Hydro Hot Coach Heat

[Jerry Emert]

Living in Orlando area I don't have any experience with heating the coach with the HH.  I usually use the heat pumps when heat is required.  We are going to North FL later this week and temps are projected to be in the low 30s at night.  My question really concerns the water bay heating.  Do I have to have the thermostat set to "furnace" to have the bay heater provide heat or can I use the heat pumps as normal and leave the HH on to heat the bay?  Hopefully it won't be that cold long enough to do any damage.  Thanks.

[David T. Richelderfer]

The low 30s at night isn't cold enough to bother your coach.  Low 30s could make some ice on/in an exterior water hose for a few hours, but would not bother your coach's interior, be it living area or basement.  That being said, if your coach will be plugged in with the electric water heater engaged and with the inverter on, then your basement will be heated.  Your inverter puts out quite a bit of heat when operating, and your basement furnace is always on.  If the basement furnace's thermostat sees a temperature of 45F (?) or lower, then the basement furnace will actuate.  Interestingly, on cold nights I have seen my basement temperature climb to above 80F.  I don't understand why it would get that warm.  I would have thought the basement furnace's thermostat would shut it off and not make it that warm.

My AquaHot is the AHE-100-02S and I am sure your coach is designed differently, but not much differently.

[Dick Simonis]

I also have seen the bay temps in the 70's when the outside temp in low 30's or below.  Normally on cold night I have only the electric running and the thermostats set at 60...never a problem.  And yes, the inverer is a very good heat source.

[Tim Schafer]

I have an Aqua Hot but I know they are similar in design, my question is what happens when the coach is sitting in storage, what keeps the system from kicking on the basement heater.  Does it only kick on if the HH/AH is running, or does the blower kick on when it drops below 45 no matter what?

I haven't had my batteries go dead over a few weeks in the winter, so assuming there is some brain that tells it not to kick on, but am just curious how it knows.

Thanks,

Tim & Ann

[Gerald Farris]

Tim,
The basement heat only comes on if the temperature drops below the basement thermostat set point (fixed at about 45 degrees), and the AquaHot, HydraHot, or Hurricane system is turned on. A Hurricane system will have to have the diesel boiler turned on for the basement heater to run, but a HydraHot or AquaHot system will activate the basement heat on either the diesel boiler or the electric element if so equipped.

Gerald

[Tim Schafer]

Thanks!

[LEAH DRAPER]

GERALD
If I am understanding correctly your reply above, I will be "safe" in turning on the Aqua Hot just "electric" (no diesel) to keep things from freezing including the Aqua Hot itself.  Correct understanding?

Temps tonight predicted to get down to 27 tonight so want to take precautions.
Leah Draper

[David T. Richelderfer]

Leah - My experience has been the electric heat in my Aquahot will warm the coach 25 to 30 degrees above the outside temperature.  Be that as it may be, if your coach is closed up, then even at 20F to 25F overnight, and assuming daytime temps are 40ish, then your coach will not freeze.  We used to park our Bluebird coach in the mountains of Central Oregon from mid April to late October and never worried about it freezing up.  As long as the daytime temps get above 40 or so, then the latent heat stored in the coach would keep it from freezing overnight at 20F or so.

[Gerald Farris]

Leah,
You are correct in that if you are plugged into at least a 30 amp shore power source and have the AquaHot set to head electrically, the coach will be safe in 27 degree weather. The only issue in this procedure is that if there is a power failure or a malfunction in the AquaHot system, your coach is left unprotected from freezing weather. Therefore, I do not recommend this method for protecting a stored coach in freezing weather since there is no one to notice if there is a failure until the damage is done.

Gerald

[LEAH DRAPER]

GERALD
Thanks for your clarifications.  The coach is right here at my house so I keep a good eye on it.

Leah