[TheTonka]

I am researching heat for the big hauler and have found a few things.

Cat heaters can be dangerous(big arguments).
Furnaces work well but suck up the 12V.

So I was thinking about radiant heat. I don't know if my water heater would be up to the task but I can get a new water heater for about $300, and a used one for a bunch less. So with a decent water heater a circulation pump and a couple bit floor board radiators over the wheel wells I should get some good heating. I will need to put in some circulation fans since its so tall but I was going to do that anyway for the AC as well as the heat.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone look into this? I know a lot of the newer high end motorhomes have this and its supposed to be pretty sweet.

 

[TheTonka]

Good to know. I would probably build a system around a standard 6 gallon hot water heater and use a thermostat to drive the circulation pump. The hot water heater would have its own thermostat.

 

[TheTonka]

I may just go ahead with a furnace. I found some mounting examples I like. What I want is to mount it up high in the back out of the way and run ducting forward and down.

 

[TheTonka]

I've got to say that sounds like a major pain in the butt. I can run my forced air furnace all night in 20deg weather and still show full green on my batteries. (33' 5th wheel) That was before I upgraded to 2 6volt batteries that last much longer than the 12volt deep cycles that I had before. With a 50 watt or better solar panel you should be able to re-charge them during the day.

I bought two 15W panels and will probably add more later. I am thinking about long term having two distinct circuits in the trailer. One will be the front with the generator, water pump, kitchen lights, and inverter. The other will be in the rear and have the winch, awning lights, ceiling fan, furnace, and upstairs lights on it. I already have a 2 battery marine switch in there so if I drain one circuit I can switch over to the other or parallel them. This would really only be necessary to start the generator to charge the batteries up if I need.

off topic: I found a really cool controller on the camping world website that will automatically start your generator if the batteries get low. With 19 gallons of fuel onboard for ONLY the generator this would be pretty cool. The solar panels should keep the batteries mostly charge and the generator would fire up in emergency situations. I think even when we buy a house I would prefer this setup.

 

[TheTonka]

IIRC its a generac primepact 50G. I wish I knew how loud it was going to be I would have upgraded to a quieter one. I have some ideas on how to quiet down the enclosure it is in, but haven't had the time, plus it is open to the bottom and there really isn't anyway to insulate that since there needs to be airflow I believe.

 

[TheTonka]

I like the idea of the auto start. Before I switched to the 6volts I had my batteries go dead a couple of times. When the low bat alarm goes off it"s too late to be able to start the generator. My buddy has an 80 watt panel on his trailer and he doesn't have to run his generator unless he's using the microwave.

Thats what I am hoping. I have to do some creative wiring to isolate my battery chargers from the inverter I want to put, don't wanna pay for a xantrex with it all built in. The inverter should run everything except the microwave, AC and big flood lights. With 4 15W solar panels and 4 6V batteries I should be in good shape. If I need more panels I will add them later. They are $90 from Northern Tool.

 

[TheTonka]

That GenerJunk is gonna be loud.... Looooong straight pipe with the Onan muffler on the end would help.

Yeah its pretty loud, mostly mechanical noise though. The exhaust is pretty quiet.

 

[TheTonka]

Bringing this back from the dead. I found an example of the Hydronic setup I am looking at doing, only with a fan.

http://www.solarhaven.org/HPArticle.htm

Looking back over the comments one thing comes to mind about efficiency. The biggest problem with the traditional furnace is not the fan, it is the heat transfer rate. Water to metal to air is significantly better than air to metal to air.

I have found a water to air heat exchanger for pretty cheap and the pump will be pretty straight forward. Gotta source a fan, or fans, and I am thinking about just going with brushless fans in an array. Should be pretty quiet, and while not super high on the CFM, should work OK.

On the really cold trips I am thinking I may just get a cheap, obnoxious 120V heater and run that with the generator for say 30 minutes in the evening to heat up the hauler, then use the hydronic to keep it warm. I'm really not looking to have 80 degrees when it it 20 out, just be able to keep it in the high 50's, maybe 60's.

Then I gotta make it so I don't freeze my water hoses anymore.

 

[TheTonka]

We have a 27' sled trailer with fold down bunks and all we use for heat is two 1500W ceramic heaters running off of a Honda inverter genset and even at -20°C it is warm enough and quiet enough inside to sleep.

My generator is not that quiet. I want to be able to be warm all night without running the generator.

 

[TheTonka]

Solar panel during the day to recharge the battery?

Not really enough room on the top for Solar Panels, I was going to go that route, but decided not too. I can run the generator during the day to charge the battery, and plan on getting an auto gen start module. Just don't want to run it all night.