Electricity or Gas--Whatcha Gonna Heat Your RV With?

If you're sitting in an RV park or other place where you pay for your electricity, you may wonder if it's cheaper to heat with propane or with electricity. This is far from an academic question, since the price of propane is shooting up--probably trying to keep pace with gasoline and diesel for some perverse reason.

A sharp RVer did some calculations to help you "do the math" easily. He observes that electricity produces 3,800 btus per kilowatt, and that LP produces 92,000 btus per gallon. How do you compare these energy apples and oranges? It's a ratio of 24:1. Soooo, as long as a gallon of propane costs you less than 24 times the cost of a kilowatt of electricity, all things being equal, the gas is cheaper.

In our part of the country (southern Arizona) RVers report paying about 17 cents per kilowatt of power in the typical RV park. Our favorite LP supplier is charging $2.29 per gallon of the precious fuel. 17 cents times 24 equals $4.08--LP is still the fuel of choice. Provided everything else is equal. But is it?

First, if you're heating with your factory equipped LP furnace, a great deal of heat is "going up the chimney" or rather, out the vent on the side of your rig. Let's say it was 40% of the burned energy. By my calculations, once LP reaches $2.45 it might be time to think about running an electric space heater. But for those who use a non-vented heater efficiencies are MUCH higher--see our story on these hunky-dory heaters here, you'll still find LP a great saver.

Of course, other factors come into play: If you buy your LP 'in the park' or delivered, you'll probably pay a lot more money. But if your back disagrees with the idea of lifting and tossing a big, heavy LP container, electricity may be better for heating--and less needed for the heating pad.

Photo: hokkey on flickr.com

Wannabees Wanna Know: Staying Warm In Winter

An RV forum recently had the question posed: Can you live full time in your RV on $1,000 a month? We know some that do. While that question is too multifaceted to tackle in just one little blog, we thought it might be good to talk about one aspect: Heating your rig.

Being a fulltimer allows you the freedom to 'travel with the sun.' Sure enough, you'll find lots of fulltimers heading south as winter rolls in. Mexico for some--that's a lovely place; but for those who must (or want) to stay stateside, those sunbelt states are a good place to 'hole up' when the geese start flying.

But staying warm is important. Even in Quartzsite, you can wake up with below the freezing mark temps in the deep end of winter. Happily as Sol tracks across the sky, daytime temperatures rise up. But you've seen the news lately--those nasty fuel prices aren't going to hit just our tow vehicles--you can expect the price of ALL heating fuels will increase. What's to be done?

Many RVers have found that the efficiency of their factory provided RV furnaces is far from wallet friendly. If you fire up that RV furnace and stick your hand anywhere close to the outside breather port, you'll know an awful lot of your heating budget is flying outside. That's just the nature of the beast. So consider retiring your furnace and using a localized heat source in your rig--either a catalytic or 'blue flame' style heater.

"Cat" heaters use a specially treated catalytic "bed" or mat that allows heat to be produced from propane flamelessly. They're highly efficient, and most are equipped with a sensor that shuts them off if the oxygen levels in the RV become low enough to be of safety concern. They use no electricity--a real plus for boondockers. However, most cat heaters are adjustable only to the degree of "high, medium, and low," meaning you set them and they run continuously--they can be too hot or too cold.

"Blue flame" style heaters don't have a catalytic bed, but have a burner, the flames of which can usually be seen, kind of like a mini-fireplace. Some of these have a completely adjustable thermostat that will "turn off and on" to accommodate a steady room temperature. A close cousin, "brick" heaters don't have burners, per se, but have one or more ceramic blocks with tiny orifices. Some are completely adjustable, others like cat heaters are high, medium, low guys. You pay your money and take your choice.

In any event, all these fellows are "air breathers." Always follow the safety instructions that come with the product. That usually means cracking a window to provide plenty of ventilation. And since these are not 'outside vented' they will put humidity into your RV. If you're staying in high-humidity country, you'll have to take actions to contend with this. Down in the desert areas, the added humidity to some is a side benefit.

Photo courtesy US Catalytic