I just spent the morning laying out and connecting a Watts Sun Touch heat
mat.

This is very low amperage radiant in-floor heating.  I'm putting it under
tile, but it is spec'd for engineered flooring too.
I see that the 4'0" x 2'6" 120 volt mat draws only 1.5 amps.

Would that be low enough to work off an inverter?

Jake

On 3/2/07, Tom Buese <tombuese@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> On Mar 2, 2007, at 11:17 AM, John Rodgers wrote:
>
> > The tankless hotwater heater thread prompted my thoughts on
> > alternative
> > heat for the inside of the van when camping etc.
> >
> > Would not a circulating fan mounted behind a finned heat coil
> > INSIDE the
> > van - supplied with hot water from a source OUTSIDE the van - when
> > camping eliminate a lot of problems related to other than under the
> > seat
> > gas or diesel fired heaters? No fumes, no CO, no  CO2, no water
> > vapor to
> > condense inside, etc. Just dry heat coming off the  coil.
>
> Hmmm, or radiant heat thru heat fin tubes or continuous tubes in the
> floor of the vanagon? grin
> >
> > The tankless water heater thread reminded me of having seen something
> > like what I described mounted in a school bus in Alaska up near
> > Fairbanks that had been converted into a camper. It worked mighty
> > slick.
> > The owner of the bus had plumbed it with copper tubing, installed heat
> > coils and thermostatically controlled fans, DC circulating pumps, and
> > shutoff valves and quick disconnects at the point where the plumbing
> > entered and left the bus. System was filled with water and antifreeze.
> > Outside was a drum fitted with a coil of copper tubing down inside and
> > the drum was filled with water with some antifreeze in it. The drum
> > was
> > up on a steel frame with a half-drum wood stove underneath.  Wood of
> > course was the fuel for this contraption. It worked well. Was not
> > extremely portable, but it could be broken down and moved if needed.
> >
> > Would  not the principles applied in the school bus camper be a viable
> > and safe-for-sleeping-in-cold-weather alternative to the underseat
> > heaters, catalytic heaters, etc, that are often used in the Vanagons?
>
> I have a building under construction now that is using ground source
> heat pumps connected to 2 large wells (240' each deep)in the ground
> that extract the water from 1 well, run it thru the heat pumps to
> heat or cool  heat coils/exchangers which provide heated or cooled
> air, then the water is injected back into the ground w/ the 2nd well.
> Very energy efficient. Not cheap on the front end, but pays for
> itself over 5-8 years+-.  My explanation might be a little
> simplistic, as I am only the architect, & I rely on my mechanical
> engineers to actually make these things work, but you are going to
> see more & more of these alternative systems.
>
> Now if you can just bring this whole system along w/ you, voila, your
> have nice AC?
>
> Tom B.
> >
> > Opinions, ideas, and suggestions, anyone???
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > John Rodgers
> > 88 GL Driver
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com