Is it safe to use an electric space heater in your RV?
Should you use an electric space heater in your RV? I see this question quite a bit on the forums and there is no absolute answer for this.
There is a lot of logic in thinking that an electric space heater is a good way to heat the RV, though. If you’re camped at a place where you have full hookups you’re already paying for electricity and it seems to make sense that, since you paid for it and it’s there, you might as well take advantage of the power at the pedestal to heat your RV rather than using the propane you have to pay for separately.
There’s also the fact that the heater fans in RVs are very often very, very noisy. I know in our own travel trailer the sound of the furnace fan kicking on can be enough to wake us up. It sounds like someone’s vacuuming in the back of the RV. So it’s noisy plus I have to make sure to have propane.
And there’s the third good reason. Unless the community the RV park is in has a power outage, you don’t have to worry about running out of electricity in the middle of the night. As someone who has run out of propane on more than one occasion it’s comforting, quite literally, to know that the heater will work the whole night through.
So why wouldn’t this be a great way to heat your rig? What could be the down side of it?
Perhaps some advice from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) might help. According to the NFPA space heaters were the single most likely cause of a home fire over any other source of heat. In fact 53 percent of home fires related to heating were caused by space heaters according to their 2018 report, the last year the information was reported.
Space heaters all essentially max out at 1500 watts which means you can draw about 12.5 amps from the wall outlet. If your space heater does not have a thermostat on it this continuous draw can heat-up the wiring in the RV which could result in a fire, particularly if it’s compromised in any way.
RV electricity expert Mike Sokol, who has been on the StressLess Camping podcast, has two excellent articles from his standpoint of electrical safety.
But electrical fires aren’t the only reason using a space heater can be bad.
Many RVs have heated and enclosed underbellies that use the heat from the central furnace to warm the area so the water and holding tanks don’t freeze. The RV is likely also designed such that the plumbing systems remain above freezing in the coach as long as you’re comfortable by way of that furnace keeping things toasty.
If you’re using a space heater to warm up a bedroom, for example, this may not provide enough warmth to keep the pipes and tanks from freezing and that could be a problem.
Furthermore if you’re only heating the bedroom and the space is small there is a higher likelihood that the space heater can come into contact with bedding or other potentially flammable materials.
So What’s the Answer?
From several industry sources, it can be safe to operate a space heater in an RV on all levels depending on the circumstances.
As always, there should be plenty of room around that heater so that it is not in danger of coming into contact with anything that could catch on fire. Using a space heater with a thermostat also means that that heater will cycle so there isn’t a continuous long-term draw on the electrical system in your RV and on the park’s electrical system.
Modern space heaters all have tip protection in them so that if you, or a pet, knock the thing over unknowingly in the middle of the night it won’t continue to run and become a hazard.
Lastly, if you’re in a place where temperatures can get below freezing you might also turn your RV’s thermostat on to a low setting so that the underbelly and interior of the coach stay well above freezing.
In many cases now newer RVs are coming with space heaters as it is in the form of an electric fireplace installed in the rig. This is nothing more than a fancy space heater with a beautiful display but one that does incorporate a thermostat.
It might also be possible to put a heat strip into your existing RV air conditioner. Depending on which RV air conditioner you have, it may already have a provision for installing a heat strip which is nothing more than a fancy electrical heater in the unit.
One last thing, there are a few parks that may charge you an additional fee for using electric heat, although this isn’t very common.
As always, a lot of common sense will help you to stay in the safe zone