⭐️The DIY heated water hose has been working great for about two months now. I’ll try to keep this updated. Any more tips to stay warm? Love to hear them!
Use caution using electric heaters. If they are up high enough to prevent the thermostat turning the gas furnace on your bays will freeze. The furnace is what heats the bay.
Thanks we know this 👍🏼 Only use one space heater in our bedroom for night and our thermostat furnace thermostat is miles away. Been winter RVing way too much lately.
Thanks for putting together such an informative video, I wish I'd found you 2 years ago! My wife, 2 dogs and a cat are full timers in North Idaho. I made a heated hose using snowmelt cable, pipe insulation and PVC electrical conduit. I also used snowmelt cable and neoprene insulation tape on the underside of the entry steps to keep them free of ice and snow. Both snowmelt cables are plugged into a wifi enabled plug (from Costco) that can be scheduled so the run times can be adjusted seasonally. When the outside air temp is above 25°F, a runtime of 15-20 minutes every 2 hours is adequate and when the OAT is below 0°, 30-40 minutes every 2 hours keeps the water running and steps clear. For the waste pipe, I used 3"PVC pipe and regular heat trace cable with built-in thermostat and insulated the pipe with flexible duct. I skirted the 5th wheel with 2" rigid foam board insulation and put 2" foam boards on top of the slide-out roofs for additional insulation and to protect the roofing when it was time to shovel snow off! With kind regards, Domenic P.S. I put a thermostatically controlled radiant heater in the basement... keeps the Nautilus water panel from freezing and helps keep the bedroom floors a bit warmer!
Good video! One consideration: If you use space heaters primarily, your basement with the water lines is not heated adequately. So you need to turn on the furnace every so often to heat the basement.
We like the light too. On the windows we don't Reflectix I put medium size bubble wrap on them. It's not as good but it creates a warm air barrier. The heat from inside the camper will warm the air and if you happen to have sunlight coming through that helps too. Be sure to keep your humidity under control. I came up with the idea because I float bubble wrap on our hot tub in the summer to save electricity. Give it a try and see what you think. Let me know. Chief
From another Solitude owner (3350RL) Good video and subscribe to your channel. We just left north central Indiana, cold! Now in Galveston! We use shrink film on most our windows, double sided tape, apply film then shrink with a hair dryer, works great. You can still see out and with sunny days allows radiant sun heating inside our RV. We do use some electric space heaters and the fire place but also use remote temperature probes, (La Crosse Technologies) to keep an eye on temps inside the storage compartment and another probe underneath inside the colorplast near the island water pex lines, That way the remote probes lets us know when we need to run the furnace to get the temps back up underneath or insdie the storage compartment. Good Video, keep them coming!
Nice. I’ve heard people using bubble wrap as well. We have the La Crosse Technologies weather station too 👍🏼 We usually end up in Rockport TX for the winters but visiting both our parents in this area this year. Appreciate you watching and checking out our channel. 👍🏼😊
Please be careful about the y you used for fresh water and black flush, you could contaminate your fresh water if the black tank flush should back up for some reason. We use a separate hose just for the black tank flush for that reason. Maybe we are over thinking but better safe than sick! Good video! Thank you for the timely info.
Thanks for watching and Appreciate the concern. 😊 Our back flush for the black tank has a vacuum breaker/ check valve that would prevent any back flow, which makes it pretty much impossible for the water to flow back through it should the tank ever get that high somehow and flow back up that way. Plus we always keep the other side of the Y splitter closed when flushing. Not to mention this is only our winter setup. 👍🏼
Some really good tips - good summary of your experiences. I really like your DIY heated hose. FWIW, heat is energy and it is absorbed by cold, meaning that heat leaves your RV. So unless you are speaking of cold air infiltration, cold does not come in (19:30). Speaking of air infiltration, regardless of whether you are trying to heat or cool a living space, if you can stop air from entering and leaving, you will feel more comfortable and reduce energy required for comfort. The foam backer rod suggestion is great!
⭐️The DIY heated water hose has been working great for about two months now. I’ll try to keep this updated. Any more tips to stay warm? Love to hear them!
I've heard people suggest to just leave the water pipe running a trickle and that this is enough to not freeze even without heater.
Use caution using electric heaters. If they are up high enough to prevent the thermostat turning the gas furnace on your bays will freeze. The furnace is what heats the bay.
Thanks we know this 👍🏼 Only use one space heater in our bedroom for night and our thermostat furnace thermostat is miles away. Been winter RVing way too much lately.
Thanks for putting together such an informative video, I wish I'd found you 2 years ago! My wife, 2 dogs and a cat are full timers in North Idaho. I made a heated hose using snowmelt cable, pipe insulation and PVC electrical conduit. I also used snowmelt cable and neoprene insulation tape on the underside of the entry steps to keep them free of ice and snow.
Both snowmelt cables are plugged into a wifi enabled plug (from Costco) that can be scheduled so the run times can be adjusted seasonally. When the outside air temp is above 25°F, a runtime of 15-20 minutes every 2 hours is adequate and when the OAT is below 0°, 30-40 minutes every 2 hours keeps the water running and steps clear.
For the waste pipe, I used 3"PVC pipe and regular heat trace cable with built-in thermostat and insulated the pipe with flexible duct.
I skirted the 5th wheel with 2" rigid foam board insulation and put 2" foam boards on top of the slide-out roofs for additional insulation and to protect the roofing when it was time to shovel snow off!
With kind regards,
Domenic
P.S. I put a thermostatically controlled radiant heater in the basement... keeps the Nautilus water panel from freezing and helps keep the bedroom floors a bit warmer!
Sounds like you don’t need my video at all! Hahaha You got it down pact as far as camping in the snow goes it sounds like. Nice ideas!
Some fantastic tips in this video! Thank you for sharing.
@@wingus-h-christ sure thing! It’s that time of year for us winter RVers!
Great video guys, stay warm lol
Indeed! Next year it’s back to sunny Texas!
Good video! One consideration: If you use space heaters primarily, your basement with the water lines is not heated adequately. So you need to turn on the furnace every so often to heat the basement.
Good point. I've seen a video where the owner put a dehumidifier in the basement to keep moisture level down.
True. Our furnace is always running, space heaters just to supplement a bit.
I'm using an oil filled radiator running off my Honda eu 3000 is generator, so far so good, and probably a little safer than a space heater.
I'm moving in an RV next week, it'll be a learning curve!! Git no clue what I'm doing!!
Well we have lots of helpful videos! Start watching and learning. There’s a good bit of knowledge to soak. 👍🏼👍🏼 Reach out if needed. Good luck
We like the light too. On the windows we don't Reflectix I put medium size bubble wrap on them. It's not as good but it creates a warm air barrier. The heat from inside the camper will warm the air and if you happen to have sunlight coming through that helps too. Be sure to keep your humidity under control.
I came up with the idea because I float bubble wrap on our hot tub in the summer to save electricity.
Give it a try and see what you think. Let me know.
Chief
Good idea guys 👍🏼 I’ve seen people use the clear plastic shrink wrap as well.
@Why Wait the problem with the shrink wrap is it doesn't leave the "air gap" to let the space provide insulation.
From another Solitude owner (3350RL) Good video and subscribe to your channel. We just left north central Indiana, cold! Now in Galveston! We use shrink film on most our windows, double sided tape, apply film then shrink with a hair dryer, works great. You can still see out and with sunny days allows radiant sun heating inside our RV. We do use some electric space heaters and the fire place but also use remote temperature probes, (La Crosse Technologies) to keep an eye on temps inside the storage compartment and another probe underneath inside the colorplast near the island water pex lines, That way the remote probes lets us know when we need to run the furnace to get the temps back up underneath or insdie the storage compartment.
Good Video, keep them coming!
Nice. I’ve heard people using bubble wrap as well. We have the La Crosse Technologies weather station too 👍🏼 We usually end up in Rockport TX for the winters but visiting both our parents in this area this year. Appreciate you watching and checking out our channel. 👍🏼😊
Please be careful about the y you used for fresh water and black flush, you could contaminate your fresh water if the black tank flush should back up for some reason. We use a separate hose just for the black tank flush for that reason. Maybe we are over thinking but better safe than sick! Good video! Thank you for the timely info.
Thanks for watching and Appreciate the concern. 😊 Our back flush for the black tank has a vacuum breaker/ check valve that would prevent any back flow, which makes it pretty much impossible for the water to flow back through it should the tank ever get that high somehow and flow back up that way. Plus we always keep the other side of the Y splitter closed when flushing. Not to mention this is only our winter setup. 👍🏼
Some really good tips - good summary of your experiences. I really like your DIY heated hose. FWIW, heat is energy and it is absorbed by cold, meaning that heat leaves your RV. So unless you are speaking of cold air infiltration, cold does not come in (19:30).
Speaking of air infiltration, regardless of whether you are trying to heat or cool a living space, if you can stop air from entering and leaving, you will feel more comfortable and reduce energy required for comfort. The foam backer rod suggestion is great!
Thanks, appreciate The tips and comments. Hopefully next winter we are back in warm sunny TX! 👍🏼
Great video, good info. I am looking into getting a dehumidifier for the RV
Definitely! A must have item. We use the Eva-Dry ones. Some links in the video description. Been pretty happy with those.
Your first tip was the best tip,,,, head to warmer areas LOL!! Just kidding, all good tips.
Yup!! That’s why it was the first tip!! Hahaha
Hehehe Or just stay in warmer weather. We like warmer than colder.
Yup…that’s the first thing we mention in the video lol. 🌞
Usually what we do too but we gotta spend sometime letting our folks see their grandson! 👍🏼