Last week, temperatures dropped into the sixties during the day and the fifties at night. This was a significant cooling off given that we’d had daytime temps in the eighties just the week before. The cool weather lasted most of the week before warming up again this past weekend.
Alexis was complaining of the cold, so I decided it was time to light the furnace and test it out before it gets truly cold in the next few weeks. The first thing I did was drag out the vacuum cleaner, unscrew all the vent covers, and I cleaned all the dust and dog hair out of ducts. That done, I broke out the user’s manual for the furnace.
It seems there’s an interesting little dance that has to be done the first time you turn on the furnace each year. First, I had to turn the thermostat to “heat” and then raise the thermostat until the blower kicked on, let it run for a while, and wait until it went off. Then I had to go outside, turn off the gas, come back in and turn the blower back on. When it shut off, I had to go back outside, turn on the gas, come back in, and turn the thermostat up until it kicked on.
The furnace has an automatic igniter, so I didn’t have to poke around with a match or anything. I suppose the purpose of the little pre-lighting ritual is to make sure the ducts get all the crud blown out of them before the heat starts flowing through and causes that lovely smell of burnt feathers.
The RV heated up quickly, and once it did, I turned the heater off. I only had to kick it on once more the next day before the weather warmed up again this past weekend. And tonight, I actually have the air on since it was really humid and in the mid 80s today.
I’m happy to say the furnace seems to work well. I suppose the true test will be when the temps drop to freezing and the thing is running constantly. Oh, the propane we will use. We’ve managed to run on the same two 30 lb bottles since July 1. The only thing we’ve used the gas for has been the stove, and we haven’t used that every day. We’ve got the water heater and fridge running on electric. When we went on our weeklong trip, we had full hookups, so we were still able to run those off electric.
I’m going to cry a little when I start having to take those bottles to be filled every couple of weeks. I don’t even know what propane costs per gallon. If it’s $3 or $4, it’s going to cost a pretty penny to bring home 60 gallons. *shudder*
I’ve been looking into how I can weatherize the RV for when it really cools down. I don’t want to invest in skirting since I really do want this thing to be portable. Having to break down a bunch of skirting before towing the thing will make us even less likely to travel than we already are. I understand bales of hay will just encourage mice. Not sure what else we can do that’s practical, affordable, and portable. Perhaps I could just buy the skirting for underneath the fifth wheel. That’s the part of the RV that I suspect will be the biggest problem since it’s so high off the ground and there’s no additional covering under it beyond the fiberglass. I guess we’ll see.
I’m going to need to insulate the water hose outside, and we have to do something about our sewer valve. It looks like something isn’t closing all the way. If that ices up, ewwwww. I imagine I’ll have to tape the windows and put some sort of foam insulation inside of them, and I hear that it’s a good idea to put foam “pillows” inside the ceiling vents. All of this will take an investment. Great. More money to be spent.
Aside from the cooler weather, the other big news is that today we got our new awning installed! Lex was upset because after the workers left, we realized that the dealer had purchased a different, cheaper awning than the one listed on the estimate. I suspect the dealer was trying to make up his money since he agreed to do the job for the same price as the estimate prepared for another repair company that charged less for labor than they do.
Either way, we were going to have to pay our $250 deductible. As far as I can tell, the awnings are more or less identical. The only thing that appears to be of a lesser quality than our original awning is that the locking levers are plastic instead of metal. Everything else looks fine. The brackets at the RV itself actually look sturdier.
I read the manual and realized the awning has “carport” setting, meaning that the arms can stand upright on the ground instead of being clamped to the side of the RV at an angle. This makes it a little easier for us to get from our cars to the door of our house (no ducking under the arms). I wonder how stable it will really be in that position. I used tent stakes to secure the arms, so hopefully they won’t fall down.
I noticed tonight that one of our scare lights on the side of the RV has burned out. The scares look a lot like the lights installed underwater in pools. I hope the bulbs don’t cost an arm and a leg to replace.
Project for this upcoming weekend: replace the gasket between the toilet and the floor. It’s leaking. Ick.
You have a reader!
Last year/winter, propane cost around $2.25 bulk price. Daddy thought this was stinking outrageous. You can look up the wholesale price on http://www.nymex.com. And of course we were buying 100-200 gallons at a time X 2 tanks, not 30 or 60. If you don’t already know of a bulk plant to fill your tanks, see if there are any around where you can get a little better price. And maybe they’ll even come out to fill your bottles. But, you’re right, i’m afraid butane is going to be really goddamned expensive this winter.
About the underpinning, the first thing that came to mind was velcro. I have been having a similar problem with trying to keep the dogs out from under the camper where the cats have designated their new litter box. My underpinning, fencing, and all other barrier ideas where shot down because Daddy wanted the camper able to “move in a hurry” in case my house caught fire or some bullshit. Anyway, a heavy tarp/tent material or something else barrier-like could have velcro glued or sewn to it and you could glue velcro to the RV. It’s just a basic idea and is starting to sound like more work than it’s worth; but that would give you something that is (somewhat) easily removable and would provide a super important wind barrier for your pipes and some insulation against heat escapage. Nothing for squatting critters and interlopers though.
One thing about butane heating/cooking in a small space in the cold. Be ready for sweatage and possibly mildew around your windows, etc. You’ve probably dealt with that before i’m sure.
It looks like I can expect to pay around $2.79 a gal for propane in these parts. I’ve been looking for delivery options, but I’m not sure there are any in this immediate area. Heating oil, yes…propane maybe not. Still looking.
As for skirting, I don’t really want to try and attach anything to the RV myself. I don’t want to punch holes in the fiberglass, and I don’t want to stick anything on the finish that might ruin it. If I could afford to have skirting professionally done, that’d be another matter, but custom-made vinyl skirtings cost a pretty penny. Plus, I can’t really put just any old thing up, either. That might piss off the landlord. For now, I’m still trying to figure out alternatives. I wonder if I could do something temporary using foam insulation board cut to fit around the bottom. If it was white, it wouldn’t be too terrible. That won’t work underneath the front end, though. There is a vinyl skirting I can buy for that that might be affordable.
I’ve read about the possibility of the walls and ceiling sweating, especially wherever the aluminum framing connects to the wallboard. Everyone suggests dehumidifers, so I might try that. Seems contrary to use dehumidifiers in the winter, but if it works, then it works.