Using a small heater with Trailer

[escapingnormallife]

Hi,
I have a small 6' wide Little Guy trailer. I have a deep cycle battery that runs off a solar panel. The trailer has 110v outlets inside the trailer. I purchased the smallest space heater I could find. The Honeywell HeatBud 250w Ceramic Heater (https://tinyurl.com/h86sbrs4) that plugs directly into the 110v outlets inside the trailer. I had to get a power inverter to run the heater, because the 110v outlets inside the trailer will only work when I'm connected to Shore Power, and I plan on doing much more dispersed camping and will not have access to shore power all the time. So I purchased a power inverter: the Bestek 500w Power Inverter (https://tinyurl.com/ezwc83td). However, when I connect the heater to the power inverter, the heater comes on for about 2 seconds, then shuts off, then comes back on for 2 seconds and shuts off and over and over again. So I'm assuming the Heater is pulling too much power, but the heater has 2 settings- a low and a high. On the low setting- the heater is supposed to be only 170w and 250w on high. And this power inverter is supposed to produce up to 500w of power. So shouldn't this heater work? I clearly just don't know enough about electricity to understand why it won't stay on. Any help is super appreciated!!

[friz]

How large and how healthy is the battery in your camper? You need a lot of battery power to run a heater.

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[John61CT]

Do NOT try to use stored electricity to create heat off grid.

There are vented "parking heaters" that burn propane or your TV propulsion fuel.

Possible to just use a non-vented prlpane unit but need to vent, use a CO alarm, and besides the danger they add moisture to the living space.

[escapingnormallife]

How large and how healthy is the battery in your camper? You need a lot of battery power to run a heater.

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this is the battery I'm using. It's brand new. just got it a few months ago. https://tinyurl.com/ks8hrcun
the heater I'm trying to run (https://tinyurl.com/595pbenb) is the smallest one I could find, but I think its just surging too much when I plug it up. I'm just so novice about electricity is all.

[escapingnormallife]

Do NOT try to use stored electricity to create heat off grid.

There are vented "parking heaters" that burn propane or your TV propulsion fuel.

Possible to just use a non-vented prlpane unit but need to vent, use a CO alarm, and besides the danger they add moisture to the living space.

thanks. I'm looking at one of those Mr Buddy heaters as an alternative option (https://tinyurl.com/nz7cuxfa). I thought about just using it for about 10mins before going to bed, to just warm up the entire camper, then turning it off to sleep - so it won't be on at all while sleeping. I was ABSOLUTELY going to get a CO alarm and vent the trailer by putting the windows up when its turned on. maybe use it it again in the mornings just to warm up the space before crawling out of bed. but probably never longer than 10mins at a time. I don't like the idea of it running long inside the trailer.

[friz]

How large and how healthy is the battery in your camper? You need a lot of battery power to run a heater.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

this is the battery I'm using. It's brand new. just got it a few months ago. https://tinyurl.com/ks8hrcun
the heater I'm trying to run (https://tinyurl.com/595pbenb) is the smallest one I could find, but I think its just surging too much when I plug it up. I'm just so novice about electricity is all.

What is the voltage between the posts and are you keeping it on a trickle charger?

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[Socal Tom]

I found a 100W electric heater, on low it does 70w. That' enough to make the inside of my TD sweltering hot. On the rare occasion we are on Shore power, I use it to warm the interior in the morning before we get out of bed. If its particularly cold I'll pre-heat the interior before bed, then put hot water bottles in the sleeping bags. If we don't have shore power I use a small propane heater in the same way.

( if we are on shore power I've also been know to use an electric blanket, under the bottom sheet.)

[MtnDon]

I am not familiar with Little Guy trailers. Does yours have a propane fueled water heater?

The idea in this topic still works for use in our CTC

[halfdome, Danny]

If you want to get heat from a 12 volt battery there's the https://electrowarmth.com/products/bunk-warming-pad-non-fitted-36-x-60
They use to make larger sizes but now only 36″ X 60”.
You'll probably get 2+ nights sleep per charge of your battery.
We had a queen, then a full, and got 2+ nights on two 12volt deep cycle batteries mounted under our teardrop.
They put out a lot of heat.
Danny

[escapingnormallife]

If you want to get heat from a 12 volt battery there's the https://electrowarmth.com/products/bunk-warming-pad-non-fitted-36-x-60
They use to make larger sizes but now only 36″ X 60”.
You'll probably get 2+ nights sleep per charge of your battery.
We had a queen, then a full, and got 2+ nights on two 12volt deep cycle batteries mounted under our teardrop.
They put out a lot of heat.
Danny

thanks! I'm checking them out now

[escapingnormallife]

I am not familiar with Little Guy trailers. Does yours have a propane fueled water heater?

The idea in this topic still works for use in our CTC

no, unfortunately it doesn't. it's kind of basic inside. I think I'm gonna pick up a Mr Heater, portable heater and use it for a few minutes to warm up the camper before going to sleep in it. not gonna run it all night for fear of CO poisoning, but its small enough inside that it should warm it up before bed.

[John61CT]

Those little cupholder ones for golf cars should be plenty in a TNTTT

Of course if insulation and the vapour barrier are tight enough even those candle lanterns might do 8-)

Finally, check out the tiniest Wave catalytics if you have a safe mounting spot.

All these should be treated just as (VERY!!) dangerous.

My ex-BIL died in a tent from CO poisoning

[cluttonfred]

You might want to take a look at:

—Sig and Dickinson small marine stoves (propane, solid fuel, and older models in diesel and kerosene)
—Fatsco tiny wood/charcoal/coal stoves
—Smallest available diesel hot air heaters

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[saltydawg]

Avoid things like buddie heaters, they will dump too much moisture in the air.

If your cycling like that, I would bet its the inverter not liking it.

Get the 12 volt heated mattress pad listed above and wear a hat. I just did the week in a small camper by myself, 25 degree temps and was fine under a thinish comforter and a heated mattress pad.

[Reubal]

I also have that Honeywell ceramic, and I have a brand new Bluetti AC200MAX - 2048Wh power bank. (I refuse to say "solar generator".)

On my one winter night out, in SoCal, on a 40F night, my entire power bank was dead by 1am with the heater on the LOW setting. The power draw was a steady 149W, but it shows a real life example of not just power draw, but also available power in any battery system once you factor in overhead and margins. This photo of the display panel is from the next weekend when I ran a test all day to see what was happening. With a steady draw of 149W, the battery was actually using/losing about 225W per hour. So the daytime test showed that I should have gotten a real world 10 hrs from it, but that night I only got about 5 hours. As I was asleep, I can't account for what may have happened, I can only go by my daytime monitored test. But even during that test, the Bluetti was only giving me about 73% of it's advertised capacity. Hobotech and Will Prowse (if you are doing ANY solar/battery electrical, you should know who these two are.) both show about 80%% efficiency. I don't know if I got a bum unit... or if there is something fishy/hanky about these ceramic heaters. https://imgur.com/JCMBWPx

Also, there IS absolutely a power surge when you first turn the Honeywell on, but I can't imagine it is over 500W. After the initial surge, low setting settles to 149W and I think the high setting was 250W.

As I was taking a longer camping trip over Thanksgiving, I immediately ordered a Little Buddy and a couple 5lb propane tanks, but then had to cancel the trip when my dog got a massive leg injury.

You will see a handful of very vocal and vehement hate towards using Buddy Heaters, but in my research there are FAR more people that swear by them, and I know a handful of people in real life that use and love them. I haven't used mine yet, but until I do, I'm taking the hate with a grain of salt. And if the humidity really is any sort of problem, DampRid (or DIY calcium chloride jars) is really good at controlling humidity in small spaces.