February 9th, 2020 – NO FURNACE! And the snow keeps coming…

February 9, 2020

Captain’s Log: City to Gritty

I’m getting my ass kicked!! No other way to word it.

Another snowfall happened today-dropping 4”-6” of snow. I got it cleared again but the biggest ass kicking wasn’t snow removal—it was HEAT.

For some reason our generator breaker keeps tripping every time I plug in the RV. After hours of consulting with my off-grid tribes—trying all sorts of tricks—I could not get the RV power to work. This means—NO FURNACE!!

We do have a small catalytic heater which gives off some heat—but not enough for the entire RV. With this heater on, it barely brought our interior temp to 32 degrees—which is way too cold.

I kept trying everything I could—but we have a short somewhere in our RV or power cord to the generator and the truth was starting to sink in that—no—we will not have our furnace on tonight.

So many ideas ran through my head but the best was getting a space heater. This space heater is an excellent patch to help hold us over until I find and fix the short in our RV system. I’ve now got our interval temp to 61 degrees!! Which is much better considering it will hit 17 degrees outside.

Once I solved the snow removal and heat issues, we could finally sit down and do family activities, like, make Valentines and laugh and enjoy the moment.

Living off grid is stressful as hell!!!!!! Not going to sugar coat it!! Everything takes longer. Everything is unpredictable. It’s easily a full time job just to survive. But man, it’s full of lessons. It’s a degree in wilderness survival, electrical engineering, forestry, and more.

I’m so exhausted but glad you are here. I need your support more than you know! One step at a time, is how anything gets done.

Soooooook grateful for HEAT tonight!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Comments:

  • Danni Marie Sorry for the rough day! Sounds like you’re making the best of it though. 💜
  • Summer Estella Lajoie Oh wow… you are killing it and some. Keep on keeping on, because it will all be worth it in the end, and you and your family will be stronger for it. Also, if you all end up with no heat, or anything else crazy, please reach out to me, you are always welcome to come warm up at my place 🔥
  • Stephanie Victoria Sending you lots of love and warm, cozy vibes. Glad you’ve got the temp up!
  • Evelyn Elvegaard I swear… you’re friggin Wonder Woman! Unreal what you plow through – still with a smile on your face – and still looking like you stepped right off a photoshoot. Hats off to you! Job well done! 😁👍
  • Melissa McCash Wow. Nature’s exercise I guess. Have you made a mountain snow man yet? 😁
  • Laura Minard I admire your journey so much!
  • Brook Nuttall Very admirable attitude you have, Rachel!

    Some ideas that can or may help you:
    1. If you have a multi-meter with an ohms setting, you can test all of your power cord lines for a short. If you need further explanation on how to do it, let me know.
    2. If your generator’s breaker has tripped too many times, it is possible that it has worn out. They are pretty durable, so this is not likely the case, but still possible.
    3. Your furnace blower motor has worn out.
    When I lived off grid, I found that the small furnaces in RV’s and trailers are not intended to handle constant use as would occur from living in it all winter long.
    Possible failures with these furnaces:
    A. One or both thermal switches heats up and shorts out and fails. There are typically two thermal switches: one to turn the furnace on when the room gets cold and one to turn it off when the room reaches the desired temperature.
    B. The blower motor fails and shorts out inside or the brushes wear down and cause the motor to seize. This causes the furnace to pull too much power and will cause your generator’s breaker to trip.

    So without being there, and based on what I know about living in a camper trailer during the winter, this is my best guess as to what is going on with your heat.

    One easy way to test this to disconnect the power to your furnace and then fire up the generator and see if the breaker trips or not. If it does trip, then it is something else other than the furnace causing it.

    If it doesn’t trip then unplug everything else and re-connect the power to your furnace and see if that causes the breaker to trip.

    Basically, you need to isolate where the problem is by plugging in one thing at a time and find the naughty appliance that is pulling too much power.

    If nothing is pulling too much power by itself, then you may have a problem of too many things plugged in at a time and you will need to ration what is plugged in at the same time.

    Sorry for the long response. I just hope that this can help you. I have been in your shoes and I know how demoralizing it can be when the extreme cold creeps into your home.
  • Mindy Burnette Oh my goodness!!! I lived with my mom for 2yrs in her camper and one winter it was -9 outside and we went through propane every 3 days and kept a space heater on too!!! So many campers aren’t made to withstand such cold. But I had a new baby and couldn’t let it get cold in there. But you do look like a beautiful snow bunny!!!
  • Handlebar Henry Imagine if you were someone who was traveling across the country long ago ..say in a covered wagon. No power at all..no fresh water, shelter ect. One of my favorite songs is Theme From An Imaginary Western. The lyrics are here: When the wagons leave the city
    For the forest and further on
    Painted wagons of the morning
    Dusty roads where they have gone
    Sometimes travelling through the darkness
    Met the summer coming home
    Fallen faces by the wayside
    Looked as if they might have known

    O the sun was in their eyes
    And the desert that dries
    In the country town
    Where the laughter sounds

    O the dancing and the singing
    O the music when they played
    O the fires that they started
    O the girls with no regret
    Sometimes they found it
    Sometimes they kept it
    Often lost it on the way
    Fought each other to possess it
    Sometimes died in sight of day
  • Handlebar Henry Travelling is the way it’s spelled in some corners
  • Robyn Brown I’m praying for you and your family tonight. Im Not going to lie- the space heater makes me nervous.