Hey Russ How you doing?

[southpennrailroad]

:thumbsup:

Glad you are enjoying the new furnace. Your run times will be different after the insulation. The moving warm air is a wonderful thing.

Hope your morning headaches have disappeared.

Nathan

Oh I think that was a one time thing when the blue flame shut down that morning. The new furnace is fine

Thanks

[southpennrailroad]

I was going to get rid of my toaster as I have a toaster oven that I use a whole lot. But I tried making toast this morning and it dried out the bread. Think I will keep my toaster.

Oh the vent was closed all night and I slept great.

[oicu812]

Happy to hear all is well.
Good job Russ,you definitely have stick-to-it-ness.

[mikeschn]

Oh the vent was closed all night and I slept great.

Good for you.

They say that you don't want to sleep in a totally enclosed tiny space, due to oxygen depletion.

And while I don't think you need to open your vent, cause you don't want to lose all your hot air out the vent. Maybe you could open a window to get some fresh air in there.

Another option is to use a small computer fan to suck in some fresh air.

Mike...

[Miriam C.]

Oh the vent was closed all night and I slept great.

Good for you.

They say that you don't want to sleep in a totally enclosed tiny space, due to oxygen depletion.

And while I don't think you need to open your vent, cause you don't want to lose all your hot air out the vent. Maybe you could open a window to get some fresh air in there.

Another option is to use a small computer fan to suck in some fresh air.

Mike...

Doesn't the heater suck in fresh air from the outside or does it recycle from the inside!

[southpennrailroad]

Oh the vent was closed all night and I slept great.

Good for you.

They say that you don't want to sleep in a totally enclosed tiny space, due to oxygen depletion.

And while I don't think you need to open your vent, cause you don't want to lose all your hot air out the vent. Maybe you could open a window to get some fresh air in there.

Another option is to use a small computer fan to suck in some fresh air.

Mike...

Doesn't the heater suck in fresh air from the outside or does it recycle from the inside!

Outside but then again safe is good.

[mikeschn]

Miriam,

The heater sucks air in from the outside, so it is self sufficient, so to speak.

Now the only situation is that of sleeping inside a small trailer with no windows open. The the trailer is small enough, and airtight enough, one could run the risk of asphyxiation.

Putting a tiny hole somewhere in the trailer, with a small computer fan in front of the hole would help bring in fresh air, without losing all the hot air out the top.

Mike...

[mskobier]

Russ,
If your trailer is built anything like mine, I would not worry about opening a window or vent. Mine has so many openings to the outside, I can almost feel a breeze. In mine, the bottom inside of the walls open to the outside under the trailer. Plenty of fresh air openings. My trailer is a Haulmark.

As for the air for the furnace, the combustion air is brought in from the outside and exhausted out the round tube as you have discovered. The air that heats the trailer is recycled air. It sucks it into the blower on the side where you can see the squirrel cage blower.

The run times of your furnace is about what I estimated. Once you get the insulation in, the number of cycles and the length of the cycles will decrease considerably. Once insulated, you should probably consider opening a vent of some sort for fresh air. If you think about it, you are living in an aluminum box. Aluminum is excellent at transfering heat to the outside. If you substract start up and shut down times, the furnace probably only actually runs about 30 minutes per hour. If I remember, you stated that the outside temps at night was 13 degrees F. Not too shabby! You can also use this 30 minute run time to calculate your propane useage. You may want to consider getting a larger propane tank. A 30lb bottle holds about 7 gallons when filled properly. That would extend your times between refills considerably. They are the same diameter as 20lb bottles, just a little taller. A 20lb bottle holds about 4 gallons. A gallon of propane is equivalent to about 91,000 BTU's.

Do you maintian the 61-65 degree temp all the time, or are you still turning the heater off at night?

I am impressed with your ability to adapt. Definately a shinning example for all of us. At one time in my much younger days, I lived for a couple of months in a tent. I had no where else to go. Fortunately, it was not winter, but it was still a pain in the rear.

Mitch

[pete42]

One upgrade you may want to make in the future is an electroic thermostat
over on the "trailer life" forum there a lot of people who have done the mod and they like it a lot.
the one they use can be bought at lowes HD and I think at walmart
I'm not saying go out and get one now just see how the one you have works first but keep electronic one in mind.

pete

[southpennrailroad]

Mitch/Pete

Thanks and yes I think I will eventually get a digital thermostat. I already see that the thermometer is twisted so I can't see the temp on the supplied thermostat. But this morning (I just got up at 02:30) and inside temp is 55/32 out. I guess you saw that the total I calculated yesterday as being 30. min per hour that the furnace was on.

The first night I did shut it down and awoke very cold but reached over and turned it on. This second night I had it set for about 55 as it is now all night running. I got to keep thinking that on the subject of propane usage that I should come out the same as using the blue flame as I would just leave that on for an hour or more straight at times because I just didn't want to get out of bed. But this furnace is only using about a total of 1/2 hour of propane. I calculate I will get eight days. I turned it on, attached to a new 20 lb tank on Monday at about 4:00 pm. Of course the temps are climbing this weekend.

Start up time is only 15 sec. Not worth calculating.

1st cycle Kick on time: 3:17, Kick off time: 3:30. Total on is 13 min. this cycle

2nd cycle Kick on time: 4:12, Kick off time: 4:25 Total on is 13 min. this cycle.

3rd cycle Kick on time: 5:05, Kick off time: 5:20 Total on is 15 min. this cycle.

4th cycle Kick on time: 6:00, Kick off time: 6:15 Total on is 15 min. this cycle.

Turns on @ 60 degrees/Shuts off @ 68 degrees

I feel comfortable that I can keep the furnace on and set at this pace/temperature so that I won't be real cold when I get up and still have heat/propane savings w/o shutting the furnace completely off while I sleep. That said I have the Atwood thermostat set at the seventh mark up from the left located at the bottom of the stat. Of course I will study this at different temps So my usage this night is that @ 32 degrees outside the furnace is cycling on/off once in less then one hour.

Trust me I am not just sitting here waiting for off and on of the furnace, I have been reading the following Tumbleweed_Tex articles.

http://tnttt.com/viewto ... 952#699952

These are great.

[mikeschn]

And can I assume that all your humidity problems are gone as well?

Mike...

[southpennrailroad]

And can I assume that all your humidity problems are gone as well?

Mike...

Mike thanks for asking.

Well It is a lot better. The big black main rear (Above door brace) is usually loaded with water (that is or was one of my major indicators) but it isn't now. When it gets down into the real (-0) low temps it may return. I will just use the o2Cool fan then. Probably the areas behind the luan is not able to get the heat. No air circulation as well as the areas behind some of the curved insulation is still showing droplets. Soaked blankets at the foot of the bed as well right now. But overall satisfied. At least I hear no dripping water. Insulation will resolve that problem next year.

[southpennrailroad]

"Mike wrote:"Now the only situation is that of sleeping inside a small trailer with no windows open. The the trailer is small enough, and airtight enough, one could run the risk of asphyxiation"

Well when you think of the fact that with the blue flame going off 2.5 hours after I turned it on went off because of the oxygen sensor, that yes with the new force air furnace being much safer that it has been proven now that my trailer with the vent (accidentally) closed that oxygen can be depleted inside a cargo trailer. Think what that will do to a sealed small tear.

A lesson has been learned right? I am here to talk about it.

[S. Heisley]

For now, could you pin some heavy plastic sheeting to the bottom of your blankets so that they don't get wet and the water runs off to the floor?

[southpennrailroad]

...Sharon....

I think I can...I THINK I can...I THINK; I CAN!

I think the large bubble wrap might help. Maybe enough air will get around it and air it out.