The aux battery will not last long at all... Not worth your
effort... We've been through the calculations on that.  The ceramic
heater, when plugged into a 110V socket, will make your Westy
extremely hot inside.   You'll find out that you'll have to turn the
heater down during the night...
Cetin

Mark McCulley writes:
 > Been following the thread about winter camping, propane heaters and all. I
 > once put one of those Coleman gasoline catalytic heaters in my bus for a
 > 1.5 hr journey to do some cross-country skiing. By the time we got out of
 > the vehicle to ski we were sick as dogs. Sold that heater at a garage sale,
 > never used it again. Now here's what I'm thinking about to heat my
 > Westfalia. I purchased a small (8" cube) electric ceramic heater at Home
 > Depot for about $20. Has a thermostat and a fan/lo/hi switch and provides
 > 1500W/5200BTU. Why not get an aux battery and an inverter to power this
 > thing? I haven't run through the calculations yet to see how long the
 > battery would last, maybe this isn't feasible. In the meantime, I'm going
 > to use the heater while the Westy is plugged into our house when we have
 > guests next week (Westy serves as guest house too). If it's enough to take
 > the chill off (not trying to make a sweat lodge), maybe I'll do the
 > battery/inverter thing. Sure beats the installation hassles of the propane
 > heater, plus it's "clean" heat!
 > 
 > Disclaimer: I live in a maritime climate where it almost never reaches 0 F.
 > Alaska, Minnesota, etc, is a different story. I have seen an old bus with a
 > small wood stove...
 > 
 > -Mark McCulley
 > '74 bus
 > '87 syncro Westfalia
 > 
 >