Ceramic Heaters

[Angelbunnie13182]

Ok so you all will probably be laughing once you read this but oh well.



So my husband and I went to turn our heater on. We had it on a couple weekends prior and it worked just fine. It was a colder weekend so we turned it up so company and the dogs wouldn't get cold. Well it warmed back up for a week or two then we got another cold day and went to turn it on. No luck. Nothing coming out of the vents. So Michael checked online before we called a repair person. We discovered that our heat comes from the propane tanks. Well we checked and found out that we had drained them. So we went to fill them up no biggie there. We spoke with our neighbors and they said they just use heaters during the winter cause propane is so expensive to use. So I bought 3 tiny heaters that actually push out a lot of heat for their size. The problem isn't the size and them not filling the room with heat. The issue comes when we try and turn them all on. If we turn on more than one we pop a fuse. I am an idiot when it comes to Volts, Hz, BTU's, or Watts. So here is my question. Why are they popping the fuse? Here is information about the heaters.



Three Settings: High (1500W), Low (750W), or fan only.

Then it says 120V, 60Hz, 5120BTU's.



Like I said this is foreign language to me. I would like to use all the heaters at once. We tried different plugs in the walls but the ones in the main living area and the second bedroom seem to be all on the same circuit. It pops it too if I turn on the main living area one and the master bedroom one as well.



Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Alfa38User]

Three Settings: High (1500W), Low (750W), or fan only.

Being able to use all the heaters at once is highly unlikely but will depend on your particular setup....

A setting of 1500W requires 12.5 amps and a setting of 750W is 6.25 amps. Most household typical outlets are a maximum of 15 amps and are protected with a 15 amp breaker. The secret is that no single fuse or breaker powers a single outlet so one has to be very careful in selecting the outlets to be used so the load (AKA watts) is spread around. There can be a string of 6-8 outlets protected by a single breaker.

If more than 1 of these heaters are used on any of the outlets powered by a single fuse or circuit breaker you will end up blowing the fuse/circuit breaker as each string is protected by a 15 amp breaker as you found out.

An RV is not much different to a house but the power available can vary. Some RV's have a 30 amp entrance which severely limits the power available for electric heaters, air conditioners etc and it is protected by a 30 amp breaker outside and another in your distribution box. Others have a 50 amp entrance which is protected by two 50 amp breakers outside and 2 in the distribution box. Despite the name, a 50 amp entrance can serve up to 100 amps and most limitations disappear except for the selection of the appropriate outlets. Each of these main breakers then feed the smaller breakers in your main box.

Highly technical stuff !!!watch out!!!: Watts divided by volts = amps    1500watts\120volts = 12.5 amps (Remember your breaker is 15 or 20 amps MAX.)

 

[Rene T]

You'll have to find separate circuits in order to run all three. How about running one from the power pedestal outside with a heavy extension cord. It may have to be 12 gage wire. Others may say that a 14 gage extension would work. I really don't know.
Your microwave should have it's own circuit. The receptacle may be inside a cabinet next to it. You could plug into that and as long as you're not running the micro, you should be all set.

 

[Angelbunnie13182]

I tried something someone else said on another forum about running two heaters at 750w. So far that is working and hasn't tripped the circuit breaker. So looks like for right now we are all warm and toasty which is good b/c we have a freeze warning that came out of nowhere for tonight. Brrrr......Thanks everyone for your imput and advice!

 

[WILDEBILL308]

I would get your propane refilled as a back up to the electric heaters. If you wan to protect your wet bay from freezing I would put one of the heaters in the bay on a separate extension cord.
Bill

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Well, you are going to have to deal with amps or watts, or stick with propane heating. You have a limited amount of electric power available in your RV, as Alfa38 described. and each set of outlets is limited by the circuit breaker (not a fuse) that supplies it safely. A typical circuit for wall outlets has a max capability of 15 amps, which is also 1800 watts. There usually are multiple outlets sharing that, so you can only plug in so many things. Those little heaters use 1500 watts each on their max setting, so more than one is no-go. Even if one is on max and the other 750, that still exceeds the normal 1800 limit.

You may be able to find an outlet that does not share the same circuit with the others and thus can run two heaters at the same time, assuming the shore power for the entire RV is also adequate. But I won't get into that and overwhelm you with technobabble.

 

[John From Detroit]

Standard outlet breakers are 15 amps Heavy duty outlet breakers 20, 1500 watts is 12 amps, so if you have two on the same breaker (24 amps worth of heater) click goes the breaker, and with 3 a 30 amp main breaker will trip.

I run 4, but each one is on a separate circuit and the main breakers are 50 amps.  Even then one (or 2) of the 4 may be getting power on a separate feed. (Well if I'm 30 amps).

Also, note: Space heaters do not heat your water bay,  on many motor homes (IE: MINE) the "Wet" Bays (Those bays with water tanks or plumbing in them) are heated by the furnace when it is running.  Space heaters will not heat those.

 

[Neal]

If your coach is wired for a washer, you might be able to use that plug for a heater.

 

[HappyWanderer]

One of the first things I did with my motorhome was to label each outlet as to which circuit breaker it was wired to. I can easily look at the outlets and know that I'm not plugging the space heater into the same outlet as the coffee pot, or whatever it is I'm trying to use.

 

[Tom]

One of the first things I did with my motorhome was to label each outlet as to which circuit breaker it was wired to.

Thanks for the tip; I need to do that on our coach.

 

[John From Detroit]

Labeling breakers: That is something that is actually required by code at least for commercial buildings, and it is also something that is either not done or done with cryptic labels that are no help at all when you need to know what controls what.    I relabled mine so at last I know what most of them feed.

I too use the washer/dryer outlet for a heater (also for basement lights and my light up hose) and as I said added 2.5 heavy duty outlets each with its own circuit breaker (the .5 is shared with an air conditioner, I do not often use both heat and A/C at once)  I just plugged in a 2nd heater this morning,, Starting to cool down here at night.

 

[Flyboy]

We use two higher end, tower type heaters that have several heat settings which are thermostatically  controlled.  The units also have a built in timer.  Each
oscillates in order to distribute the heat in the room. 

Regardless of the type of heater, there are a couple of safety precautions that should be considered.  One is to put your hand around the cord. If it's hot to the touch, then you're drawing way too much current that is loading up your circuitry.  In that case, turn the setting down or turn it off.  The second is to buy a plug-in voltmeter that allows you to monitor the amount, or lack of, voltage that you are originally starting with.  Without going into the amps/voltage thing, if you don't have good voltage to start with and keep adding appliances to the circuit, then the situation is being made worse.

 

[Peddler]

I labeled my outlets with small (1/4 inch) stickers. Different color for each circuit with a corresponding sticker on the breaker.

 

[Rene T]

I labeled my outlets with small (1/4 inch) stickers. Different color for each circuit with a corresponding sticker on the breaker.

Pedler, what do you mean by 1/4" stickers. It sounds like a super idea but I wouldn't know where to get them or even what they look like. HELP!!!!

 

[HappyWanderer]

You can get those little stickers at any place that sells office supplies. I just used about 300 of them to color code data drops in our new office building.

When I labeled the outlets in the motorhome, I used a label maker and put the circuit breaker number right on the outlet. During the process, I found two breakers were labeled wrong. When I was younger and more ambitious, I would have opened the panel and swapped the wires. Instead, I relabeled the cover.

 

[John From Detroit]

Pedler, what do you mean by 1/4" stickers. It sounds like a super idea but I wouldn't know where to get them or even what they look like. HELP!!!!

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=avery+color+coding+dots&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=31132261610&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=607774961600258854&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_7mfuiiixfw_b

Should give you many to choose from, Staples, office____ and most office supply stores have 'em.

 

[Rene T]

Thanks John. This will be a good project once I get to FL for the winter. Three more weeks. Yea!!!!  I think I'll do the same thing to my outlets in my house.

 

[John From Detroit]

Great idea on doing them in the house as well... Those sheets have LOTS of colored dots .