For those who travel with a companion...

[takesiteasy]

Many are 12v cheapskates ;-) I set my heater to 50 at night, it has only come on a few times and was nice when it did.

I like that term- 12v cheapskates, haha. That's us. We have a small secondary battery.

We use the heater sparingly- not at all while sleeping. Warm bedding is your friend. Thermostat is never set above 50°F. The temp often rises above that though, especially on initial warmup, before the furnace shuts off.

 

[Freebird]

Regarding the thermostat/furnace usage and/or settings at night....
If it is a well thought out camper, the thermostat is within easy arms reach of the bed to turn the heat up/on in the morning. SHOULD be designed that way, anyhow!
Can't do that in a tent. Ha!

"We" leave the furnace off at night, but this weekend when it was in the upper teens, and I was by myself, as in no warmth share, I did use the furnace on a very low setting while dry "camping" @ a Walmart. I was just transiting the area, and needed a couple hours of sleep to keep rolling.

BTW....THANKS, WALMART!

PS my Alaskan's thermostat can be reached from the bed, but it is down by the foot of the bed on the side of the cabinet, so sitting up and leaning is needed. Better than my Northern Lite. It is "get outa bed" distance.

 

[lqhikers]

expanding on freebird take on thermostat we had the same problem with our Northstar
the thermostat was away from the foot of the bed.
to take care of the problem i wired a switch to bypass thermostat and mounted it in the small cabinet
at the head of bed,so now i can turn the furnace on while in bed.
after it warms up in the morning i then change over to our wave heater .

i to have always wondered why the builders of campers do not think through some of their product use's.

Les,lqhikers

 

[Freebird]

Les....
Great idea! When I have time.....someday....I'll do it.

Edit/additional
Running hidden/in wall wire can be a challenge (my walls are foam inside) in our campers....
Some surface "flat wire tape" MIGHT be just the ticket for surface mounting that low voltage thermostat wire to an aux manual switch:

http://flatwireready.com/products/lighting_products/low-voltagewire.html