Hoping to head to Mono lake this week but low temps are suppose to be in the 27-29 degree range at night. It will normally get into the 40's or 50's during the day. Will tanks freeze with these temps? We have a 260 Fuzion which is suppose to have enclosed and heated tanks and we would be running the heater for a bit in the evenings, but relying on quality sleeping bags to stay warm through the night.
By running the furnace, you will have some heat blow into the area near the tanks. Besides it will take hours at 25 to lower the temperature to 32, and even longer to start changing the water into ice.
Keep the water heater at least warm - that is over 50F all the time. You don't have to leave it on at night, but it will not hurt. Cold air will go in the bottom, and out the flue, so if driving on a cold day (below 32 out) you will need to leave it on to keep the water from freezing. Yes the 55MPH air going past it can freeze the water faster than when parked in a parking lot at 30F.
I have camped in my Bounder with the furnace keeping the inside warm, and never had a problem with frozen water lines at night. Day time temps reached up to about 40. My water tanks are in a basement storage area, that has a 1" heater air line going to it. That is just enough to warm the basement to about 35 - 40, without wasting to much heat in the basement.
I agree.
It was about 50 here yesterday and I was doing some puttering in the TT and unintentionally left a bottle of Poland Spring water on the dinette table overnight. It is 19 this morning, and for the sake of this discussion I went out and checked and found the water only beginning to freeze.
chances are you're driving during the day with the 40 degree temps. During the night while camped...if you're comfortable inside your water is okay too.
We camped in Georgia for 9 days with nighttime temps in the mid 20's... We used the furnace...and supplemented it with two ceramic heater (one in living room, one in bathroom) set to LOW position. The idea is to conserve propane by using already available shore power electric. You just want to make sure the furnace is getting used though. The ducts in the basement give off heat that helps keep that bay above freezing.
We also found a Heated Water Hose to prevent having to disconnect and drain our fresh water connection everynight. The hose worked out great...
Yes the 55MPH air going past it can freeze the water faster than when parked in a parking lot at 30F.
Fred.
Sorry, but 55 deg air will NEVER freeze the water, I do not care how fast the air is moving. It has to go below 32.
MP
I read him as saying 55 mile per hour air vs 55 degree air...
Actually, I think people assume that moving air will make something chill faster. IF it speeds evaporation on the surface of the object...then yes...that would be "wind chill" effect, or evaporative cooling effect. But it's caused by heat lost to water as it becomes a vapor. Not going to happen to a poly tank that has no moisture on the outer skin. I won't disagree with what he said though...as dead air does act as an insulator...your bays are more likely to have a pocket of dead air trapped inside while sitting in a parking lot --- while driving down the road might cause a draft to form and disrupt that dead air pocket...thus losing any heat that might have been previously conserved in that dead air pocket. This in turn could actually impact the rate at which your tanks would freeze.
Moving an object through air actually inceases ambient temperatures. I can fly at 200 kts at 10,000 ft...and then accelerate to 300 kts and watch my outside air temperature gauge go UP. This is called ram air temperature rise. This, I believe is a result of compression & perhaps to some tini tiny small degree friction.
There are sections of an aircraft that actually DO get cooler as a result of air flowing over them...but it's caused by air speeding up over an airfoil/causing a resulting drop in pressure. The drop in pressure will cause a drop in temperature...or aerodynamic cooling effect.
Either effect is insignificant going down the road at hwy speed.
Sorry...
* This post was
edited 04/16/11 07:39am by chuggs *
I agree.
It was about 50 here yesterday and I was doing some puttering in the TT and unintentionally left a bottle of Poland Spring water on the dinette table overnight. It is 19 this morning, and for the sake of this discussion I went out and checked and found the water only beginning to freeze.
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