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RV Furnace Does Not Produce Heat On Electric Only

by Anonymous

Furnace not producing heat with electrical, just propane? Is that normal?

ANSWER: Thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

Yes that is normal. RV furnaces use propane to create heat; they do not have electrical heating elements. The fans and propane igniter on an RV furnace run off of 12 volt DC from your house batteries when not plugged into shore power or running a generator.

When you are plugged into shore power or running the generator your RV's Converter provides the 12 volt DC power to your furnace.

The bottom line is if you run out of propane you also run out of heat in the RV, unless you are using an Portable Electric Space Heater in your RV.

If you watch the video below on how to maintain and do some minor repairs on an RV Furnace you will learn a little bit more about the components of an RV Furnace.

Leave your RV repair bills to us—Good Sam Extended Service Plan


I hope this clarified things for you.

Do you have any suggestions or comments on this topic? You can add them to this page by clicking on the "Click Here To Post Comments" link located near the bottom of this page.

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RVing Al

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Comments for RV Furnace Does Not Produce Heat On Electric Only

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Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Furnace won't work with battery connected
by: Full time rv

The propane suburban furnace won't work if the battery is connected to the system.

Essentially,I'm currently hooked up to shore power.and the furnace works fine,as long as I disconnect the 12v pos. From the battery. As soon as I connect the battery furnace won't fire. Igniter tries to ignite but nothing happens and it goes into shutdown mode. Prior to this happening the furnace was making a jet engine howling noise very loud sound outside as it tries to fire.

I want to go boondocking but I need to figure out what's going on here. As soon as I disconnect the battery,and the furnace runs of the converter everything works flawlessly. Any ideas? Stuck in ice and snow storm want to get out of here asap. Thank you
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		No heat
by: Anonymous

RV does not heat when plugged into shore power
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		RV Electric Hybrid Furnace
by: Larry M

RV Comfort Systems has successfully engineered an electric heating option, an add-on assembly to any propane RV furnace, so today's RV'er can simply choose propane or electricity to heat the interior of the coach. Called the CheapHeat™ System, this unit is mounted directly downstream of the existing propane furnace and employs tungsten heating coils powered by 120 or 240-volts AC to provide the heat. The 12-volt DC fan motor on the furnace then pushes the heated air throughout the distribution ducting in the coach. It can be configured into three different wattage ratings, 1,800, 3,750 and 5,000 watts depending on the shore power cord limitations.

The only connection between the CheapHeat™ and the existing propane furnace is a simple wiretap on the fan motor conductor. According to CSA America (the RV Furnace certification group) it DOES NOT affect the ANSI certification of the propane furnace.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		No heat when connected to power
by: Anonymous

Hi, my problem is that our furnace works fine when we are dry camping and not plugged into power. When we plug into power at a campsite our furnace blows through the a/c vents with no heat. What is the problem..

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