valhalla360
No paticular place.
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JimK-NY wrote:2oldman wrote:Heated mattress pad.
The typical heated mattress pad is going to use about 80-120 AH per night. Plus the ones I have seen are all 120 v so you need a larger inverter to use one and the inverter will waste considerable extra power.
If your rig is hooked up, fine, but I would just use a space heater in that case.
5-10min before bed to prewarm and then good for the night. Your body heat will be enough to keep comfortable with decent blankets.
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JimK-NY
NY
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A 2 liter hot water bottle and cover is $13 from Amazon. It will prewarm plus stay warm for hours without any electricity or need for a large inverter.
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Sjm9911
New Jersey
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JimK-NY wrote:I tried Reflectix to seal off some of the vents and windows. It is almost worthless. The R value of Reflectix is 1.0. Fabric covers and window shades are a lot more attractive and perhaps even more effective.
Fortunately my Northstar was built with European windows which are double layer with a layer of air sealed between the layers. They are fairly effective especially if I close the shades which traps another layer of air. If you have single layer windows, I recommend heavy fabric curtains.
Do not cover any vents. You need to use them and exhaust fans whenever you generate a lot of moisture such as using the shower or cooking.
Its not the r value your using it for, but think of like an emergency blanket, it keeps the heat in. By reflecting it. Conversely, in warm temps it can keep the heat out. Yes, shades and blinds can help also. They add more of an r factor especially if you create an air pocket like you do.
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specta
utah
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when the temps dip below freezing I use a nice sleeping bag. Works good for me.
Kenny
2011 Chevy 2500 HD 6.0L 4wd
1995 Lance 945 Onan QG 2500 LP
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MORSNOW
Mountain Home, ID
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specta wrote:when the temps dip below freezing I use a nice sleeping bag. Works good for me.
We always use sleeping bags zipped together to form one large bag. Different bags for different seasons and we carry a flat sheet to use on top for hot summer nights. So much easier making the bed too!
2014 Wolf Creek 850SB
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2oldman
NM
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JimK-NY wrote:A 2 liter hot water bottle and cover is $13 from Amazon. It will prewarm plus stay warm for hours without any electricity or need for a large inverter. The typical pad is at MOST 200w, so stop with the large inverter nonsense.
* This post was
edited 01/11/22 08:23am by 2oldman *
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JimK-NY
NY
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2oldman wrote:JimK-NY wrote:A 2 liter hot water bottle and cover is $13 from Amazon. It will prewarm plus stay warm for hours without any electricity or need for a large inverter. The typical pad is at MOST 200w, so stop with the large inverter nonsense.
In this case I guess "large" is relative. I have avoided the use of any inverters except a very small, plug in inverter that I need only to charge camera batteries. My phone, laptop, and my wife's CPAP all run or charge using 12 volts.
Many of us with truck campers have limited space for a large battery bank or for lots of solar panels. I removed the slide from my battery box in order to fit in 2x150 AH AGM batteries. I have about 1/4" overhead and front clearance to jam them in. My roof only has room for 2x135 watt solar panels. Rather than try to expand my system or use a generator frequently, I conserve electricity. That means no electric coffee pot or other appliances and certainly no electric blankets.
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2oldman
NM
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JimK-NY wrote:.. and certainly no electric blankets. They don't draw 200w continuously, all night, they cycle, like your refrigerator. And with blankets and you in there, they don't cycle much. The very lowest setting is plenty warm. Turn it up and it will be too hot to sleep.
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NRALIFR
Let’s Go Girls! [End of Quote]
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I’ve had heated mattress pads both at home (120v AC) and in our TC (12v DC) for at least 15 years, and wouldn’t want to be without them. In the TC, if you can provide the power, they just can’t be beat in the winter. With my DC-DC charger, I have the ability to provide more than enough power from the truck to run the mattress pad, and run the fridge in AC mode from an inverter while we’re driving, and still arrive at our destination with a fully charged camper battery.
The mattress heater in the TC is Electrowarmth brand, and as far as I know they are the only ones that make one. When I bought mine, they were even making a queen size pad. I think a heated pad that size was pushing the limits of what the standard 12v cigarette lighter plug could tolerate amperage-wise though, because that was the only issue I ever had with it: the plug was getting too hot. Today, they only make a twin size 12v pad, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use two of them on a queen mattress as long as you didn’t overlap them. I have mine hardwired though a panel mounted, switch-duty CB now, so I’m not having any more plug issues with it.
With only a single group 31 AGM battery in the camper, I’ve never tried to use the heated mattress pad when we’re without shore-power. If I remember to turn it on while we’re driving it will pre-warm the bed so it’s not so cold when we climb in. I’ve got a couple of small Li batteries I’m going to install one of these days that will be just for powering the mattress pad in the winter when we don’t have outside power. If the pad flattens them overnight no problem, the main battery will still be charged. I can recharge the Li’s the next day while driving, plus the few hours of generator use we typically will have.
If the 12v pad were to fail today, I’m not sure which way I would go on it’s replacement. There are pluses and minuses I’d have to consider for both.
* This post was
edited 01/18/22 04:52pm by an administrator/moderator *
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markchengr
Seattle
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Our 200 watt matress pad heater uses only 4 ampere hours to run for a 15 minute warm up and then you get to climb into a nice warm bed.
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