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?
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