Change propane heat to electric?

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MrFixitDad

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  Does anyone know if it is possible to convert propane heating system to a electric heating system? Converting older RV to home for my son. Would like to make it all electric if possible. Please send me a reply via my email ([email protected]) . It probably be costly to do. Any information will be appreciated.
                                                                            Thanks,
                                                                            Doyle               
 
Buy an electric heater at the Home Depot, and call it a day.  Be careful, they do draw a fair bit of current and do not play nicely with the Microwave.  We have a smaller electric heater, I rarely even fire up the propane one in our fall camping.  I guess all this depends on your location and projected temperatures.
 
I live, full time, in a 26' 5th wheel, and we removed the furnace because it was failing and was too loud, cost prohibitive to replace, and took up space (below the fridge) that I'd rather use for a larger refrigerator. We bought a Honeywell HHF360V portable heater that's rated at 1500 watts. It uses less electricity than the fan on the furnace, and uses zero gas. I believe we paid around 30$ a piece (we bought 2, so we had a back-up), and at that price, it paid for itself on the first power/gas bill. We live in middle Tennessee, and we do actually have winters here, where we get 2-3 months of "around freezing" temperatures, occasionally dipping below freezing. The heater kept us nice and toasty all winter long and I don't have to constantly turn the tv up and down to compensate for the noise of the furnace.

Amazon sells the Honeywell, and if you're quick, you can also get them at Wally World when they stock the shelves for the winter season.
 
FullM3talJack said:
We bought a Honeywell HHF360V portable heater that's rated at 1500 watts. It uses less electricity than the fan on the furnace, and uses zero gas.
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Sorry, but the typical gas furnace fan uses about 40 watts, not 1500.  Power is Current x Voltage, so 3.5 amps at 12 volts is 42 watts.

However, watts is watts and a 1500 watt Honeywell room heater will deliver just as much heat as a 1500 watt Cheap Heat furnace conversion.  I'm partial to the $10 Pelonis warm air heaters WalMart sells, 1 or 2 of those is enough to keep my 29 ft. trailer toasty warm down to about 25 degrees.

You can also get 120 volt baseboard heaters, if you have some blank wall space they'll put up a curtain of warm air against the wall that will make that area a lot more cozy.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Sorry, but the typical gas furnace fan uses about 40 watts, not 1500.  Power is Current x Voltage, so 3.5 amps at 12 volts is 42 watts.

However, watts is watts and a 1500 watt Honeywell room heater will deliver just as much heat as a 1500 watt Cheap Heat furnace conversion.  I'm partial to the $10 Pelonis warm air heaters WalMart sells, 1 or 2 of those is enough to keep my 29 ft. trailer toasty warm down to about 25 degrees.

You can also get 120 volt baseboard heaters, if you have some blank wall space they'll put up a curtain of warm air against the wall that will make that area a lot more cozy.
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Sorry if I sounded like someone who doesn't know electricity or electronics. I retired from the Navy, having spent half of my career as an Aviation Electronics Tech, and managed to squeeze out a bachelors in electronics engineering. I didn't mean to dispute watts, volts or amps. Hell, I don't care if the furnace draws 1.21 jigawatts, I was just stating what my electric bill showed. I might have mentioned in my reply that the furnace was malfunctioning, so it may have been using more than it's designed for. Either way, the point was made. If you want cost effective heat that doesn't require the installation of a new furnace, a good old plug-in heater is not a bad alternative.
 
I only use my propane heater for the initial warm up when it's really cold then turn it off and use a single space heater. The propane heaters are loud but they do put out some serious BTUs when you need them. I really like my space heater for the digital thermostat vs the old mercury switch with generally goes from too hot to too cold.
 
They are a really expensive 1500 watt electric heater.
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Yeap, so I would choose a portable 1500 watt space heater if it were my RV. But MrFixitDad asked about conversions, so I gave the help he asked for.

A typical RV propane furnace will be rated somewhere in the 20,000 - 36,000 btu range while a 1500 watt electric produces about 5000 btus. However, the propane furnace wastes a huge amount of heat via the exhaust, so I could only guess at the effective btu rate in comparison to the 100% efficient electric space heater.
 
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