CheapHeat electric grid heater to supplement propane furnace

Wayne

Wayne

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Today is the first time I have seen the product called CheapHeat.

https://www.rvcomfortsystems.com/add-on-system

It's simply an electric grid heater that is put in-line after your propane heater. The purpose is to heat with the RV park's electricity rather than your propane.

There would be some modification to your existing ducting past your propane furnace and probably wouldn't work for every install.

The premise of using the park's electricity, instead of your propane is a sound idea. We carry an electric heater and the fireplace already has an electric heater. We used 3000 watts of electric heat almost continuously while we were in Fort Collins last winter. It definitely cuts down on the propane usage and expense.

The key is that you must be in a site that doesn't have a meter, else it's far cheaper to heat with propane.

The grid heater would have been nice in the Airstream, but since our 5th wheel has a heater in the fireplace, there wouldn't be much of a point in adding another heater.
 
I'm starting to look at the heat strip add-on to our AC unit for much the same reason.

We just finished our first 20# bottle of propane this weekend, over a year and a half on the first one. Total of 31 nights of camping. Granted, we're probably going to keep going through this winter, so I expect to use more, although from this weekend, it looks like we might be able to get by with our 300-watt and 1500-watt space heaters. They were actually able to get it too warm in the camper and that was with a window open and the maxxair on low.

I do use the outside propane hookup for the grill and propane fire pit as well, and I usually will turn the gas side of the water heater on when we're doing showers since that turns it into almost a tankless unit. We've never run out of hot water when both sides are running on it.
 
We used over 200 pound of propane when we were in Fort Collins for a month last winter. That was with the electric heat running almost non-stop!
 
Wayne said:
We used over 200 pound of propane when we were in Fort Collins for a month last winter. That was with the electric heat running almost non-stop!
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Good lawd.

Yea, I don't think we'll be doing any of that :). I don't go outside if I can help it when its that cold, so I'd rather be at home than in a little metal box. :)
 
Wayne said:
It was only -16F two nights in a row with daytime highs below 0F. That's an adventure!
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'Only'

Reminds me of the time I toured Publix's deep freeze facility not far from here. We were just going to pop in and look and go right back out. They insisted I put on a big coat. I thought 'how cold can it possibly be?' It was the middle of summer outside, so edging 100 degrees. I forget what it was inside, -32 is stuck in my head though. We were only in there maybe 60 seconds, but that was the most brutal cold I've ever felt in my life, almost indescribable for me. Boggles the mind, huge facility with robots doing most of the work.
 
I think I'm going to pull the trigger on adding the electric heat to mine. $130 and some wiring changes and I'll be golden. The new thermostat that Coleman sent me will work both the electric and gas in an interesting way.

I think it is worth it. Will get the space heater out of the way and integrate everything into the thermostat.

Basically when the 'stat calls for heat, it starts off on electric, and then if it runs too long and the temp doesn't rise, or the temp drops, it will fire the gas.

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The text in the image refers to the electric heat pump. Do you know if the electric grid heater will be treated the same way as the heat pump, as in strikes and losing its primary status?
 
Far as I know, it treats it the same since you use the output for either option, with no changes to dip switches or options.


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Turns out 'Heat Strip Ready' in Coleman speak is a little more involved.

You also have to replace the control box, which isn't a huge deal, but really their statement just means 'there's a place to mount one'.

Pretty typical these days. Ordered the parts today. Both available on Amazon for $130 out the door for both. Of course there will be a writeup and some pictures. The Mach series is pretty popular so it should help someone somewhere making the decision.
 
Wayne said:
We used over 200 pound of propane when we were in Fort Collins for a month last winter. That was with the electric heat running almost non-stop!
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that's about normal if it is below freezing.. heating a RV is like heating a beer can.
We stayed in my Cedar Creek for a year in FLA... and we had a cold snap that lasted about 6 weeks
and I think I went thru a 30 pound propane bottle in less than 2 weeks.

people do stuff to make it a little better like skirting the bottom
but realistically the best thing to do if RVing in the winter is to head south
 
MSCH said:
the best thing to do if RVing in the winter is to head south
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In the past week, I have driven past many RV parks in the midwest that are mostly full of what appear to be full-timers. I can't imagine heating an RV all winter in the midwest. Brrrr.
 
Wayne said:
In the past week, I have driven past many RV parks in the midwest that are mostly full of what appear to be full-timers. I can't imagine heating an RV all winter in the midwest. Brrrr.
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I can't imagine temperature controlling one anywhere full time. There's a house in my neighborhood and one down the street that both have conventional trailers outside that people are obviously living in. I can't imagine their power bills in the summertime to keep those things cool.

Same with winter, I'm sure they're running electric most of the time, but man, what a power bill that would be.
 
ctechbob said:
I can't imagine temperature controlling one anywhere full time. There's a house in my neighborhood and one down the street that both have conventional trailers outside that people are obviously living in. I can't imagine their power bills in the summertime to keep those things cool.

Same with winter, I'm sure they're running electric most of the time, but man, what a power bill that would be.
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yeah, we spent more than a year living in my Cedar Creek, on the eastern edge of the Everglades in a place called Everglades Holiday Park.. Cedar Creek only had 1 ac unit... basically AC unit was running 100% of the time and would be lucky if the trailer was below 80 degrees anytime in the daylight hours, and the trailer was in the shade... lucky for us the electricity was part of the lot rent.. that is why you want dual AC's in a fifth wheel if you are in a southern climate.

FWIW Everglades Holiday Park was where the Gator Boys filmed, if you ever saw that TV show... they dont have a campground anymore.. its here if you are interested in knowing where it was. https://www.evergladesholidaypark.c...qA2JlLp0v7xWix_8L1aRPViQCNNOphJBoCZksQAvD_BwE
 
We just finished what will be our absolute coldest trip so far. Overnight lows were in the mid 20's and daytime highs struggled to get to upper 40's.

The first night we had the thermostat set to 72 and were using a small 300 watt heater in the bathroom (admittedly the vent was open in there so most of that heat was going straight out the roof). We were comfy all night and the furnace ran a grand total of once, just around sunrise when the thermostat decided that the electric just wasn't getting it done.

You know it when that little propane fired bugger starts up, it gets hot NOW.

The second night we started at 74 and pretty much the same thing happened. I would have been perfectly ok if the gas didn't run at all, but the wife was much more comfy with the bump in heat first thing in the morning.

All-in-all after a year of use, I still think this is a great upgrade if your AC unit/thermostat supports it.

Electric resistance heating is thirsty for electrons though. If my AC ever fades or dies it is getting replaced with a heat pump for sure.

This is 24 hrs worth of use. Granted, there's some water heating in there as well.

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only way you want electric grid heat in a RV is if someone else is paying for the electricity. you dont want a heat pump either...

if you were on an electric meter and you had to use electric heat continuously, its going to be expensive.
25 degrees is pretty cold for living in a beer can, no matter if it claims 4 season insulation or not..


25 degrees RV ing is why people head to southern Florida or Texas in the winter..
even total Yankees know North Florida and souther GA is too cold in the winter,
and end up south of Orlando if they do the snow bird thing.

basically propane is the best option for most people in a RV.
propane furnace, water heater, stove and fridge.. hard to beat.. cheap and convenient too and lasts a long time unless you spend long periods of time running the furnace.. then you can go thru a bottle in a week or even a day or two
 
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MSCH said:
only way you want electric grid heat in a RV is if someone else is paying for the electricity. you dont want a heat pump either...

if you were on an electric meter and you had to use electric heat continuously, its going to be expensive.
25 degrees is pretty cold for living in a beer can, no matter if it claims 4 season insulation or not..
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We stayed in the KOA here in Fort Collins for three months last winter while our house was getting some work done. The campground was only about 30% full and I was given the option to choose our campsite. I had two criteria, a site that had a clear view of the northern sky for Starlink and that it did not have an electric meter. The sites with no meter get upcharged $100/mo for electricity. It was a cold three months with a couple nights at -22F and a couple days that it didn't get above 0F. We had three 1500 watt electric heaters going non-stop for about six weeks of those three months. They would cycle on and off the other three months. I don't know what the KOA pays for electricity, but I'm quite certain I came out pretty well paying $100/mo for power. We still used hundreds of pounds of propane.

I hope to never camp in cold like that again.

@ctechbob solar setup would have been nice, because it's sunny here most of the time.
 
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Wayne said:
We stayed in the KOA here in Fort Collins for three months last winter while our house was getting some work done. The campground was only about 30% full and I was giving the option to choose our campsite. I had two criteria, a site that had a clear view of the northern sky for Starlink and that it did not have an electric meter. The sites with no meter get upcharged $100/mo for electricity. It was a cold three months with a couple nights at -22F and a couple days that it didn't get above 0F. We had three 1500 watt electric heaters going non-stop for about six weeks of those three months. They would cycle on and off the other three months. I don't know what the KOA pays for electricity, but I'm quite certain I came out pretty well paying $100/mo for power. We still used hundreds of pounds of propane.

@ctechbob solar setup would have been nice, because it's sunny here most of the time.
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yeah, when we were in Tok Alaska, the owner of the campground said to me that she was going to have to change the way she charges for spots that had people staying in RV's year round.. apparently she has owned the place for years, going back to before RV's had electric fireplaces and such.... she said it was becoming apparent the few people she had who spent the winter there she was losing money on electricity supplying just them and that she was going to have to go to electric meters for the full timers.
 
MSCH said:
Tok Alaska
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It's -18F right now in Tok and it's not supposed to be above 20F for the next ten days. The lowest overnight low in the next ten days is -35F. I can't imagine trying to keep an RV water system from freezing in those conditions. No thanks.
 
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