for the last several years i use a 75 watt bulb in the water bay . even though i drain the water and blow it out. i feel its cheap insurance.
only on freezing nites . in this part of texas we only get 20 days of below freezing weather.
this morning it was 27 F and inside the water bay 40F. inside the bus living area it was 30 but a jug of water on the counter dident freeze at all... in the part i have gotten ice . my foods are ok. most cans are prolly good to 25 or even 20 .
last year we got 12F weather for a few days and i used a elect heater inside just for insurance.
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Depending on a lightbulb is a futile effort not to mention an incredible waste of electricity.
Lightbulbs tend to have a habit of filaments expiring at the least convenient times.
Light bulbs also have another nasty habit of catching things on fire if allowed to be too close to combustible materials.
Not to mention breakage of the bulb if water drips or sprays on to the glass which also exposes live electrical connections (did I mention that water and electric is not the best of friends?).
So I would call it as an unreliable method to say the least.
It be better if you BLOW the water out of the lines using compressed air rather than gravity drain.
But for a much better insurance policy use the pink stuff rather than a unreliable light bulb.
On edit, I should also note that many non specialty incandescent bulbs (such as general purpose 75W and up) are on the energy hit list which coming in January 2012 will no longer be manufactured.
* This post was
edited 12/07/11 04:13pm by Gdetrailer *
Using a light bulb for a heat source may not be all that reliable, but the practice is extremely common where I live. Most people I know who do it have enough sense to suspend the bulb where it won't get wet or catch anything on fire. Light bulbs are certainly safer and more appropriately sized than any other source of heat I can think of in certain circumstances.
I used the pink stuff but that means my trailer is unusable until I thoroughly flush the stuff in the spring. If I lived where it is a little warmer, I might consider some sort of heat source to prevent freezing instead of taking my trailer out of service for 3 or 4 months.
Cedarhill writes "Using a light bulb for a heat source may not be all that reliable, but the practice is extremely common where I live."
If it isn't reliable source of heat then why bother at all?
Even if the practice is common, even you have admitted that it isn't dependable.
I would suggest that doing so is doing nothing more than wasting electricity.
A 75W bulb run for 24hrs is going to use 18 KW/hrs (.75x24hrs, if 100W it would be 100x24hrs) so in a month that is 540 KW/HRs (18x30days), that is nearly half of my home electric bill during the winter!! To put that into perspective it would cost me an additional $50 per month! Not cheap! Not reliable if power goes out or bulb dies!
In many places electricity is going to cost more than buying a gallon of RV antifreeze.
As far as blowing out the lines, that is what I do. Living in NW PA we do get lots of days below 32 and sometimes 0 for a week at a time. Been doing this for many years and the only issue I had was forgetting to blow out the water line to the toilet and I had to change the valve.
If you blow the lines with compressed air and then open the low drain points any water left behind will have space to expand (air compresses, water doesn't). The problem starts when you have lines full of water, blowing them gives the space needed.
I've never given a thought to the reliability of a light bulb for heat. We fulltime so pink isn't much of an option. My bays heat only if using the two furnaces which we mostly use an electric heater so the bay is a bit unprotected in those occasions.
I use two 100 watt bulbs in each of the water/sewer bays and I've never had one fail. Actually, a lighted bulb will outlast a bulb that is turned on and off by a huge margin. I remember an outside light on a pole on the farm that was never turned off except for power failures. I was just a pup when it was installed and still working when I went into the service.
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hershey writes "I've never given a thought to the reliability of a light bulb for heat... ...I use two 100 watt bulbs in each of the water/sewer bays and I've never had one fail."
Incandescent bulbs vary in life depending on the wattage, 75W bulbs typically rated 1000hrs, 100W 750hrs. This is under ideal conditions including minimal on/off cycles and no vibration.
My own experience with bulbs blowing out was a 40W porch light which was turned on 24/7/365, typically I replaced that bulb every other month (that is 1440hrs) until I got mad and put a cfl in that fixture. Now I have only had to replace ONE cfl in 10+ yrs(87,600 + hrs) in that fixture.
"Actually, a lighted bulb will outlast a bulb that is turned on and off by a huge margin. I remember an outside light on a pole on the farm that was never turned off except for power failures. I was just a pup when it was installed and still working when I went into the service. "
They haven't made good lasting incandescent bulbs in the last 30 yrs, I have had new bulbs blow out in a matter of days. The older bulbs made before 1980s tended to last a lot longer.
Over the years they have quit putting in filament supports in most bulbs to cheapen them and ensure they don't last as well.
Two light bulbs installed in series will eleminate many problems mentioned, but not all. Only 100% solution is zero water. If stored at home any power failure would be noticed. I go with two 100 watt, wired in series, with aluminum refelctor housings, one on each side of wet bay. Or better yet we move farther south till things warm up.
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Gdetrailer wrote: A 75W bulb run for 24hrs is going to use 18 KW/hrs (.75x24hrs, if 100W it would be 100x24hrs) so in a month that is 540 KW/HRs (18x30days), that is nearly half of my home electric bill during the winter!! To put that into perspective it would cost me an additional $50 per month! Not cheap! Not reliable if power goes out or bulb dies!
A kilowatt is 1000 watts, so 75 watts is .075 kilowatts. Running a 75 watt bulb 24 hours a day at .10 cents a KWH (which is what it costs in my area) will cost .18 cents a day.
If you want better reliability, run a couple of 40w bulbs that you put in service at different times, so they don't die at the same time. They can be as reliable as you're willing to make them.
Gdetrailer wrote: Cedarhill writes "Using a light bulb for a heat source may not be all that reliable, but the practice is extremely common where I live."
If it isn't reliable source of heat then why bother at all?
Even if the practice is common, even you have admitted that it isn't dependable.
I would suggest that doing so is doing nothing more than wasting electricity.
A 75W bulb run for 24hrs is going to use 18 KW/hrs (.75x24hrs, if 100W it would be 100x24hrs) so in a month that is 540 KW/HRs (18x30days), that is nearly half of my home electric bill during the winter!! To put that into perspective it would cost me an additional $50 per month! Not cheap! Not reliable if power goes out or bulb dies!
In many places electricity is going to cost more than buying a gallon of RV antifreeze.
As far as blowing out the lines, that is what I do. Living in NW PA we do get lots of days below 32 and sometimes 0 for a week at a time. Been doing this for many years and the only issue I had was forgetting to blow out the water line to the toilet and I had to change the valve.
If you blow the lines with compressed air and then open the low drain points any water left behind will have space to expand (air compresses, water doesn't). The problem starts when you have lines full of water, blowing them gives the space needed.
I was just repeating what you said about light bulbs being unreliable. I don't think they are any less reliable than other sources of artificial heat.
Your math is wrong. A 75W bulb burning 24 hours is 1.8kW-H, That would cost the princely sum of 16 cents in my neighborhood. I would say that is cheap enough, considering I would only run the bulb when freezing conditions are likely.
It isn't just a matter of cost with the pink stuff. It is a matter of flushing that******out of my water lines every time I want to go camping in the winter and then putting more back in again when I return. That just isn't practical.
I buy antifreeze for about $5 a gallon and it takes about 2 gallons (or $10) to do the job. I could burn a 75W bulb for 31 days. In a warm climate, that might be all the time I would need.
* This post was
edited 12/07/11 08:57pm by Cedarhill *
Gdetrailer wrote: hershey writes "I've never given a thought to the reliability of a light bulb for heat... ...I use two 100 watt bulbs in each of the water/sewer bays and I've never had one fail."
Incandescent bulbs vary in life depending on the wattage, 75W bulbs typically rated 1000hrs, 100W 750hrs. This is under ideal conditions including minimal on/off cycles and no vibration.
My own experience with bulbs blowing out was a 40W porch light which was turned on 24/7/365, typically I replaced that bulb every other month (that is 1440hrs) until I got mad and put a cfl in that fixture. Now I have only had to replace ONE cfl in 10+ yrs(87,600 + hrs) in that fixture.
"Actually, a lighted bulb will outlast a bulb that is turned on and off by a huge margin. I remember an outside light on a pole on the farm that was never turned off except for power failures. I was just a pup when it was installed and still working when I went into the service. "
They haven't made good lasting incandescent bulbs in the last 30 yrs, I have had new bulbs blow out in a matter of days. The older bulbs made before 1980s tended to last a lot longer.
Over the years they have quit putting in filament supports in most bulbs to cheapen them and ensure they don't last as well.
Can't argue with your experience but my experience is:
I've had, to the best of my knowledge, the same two pair of 100 watt light bulbs in my two water bays through the last 7 years of fulltiming. Its hard/impossible to give an accurate number of hours in use, but I don't carry any spares. To be honest, we try to be in places where we never need a heater or AC.
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