Greyhawk

[Patchesrv]

Insulation anyone? Have 2019 29MV and doing the winter trip to Florida. It’s cold ! Floor is cold ! Set temp to 65 at night and furnace is on and off every 5 minutes so never warm and it’s noisy ! We have the windows, vents and door covered with felt blankets. Have now learnt walls are like paper and heated tank mat is useless. Sounds good in brochure.
Any ideas to fix this going forward ? If we could warm up the floor it would help ??

[Studiovette]

Run generator with an electric portable heater on the floor. Get long runner for floor we use one between the bunks and rear bedroom not shown.

[Patchesrv]

Afraid to run genny when sleeping because of exhaust. Will be running electric heater tonight in place of propane

[Studiovette]

If you have shore power you obviously want to use that first and run 1 or 2 heaters on low or on varying temps if they have thermostats. Close off the door depending on your layout.
If no shore power run the genset. The exhaust should be nowhere near where you sleep. There's more risk of harm sleeping with the propane furnace on hence the alarm that's installed since the appliance is located inside your motor home.

[Grumpy]

No matter what you do will completely warm up the floor, as studiovette said carpet runners would be the solution. The problem is there is no heat source under the floor except where the duct work runs and insulation can only do so much.

[JimD]

What is the outside temp? We don't get that cold here in Southern California fortunately.

Our trip to the desert over New Years yielded overnight temps of low 40s and maybe high 30s. Furnace was set to 55 so my granddaughter would not get too cold. I also didn't want to listen to the furnace cycling all night.

What kept us warm was blankets and quilts on the beds. Didn't get cold at all. When we got up in the morning we took the chill off with the furnace.

[pconroy]

Cold in Florida? Like in the 50's?


We've been in our Greyhawk at 14*.
That's a bit chilly for us and we usually switch to long sleeves shirts.


Just joking.


Nope - there's precious little insulation in our Greyhawks.
Nothing of any value in the floor.


You're only hope are carpet runners.
Throw a big blanket over the top bunk to cover up the cab area.


Run electric heaters - you can easily get a couple of 1500 watt heaters off any campground electric. We too have electric blankets. They're usually in the 400-600 watt range.


If you're AC unit has the heating strips, use 'em.
We've run the heat strips into the low 40's and they're effective.


Up here people usually skirt their RVs to help keep the floor and underside a smidge warmer.

[t18skyguy]

It can really be an eye opener when it hits you that these rigs are not insulated like our stick houses. I sleep in my Greyhawk every night, just because I like to. I sleep in the back, and I can really feel the cold radiating off the back wall. I use 3 blankets, and an electric space heater with forced air for heat. I close the pocket door and only heat the back half and that helps a lot. One other thing is I tuck a big towel along the big gap at the bottom of the pocket door. If I needed to, I could run two space heaters during the day, but you need to be careful and stay on two separate circuits. I never use the furnace cause of the noise, plus it just's eats up your propane in no time.

[CAG]

The exhaust should be nowhere near where you sleep.

Unless the breeze happens to be blowing it back under the rig. While it happened only once, I did have the CO2 alarm go off while running the genny. I was not sleeping but I would not take a chance with it.

Big Buddy heaters work great inside as does your furnace but you always need to have a window cracked for moisture reduction if nothing else.

[t18skyguy]

Originally Posted by CAG

Unless the breeze happens to be blowing it back under the rig. While it happened only once, I did have the CO2 alarm go off while running the genny. I was not sleeping but I would not take a chance with it.

Big Buddy heaters work great inside as does your furnace but you always need to have a window cracked if for moisture reduction if nothing else.

I just viewed a test of the Buddy heaters in an RV by a fire department. They let it run 8 hours in a closed up RV. They measured both CO and oxygen. They put the unit on the dinette, and at the end of 8 hours the dinette was covered in water, and there was a meaningful drop in the oxygen level. There was not any problem with Carbon monoxide, but yes, you need to have a window cracked for the humidity it generates and to keep the oxygen levels up for those that could be sensitive to that.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Studiovette

There's more risk of harm sleeping with the propane furnace on hence the alarm that's installed since the appliance is located inside your motor home.

Well, that's incorrect. The propane furnace has a closed heat exchanger, the exhaust never comes close to the interior of the rig. Combustion air and exhaust ALL come/go outside.

Originally Posted by CAG

Big Buddy heaters work great inside as does your furnace but you always need to have a window cracked for moisture reduction if nothing else.

Now, if you want real danger, run a Big Buddy inside, where it uses internal oxygen for combustion and exhausts ALL CO back into the living space, and NOT outside.

Originally Posted by t18skyguy

I just viewed a test of the Buddy heaters in an RV by a fire department. They let it run 8 hours in a closed up RV. They measured both CO and oxygen. They put the unit on the dinette, and at the end of 8 hours the dinette was covered in water, and there was a meaningful drop in the oxygen level. There was not any problem with Carbon monoxide, but yes, you need to have a window cracked for the humidity it generates and to keep the oxygen levels up for those that could be sensitive to that.

There you have it, the moisture produced is bad enough (mold and mildew), but the reduced oxygen is also a cause of concern. Plus, you're hoping the combustion cycle is operating correctly, and not producing CO or burning incorrectly... I know I wouldn't trust my life and my families life on a $40 space heater to work properly while I was sleeping.

[Camper_bob]

If you're that concerned about CO from the generator exhaust making it inside (which I'm not, never had a problem with that), you could always get a Gen-Turi system. They're not that expensive.

FWIW, we used to use a small electric space heater in the trailer to supplement the propane furnace. It worked like a charm. We still carry it in the MH, but we haven't really had cause to use it yet. Last weekend when we were out, we ran the furnace and just let it cycle and do its thing. T-stat was set at 65; lows were in the mid to upper 30s at night. And we had a full rig; all beds were occupied. It's certainly no louder than the AC units cycling...

Cold on the floor never bothered me as we have a couple rugs around, and I wear slippers or flip-flops when roaming around the cabin.

[cherv]

Add electric mattress pad. Great....