Took our Northstar/Texan TS1000 into Chaco Canyon for a few days over the weekend. Weren't expecting real cold weather so didn't top up with propane before we left. Temperatures dropped to 6 degrees F overnight. We don't mind sleeping at those temperatures but the water pipes will freeze. Hadn't realized until then that a thermostat which ranges from 50-90 degrees is inappropriate in a camper. Keeping the camper at 50 degrees overnight when it's 6 degrees outside will consume a lot of propane and electricity. Keeping it at 35 degrees would have consumed much less fuel. Our camper has the OE Hydrotherm thermostat. Has anyone swapped out their thermostat for one with a more appropriate temperature range, say 30-80 degrees? If so, what brand is it and where did you buy it? I realized afterwards that I could have unscrewed the thermostat from the wall, tilted it a few degrees and altered the temperature range say from 30-70 but I didn't think of it at the time. (if it has a typical mercury switch and I think it does)
Camper thermostat?
- Thread starter kerry
- Start date
A basic battery operated one at the hardware store will work as a thermostat, from there you just need to find out the minimum temp as I don't know how many will go quite that low. The one I had put in my hawk went to 40F (maybe a tad lower like 36-38F but definitely not lower). Edit: I just did some poking around since I'll need a thermostat for my build soon. Seems the honeywell units are generally 40F minimum set point, with the added annoyance that after a low 30ish temp the units read "Lo" and will not even start the furnace. No reading the temp isn't bad but not firing up is annoying, you can put in a bypass switch but a functioning unit would be nice. I couldn't find the min temps on Lux brand and just sent an email inquiring about one of their units low range just now.
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Found this one which goes down to 35 degrees: http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-CT5...36&sr=8-1&keywords=low+temperature+thermostat
BADDANDY
Adventurer
I have a Honda 1000 generator to run an electric heater. I plug the camper into the gen and the heater into the camper's AC outlet. I fill up the tank, crank up the gen, turn on the elect heater, set the camper thermostat, then go to bed. This will also charge up the camper battery. The generator runs out of fuel about the 7 hour mark with the heater set on low. If the temp drops inside the camper after the gen runs out of gas, then the camper heater kicks in after that, no more battery issues. Usually it only comes on a few times before it's time to get up for the day.
For the sake of the other campers I would not classify that as "unfortunately" to be bluntly honest.
I almost never run my generator in a campground, but in this instance, at about 230 or 3am one could hear people crawling out of their tents and into their cars to start the engines to stay warm. A Honda 1000 generator is much quieter than a car engine so I think in this instance, running quiet generators instead of a whole bunch of cars would have been preferable.
That would definitely be frustrating. Sounds like folks need either better sleeping bags or come prepared in terms of camper (insulation properties/propane/battery capacity).
Outside a campground and off solo fire up the gennies as you see fit.
It's a National Historic Park so there are tons of people going there with little camping experience, including foreigners with rental cars and cheap US department store camping gear for the trip. That low a temperature at this time of year is very unusual also. Typically it would be around 30 degrees. Some people simply spent the whole night walking around the campground to keep warm. We were plenty toasty in our 35 year old down sleeping bags (didn't bring our serious winter bags) but I would have preferred running water in the camper at breakfast instead of lunch.
FYI, feedback on the LUX LP0511D:
"The minimum setpoint for all of our
thermostats is 45F
The numeric temperature display for the
LP0511D is 23F to 99F (-5C to 37C).
Above 99F (37C) the display will show
"HI", and below 23F (-5C) the display
will show "LO".
Aside from the display content, the
physical operating range of the product
is listed as between 14F (-10C) up to
122F (50C) degrees.
The Storage temperature range is from
-4F (-20C) up to 140F (60C)"
Is nice it at least functions down to 14F where as the honey well seemed to cutout before that on me but I'd still potentially need a cooler run ability and also 45F isn't as low as 40F. At the moment I would likely be tempted to go honeywell again with a bypass switch unless I can find something else.
"The minimum setpoint for all of our
thermostats is 45F
The numeric temperature display for the
LP0511D is 23F to 99F (-5C to 37C).
Above 99F (37C) the display will show
"HI", and below 23F (-5C) the display
will show "LO".
Aside from the display content, the
physical operating range of the product
is listed as between 14F (-10C) up to
122F (50C) degrees.
The Storage temperature range is from
-4F (-20C) up to 140F (60C)"
Is nice it at least functions down to 14F where as the honey well seemed to cutout before that on me but I'd still potentially need a cooler run ability and also 45F isn't as low as 40F. At the moment I would likely be tempted to go honeywell again with a bypass switch unless I can find something else.