A couple of questions reference bay heating.
If i turn on the electric and diesel switches in the kitchen, turn on the bathroom thermostat and set it, and do not
turn on the duotherm climate control, do I still get heat for the bays?
I do not require heat or hot water in the coach, JUST the lower bays and would set the bay temp gauge accordingly.
Yes turn on the AquaHot electric and diesel.
You do not need to turn on the bathroom thermostat (zone 2) unless needed for bathroom heat.
There is a thermostat in the bay with the water pump and Manibloc manifold that controls heat for the bays..
Ok so I do not even require turning on the Duotherm climate control on the wall behind the driver then
Correct
Hmm. Perhaps I did not leave the aqua hot on long enough or something but after about half an hour or so I could not feel any heat or air coming from the bay outlets. Does the aqua hot have to be on a certain period to activate the fans?
It is controlled by the thermostat above the water pump probably won't come on until the temperature goes below 40 degrees F
In the picture above of the basement thermostat on the back side of that panel (which is held on by a few screws) there is a coil of stiff wire with a cylinder on the end. That is the sensor for that thermostat, if you hold an ice cube to it you should hear the fan on the heater next to it come on.
When I purchased my coach my bay fans weren't coming on as I thought they should, I found the sensor was coiled up and the end was near the heat register/fan, straightened the wire to extend the sensor to the basement floor and all was good.
You want to set the basement thermostat to 35-40° to make sure it comes on before it gets too cold in the basement. Put the end of the thermostat coil on a cup of ice water, that should be 32°. There is no "off" position. If you set it to its lowest point, about 0° and it gets colder than that the basement fans and coolant pump will come on and run without stopping until it gets above the set point. If you do not want the basement fans and pump to come on while the coach is in winter storage you hve to disconnect the thermostat. A 4 wire trailer wiring plug works well for this, cut off the ground wire and use the other three.
Thanks Roger for the wiring suggestion. We spoke last fall about this and I decided just to remove fuses c and d form the aqua hot for the winter which solves the issue. Another question arises ...I currently am not plugged into the shore power and am not using the generator. If I turn on the diesel switch to get the basement heat going for a while am I going to draw too much battery power in the "boondocking mode.." so to speak
I thought that the bathroom thermostat controlled the basement heat elements. It's running off of the same circulation pump.
Mike
Mike, When the basement thermostat calls for heat, the loop two pump starts sending hot coolant to all loop two fan coils but only the basement fan starts. When bathroom thermostat calls for heat, the loop two pump starts but only the bathroom fan starts.
Thanks Rudy, Short and sweet. It took me several years of ownership to figure that out.
Richard
Peter, Turning on the AH diesel side uses power. The fuel pump runs, blower motor runs, igniter sparks and controller controls. If the coolant is cold say 10 degrees it could take 30 or 40 min to come up to temp and shut off. Then if you turn the heat on circulating pumps run and heat exchanger fans run. It is not an insignificant amount of power from batteries not otherwise getting recharged.
If your coach is in storage mode, not plugged in and not using the generator and it is cold where you are (duh) I wouldn't run the AH. Are the negative cables connections on the house and start batteries disconnected either with a switch or by removing the cables? Come time to bring her back to life you may need to charge batteries. Reconnect the batteries and at least start the generator and run it for a couple hours to charge the house batteries, run the electric side of the AH to get it up to temp, turn on the AH engine preheat switch to start heating the engine. Plug in a charger to charger the start batteries or engage a combiner if you use one. Once the AH is getting warmed up and you start preheating the engine and get charging the batteries it will be much easier to start the coach.
Roger,
excellent explanation
Thank you