You use battery power to run the furnace? The propane is much more efficient. When we go camping in October (thanksgiving weekend). Furnace runs sometimes, we use 1/4 tank over 3 nights. Same as the fridge.
Both Battery and propane. Battery to run the blower fan, and propane to heat. Out of all the items in the trailer that consumes 12v electricity, the furnace fan uses the most amps. The only other thing I have are the lights, which I've converted to LED, so they hardly use any amps at all.
Same here. Guess I never realized the fan uses the battery. Since I have never had a problem. Never noticed. But it makes sense.
An entire night of the furnace running can deplete a smaller group24 battery almost entirely, certainly past the magic '50%'. Another reason why I installed a massive Group31 battery on my trailer. I've got about 50% more capacity than with the group 24 batteries that come with most trailers.
Mine uses 7.5A. I calculated if the night was really cold and the furnace runs for 4 hours, that's 30A depleted. I went for a group 27 (50A usable) but I'm considering going dual battery. How many usable amps does group 31 have?
Group 31 will have approx. 125AH (so 62-63AH useable). Dual Battery is best, I think, run in parallel. I would have gone dual battery, but my trailer only had room for one battery, so I just went for a big one.
Would you ever rent out your unit? I already have $650 of income pending this summer for two bookings. We financed (more like a mortgage) our unit @ 4.99% over 15 years but we're planning to pay it off in 5.
I don't think I would ever rent out my trailer. There is just the potential for somebody else to misuse it, and the wear and tear would be more significant than just using it myself. People don't take care of other people's things as well if it is their own. I could keep our pop-up and use it as a dedicated rental, but it has so many idiosyncrasies, and is so fragile, that it wouldn't take much to ruin it. Pop-ups really need to be used with care.
Trailers have C02 alarms in them in case of furnace malfunction?
Not CO2, but CO (carbon monoxide). Yes, every trailer has to have one. They run off 110 'shore' power, and also 12v battery power. In fact, if you leave your trailer parked longterm without a maintainer, with the battery hooked up, the CO detector will deplete the battery over time. Furnaces also use a heat exchanger. They don't exhaust combusted air into the interior of the trailer, but rather transfer heat from the exhaust to inside air via the heat exchanger, then exhaust the combusted air directly outside. They are like a household furnace in that regard, just a lot less efficient.
Guess I will have to figure how much I drain when running the furnace. And what my solar panel does (if anything) to top up the battery.
This little thing I use once in awhile.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/coleman-2-5-watt-12-volt-solar-battery-maintainer-0112007p.html#srp
But I have a proper one for when the trailer is home.
So, I use a little 25W solar panel when dry camping, and it is enough to top up my battery to almost full on a moderately sunny day, after a night of using lights and furnace. If you do a lot of dry camping, I would definitely invest in a 50 - 100W solar panel. They are not terribly expensive.
https://www.costco.ca/Coleman-100-W%2c-12-V-Crystalline-Solar-Panel-Kit-with-Stand.product.100484260.html
