COLD! What would you do?

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jymbee

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Feb 20, 2018
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Location
Upstate NY
Starting to look like what we went through a few years back with the deep freeze power failures South of Houston

Given the coming cold I plan to take the usual precautions. Disconnect water, hoses inside, make sure gas tank and propane take full. We have 50 amp where we are and when it gets cold inside we use one or two 1,500 ceramic heaters to keep a comfortable temp. Haven't heard any instructions from the park (State campground) so far as typically they would come around with some instructions related to park water for those not used to this kind of cold.

But given just how cold we're looking at now, thinking additional steps might be in order. Running the propane coach heater at times to keep temps moderated for one. Don't really want to do a full winterizing but perhaps a small ceramic heater in the water bay overnight?

Of course we don't want to overload the power and wondering about how power is distributed. Coach is connected to 50 amp and if I connected a small space heater to the 120 is that totally separate with respect to overall usage?

freeze2.jpg
 
I just use heated hose and insulate the ends as best you can.
1x Ceramic /elec heater to keep chill off at night and unit propane heat set on 55-60. Unit will kick on as it gets colder but run less as elec supplements. But it running should keep bays warm too.

Been in 20’s every night last 2 weeks s as of it what I’ve done with no issues.
 
If you stay connected Let your faucets drip overnight to help keep the camground faucet from freezing

Compare the current temp on the weather app for your area to what you are measuring where you are. They are typically 5 to 10 degrees off for my area. At least they are off in the better direction here
 
If you have an incandescent bulb, that in a trouble light will do the wet bay…save bigger wattage for indoor heating. I believe Derby is right about propane furnace will heat the under belly in a Bounder (the rear furnace). The roof heat won’t do anything for the belly tanks.

Tuesday looks like your biggest worry.
 
Of course we don't want to overload the power and wondering about how power is distributed. Coach is connected to 50 amp and if I connected a small space heater to the 120 is that totally separate with respect to overall usage?
No, it's not separate, no matter where you plug it in. If that plug is inside or on the RV, it is part of the 50A delivered into the RV. If the heater is plugged into the power pedestal adjacent to the coach 50A cord is plugged, it's still sharing because nearly all power pedestals are wired for 50A max, i.e. the 50A, 30A, and 15/20Aoutlets are daisy chained together and share one 50A feed.
But that shouldn't be a worry. Standard 50A/240v RV service has a total of 12,000 watts available, i.e. two 50Ax120v feeds into the RV. A single 1500 (12.5Ax120v) watt heater isn't going to overload the RV main panel. It will however, trip a breaker if there are other appliances on the same 15A branch circuit. Typically a coach will have only one or two branch circuits that supply all the 120v outlets, so check what else maybe sharing the circuit with the heater.
 
No, it's not separate, no matter where you plug it in. If that plug is inside or on the RV, it is part of the 50A delivered into the RV. If the heater is plugged into the power pedestal adjacent to the coach 50A cord is plugged, it's still sharing because nearly all power pedestals are wired for 50A max, i.e. the 50A, 30A, and 15/20Aoutlets are daisy chained together and share one 50A feed.
But that shouldn't be a worry. Standard 50A/240v RV service has a total of 12,000 watts available, i.e. two 50Ax120v feeds into the RV. A single 1500 (12.5Ax120v) watt heater isn't going to overload the RV main panel. It will however, trip a breaker if there are other appliances on the same 15A branch circuit. Typically a coach will have only one or two branch circuits that supply all the 120v outlets, so check what else maybe sharing the circuit with the heater.
Thanks much for the details Gary. Very helpful to understand in detail how it all works. (y)
 
One thing you left out when you said disconnect the hose. Fill the FW tank first which maybe you plan on doing it
In this case I'll make sure we have enough in the fresh tank for some basic washing & flushing, but given things should get back to more reasonable temps after this cold snap, don't see a need to fill.
 
If you stay connected Let your faucets drip overnight to help keep the camground faucet from freezing

Compare the current temp on the weather app for your area to what you are measuring where you are. They are typically 5 to 10 degrees off for my area. At least they are off in the better direction here
Yeah, I'm a bit surprised since-- at least yet--no word from the park as to their recommendations with water during a freeze. Typically even if we disconnect from the park's water they come around and ask you leave the park was open at a "drizzle". At least that's what we've experienced in other similar circumstances.
 
One advantage of the coach Furnace over Electric space heaters.

The Furnace heats the water and waste tanks as well as the living space.
(At least in many Motor homes it does. Don't know about trailers that have exposed waste pipes)
 
Tuesday looks pretty interesting, that's colder than I've done so far. You're going to discover if you have any vulnerable exposed plumbing. I have about a 3' section between my wet bay and bathroom that's frozen on me a couple times, no amount of heat in the wet bay or bathroom cabinet mitigates it. It has recovered with no issues though, so down the road we go. If you're not using a heated fresh hose I would offer that you store it somewhere inside. If kept outside I can attest that they can get cold enough to freeze water before it can reach the other end.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Count on losing power for two to three days and you will provide your own power. Do you have propane and fuel for that? You're not going to get them once power goes out.

Fill your water tank and stow the hose. No dribbling anything. Conserve water simply because you don't know what's going to happen.

Pretend everything will be down and unavailable for a week; it happened a few years ago and will certainly happen again. If nothing untoward occurs, be happy.
 
Your post reminds me of the late Tioga George, for those of you who knew him or read his blog. He said his mantra was shorts and t-shirts, and when it was cold, he said he would head south. When it was hot, he said he would head north, so he could comfortably wear shorts and t-shirts all year long!!

So, my recommendation is to head south, though based on the weather this week, you will have to drive quite a while to find shorts and t-shirt weather!!
 
Probably not worth getting heated hoses all set up for just a couple nights of freezing temps. Did you think about unhooking all the hoses, leaving the heat on and treating yourself to a hotel for a couple of nights?
 
In this case I'll make sure we have enough in the fresh tank for some basic washing & flushing, but given things should get back to more reasonable temps after this cold snap, don't see a need to fill.
Your choice, I play it safe and keep the fresh water tank full. You never know the future.
 
Of course we don't want to overload the power and wondering about how power is distributed. Coach is connected to 50 amp and if I connected a small space heater to the 120 is that totally separate with respect to overall usage?
50 amp RV service is two 120 volt 50 amp lines, each can carry 6000 watts of power. Look at your power panel, if it has the main 50 amp breaker in the center with individual circuit breakers spreading horizontally out from each side, one side of dual 50 amp circuits goes to the breakers on one side, the other 50 amp circuit feeds the breakers on the other side.

Of more concern is how the outlets in your RV are wired. They are fed from 15 or 20 amp breakers and several outlets may be on the same breaker. For example, if one 20 amp breaker feeds all of the outlets in your kitchen and living room you can't run a 1500 watt heater (12.5 amps) in the living room and something else that uses a lot of electricity in the kitchen at the same time.
 
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