Toe kick heater popping breakers

[garyde]

There is no way there should be 3 heaters on one 20 amp circuit. The wiring is not capable of handling the load let alone the circuit breaker. Geoff, verify what the wattage of each heater is first. It sounds like a heater has been added sometime after the original conversion, or the heaters have been upgraded and exceed the original wiring capability.

[Yankee802]

Gary,

I'm thinking you are right, and that the heater in the basement is an add-on. It does not have a electrial plug, it's hard wired. So it's my plan for now to get something to read the temprature of the basement remotely and only run that heater when it's freezing outside and only as long as I need it. I can either use my furnace and/or not run one of the inside heaters untill the basement warms up to prevent freezing. The two inside the coach I'm positive are originial from the converter and seem to be operating perfectly. From what I can tell, each one seems to be drawing about 14amps, and when the two inside ones are one, it's showing 28 amps.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Of all the heaters, the one in the basement (I'm assuming water compartment, if it is in another bay this post does not count) is most likely to be for freeze protection and that one is likely to have a separate breaker labeled bay heater or something like that.

On both my buses, one close in age to Geoff's I had toes space heaters all of which had dedicated breakers.

[Yankee802]

Unfortunatley all the heaters are on the same breaker. You are correct Jon, the one in the basement is in the water tank bay to keep them from freezing. I have popped the breaker on and off, for each in turn, and they are all on the same one.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Geoff,

That makes no sense. I don't doubt what you are saying, but from a design point of view and from a safety point of view that is just wrong.

Get more beer for your electrical guy and see if he can change that.

First, determine if the wiring to the heaters is done via "homeruns". The electrical guy will know what that means. If so, and if you have space for more breakers then you can put a heater on its own individual breaker.

If the heaters are "loop fed" getting them on dedicated breakers will not be as easy, but it is so important I would recommend they be rewired to have each heater on its own circuit. It is not easy running new wires in a converted coach, but it can be done and it needs to be done. Maybe Gary can jump in here with some suggestions. I just find it weird that all of your heaters are on a single circuit breaker. BTW, do not even consider increasing the breaker size so it does not trip. That would be a dangerous thing to do and could result in a fire.

[garyde]

I think the first thing is to find out what is the wattage of each heater .
If each heater is only 500 watts or 750 watts, there would be less concern. If the heaters are 1500 watts each, that is too muh for one 20 amp circuit breaker. Some heaters are designed to change the wattage output and /or voltage input, You should verify this as well.

[jello_jeep]

You might look here too for more insight into toe kicks..

Jon and Gary are right on about the power.

JJ

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...ead.php?t=1549