Can I run my RV furnace on 110V?

Have you ever wondered if you can run your RV furnace on 110 volt?

Look no more.

We’ve got you covered.

Most RVs will have some sort of propane heating system in place. This is to ensure that people are able to heat up their RVs, even when there isn’t an electrical connection. However, some people do still wonder whether they can connect their RV furnace up to 110v. This is actually a pretty difficult question to answer. Let us explain why.

So can I run my RV furnace on 110V? In most of the case, you can not run your RV furnace on 110v. However, In recent years, some furnaces have been released that will allow you to run them on propane or electricity.

Whether you can plug these into the 110v supply will be dependent on the furnace that you have purchased. However, most of them can be.

Can I Run my RV Furnace on 110V?

Mostly, no.

The vast majority of RVs that you will find on the market will have a propane furnace built into them. This is to ensure that the users of the RV can remain warm, even when there is no electrical supply.

Propane, for the most part, tends to be pretty energy efficient too.

👉 Now, there will likely be some sort of electronics inside of a propane furnace. This is because certain components require sparks, fans, etc.

These will be powered by electronics. However, they tend to run off of the vehicle battery as they do not require that much in the way of power.

That being said, you can hook up the electronics of the propane furnace to a 110v power supply if you have a converter. It won’t draw enough power from the 110v system to overload it, so you should be pretty safe doing that.

👉 Finally, there are a few companies that have introduced conversion kits for propane furnaces. When these conversion kits are installed, they are able to allow a propane heater to run on electricity instead.

However, these conversion kits tend to be only available for a small number of furnaces, so we wouldn’t really pin your hopes of being able to find one for your RV.

👉 To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend that you install one of these conversion kits unless you are 100% sure of the quality of the kit, as well as having a basic knowledge of electronics. There is quite a bit that can go wrong.

Remember, you aren’t just dealing with electronics here, you are also dealing with gas. So, you have double the problems!

Read also: Are RV Outlets The Same As House Outlets / RV Electrical Outlets Replacement

How Do You Hook up an RV Furnace to 110V?

It is surprisingly easy.

Chances are that your RV furnace is going to be plugged into an electrical circuit already. This circuit will likely go to the battery of the vehicle.

This means that once you hook up a 110V supply to the electrical input of the RV using an extension cord, then the furnace will be powered. You will also be powering the battery at the same time to help charge it.

You should be fine doing that. As we said before, there are some people that will use a converter, but most modern RVs will not require one.

The one thing that you will have to remember, however, is that your RV furnace should be one of only a couple of things powered in the RV at once. You should never be powering an AC through the circuit, for instance.

This can cause the electrical supply to trip. This could damage the various electronics in the RV if they are not surge protected.

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Is an Electrical Heating System Dangerous in an RV?

It depends on what type of heating system it actually is. If it is an electric furnace, which you probably aren’t going to find all that easy, then it should be safe.

Obviously, it should have been built for RVs. You can’t exactly haul a furnace built for a home into your RV, after all.

If you are thinking about going down the route of a space heater, then you may run into problems. Space heaters produce a huge amount of heat.

This is what attracts people to them. After all, heat is good, right? Well, not in the case of an RV. Well, at least when it comes to a space heater.

The problem with a space heater is that you have nowhere really to put it in the RV where it won’t be in contact with something that can go up in flames.

So, you have that space heater on, heating up the area around it quite a bit and then, poof, everything goes up in smoke.

Read also: This Is Why Your RV Battery Is Overheating? (Read This First)

You would think that the risk of a space heater causing things to go up in flames isn’t that high. However, it is. Space heaters are one of the biggest causes of fires in the United States.

If you do absolutely insist on having a space heater inside your RV, then do not let it run for long periods of time.

You should almost certainly not have it running overnight. At the most, you will want to let it heat up the room, and then you can switch it off.

If you are going to be using a space heater, then you will also want to ensure that it is not placed in an area where somebody can easily trip over it, or it is going to set something alight i.e. it should not be around any chemicals that are explosive.

They will end up exploding, and this is going to run your RV…and potentially kill you.

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Conclusion

Most RV furnaces on the market are not electric furnaces. They are propane furnaces. However, they will have an electrical input to power some of the circuits inside of the furnace, although the electrical supply alone will not heat the furnace.

As long as the RV furnace can be connected up to the battery in your RV at some point, then you can supply electrical power to the furnace from a 110V power supply.

However, you do have to remember that you will still need to power the actual heat with propane, otherwise the furnace will not work. 

References

https://www.doityourselfrv.com