electric floor heating

[remcolent]

I'm planning to pull the carpet and get a pergo floor in
Also thinking of using e electric 12 volt floor heating as used in bathrooms here
its just a thin ( 1 mm) sheet of plastic with wires trough it
have anyone done this is this enough to heat the trailor
these units take about 35 Watt per square meter

Remco

[InsideOut]

If the heat was electric, you would be limited to camping only with full electrical hook-ups in the chilly months....we boondock enough to want heat all the time, independant from electricity availability.

Shari

[Inland RV Center, In]

The forced air heating system, "MUST" be used during freezing weather, so that warm air will circulate around the water pipes.

To use another source of heat instead of the furnace, during freezing weather, is a sure way to get frozen water lines.

Andy

[Davydd]

Remcolent,

When I built my house I installed electric radiant heat throughout controlled by 15 separate thermostats. I can't say enough about the comfort under foot and it keeps the whole house warm.

However, I would question the usefulness of electric radiant in an Airstream other than to have underfoot warmth. With the square footage available you may not be able to generate enough heat in anything below freezing temperatures.

Also, electric radiant relies somewhat on having a mass heat sink to store and even out the heat. My cables are buried 9" in the sand on the ground floor under a 4" concrete slab and under 1-1/2" of concrete on the upper floors. The cables only heat to 85 degrees. Any hotter and you would feel a burning sensation.

If you put heating cables directly under Pergo flooring I think you have some problems. Most of the heating systems either have cables in free space where nothing is touching them or they are locked in a cementitious substance. The Pergo floor floats free and I would think the constant movement and friction would damage the mat and cables over time.

What is very popular today for bathrooms is a concept called Warm Tiles. The cables are embedded in a thin set cementitious setting bed for ceramic tiles. The tiles themselves act as a heat sink and heat radiator. Pergo flooring being porous wood substance would act as an insulator and diminish the effectiveness of radiant heat.

You would have to have a pretty stiff floor to lay ceramic tile in an Airstream without having it crack up from the continuous road pounding I would think, so I doubt that would be an option. And the weight would be astronomical.

[biggerbadbrad]

Very informative reply Davydd. Indeed, these electric in-floor heating systems are only designed to supplement an existing heat source (for cozy feet in the morning) and would not stand a chance of providing adequate heat in freezing temperatures for any home or travel trailer. For that matter, I don’t know of any 12 volt electric heat source that would provide sufficient heating. I’ve been working on the furnace in my 31 footer for the past few days in –10 degrees Celsius and have been using two 5000 watt space heaters running continuously and it is still uncomfortably cold inside. An electric forced air furnace would be more efficient than space heaters, but even they are not as cost effective as gas fired – at least not here in most parts of North America. (Alaska may be an exception) But, as Shari suggested, you would also be limited to full electrical hook-up requirements, unless of course, you had a generator. And not just any generator! This generator would have to be quite large in order to provide sufficient power to run an electric furnace. And it will need to run continuously to allow the furnace to kick on and off so you may want to look at diesel power for longevity. And if you need this much power just to run the furnace, then you may as well change the water heater, stove, oven, fridge and air conditioner to electric powered. Of course, you will need an even bigger generator though. And you don’t want to run out of fuel for the generator, so you will need at least a 50 gallon fuel storage tank. Next, you will want to upgrade that tow vehicle so you can pull all this extra weight. Oh! Did I mention the electrical system?...bigger power cable, main panel, circuit breakers, etc...

Do you see where I’m going with this?

bbb

[remcolent]

thanks for your replies
here we can get a verry thin electric system that is advertised for
use under pergo and other hard floors
( I hope they don't advertise like VW )
the floor heating should just get the floor at a comfortable temprature
so it will be used as a extra and not as main heating
Remco

[Tin Hut]

the PO pulled out the furnace on my 67 Tradewind. We don't get a lot of freezing weather here in the Fort Worth area but all it takes is one day. How much is a new furnace with install? When driving in freezing weather do you leave the gas and furnace on. During storage I have a small space heater that I can keep plugged in and open all interior cabinets and closets. Does anyone have experience with that? Thanks Jim