Impressed with my Newmar Motorhome in Cold Weather

[J&JD]

We agree on the great insulation! We have heated floors, and a fireplace which gives a lot of quiet heat. We normally only need the floors on at night in cold weather. If we get below freezing, we will leave the fireplace on at night. The furnace makes sleep more diffucult. We only turn on the Oasis in the morning before our showers. We will have owned our coach for close to three years, and turn on the furnace now and then just to make sure all is good. Judy D

 

[boomer]

There is a counter on top of the OASIS. You can't read it but you can stick your phone in and take a picture to get the reading. I meant to do it as I arrived today. It would be interesting for us to measure the OASIS run time in a period of time such as a week. I'm here for 11 days, I keep the burner on all the time in this cold weather, I'm curious how many total hours the OASIS will run and then we can measure diesel consumption.

Didn't realize my last post didn't post correctly, I agree that if we knew how much it ran we could easily figure out fuel consumption. Didn't know about the counter, does it only read burner time or just total usage AC or burner?

 

[Cinergi]

Anyway thanks for the info, at .44 g/hr with a 5 minute on, 15 minute off (just guess) 25% duty cycle get you to .11 g/h = 2.6 g/day = 18.5 g/wk. Since the burner is only going to really be used at night you can at least double that to 18.5 g/2wk or 9.25/wk.
Actually after doing the calculations, not sure why I don't run the burner more...

For what it’s worth I stayed in cold temps for a couple of months and I used maybe 20-30 gal for that entire stay. I checked my fuel level using the silverleaf display By the driver every so often. You have to turn the ignition on (not acc, but no need to start engine) so it would refresh the value. Made it really easy to see before and after.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Neal]

The one winter I left it on I think I used 35 gal so that was 3-4 months. I'm waiting to hear back from ITR if the meter is diesel only or not.

 

[Neal]

I heard back from ITR and Kevin says yes the counter is diesel burner only and verifies the consumption is 0.44 gal/hr of runtime. In my test I took a snapshot on Dec 24th and a second snapshot of the counter just now (Jan 2nd), a little over 8 days later. Very cold temps here in Page, AZ with nights in the 20's, my T-STAT is 72 on front zone, 71 on bedroom zone with diesel burner left ON the entire time to run as needed. The counter comparison shows 72.2 hours of runtime coming out to approximately 32 gals of diesel burned in 8 days.

This test is actually eye opening, if you're going to be somewhere for an extended stay such as I'm about to do in Palm Creek you better be very aware of arrival fuel level and diesel consumption. I had one winter where it was around 35 gals for the entire winter while in storage but at different temp setpoints. Burning allegedly 32 gals in 8 days is concerning in telling me I need to take more aggressive steps such as turning off the burner during the day and letting the electric heating elements do the job. Also when boondocking and on solar to be aware of the diesel consumption by the OASIS system.

Arrive full! Be aware

 

[NWIP]

I did 21 days when I got our 2017 DS. The first week I didn’t have Oasis burner on except sparingly, then it got cold and I realized the heat pimps couldn’t keep up. Temps were now never getting out of the 20s and single digits at night. I didn’t do elaborate testing like @Neal but came up with 40gal over a 10 day period. That is pretty close to @Neal computation.

 

[jmltech]

Glad to hear about the Newmar’s in cold weather. Insulation is something I wished I paid more attention to when we purchased our Tiffin RED. Besides the freezing cold tiles, it is very drafty, especially on the cab area going down the road in winter. I do plan on taking another look this spring for any more openings I missed earlier.

 

[Neal]

I decided an alternate strategy going back to turning the diesel burner on 10 minutes prior to a shower and let the electric burners ACI/II do the job for the furnace. Just like @NWIP outlined above they couldn't do the job. It was 31 out (gets down to low 20's at night here) and no heat was coming out of the blowers. Burner ON and all is well again.

My fear is the OASIS diesel burner can run you dry, I'm not sure there is any safety protection built in to prevent that but I'm going to ask ITR and see what they know.

Moral is you're going to need a deliberate plan for use of the diesel burner and not just leave it on. Know when it's needed and use it then. I would hope that it would only come on when needed i.e. allow the electric burners to do the job until they can't and then come online. Not how it's working out. I have a long stay at a CG coming up where I intended to turn electric burners off and only use diesel burner as I have to pay for electricity usage - that plan is off after this test.

 

[Neal]

From Kevin at ITR inquiring about OASIS potential of running diesel dry:

Newmar makes sure that doesn’t happen with any of their motorhomes, they all have dip tubes that only down to a quarter tank before they will start to peter out, just like the gen

 

[sheridany]

@Neal Does the T stat control the temp off/on so that its not on full-time and you can control the burner usage? Point well taken....Plan Plan Plan.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

From Kevin at ITR inquiring about OASIS potential of running diesel dry:

I can now confirm that, @Neal. This discussion prompted me to check our coach and the gauge shows just over 1/4 full...and...the Oasis burner does NOT come on. Glad this discussion prompted me to check.

The electric elements have been keeping the coach at 50 degrees as I have it set for (I monitor with wireless thermometers), but our overnight outside temps have been about 30 degrees or higher at their lowest. Since we can get an occasional "arctic blast" that can drop temps into the teens, I want to have the burner option available.

Been meaning to get the fuel tank filled, but procrastinated because I didn't want to unhook the coach from power, take it off the jacks and drive to a fuel station. Fortunately, a local fuel dealer will deliver Diesel #2 right here to the property, so I don't have to move the coach. Just called and they will be here Monday morning.

Thanks, again, for the timely reminder.

TJ

 

[Neal]

@Neal Does the T stat control the temp off/on so that its not on full-time and you can control the burner usage? Point well taken....Plan Plan Plan.

Yes, all that is normal and the diesel burner will run whenever it's needed and not all the time. I just wish it had a better balance for the electric burners doing the job such as "you need a little" "you need a lot"

 

[Hawkeye]

Neal, We stayed at Page a month ago also, very pretty area, you need to venture over to Zion and Brice, since you are in the neighborhood. Why are you even using the diesel burner when you don't have to pay extra for electricity? We are in Lake Havasu for the winter and pay extra for our electricity, so we are using the diesel burner because I believe it is more efficient.

 

[boomer]

Yes, all that is normal and the diesel burner will run whenever it's needed and not all the time. I just wish it had a better balance for the electric burners doing the job such as "you need a little" "you need a lot"

Would be really nice if the Oasis would use electric as long as it can, using the burner as the supplement. Always wondered why the burner was primary

 

[Cinergi]

WRT keeping the tank full, I used a 5 gallon can and fuel pump to occasionally put 5 gallons into the tank so I wouldn’t have to break camp and go fill up somewhere.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk