Using electric heat to keep pipes warm...

[blamb]

Ok, hear me out on this one. I know the general consensus is to leave the furnace on low to keep the pipes from freezing. What temps do you reccomend for this, by the way? I've been keeping it at 48 but would like to go a little lower to save propane, but will any lower allow the pipes to freeze if it gets to 5 below out at night?

My real question is this. We have fans, right? I mean the kind that go with the ducted air system, instead of "cool" or "heat" you put it on "fan". So, all the air when either of the 3 are running go through the intake vents in the stairs and come back in, right? So my question is, to save propane, is there any reason why I could not run the fireplace space heater in the back of the unit, and the separate non-ducted heater in the bedroom, leave all the doors open, and turn on just the fan for the ducted air? If I kept it plenty warm inside just on space heaters, wouldn't it pull the heat into the basement via the intake vents and keep the pipes warm THAT way? I sure am using up propane fast, it seems, even keeping it at 48 or 50 or so.

[Bill and Lisa]

You would have to do an experiment. Putting the system on Fan and On will blow air through the A/C unit and through the ducts in the ceiling but it will not move air through the floor ducting. The only fan in that part of the ducting is the furnace fan (which has it's suction under the stairs). You could try running the furnace with the propane secured and see if the fan will keep running even if the furnace never lights. There may be a fault condition that stops the furnace to prevent damage (kind of like the fridge faulting if it can't light on gas within a set time period). IF the fan keeps running you would want to pull the wire to the spark ignitor otherwise it will keep sparking trying to light the gas that isn't there. It might be easier to put a space heater and a ducted fan in the basement and run a dryer hose line into the main air distribution box above the furnace.

[Waynem]

Try experimenting with a drop cord and a 100 watt light bulb where the pipes are. That is what most SOB MH's do. If the temperature is below 32 outside, you need to disconnect your hose at the RV inlet and use the fresh water tank pump, or put insulation and heat tape around the hose, and the shorter the better.

JMHO

[Driftwoodgal]

We have had very limited expierence with staying in the cold weather, but will share with you what we have done when it got down to about 18 degrees in Kerville last New Years Eve. We used heat tape for the water hose, and it worked well on the hose, but the faucet froze. Will do as Wayne suggested and put water in the fresh water tank. We put the heater on a very low setting and then put an electric heater in front of the steps. Everything in the belly was fine and nothing froze.

A friend of ours puts a heater in his cargo bay and just runs an extension cord through the clothes hamper. We hav to much junk down there to do that. He has been successful doing this, but not sure we would do that even if there was room.

Colleen

[mopar1]

The furnace turnes the blower off if the gas is shut off to it. We ran out of propane in the middle of the night. I switched to the other tank and had to shut the furnace switch to off and back on to make it work again.