Inexpensive way to stay warm while asleep this Winter ...

[avanti]

I must admit to not having read this thread very carefully, but do I understand correctly that all this passion is being generated around the choice of electric blankets?

Given that all resistive heaters have exactly the same efficiency (i.e., 100%), and given the simplicity of the task they perform, it is a little hard for me to imagine one being much better than another. I suppose some may have more fancy buttons than others....

 

[themexicandoctor]

And Black Tanks ...

I surrender to Avanti if but for one concession, this company has made the more crude Bumk Warmer Series for years, for Truckers.

And now they are advertising when you click in "FOR BOATS & RV'S ..." the Bunk Warmers anyway.

I agree the 6.2amps draw* at first seemed excessive BUT NEVWR in the 3-4 years of winters that I used, with a single chassis battery Optima, did I ever have an issue with a flat battery.

*in 2008 I had no need to understand the difference between Amps, Volts or Watts as I didn't have a Class B.

They do say there is a operating reduction to 50% of Maximum once on, AFTER Cycling.

When I clicked on the new website, the one from 12 years ago was very crude, I see their staple unit, again the Bunk Warmer with the RV/Boat owner focus, not just Truckers.

I, at this point, do not know if there other range of products which seems to have tripled since 2008, are purpose built for RVs, Boats or just House units.

More details next week please

 

[jrobe-ClassB]

Who would spend the money on a Class B RV and not have a decent heating system to enjoy it in cooler or cold weather if that is a goal. My wife certainly doesn't want to just be warm only in the bed at night, with an ice cold van the rest of the day and night while still needing 50 amp hrs of battery power per day just to warm the bed under the covers. Instead we would rather hit a switch on the wall and heat the van with about 1 gal of diesel fuel from the main tank and be toasty warm all day in the whole van. Our local truckers must feel the same way because our Freightliner dealer automatically installs an Espar diesel bunk heater in all their new trucks. I doubt a heated mattress pad ever comes up in the conversation as an alternative .

 

[themexicandoctor]

Yes there is a hige demand for what an earlier poster referred to, which is probably the same device.

Here it is, post #17, From STEVEJ

I used to own my own truck and and drove it over the road.(Never again) back in the early 90's.

As I paid for my own repairs and fuel I found it quite advantageous to use an electric blanket. But like you say, multi day boondocking was usually not the norm, though weekend lay overs occurred occasionally. My truck was equipped with 4 group 31 commercial batteries, not deep cycle.

It's quite possible that today's "new breed" drivers can't be bothered with old ideas. Back in the 90's, a lot of the owner operators had and used an electric blanket. The alternative was basically leave the truck idle all night(common) and burn 5 to 10 gals of fuel and listen to the racket. Not good for my nerves, engine, or fuel budget.

Nowadays, a lot of over the road trucks are equipped with auxiliary diesel fired power packs that provide heat and A/C.
End Quote

Not everyone has diesel.

Or that feature to use.

Probably much less than 15% of us here. The other members.

But these are also made for the trucking industry to work around the idling truck as SteveJ points out.

I know it is not 50 amps.

You may want to read the specs or even better, let me get the specs for all thier products by Monday.

 

[themexicandoctor]

The furnace draws about 3 amps for the fan and board, add about another half amp for when the burner is engaged.



Last I looked, it was discontinued at Amazon. Any PWM unit will work if the specs cover the usage. There are some with remote knobs that can make the install quite discreet. Some in a plastic or ??? case. Look around and see what you like. They have a gazillion of them.

Another source could be digi-key out of MN. They have lots of different electronic stuff and, at least used to, shipped onesies and towsies.

Thank you.

 

[yvairguy]

I have a 2000 rt200 with suburban furnace. I read the amp draw is around 2. Is this correct? Also we will be using it to keep the dogs warm over two 4 hour ski sessions.

We will head out late on Fri, overnight ski 9-12lunch with the critters then ski 1-4. Probably head off to dinner with the van and critters then return for the evening and ski 9-12/1 on Sunday. Then return home.

The blankets would work perfectly for the dogs I think but I would like to keep the van air temp no lower than 65 for them and us at night. During the day the CO sun will probably keep the van warm but at night it will be cold cold cold.

My dog prefers to stay in a kennel so I built one into the van. I have polyisocyanurate insulation under the crate and I have a warming pad under the crate and above the insulation. I think it pulls like 22watts. I run it off a small inverter. When I get done with my upgrades it will just plug in the wall.

 

[GeorgeRad]

…………………..
Not everyone has diesel.
………………….

We have good sleeping bags and Espar D2 diesel furnace. We set night temperature at about 50-60F and the heater often runs on low once temperature reaches steady level. It draws as follows:

850W 0.7A
1200W 1.0A
1800W 1.8A
2200W 2.8A

But you don’t need diesel to run it, both Webasto and Espar have furnaces which can run on gasoline. I do think that for a lot of folks with energy hungry furnaces an electric blanket or mattress topper are excellent options.

 

[yvairguy]

I've been more or less full time since December 22nd. I spent a good part of last winter in Utah and Idaho. At night I set the heater around 40* and I just slept with 2 blankets. I had sleeping bags but it was just easier to use the blankets and I don't plan on traveling with bags again.

My rig came with 12v sockets at the foot of each bed so I always figured if I ever wanted to be a little warmer I would get a 12v blanket. My guess is that's what they were put there for.

It's pretty much a 4 season rig as all the fresh water plumbing is inside the coach, only the gray tank is outside and I was dumping all tanks and filling up about every 2 weeks. The propane lasted about 10 days but it only has a 7 gallon tank. If I find myself living like this again I want to mount 2 propane tanks in a box on the back and install an extend-a-stay and use the onboard propane as a reserve tank.

 

[themexicandoctor]

Could your rig be using excess Gas or was that only in the Winter with the furnace on.

My 2005 Roadtrek had an 8 gallon tank & I never use the heater during the summer but even when I had a struggling 3 way fridge set to high it would be about every 21 days.

Without using the heater of course.

Now i have a DC Fridge my refill this summer has been more than 8 weeks between refills.

 

[Theputnams515]

I've been more or less full time since December 22nd. I spent a good part of last winter in Utah and Idaho. At night I set the heater around 40* and I just slept with 2 blankets. I had sleeping bags but it was just easier to use the blankets and I don't plan on traveling with bags again.

My rig came with 12v sockets at the foot of each bed so I always figured if I ever wanted to be a little warmer I would get a 12v blanket. My guess is that's what they were put there for.

It's pretty much a 4 season rig as all the fresh water plumbing is inside the coach, only the gray tank is outside and I was dumping all tanks and filling up about every 2 weeks. The propane lasted about 10 days but it only has a 7 gallon tank. If I find myself living like this again I want to mount 2 propane tanks in a box on the back and install an extend-a-stay and use the onboard propane as a reserve tank.

This is perfect. I need to pick your brain since you have the experiennce. We are trying to head out after work on Fri night my wife, me and two dogs to overnight and miss i70 traffic.

So we will be spending only two nights at a time.

We spent last weekend up around 8500ft in WY and our coach temp got into the mid 40s. We were fine with our blankets, but the dogs were cold and annoying lol.

So I would like to keep it warmer. We too have a 7gal Propane tank. We will be hauling water In 5 gallon containers as our tanks are all exposed. Our black and gray tanks will have antifreeze in them so we can use them.

 

[Theputnams515]

Doc, thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.

So much info to take in.

 

[themexicandoctor]

Sure.

The guy you are talking to is a real Professional with 30 years of solving technical problems. Good choice, please share.

 

[Lennie-ClassB]

I have very limited battery, 125 ah and no generator. Last year I spent a couple of days where it got down into the low 30's. The park didn't have utilities, I ran the heater enough to get it comfortable and slept with a down blanket. I did worry about the dogs but they seemed fine. They slept on the bed next to us, however they are a double coated breed with long hair. I drove each day which charged my battery and used the heat off the engine (Sprinter) to keep it warm while we hiked. I also have insulated coverings for the windows to help keep heat in.

 

[yvairguy]

This is perfect. I need to pick your brain since you have the experiennce. We are trying to head out after work on Fri night my wife, me and two dogs to overnight and miss i70 traffic.


So we will be spending only two nights at a time.

We spent last weekend up around 8500ft in WY and our coach temp got into the mid 40s. We were fine with our blankets, but the dogs were cold and annoying lol.

So I would like to keep it warmer. We too have a 7gal Propane tank. We will be hauling water In 5 gallon containers as our tanks are all exposed. Our black and gray tanks will have antifreeze in them so we can use them.

At night I was in temps as low as the teens in Idaho and the upper 20's in Utah. I posted in another thread that my dog prefers sleeping in her crate. I have polyisocyanurate under her crate and then a warming pad then the crate. I believe it pulls like 20 or 22 watts and I plug it into an inverter. I have a warming pad to add to the gray tank near the valve... I actually didn't need it last year but just planning ahead if I have to go back. it will be a quick install should I decide to put it on.

Left out the biggest part of sleeping in cold weather, a hoodie. Once I started wearing a hoodie to keep my head warm it was awesome. I've actually thought about either having some insulated curtains made or even something I could line the back sleeping area walls and windows with in the winter. But I would have to know I was going to have to do that for say a month or so before I would go down that trail.

I've seen videos were people keep a diluted RV antifreeze solution in the toilet area and flush with that. If I were to ever mount tanks under the van I would have a glycol system to keep them warm enough to function. There are a few builders that build them that way now.

 

[InterBlog]

I must admit to not having read this thread very carefully, but do I understand correctly that all this passion is being generated around the choice of electric blankets?

....

Addressing your confusion, no, it's more than that - it invokes the mere-exposure effect, confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and a host of other psychological phenomena.

It's THAT THING that happens routinely on every forum when some posters decide that what's best for THEM is necessarily, by definition, best for EVERYONE, without any regard to context or situational factors.

My husband and I are a mechanical engineer and a scientist respectively. We deal with facts and numbers in our decision trees. The suggestion that any given van appurtenance is unconditionally the answer to life, the universe, and everything is diametrically opposed to every investigative principle that STEM education has ever taught us.

And the answer to the next obvious question (why even get involved) is that there are newbies reading these forums (more lurkers than most posters realize) who may accidentally fall for any given proclamation, because the promoters of them do their best to be infectious with their projections, couching them in eureka terms intended to deflect closer inspection.

For example, if you remember on this forum, a while back we had a poster who believed that propane generators were THE ANSWER, and that the only viable van development paradigm going forward was a propane basis. That poster is entitled to his opinion, and as long as he expresses it within forum rules, he's in bounds.

But for crying out loud, we do have some degree of collective reputation to uphold here - we can't let that stuff go unchallenged. So what we did in that instance was to create a table - objective, factual information - summarizing posters' van configurations. From that, a newbie could conclude, "Hey, this one guy thinks propane is the only answer, but virtually none of these other guys have gone that way with their upfitting, and they have been successful with their designs... hmmm... maybe the first guy's claim is sketchy."

I'm reminded of the very bedrock of 1A: The solution to undesirable speech or misguided speech or incomplete speech is not less speech or restricted speech. It's MORE speech, so that in the marketplace of ideas, the most appropriate ones can rise to the top. So I just delivered another chunk of speech right here.

 

[Davydd]

I was very careful to have our Espar's thermostat mounted within reach of the bed.

Yep, it is that critical period in the morning when awakening from your sleeping cocoon of your preference and getting up. It is not a problem if you keep your external heat on all night. You might want to turn it up a notch is all and get back in bed until the coffee is percolated.

The sleeping cocoon is mostly being discussed here. I've described our preference with above freezing temperatures but we have boondocked several times in in temperatures way below freezing down to -15º F. There is no way you can do that without external heating on to condition the whole cabin.

yvairguy, the hoodie is an excellent suggestion not only for your head but the arm sleeves as well if you want the freedom of sleeping with your arms outside the blankets or sleeping bag. Our last venture in cold weather was this month on the Gunflint Trails End campground in northern Minnesota when it got almost down to freezing. I slept in a hoodie.

 

[InterBlog]

On the cocooning alternative, I use a NEMO Disco 30 men's goose down sleeping bag for the extra room it affords me, so that I don't feel like a human sardine crammed into a mummy bag. I sleep in it, and I sack in it when I'm sitting on the couch, at the computer, not moving around so that cold creeps into me from the bottom up. Notice the hand gesture in the photo below indicating how wide and roomy it is.

And DH and I have 3 Rumpls, one of which is goose down. In my experience, there is no substitute for it. There may be other products or brands, but I keep going back to goose down. If I were ever leaving on an extended cold-weather trip, I'd invest in goose down pants to round out my collection, but that's another $200+ that I can live without right now.

 

[themexicandoctor]

The group, comprised of many different walks of life, without putting too fine a point on the obvious, suggested this is how you answer a Community Thead;

Sounds like an excellent idea for some but without going into deeper research, the 6.2amp draw* as it cycles on with that particular model seems excessive compared to what we have decided works for our needs, specifically what we call the;
------------
Cocooning alternative, I use a*NEMO Disco 30*men's*goose down sleeping bag for the extra room it affords me, so that I don't feel like a human sardine crammed into a mummy bag. I sleep in it, and I sack in it when I'm sitting on the couch, at the computer, not moving around so that cold creeps into me from the bottom up. Notice the hand gesture in the photo below indicating how wide and roomy it is.*

And DH and I have 3 Rumpls, one of which is goose down. In my experience, there is no substitute for it. There may be other products or brands, but I keep going back to goose down. If I were ever leaving on an extended cold-weather trip, I'd invest in*goose down pants*to round out my collection, but that's another $200+ that I can live without right now.*

*upon start up only, reduces to 50% of Maximum
-----------------------
We all have different professions & are sharing with Physiologists*, Carpenters, Housewives, Rocket Scientists, Teachers*, Line Cooks, other Scientists, Social Scientists, Dog Walkers, Mechanical Engineers & Mechanics.

And I for one, don't believe a Physiologist has any more IQ when it comes to Emotional Intelligence than a Dog Walking, ex Jailbird, former Politician.

*some of us are trained in Emotional Intelligence however & when myopia is present to the point that the Housewife or the Line Cook doesn't want to participate in most discussions, because of this pervasive pattern of hysterical hair splitting etc.

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT KEEPING WARM AT NIGHT CORRECT, WITH A LIMITED BATTERY BANK, IN 2020?

This thread & many others are not charged with sending black tank deposits to the moon.

Or are we collectively charged with ensuring safe passage of a 1998 Dodge Class B owner to the space station & back all the time while sleeping on a mattress with this specifuc brand of electric heating pad?

Most conversations don't attract both the Scientist, the Dog Walker or the Carpenter.

We all participate in where we think and or, have had experience owning certain products or services.

THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.

BUT THESE CRUDE* BUNK WARMERS WORK.

AND THE ELECTIC MATTRESS PADS ALSO WORK.

THEY HAVE DONE SINCE 1939.

AND THERE IS A HIGHER PROBABILITY THAT THEY DESERVE CLOSER INSPECTION & DUE DILIGENCE BY THOSE ATTRACTED TO THE THREAD IB ORDER TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

*will get all the Data Monday I trust.

*the poster does not offer any evidence, claims or representation that this product will cure Cancer, will not provide effective Legal Counsel in a HOA Dispute, is not an effective Vaccine for Covid 19, jas no known deterrent properties to repel Rodents & Small Mammals, this product will not solve World Hunger, this product will not cause your hair to stop receding, it will not cure Tinea Pedia, cannot be used to solve Global Warming, cannot & should not be used as a Ladder, will not reheat Pizza to safe levels, should not be used outside Earth's Atmosphere until further testing, cannot be used as a Weight Loss Device, it will not solve Black Tank Dumping, has not shown to be efficacious in reducing Dog Anxiety & Barking, cannot be used as a Flotation Device

 

[themexicandoctor]

Sorry about the duplication here

The group, comprised of many different walks of life, without putting too fine a point on the obvious, suggested this is how you answer a Community Thead;

Sounds like an excellent idea for some but without going into deeper research, the 6.2amp draw* as it cycles on with that particular model seems excessive compared to what we have decided works for our needs, specifically what we call the;

Cocooning alternative, I use a*NEMO Disco 30*men's*goose down sleeping bag for the extra room it affords me, so that I don't feel like a human sardine crammed into a mummy bag. I sleep in it, and I sack in it when I'm sitting on the couch, at the computer, not moving around so that cold creeps into me from the bottom up. Notice the hand gesture in the photo below indicating how wide and roomy it is.*

And DH and I have 3 Rumpls, one of which is goose down. In my experience, there is no substitute for it. There may be other products or brands, but I keep going back to goose down. If I were ever leaving on an extended cold-weather trip, I'd invest in*goose down pants*to round out my collection, but that's another $200+ that I can live without right now.*

*upon start up only, reduces to 50% of Maximum

You do understand that we all have different professions & that we are sharing with Physiologists*, Carpenters, Housewives, Rocket Scientists, Teachers*, Line Cooks, other Scientists, Social Scientists, Dog Walkers, Mechanical Engineers & Mechanics.

And I for one, don't believe a Physiologist has any more IQ when it comes to Emotional Intelligence than a Dog Walking, ex Jailbird, former Politician.

*some of us are trained in Emotional Intelligence however & when myopia is present to the point that the Housewife or the Line Cook doesn't want to participate in most discussions, because of this pervasive pattern of hysterical hair splitting etc.

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT KEEPING WARM AT NIGHT CORRECT, WITH LIMITED BATTERY BANK?

This thread & many others are not charged with sending black tank deposits to the moon.

Or are we collectively charged with ensuring safe passage of a 1998 Dodge Class B owner to the space station & back all the time while sleeping on a mattress with this specifuc brand of electric heating pad?

Most conversations don't attract both the Scientist, the Dog Walker or the Carpenter.

We all participate in where we think and or, have had experience owning certain products or services.

THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.

BUT THESE CRUDE* BUNK WARMERS WORK.

AND THE ELECTIC MATTRESS PADS ALSO WORK.

THEY HAVE DONE SINCE 1939.

AND THERE IS A HIGHER PROBABILITY THAT THEY DESERVE CLOSER INSPECTION & DUE DILIGENCE BY THOSE ATTRACTED TO THE THREAD IB ORDER TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

*will get all the Data Monday I trust.

*the poster does not offer any evidence, claims or representation that this product will cure Cancer, thos product cannot be used as effective Legal Defense with your HOA, has no known deterrence of Rodents & Small.Mammals, is not an effective Vaccine for Covid 19 as of today's testing this, this Blanket should not be used as a secondary Parachute, this product will not solve World Hunger, this product may temporarily solve your Hunger if eaten slowly with moderate amounts of Salt, this product will not cause your hair to stop receding, it will not cure Tinea Pedia, cannot be used to solve Global Warming, cannot & should not be used as a Ladder, will not reheat Pizza to safe levels, should not be used outside Earth's Atmosphere until further testing, cannot be using as a Weight Loss Device, it will not solve Black Tank Dumping, has not shown to efficacious in reducing Dog Anxiety & Barking, cannot be used as a Flotation Device

 

[Davydd]

This is all for an electric sleeping pad? They are good for incontinence (bed wetting) since they are rubberize protected and impervious. You might want to include that.