-
C-As, H20 heater, & cube heaters in cold weather
24*F yesterday and 28*F today. Two Cruise-Airs running inside and both putting out warm air (one warmer than the other). Not hot air, but warm air. About 50*F inside, supplemented by two 1,000 watt cube heaters with fans.Only the water heater “ON” in the water bay and it was 48*F in water bay.Grafton, Wisconsin … 25 miles north of downtown Milwaukee.I’m pretty happy with this. If it gets down below 10*F and for sure 0*F then I’ll fire up the Wesbasto. Hopefully we don’t be here too much into January. If I am I’ll look for heated storage and/or winterize. -
23 Replies
-
Dick, does Liberty put electric elements in the cruise air? my “Heatpump” function cruise airs( Marathon) will not heat below 40 degrees? I have 3 toe kick heaters that keep me at middle 60’s down to lower 20’s then have to add small electric space heater ot use wabasto
Jim Brown
-
I don’t think I have electric elements in the Cruise-Airs.
-
Dick , like you I’m also in temps 20 or lower in the evening . I use AH and Elect in the morning combined to warm up . We are dry camping so AH is best .
Are you just pointing out that the CC provide heat or are you having issues with AH ?
-
As I’ve mentioned, I looking for my Prevost. I’m confused, why wouldn’t you use fire for heat? I use natural gas exclusively for heating my house, cheap and heats great. Is there a reason you’re not using AH or Webasto? My wife likes to stay warm; electricity will not do the trick and be far too expensive; is there something I should be concerned about?
-
Al and MKeith:
I’m pretty happy with what I can get out of the Cruise-Airs and the cube heaters at these temps. I’ll clarify my original post to point out that the coach is sitting outside, 25 miles north of Milwaukee, hopefully in a temporary situation until we head south.
If it gets much colder, I will (have to) turn on the Webasto and heat with diesel. But for now I’m content with the Cruise-Airs and cube heater are getting the job done. If it looks like we’re going to stay in Wisconsin longer than we hope, then I’ll look for heated storage and/or winterize.
MKeith … our friends the Hilgers who had an early 90’s XL and now an around 2000 or so H3 have snowmobiled in the Wyoming mountains near Centennial, WY with their coach at temps as low as -22*F.
Thanks again to Jon Wehrenberg for cluing us in on keeping the fresh water tank full and the water heater on. I would never have thought about the BTUs stored in the fresh water tank or enough heat would “leak” off the water heater that it would keep the water bay (and fresh water tank) warm.
-
Don’t forget I also used a cube heater pointed at the water tank and set to 500 watts. To a great extent the water absorbs that heat and when outside temps get lower than the cube heater can handle the water releases heat to the bay.
We could go a week of 20 below temps using only the cube heater in the bay and a 1500 watt oscilating heater sitting on the kitchen counter with all cabinet doors open in the kitchen and bath and never had an issue. I did not turn on the HW tank.
-
good info , however I’m assuming your plugged in ? Or indoors where AH obviously would not be a good idea .
-
Thanks for the clarification; now if I can just solve the roof/cruise air/OTR air dilemma
-
Are you just pointing out that the CC provide heat or are you having issues with AH ?
Assume AH is Aqua Hot what is CC?
-
Aqua Hot
-
We’ve used our coach a lot in colder weather. Seems like the only thing that became a concern was the auxiliary tank. With colder weather, more leaks, and the auxiliary compressor kicking on every hour or two. We had our air line freeze up and have no air. Not a problem until you need to dump your tanks! Other than that, like Dick, we use our CA’s down to about 25, supplementing with the toe kick heaters. Then when it really cools down we’ll use our webasto. The Webasto does a fantastic job heating, but I’d rather use the power provided than use my diesel to heat…
-
Unfortunately Liberty environmental system design has changed. Our first coach had propane furnaces in several places. If we had shore power, as an alternative we could use any or all of the toe space type heaters in the bedroom, bath, kitchen and next to the front door. The Cruisairs were not heat pumps.
That coach was actually the best in terms of even distribution of heat and ability to handle all cold temps because we could run the propane furnaces and the toe space heaters at once if we chose.
The second and current coach both had Cruisair heat pumps, but as a practical matter the Cruisairs were good to about 35. After that we ran the Webasto. The coaches both had toe space heaters, but they were only in the bath area. The bottom line is when it got cold we were burning our fuel for heat, even if we had shore power.
I wish we had multiple toe space heaters spread through the coach instead of just one in the bath area.
-
Jon: Did you consider adding some electric toe kick heaters throughout your current coach? I think we have enough unused breakers on our panel.
Do you have heated floors at all?
-
It is not the unused breakers that becomes the issue. It becomes a major problem getting wire from the electric panel to the various points on the coach where it makes sense to have toe space heaters.
So we found the ideal solution. We do not do cold. When driving from the frigid Knoxville winter daytime temps of near 50 degrees we use the OTR heat and when we get to our planned southern destinations if heat is needed we use the heat pumps. If the temps are at or below 35 we aren’t far enough south.
Until we can proceed further south however Di and I partake of some adult anti-freeze, usually in the form of Tito’s or Knob Creek.
-
By a Marathon, you get 3 or 4 kick heaters.
Log in to reply.