Does your Motorhome have Electric heating?

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Might seem like a daft question, but, when on EHU , and not wanting to use the gas fire and blown air ducting, we occasionally use a portable blown air heater to take early morning or late evening chill off in the van.
This then got me wondering.
Do vans have an electric blown air heating facility as well, or can they be fitted.
Our water boiler is gas only ,due to van age, but am aware that these can be both electric and gas, and wondered if such was available?

 

[DDJC]

I rember them for caravans to warm the awning, what a waste of space.

When you are sitting in the awning in North Wales in Easter and the outside temp is below zero, and the inside is taken up by two hulking children, you'll huddle round a lit match, believe me

 

[Hoovie]

When you are sitting in the awning in North Wales in Easter and the outside temp is below zero, and the inside is taken up by two hulking children, you'll huddle round a lit match, believe me

you should go abroad! it's warmer!

 

[Lenny HB]

When you are sitting in the awning in North Wales in Easter and the outside temp is below zero, and the inside is taken up by two hulking children, you'll huddle round a lit match, believe me

Obviously in the wrong place 25° in Spain & today in Northern Spain a plesent 33°.

 

[DDJC]

you should go abroad! it's warmer!

Excellent riposte!!

We usually do, as I believe I might have intimated elsewhere today!!

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[DDJC]

Obviously in the wrong place 25° in Spain & today in Northern Spain a plesent 33°.

We are France, Italy and Austria kind of a guys.

No idea why, but I've never got to Spain, but this year, we are dipping into Catalunya as a diminuto detour on our "Round the Top Wine Regions of France" route. (Champagne, Rhone, Languedoc, nip into Spain, Dordogne then Loire)
Totally off-topic for a heating thread, as we won't need the heating on for any of that trip, sorry!!

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Back to the actual topic .....

Slightly weirdly, I got delivered today possibly what you are talking about, but can be used OFF-EHU as well

12V Blown Air Electric Heater w/Bluetooth by David, on Flickr

I'll be fitting this over the weekend, probably in the place I was contemplating fitting a Diesel Heater

My batteries won't be able to power that!
And I have no solar!!!

 

[Lenny HB]

And I have no solar!!!

How can anyone live without solar? Not possible unless you resort to sites, that would be a last resort.

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

How can anyone live without solar? Not possible unless you resort to sites, that would be a last resort.

Finances Lenny, Finances!

 

[L' Hobo]

Finances Lenny, Finances!

Totally agree, unless one goes abroad in the winter, what is the point? In this country, when one needs the extra (long nights and winter days) often the suns not there. You say you don't go abroad, so can it be worth the hassle, expense and extra holes where water can creep in?
The cost of purchase, fitting and maintenance can pay for a lot of site leccy. However did we manage before solar came along?
As has been said before, thanks goodness we have choice!

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[headlight]

Finances Lenny, Finances!

My PVC, which I had for 5 years, didn't have solar so we always went on sites with hook up. It was OK but on a lot of sites the set up was very regimented and there would be non hook up areas that we would have preferred to park but couldn't and sites that either didn't have any hook up pitches available when we wanted or places that just didn't have electric at all.
My present van,which we've had just over a year, has solar and we've only been on hookup maybe twice.
Solar has opened up new opportunities for us,
If you self fit you can fit a worthwhile amount of solar for about £300 which from what I've seen of electric prices would pay for itself in about 60 nights.
Admittedly we are light electric users not using microwaves, electric kettles, hair dryers etc so we haven't had to go down the lithium route and manage fine with lead acid leisure batteries.

 

[Whitebirdyman]

How can anyone live without solar? Not possible unless you resort to sites, that would be a last resort.

In 1994 I did a 5 week trip to France and Spain, no solar available in those days, and did not use site electricity at all. The key was to moderate the usage and move every 2 or 3 days.

 

[busbuddy]

The metal retainers for the electric element is the cause of a lot of rattles in these fires, as you can see 3 are correct and vertical and one has loosened and gone horizontal.
They are held on by screws which are behind several layers of the removalable tin panels which makes it a mission to sort.
The clips come loose and allow the element to squeak against the back of the finned gas part in front of it, can be very annoying as it gets to it's perfect high pitch at about 55mph

Thanks to Itsmcb who posted a pic of a dismantled fire on another thread

 

[RapNap]

View attachment 744664

The metal retainers for the electric element is the cause of a lot of rattles in these fires, as you can see 3 are correct and vertical and one has loosened and gone horizontal.
They are held on by screws which are behind several layers of the removalable tin panels which makes it a mission to sort.
The clips come loose and allow the element to squeak against the back of the finned gas part in front of it, can be very annoying as it gets to it's perfect high pitch at about 55mph

Thanks to Itsmcb who posted a pic of a dismantled fire on another thread

 

[RapNap]

Wow! what a long thread! I'll add my penny's worth.

Like, I suspect, the majority of British-made motorhomes our 2013 Swift "Escape 624" came with the Truma S3004 gas heater with Ultraheat electrical heating. My gas tanks are Gaslow refillables and I am blessed with a gas supplier in Aston only a few miles away from my home.
All things being equal I prefer to use gas-fired heating because

• I think it is the least-cost option and
• I think it heats up fastest.

I would use electricity if my gas tanks were low or if the electricity is free - and in the little CL near Settle that I have visited several times in the last year, electricity came with the pitch fee.
Fortunately, we've only been cold enough to require heating on rare occasions, because I now realise my Ultraheat system has only been working on 500W (if that) since the day we bought our 'home in 2014 and since it had only been used for 6 months from it's original date of purchase I suspect it had never worked. As I write, my orders are winging their way on t'interweb for a set of relays+transformer from Apuljack Electronics and some new soldering iron tips from Amazon. Let me tell you, getting the PCB out of the Ultraheat control box took some work and a half and while the cost to me as a DIYer has been a fraction of what I suspect a dealer would charge I am even so wondering if I might not have done better to have done nothing and just keep my gas tanks full, but I do have a drive to make sure everything is working as it should - or as I want!

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[RapNap]

P.S. I forgot to add that one of the very first things I did after purchasing our 'home was to stuff two lengths of asbestos rope between the Ultraheat elements and the outer casing of the S3004 so as to stop the infernal rattling that an earlier poster on this thread has reported. Problem solved.

 

[Lenny HB]

Finances Lenny, Finances!

But sites cost a lot more than solar.