electric heat on adventurer

[99WinAdventurer37G]

The campground ask me if I have electric heat. The guy said  it's selected when you set your  heat.  As far as I know,  it's propane only. I don't see anything in the manual  about  electric  heat.  It's a 99 Winnebago  Adventurer 37g.

Thanks

Steve

 

[John Canfield]

You just have to love the campgrounds that don't want you to use your on-board washing machines/driers and now apparently [oh the horror of it all] electric heat.

If you have the RVP (Colman-Mach) basement air, then most likely you have a heat pump (heat from running the refrigerant in a reverse direction.)  If your thermostat has two positions for heat, then you have "electric heat".  As far as I'm concerned, what equipment my coach has is none of the campground's business.  I'm paying for my space and electric - they need to figure out a per-night rate to make their finances work.

 

[afchap]

I interpret "no electric heaters" as meaning "no electric space heaters." They are dangerous if not carefully used. As for a heat pump, that is no different from running ac, and comes with my park fee as far as I am concerned.

 

[SargeW]

Some campgrounds electrical service is so old and fragile that two rigs next to each other running a 1500 watt space heater would shut down the park.  I agree, that is not my problem.  Put some money into the park and upgrade the electric service.

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

Thanks, Attached are the pics of my Thermostats.  It doesn't look like I have it.  I have heat through the 5 floor ducts, and 14 AC ducts in the ceiling.  They only charge $22 a night here, $5 a night extra if you use electric heat.  So it's pretty cheap for north Central FL in Winter.  It's Highland Park Fish Camp, Deland, FL.  It's also a beautiful park on the lake, I've already seen deer here, yet only 5 miles to my parents house.

In the books it says while you're driving the heat goes into the entire MH with the dash switch, and the water heater goes off the coolant automatically (Motor Aid) while you're driving.  But I didn't see anything about heat.  I'll be here a week, and I have a full tank of Propane, it should last the week.  Tonight should be cold, then back to 70's during the day, 50's at night.  I bought this thing in July with half a tank of fuel, and I was still at a quarter, but most of my use was generator for AC, not much heat this year so far. 

 

[John Canfield]

I know exactly where the fish camp is located - we checked it out when looking for a park for our first winter when new fulltimers.  We lived in DeLand for about 12 years.  Nice place but it was getting crazy with traffic (like every other place in Florida) when we left there in spring 2006.

Back to the heat pump thing. Your propane furnace will blow hot air through the floor ducts.  If you have heat coming from the ceiling ducts, then that's heat produced by electricity (heat pump or heat strips.)

I'm now also thinking along the same lines as Paul and Marty - they might mean space heaters.

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

Thanks John.

 

[howdymi]

I think Winne didn't start with the heat pump until early spring of 2000 model. 

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Your living room t-stat has a "heat" position. Does that activate the propane furnace or the a/c units? An AC can be a heat pump or it can have electric heating elements (strips) in the fan plenum. The "heat strips" used to be fairly common, but in recent years have mostly been displaced by heat pumps.

 

[John Hilley]

If you have roof top AC, you don't have the heat pump. Winnebago did use the basement air/heatpump at least as early as 1995 in the Vectra. I do think the park was asking about space heaters. If they don't have meters at each site, there is no way they could monitor it, you would be on the "honor" system.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

We stayed there for a week earlier this year. My impression was that they charge extra for something as a policy. I didn't argue since the cost was very reasonable. Otherwise, its a convenient location and nice people; we enjoyed our stay and it was certainly cheaper than boondocking at the rally in Daytona.

Ernie

 

[QuadManiac]

My 2001 Adventurer's thermostat looks identical, EXCEPT, it has two slide switch positions for heat - one says Electric Heat, the other Gas Heat.  Looks like yours does not have this option and so must be gas only (in my non-educated opinion).

 

[Bob Buchanan]

You just have to love the campgrounds that don't want you to use your on-board washing machines/driers and now apparently [oh the horror of it all] electric heat.

Some parks such as a few KOA's I've visited do the add on thing and it appears they are trying to grab every extra dollar out of the RVer - but on the other end, some parks are struggling especially in this economy. I work with a number of owner/managers across the country with my work, John, and see what they are up against in a number of cases.

In other topics on the subject of electric charges, I have used the example of a park that used my SW in Lake Havasu. Electric for the park was very high - plus each row that was turned on was billed by the utility even if no electric was used on that row. Can't remember the exact rate for an overnight stay - around $28/for an over night. He had competitive parks around him of similar quality so had to deal with strong competition and set pricing accordingly.

While I was there he read meters on a row of overnight sites, not for that nights charge, but to see what kind of electric over nighters were using - and what part of his $28 income was going into the electric he included in the pricing. The big rigs with washers and dryers and many other electric things used up his profits quickly - whereas the smaller rigs without to various degrees less. Even by charging a surcharge on 50Amp usage, he still could not make it work. If he raised prices, he would lose out to the competition.

He dreaded the end of the Quartzsite rally. His park would fill with big rigs leaving QZ. They would use tons of electric cleaning their rigs, washing 2 weeks or more of clothes, and whatever - for a single $28/night stay.

He eventually had to sell the park after working for about 5 years to make a go of it. It was clean as a whistle all the time - and every site was checked out an cleaned for the next RVer. Charges I see from parks using my SW range from $.06/kWh to as high as $.21/kWh. I have seen monthly bills from the utility to parks as high as $7,500/mos that the park had to recovery in rental income.

If I stay in a park and see a sign or read a rule asking that I do no use my electric heater/s - I go propane. Otherwise, that park may not be there the next time I come through -- or, in another case I could site here in CA that couldn't make it with the electric costs, the park sold and became a KOA with a $24/night stay now costing $36.

 

[John Canfield]

All good points Bob.  It's tough making a business profitable and my hat's off to the entrepreneurs and business folk. 

Two or three years ago we stayed in NY state at a decent campground with our buddies for seven days - we were the pretty much queen of the fleet in the park with most of the rigs being towables.  About an hour after we left the park I received a phone call from the park informing us we owed them for a week's worth of electricity - huh?!  I told the gal that was never mentioned, pointed out, or in writing that electricity was extra and I said there was no way I would pay.  I said if they charged my CC, I would contest the charge.

My suspicion is the owner thought since we were big and fancy (relatively speaking) that a) we would be using a lot more electricity and b) we would cough up some more money.  I was astounded at this event and no, they never did bill us.

Many times we've paid separately for electricity when staying for a month, but never a week (especially when it was a covert charge.)

We don't mind paying extra for 50 amp power and have done so many times in our 75,000 miles of camping, and I don't mind paying a premium price for a nice place like you described, Bob.

 

[John Hilley]

We spent 12 nights in Rochester, MN in November while my wife had open heart surgery. I stayed at Bob's Trailer Court, a mobile home park where the newest mobile home had to be at least 50 years old. They were all in decent shape and it was a nice place. They have a half dozen sites for RVs. The lot rent was $18/night and they metered the electricity for each lot. My electric bill for the 12 nights was $72. This was in temperatures during the day of 30 to 40 degrees and night down to 0. I used a 1,500 watt space heater on all the time, supplemented by the propane furnace.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Having worked in a lot of RV parks over the years, I'm sympathetic to the plight of campground owners trying to have the expected flat per night rate and still keep prices reasonable for those with minimal needs. That's part of the reason we see different rates based on amps, season, or whatever.  I think climbing electrical costs, due to both higher utility rates and increased RV electric consumption, is one of the major factors behind the steep increases in campground rates over the past few years.

Eventually campgrounds are going to have to go to a metered system for all stays, not just long term. It's the only solution that is fair to customers and campground owners. The changeover will be expensive to owners and less convenient to RVers, though. We may see credit card slots on campground power posts one of these days! And meters that read in dollars as well as kilowatt-hours.

 

[Ned]

The Escapee parks have always metered the electricity, even for a one night stay.  Some may offer a flat rate, but it's usually quite a bit more than the typical usage would cost.

 

[muskoka guy]

same as quad for my 2000 adventurer 37g. the thermo has dual settings , one for electric and one for gas. my  air cond. and electric heat are in one basement unit and my gas furnace is seperate unit. i cant see how the heater would use any more hydro than a air conditioner in the summer. a serviced lot is a serviced lot.