What Furnace BTU Size Should I use?

[ibdilbert01]

Sent: 1/26/2008

I want to put a new furnace in my Winnebago D20, anybody have a suggestion as to what size furnace I should use? I don't want to go so big that I use a lot of propane every time I use it, and I don't want something so small that I can't stay warm in the winter months of Ohio. The tag on mine so warn I can't tell how many BTUs the original furnace was.

[denisondc]

Sent: 1/27/2008

The furnace in my 72 D22 is 17,250 BTU. In the 1974 Winnebago Service Manual it says an Indian that year would have either a 23,00 BTU or a 28,000 BTU furnace, for the D23 or D25 models respectively. That same year the D29 Chieftain was listed as having either a 32,500 BTU furnace, or -Two- 23,000 BTU units.

We have seldom camped in cold weather. The coldest time we did, it got down to about 25°f by dawn. We had warm sleeping bags, so set the furnace for 55°f. It cycled numerous times during the night, being 'on' no more than half of the time.
I lived in Cincinnati in the 60s, & went outside one record-setting winter morning just to see what -25°f was like. Poor camping weather if you ask me.

[Elandan2]

Sent: 1/27/2008

The recommendation seems to be about 1000 BTU's per foot of rig.  If you go too big, the furnace will not run as long as it should, never reaching its optimum temperature.  Of course, if it is too small, it will not be able to keep the rig warm.  Personally, for a 20' rig, I would be looking at a 22 to 24 K BTU furnace.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Sent: 1/28/2008

All propane furnaces burn a lot of propane, but you can maximize the efficiency by going with the "at least 1000 btu's per foot" rule.

If you are connected to shore power use ceramic heaters to keep the propane burning to a minimum...they only cost pennies a day to operate.

Kev

[wcrowles]

Sent: 1/28/2008

When I was faced with this decision about 5 years ago, I decided to put in the smallest furnace that was offered. My Winnie is a 1975 Brave 20 ft. I have found the furnace to be fine and we have used the Winnie at about 30F outside temp. The walls, floor and ceiling are so well insulated it takes only a little heat and the small furnace runs on longer cycles so we have little time to cool down while it is off during cycles. I think the unit I bought was between 8,000 and 10,000 Btu/hr.
Bill Rowles

[Slantsixness]

Sent: 1/28/2008

Mine is a Suburban 35K BTU... in a 20 foot Brave. Hey.. it was free... Came in the Donor 96 minnie...

I can tell you this: it runs for 5 minutes, makes the rig toasty warm, and doesn't run for several hours again... with an outside temp of 20 F in  the VA winter... while driving.

Now, I'm in FL... Don't need the darn heater.... unless we go North on purpose....

I do run the heater while on the road. Should I? Well... lets just say its probably not safe according to some (but I assure you, it IS perfectly safe..at least MINE is), but at below freezing temperatures, it keeps the old rig mighty warm inside, and the windows clear!

Tom

[JDxeper]

Sent: 1/28/2008

I installed a new KevAir forced air furnace(AKA Holmes),  1500 watts or 750, thermo, cost about $19.00. raised temp up to 65 in the 23 ft in about an hr.  Need heat to do interior work.  Heater works great! Outside temp was in the lower 20's.

[ibdilbert01]

Sent: 1/28/2008

I'll tell ya, two years ago I bought a ceramic heater similar to that one and it actually did a great job! I was surprised, in 40ish degree weather in Michigan it had no issues keeping it toasty in the high 60s. That one had stopped working and I bought another one from Walmart thinking I would get the same results, boy was I wrong. I managed to get the rig from 2 degrees to 31 degrees in three hours. So I went back to Walmart and bought another one, w/ the same results. I guess 2 degrees was just too much for it. LOL

I appreciate all of your replies everyone! Thank you!!!! Considering I will do a lot of winter camping, and up north, I bought a 30k btu suburban model today, hopefully its not too big, nor too much of a gas hog.

[ibdilbert01]

Sent: 2/3/2008

I installed the furnace yesterday. Really impressed with how easy the install was. Very straight forward. Its a Suburban SF30F. I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to turn the thermostat and have heat