Baby it's cold in here

[ichabod123]

Woke up this morning and the inside temp was 50. I thought the heat pumps weren't working so i switched to gas. After many adjustments, I now have my thermostat set at 89 and the interior is maintaining a 71-72 for the last 3 hours. Its 27 outside.
Anyone else have this problem? Has anyone replaced their thermostat with a programmable one?

[atom ant]

You're heat pumps will shut down at 35-40 degrees, as they are no longer effective at those temperatures. However your furnace should have kicked on automatically as backup. As I understand, the furnace comes on as backup when the heat pumps shut down, or when the heat pumps just cant keep up.

I've only been able to watch the furnace take over when I jack up the thermostat beyond 5 or so degrees from ambient because we haven't camped yet at those lower temperatures. The 2nd heat pump stayed running, but the one with the furnace on it shut down and started the furnace even though it was set in electric.

I'm also thinking that if you were down to 50, its going to take some time to get it back up to temp.

You might look up through Thetford to find the manual for the thermostat.

[ichabod123]

Wondering how it got down that low in the first place. Therm was set at 68. Why did i have to set the therm to 89 to maintain 72?

[Dave&Ginny]

I have camped in my 36 RL in the winter a few times without a problem. I recommend keeping the fireplace one all the time and running a small SAFE radiator type heater in the basement. With the basement heated (this helps keep the bedroom warm) and the fireplace keeping the living area warm, the furnace didn't have to work very hard. The heat pumps are useless below 40 degrees and aren't designed to be used then.

I did this in 20 below zero temps with a strong wind.

[piper guy]

Make sure the heater vents aren't blowing towards the thermostat. Drove me nuts for a while with false readings until I realized one of them was flowing heated or cooled air at a thermostat. Also - I had one that did what you have ~ needed to replace it. If you call Redwood service, they can send you one. easy to swap out, just make sure to watch for wire colors.

[Oregonbound]

We're spending the winter in Montana where we average around 20 deg.. In my experience this past Fall, the gas heat did not come on automatically when the temp. went below 40 and we had the thermostat set to electric. Instead, like you, the heat pump blew cold air at night and we woke to temps in the 50's. As far as I can tell, the thermostat needs to be on "Gas" in order for the furnace to work so in the Spring/Fall, we need to keep an eye on the outside temp and set the thermostat to Gas or Heat Pump as warranted.

I asked our dealer about a programmable thermostat and he said he was not aware any existed in the RV world.

[Dave&Ginny]

Sometimes mine switches from electric to gas and sometimes it doesn't.

[ichabod123]

Thanks for the posts

[mhs4771]

Dometic has a programmable T-stat. Was in the newer Montanas couple of years ago. It works with remote sensors for different zones, so probably would work with the RW setup.

[Oriana]

Originally Posted by Oregonbound

In my experience this past Fall, the gas heat did not come on automatically when the temp. went below 40 and we had the thermostat set to electric. Instead, like you, the heat pump blew cold air at night and we woke to temps in the 50's. As far as I can tell, the thermostat needs to be on "Gas" in order for the furnace to work so in the Spring/Fall, we need to keep an eye on the outside temp and set the thermostat to Gas or Heat Pump as warranted.

With our controller set to electric, the furnace automatically cuts in when setting the thermostat to a temp about 10 degrees warmer than room temperature. Tested it during PDI, so the 10 degrees is from memory and may not be entirely accurate.

The outside temperature was mid 60's, so the heat pump worked when a lower temperature was set on the thermostat.

[johnboytoo]

How could you tell it switched over ?
did the thermostat light change somehow or just the sound change ?!?

Curious as this is our first winter in the rw and with heat pumps...

[Oriana]

Johnboy - you can hear the furnace when it kicks in.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by Oriana

With our controller set to electric, the furnace automatically cuts in when setting the thermostat to a temp about 10 degrees warmer than room temperature. Tested it during PDI, so the 10 degrees is from memory and may not be entirely accurate.

The outside temperature was mid 60's, so the heat pump worked when a lower temperature was set on the thermostat.

Thats how we found out, I jacked the temp up from a cold start and the furnace came on when set to electric.

[Tobys Home]

Wish you all the best in the next couple of days. We are headed back to the ice age.

[mhs4771]

Speaking of Ice Age, anyone remember a number of years ago, before all the Global Warming talk. They we talking about another Ice Age coming. Funny how the same folks can predict a coming Ice Age one day and then the next it's Global Warming.
Just a little food for thought.

[johnboytoo]

Talk about funny - this is funny :

the global warming group that are being rescued from the stuck icebreaker in the antarctic 'summer' talk about irony

http://iceagenow.info/2014/01/chines...antarctic-ice/

[Tobys Home]

This is what I call the "Chicken Little Syndrome" The sky is falling, everyone put on hard hats and run and hide. 57 outside here in CT and tomorrow down to single digits????

[Dave&Ginny]

I guess all the talk about the Arctic ice melting was over stated but I'm sure they'll figure out how to twist this to their advantage. There's just too much financial opportunity in telling everyone that they're living wrong. People are getting rich with this scam.