I would be extremely cautious in using one of those
in a camper or RV. The catalytic combustion is supposed not to be able to
produce carbon monoxide, which is a poisonous gas that kills every year.
If you do, get a CO detector, which is a good idea anyway.
The combustion of the propane does produce two
byproducts 1. Water which will raise the humidity and condense all over
everything and drip if you do not have enough ventilation. 2.
Carbondioxide. Carbondioxide is also the byproduct of human
respiration. Theoretically, if to much of the oxygen in the air is used up
in a closed camper, you would wake up feeling a need to breathe. Our
respiration reflex is triggered by carbondioxide in the blood.
If you install one I would recommend. First, always
open two windows during operation. Second, do not use it when you are
asleep. Go to a good sporting goods store and buy a good sleeping
bag. Spend a hundred dollars or more. Warm the camper in the
evening, turn off the heat, and sleep knowing for sure that you will wake up in
the morning and that nothing that burns has fallen across the heater and burned
up the camper and contents while you slept. Then turn it on in the morning
to warm up the camper.
If you really want heat at night, get a good
through the wall unit. Install it properly. All the units I could
find new, two years ago require 12 V DC to run a rather big fan, so you will
need two or three group 27 batteries, and a recharging system for them.
Plan on spending a bunch of money. Whatever you do, don't do what the
previous owner of my LQ trailer did. This person didn't want to use the
orig. equipment furnace. I suspect that the intermittent fault coupled
with using ordinary car batteries to run the LQ soured her on the furnace. (I
fixed both problems and it works great now)
First she/he must have used some sort of portable
catalytic heater. The bathroom door still has the burned spot where it
started something on fire. Then he/she installed a propane unit on the
wall next to the refrigerator. It most have seemed logical to
her/him. There were two problems. The coat hooks were right
above it, and if a fire had started, the fire would have been right in the door
to the outside world.
Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower
Road Victor, MT 59875
