Heating questions?

wijames2002 · Dec 16, 2017

I've been able to figure out everything in my coach except the heating system. I can only find one thermostat that seems to control both the heat and AC (Attachment below) What I don't understand is: When I set the thermostat to heat, is it running on electric or gas? Also, what is the "Shed" light at the bottom of the control panel? and last, can I run the heat when not hooked up to electric? Sorry for so many questions.

Gary RV_Wizard · Dec 16, 2017

The HEAT position runs the LP gas furnace and it appears you have just one (some rigs have two, front & rear). It uses only LP gas and 12v (battery) power for the furnace fan, so it does NOT require external electric (shore power).

The "Shed" light refers to an energy management function which is related to the a/c units. When plugged to 30A shore power, you don't have enough electrical power to run everything, so the controls for the a/c's monitor total power consumption in the RV. If the power draw gets near the 30A max (meaning near to tripping the main circuit breaker), it turns off one or both a/c's to reduce the power demand, i.e. it "sheds" part of the power load.

Heli_av8tor · Dec 16, 2017

The furnace blower draws a significant amount of power from your house battery. You'll likely get a day or two, but not a week without needing a recharge.

I have the same system (but with two furnaces) and the Shed function works very well. You may want to find and read the manual on it to better understand what all it's doing.

Tom

wijames2002 · Dec 16, 2017

Heli_av8tor said:
The furnace blower draws a significant amount of power from your house battery. You'll likely get a day or two, but not a week without needing a recharge.

I have the same system (but with two furnaces) and the Shed function works very well. You may want to find and read the manual on it to better understand what all it's doing.

Tom

Thanks, I have a solar panel which should help some to keep the batteries up. How long will I need to run the engine to recharge the house battery?

wijames2002 · Dec 16, 2017

Gary RV_Wizard said:
The HEAT position runs the LP gas furnace and it appears you have just one (some rigs have two, front & rear). It uses only LP gas and 12v (battery) power for the furnace fan, so it does NOT require external electric (shore power).

The "Shed" light refers to an energy management function which is related to the a/c units. When plugged to 30A shore power, you don't have enough electrical power to run everything, so the controls for the a/c's monitor total power consumption in the RV. If the power draw gets near the 30A max (meaning near to tripping the main circuit breaker), it turns off one or both a/c's to reduce the power demand, i.e. it "sheds" part of the power load.

Thanks, answered all of the questions! You are a wealth of information. Do the house Batteries charge when plugged into shore power?

jatrax · Dec 16, 2017

How long will I need to run the engine to recharge the house battery?

As in most things "it depends". Recharge from what position? 90% charge? 75%? 50%? How many batteries? What type? What charger do you have?

Sorry but it is really impossible to answer that question with much accuracy.

Keep in mind that in general with standard lead acid batteries you should not go below 50% charge. Doing so will impact the life of the battery.

What is more important is how much energy did you remove from the battery since last charge and then how long will your charger take to put that back plus the extra to ensure a full charge. It might take an hour of running the truck engine or charger. But it might also take 10 hours or even more if the battery is very low and your charge system is not capable of putting a lot of amp hours back in a short time.

Thanks, answered all of the questions! You are a wealth of information. Do the house Batteries charge when plugged into shore power?

Short answer is Yes. Unless there is something non-standard about your rig. You should have a converter in the rig that provides 12volt power to the house as well as charging the house batteries. Whether the chassis battery gets charged from shore power as well is a little less certain, some rigs do some do not.

wackymac · Dec 16, 2017

You should not need to run the "truck engine" to charge the batteries unless you are driving. Use your generator instead.

Heating questions?

wijames2002

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