I live in a old trailer that doesn't have heat. We have space heaters but can only run one at time or it throws the breaker. It's only really cold about 2 months out of the year here but is there anything else I can do to help warm the place up? Thanks for any help.
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We live in Florida too...the rooms with the most windows are our coldest. Cover them well. We only use the heat at night and then I keep the house closed up for the rest of the day and it stays cozy.
You could cover the crawl space if it's open. I've seen bales of stray lined up along the edges to keep out drafts. Also put plastic over the windows. Obviously close doors to rooms not being used.
no, bales of hay are a bad idea, for any mobile home., cause mice, rodents, insects and rot, to anything around foundation and perimeter of home, , don't use that., cause more problems than you started with.
Caulk around windows. Place plastic on your windows to keep drafts out and place a fleece blanket (or material), over that(or any warm blanket or material).
How to heat a trailer in the winter safely
We too live in a 16 x 80 mobile home near the NC mountains.
I boil water in the kitchen. The steam helps to heat the center of the house and I have steam vaporizer's running in each end in the bedrooms.
Our electric bill is no more then $18 a week ($72 a month) and the whole house is electric PLUS we have an outside yard light & a shed with our freezer in it. Good luck!
What are you bitching about that's a great electric bill
If you have a oven you can turn your oven on and open the door if you only want to heat certain rooms close off rooms you don't want to heat, if you have a hall you can put a blanket up over the entrance to keep heat from going there.
Watch out for steam in the rooms. This will create mold. Definitely seal and cover the windows. If there is a crawl space, have someone check the belly board. This is the central support under your floors that holds what is left of your insulation. If the spaces are open, most likely critters have eaten away at some of it.
Yes, check the wiring. If it's old, you are not safe. Electric blankets help at night, and cost pennies per night to run. If you are heating with space heaters, make sure they are blower and not radiant. That kind are fire hazards, and inefficient.
I kept a 3 room quanset house in Fairbanks, AK warm all winter with just two heaters. They were the kind that warm and recycle oil, that are tip proof (turn off when tipped), and are very efficient. Good luck!
The photo I enclosed is for a Honeywell, and is only 49.00 on line, but there are other brands you can get at walmart for about 39.00
I have found that if you put a fan behind this kind of heater on low it will help put the heat out a lot better. Also when I had to use my oven I had a fan in the floor turned one way and another one in a chair turned the other way this kept a trailer warm.
elec., is expensive, doublewide homes, are too open, floor plans, to use multiple oil filled space heaters, and you would have to make, huge wall partitions, with heavy plastic from cileiling to floors, to partition rooms off, then add space heaters, for each to be any effiecient at all, and the cost of multiple heaters, over a months time would easily add several hundred dollars to your monthly heating bills,its 2020, no one considers, the poor man, on heating and cooling safely and low cost, corporations don't care about poor folks, or workin people, doublewide manu. homes central heating and air, are a huge , huge waster of energy, , by design, and better is too install a good quality , if you can find one, of dynaglo or other gas wall mount unit in main bedroom area, for part of the home, then a mobile home safe woodstove,for the rest of the home, try to get the largerwoodbox, so you don't have to stay up all winter nights, reloading the wood every 2 hours,, because also remember the blower fan stays on wasting elec., when the stove embers are cold, its not easy living rural and frugal.
In addition to putting plastic up over your windows, go to your local thrift store or church sale and see if you can find heavy insulated drapes for your big windows and sliding glass doors if you have them. It definitely helps keep the warmth inside. Also, make sure you're blocking the drafts from your doors. Good luck!
Window plastic will help, but try covering the entire window frame; that's usually where the air leaks are.
Put up skirting around the base of your trailer, all the way around it, not leaving any spaces, cracks, etc. This made all the difference in the world on our modular home, after moving in, in October, several years ago. Our electric bill was much lower after we did this.
What did you use for trailer skirting? I want to get mine done this summer.
We lived in a trailor here in Ohio for several years and one of the best ways and cheapest ways we found to heat up a room and still do, after we had made sure to have either plastic or heavy curtains/even blankets as curtains on our windows. Was to use 3 or 4 wick candles from Wal Mart or where ever you can find them at the cheapest price. PLEASE make sure to only use this idea if you are going to be home.
Two trailers near us burned to the ground this year right before Christmas. One fire was due to a kerosene heater and the other to faulty electrical wiring. Please have your wiring checked before you do anything! Also, heat rises. Our friends had the roof of their trailer insulated and shingled and they said it helped tremendously with the heating bill.
My son lives in a trailer and I worry about this. Guess Moms always worry. Thanks for posting this. I will pass this along to him. He lives in Ohio.
I just reread your request and is sounds like you need to get an electrician. Plugging in two heaters shouldn't throw the breaker. Wires have to be checked and possibly you might only need a higher amp circuit breaker.
My breaker has to be reset also after having two heaters plugged in. I just did it earlier resulting in me even looking this up lol
Hay bells around trailer, will help seal in hear under trailer
every time a bell rings a angel gets its wings
I have the same problem. Both the living room and bedroom are on the same breaker, which is 20 amp. Is there anyway to install a higher amp breaker?
In Louisiana, a lot of people had window a.c. units that could also provide heat.They were a little more expensive then just a plain a.c. unit. I don't know if this will help, but I thought I would mention it.
Don't forget the option of battery operated socks!
A small kerosene heater would work and there are many on ebay.
I also live in Florida. We have plastic on the windows, the kit at walmart is 9.00 and you use the hairdryer to shrink it to the window. Undo the vent for dryer and we put a knee high stocking on the end. We keep our trailer cool and wear more clothes to keep warm. Also we boil spices on the stove, and it keeps it warm as well as making it smell good.
has any one ever tried in floor radiant heating? it could be installed from underneath the floor it would run a small boiler and could even be wood or pellet fired I have seen small LPG units a small pump and a roll of pex pipe I would assume guess around 1000 dollar investment and would increase your home resale value to almost a third more since very few trailer have heat that is reliable also a bit of window sealant and rubberized undercoating to make center joint air tight also goes a long way in a double wide
we used big cardboard that is thicker than most like the box appliances or TV comes in. Always plenty beside the road to pick up or at recycling center. They gave me 2 65" TV boxes FREE just for asking. We covered the large window in our 16x80 and also made a cardboard "door" for the hallway. Much warmer in the front half with one heater and the bedrooms with the other heater. ( I only use the heater where I am most of the time.
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