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Old 04-03-2013, 03:20 AM   #1
bncinwv
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Propane Heat Usage Rate

After a recent post regarding using a 30 pound bottle of propane faster than expected, primarily being used for the furnace, I thought it would make for an informative topic to once again visit this topic from the aspect of what the various MOC members do to slow down the consumption rate. Of course, electric heaters help and this has been well documented over the years. We have been camping with temperatures in the mid 20's at night for five nights now and can report the following usage rates and how we obtained it. We are using two ceramic 1500 watt heaters at present, one in the front of the rig and one in the rear. Both of these heaters are thermostatically controlled and are set for 75 degrees. We have the furnace thermostat set at 73 degrees and it seems the furnace is cycling somewhat regularly since the electric heaters will not heat the entire rig at these low temperatures. When the furnace does kick on, it seems to only stay on for about 5-10 minutes at a time. While I realize that our thermostat settings are most likely higher than most will use, the reason is that I have a very cold-blooded wife (for example out S&B thermostats are set at 77 degrees!). Using this methodology, I checked the propane usage this morning and we have yet to empty one of our 40 pound bottles (that is not a type, we have dual 40 pound tanks). Looks like switchover will happen tonight though, so by my simple math this gives us a usage rate of a little less than 2 gallons per day/night period which I believe is pretty good for the conditions we are in. We are not using propane for the hot water or fridge but are cooking with it as well. As always this post is merely an informative one and if others have different results it may be interesting hearing them for the forum's general knowledge.
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Old 04-03-2013, 04:28 AM   #2
mail2us
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Bingo, your narrative is a good explanation of propane heat use.

I did not know we could fit 40 lb tanks in place of 30.

I say respectfully Bingo that while your wife maybe a very cold-blooded wife, Judy and I know she is certainly very warm-hearted.


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Old 04-03-2013, 04:33 AM   #3
NCFischers
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Just hard on coffee pots but we still love her.
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Old 04-03-2013, 04:52 AM   #4
richfaa
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Very good Bingo. We do very little to control usage in other words we use what we use. The furnace is set at 72 degrees but most of our camping is in moderate weather. We have not seen really cold weather in 7 years. We do use the fire place now that we have one and they are more effective than we thought. We are using on the average about one 30 lb tank (7.25 gal) per month actually a bit less than that.
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Old 04-05-2013, 03:39 PM   #5
DonandBonnie
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Being full timers we can adjust where we go and when we travel. The quickest and easiest way to reduce propane use for us is to stay in warmer climates. We have found so far that when the night's don't fall below 50, the fireplace is adequate heat and the furnace rarely kicks on. We keep our thermostat set at 71. We also have the hot water heater switched over to electric. Don't know that this saves much on propane but every little bit helps. An extra blanket nearby is also handy for those nights that we may be a little chilly but don't really want to get out of bed to kick up the thermostat. In the end, if we have a choice between electric and propane, we choose the electric to minimise the number of times we have to lug the propane tanks to be refilled.
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Old 04-05-2013, 03:56 PM   #6
Bill-N-Donna
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by NCFischers

Just hard on coffee pots but we still love her.

Warm hearted...Yes she is; she is a very dynamic person;
but un-fortunately as stated she is hard on coffee pots.
Left me begging for coffee at one rally we attended.

Coffee Beggar

Sorry Cathy just couldn't resist!!


Bingo, good description of the propane usage!
Sounds like you guys have done really well on the usage of it.
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Old 04-05-2013, 04:49 PM   #7
mamestra
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quote:Originally posted by mamestra

We spent two months in temperatures in the low 30's we were on 30 amp power so had to watch what we were using, we had two 1500 watt heaters going and had our temp set at 68F. We used the furnace only occasionally and had the water heater on propane, we went through 30 lbs in less than 3 weeks. We now are on 50 amp service and are running 2 1500 watt heaters, and our water heater and it has been 6 weeks since we changed our tank. The water heater and furnace are the big draw on the propane. One of the best things that we have done is to purchase an electric blanket, this allows us to reduce our night time heating down to a much lower temperature.
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Old 04-05-2013, 05:57 PM   #8
DQDick
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Bingo, when I'm in the same situation we do the same thing, except we do turn the thermostat down further. Joyce doesn't like the cold either, but buying her shawls, robes and extra blankets is not only fun, they are cheap compared to a whole lot of propane.
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Old 04-06-2013, 02:47 AM   #9
Mudchief
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Bingo, it all depends on the temp. When we were living in it, when it got down to zero we would burn through a 30 pound tank a day. We were on 50 amps with 2 electric heaters going. In the 20 to 30 it was a tank about every 3rd day. In the 40-50 range about every 5 days.
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Old 04-06-2013, 02:31 PM   #10
sola123
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I can tell you when boon docking at a Va Tech football game in November, winds around 20 mph and temp around 20 we used one 30 lbs tank from Friday 6 pm to Sunday noon....or roughly 30 lbs in 36 hours.....no other form of heat was used on that weekend....but we have now changed that problem....
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Old 04-14-2013, 01:09 PM   #11
laverdur
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When we ordered our 2013 3150RL we decided against the fireplace because my 5'0" wife wanted the cabinet below the living room TV for a pantry. To supplement heat and reduce propane consumption we used a 1500 watt space heater to keep the coach in the 65-68 degree range. In temps down to 35, if the wind was not strong, this kept the furnace from kicking on. At night we set the furnace thermostat to 55 degrees and ran the space heater and the furnace would not kick in and wake us up. We do use an electric blanket on the bed and that keeps us toasty at night. We have since moved the pantry and installed a fireplace. We are anxiously awaiting our first trip with the fireplace to see how well it does. I read another thread about fireplaces having loose internal connections and overheating but I hope all those problems have been solved and I won't have to repair mine.
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