Jammer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Posts
- 1,491
Well, gang, I still have a little wiring to do but I have the pic-a-watt heater installed in my traylah.
http://www.king-electric.com/prodtemp.asp?prodID=PAW
This is a 1500W, 120 volt fan-forced heater. I've installed it in the wall under the coat closet door in my Airstream. As the trailer came from the factory the area under the false floor in the coat closet is a utility area with the water pump, a bunch of furnace ductwork, the wheel well, and a bunch of plumbing in it. The heater is designed to fit within a typical 2x4 wall space, with zero clearance, so with a little rearranging and slight squishing of the furnace ducts it goes right in with no loss of useful space.
Like baseboard electric heat, the pic-a-watt heater is nearly silent. As with most RVs there really isn't a suitable place to install baseboard heat in my traylah because of the compact interior. And, unlike portable heaters, the pic-a-watt mounts in the wall, so there's no risk of it getting kicked over by the dog or any drunk friends who I may have taken pity on and allowed to crash on my couch.
I was able to get an octal base relay (and socket) with 16 amp contacts and a 12 volt dc coil shoehorned into the heater can, in the cool intake air area where it won't overheat. I have not had good results with line voltage thermostats in stationary applications (the considerable current flowing through them heats them up and leads to poor control) so I'm going with this. I'm planning on wiring a separate thermostat for it at some point but for now it's just connected to a switch.
https://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON-Relay-1EGY3?Pid=search
I don't have the final wiring in place, just a test plug, but I'm planning on wiring it into the main 20a loop around the trailer.
With a 1500 watt element at that's just under 5,000 btu/h which means roughly 20% of the output the propane furnace produces. But, at about 2% of the noise level. I expect to use this in the many situations where I have shore power and nighttime temperatures dip down to the 40s and 50s. In that situation some heat is helpful but the racket of the furnace is too much to countenance.
These heaters have an internally selectable (by cutting wires) wattage of 250-1500 watts in 250 watt steps so I guess if I had room for another one I could pick wattages to stay under whatever limit, say, 2500 watts total to allow the converter and fridge to run without tripping a 30 amp shore power breaker.
http://www.king-electric.com/prodtemp.asp?prodID=PAW
This is a 1500W, 120 volt fan-forced heater. I've installed it in the wall under the coat closet door in my Airstream. As the trailer came from the factory the area under the false floor in the coat closet is a utility area with the water pump, a bunch of furnace ductwork, the wheel well, and a bunch of plumbing in it. The heater is designed to fit within a typical 2x4 wall space, with zero clearance, so with a little rearranging and slight squishing of the furnace ducts it goes right in with no loss of useful space.
Like baseboard electric heat, the pic-a-watt heater is nearly silent. As with most RVs there really isn't a suitable place to install baseboard heat in my traylah because of the compact interior. And, unlike portable heaters, the pic-a-watt mounts in the wall, so there's no risk of it getting kicked over by the dog or any drunk friends who I may have taken pity on and allowed to crash on my couch.
I was able to get an octal base relay (and socket) with 16 amp contacts and a 12 volt dc coil shoehorned into the heater can, in the cool intake air area where it won't overheat. I have not had good results with line voltage thermostats in stationary applications (the considerable current flowing through them heats them up and leads to poor control) so I'm going with this. I'm planning on wiring a separate thermostat for it at some point but for now it's just connected to a switch.
https://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON-Relay-1EGY3?Pid=search
I don't have the final wiring in place, just a test plug, but I'm planning on wiring it into the main 20a loop around the trailer.
With a 1500 watt element at that's just under 5,000 btu/h which means roughly 20% of the output the propane furnace produces. But, at about 2% of the noise level. I expect to use this in the many situations where I have shore power and nighttime temperatures dip down to the 40s and 50s. In that situation some heat is helpful but the racket of the furnace is too much to countenance.
These heaters have an internally selectable (by cutting wires) wattage of 250-1500 watts in 250 watt steps so I guess if I had room for another one I could pick wattages to stay under whatever limit, say, 2500 watts total to allow the converter and fridge to run without tripping a 30 amp shore power breaker.
