6 Best Cold Weather Gear For RV Living That Slash Your Propane Bill
Stay warm in your RV & slash your propane bill.
That familiar whoosh and click of the RV furnace kicking on is a comforting sound on a cold night. But when it starts cycling every ten minutes, that comfort turns into anxiety. You can almost hear the propane draining from your tanks, and you start doing the mental math on your next fill-up.
Winter RVing presents a constant battle between staying warm and managing your resources. Your furnace is a powerful tool, but it’s also a propane-guzzling monster. Relying on it as your sole source of heat is the fastest way to blow your budget and spend your winter constantly worrying about your next trip to the propane station.
The secret isn’t to freeze in the dark. It’s to fundamentally change your strategy. Instead of brute-force heating your entire rig, you need a system of targeted, efficient tools that work together. This approach keeps you comfortable while pushing that power-hungry furnace into a supporting role, saving you a fortune in the process.
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How to Slash Your RV Propane Bill This Winter
Your RV’s built-in propane furnace is designed to do one thing: produce a massive amount of heat quickly. It’s fantastic for taking the initial chill off a cold-soaked rig, but it’s incredibly inefficient for maintaining a comfortable temperature over time. It burns through propane at an astonishing rate, making it a costly primary heat source.
The goal isn’t to never use your furnace. It’s to use it strategically. Think of it as your emergency heat, your heavy lifter for those truly frigid nights or when you first arrive at a site. The rest of the time, you can rely on a smarter, more efficient system that leverages the electricity from your campground hookup.
This is a game of defense and targeted offense. First, you defend against heat loss by insulating the weak points of your RV. Then, you use low-wattage electric gear to apply heat exactly where you need it most—in your bed, in your living space, and around your critical water systems. Each piece of gear we’ll discuss is a component in this larger, cost-saving plan.
Stay Toasty With a Sunbeam Heated Mattress Pad
Experience personalized comfort with the Sunbeam Heated Mattress Pad. Featuring 12 heat settings and a 12-hour auto shut-off for safety, its extra-cozy quilted fabric and deep pocket fit ensure a snug, warm night's sleep.
Heating your entire 200-square-foot box to 68 degrees just so you can be warm in your 30-square-foot bed is a massive waste of energy. It’s the RV equivalent of turning on every light in your house to read a book. The most efficient way to stay warm at night is to heat your body, not the air around you.
A low-voltage heated mattress pad is a game-changer for cold-weather RVing. It sits under your fitted sheet and uses a tiny amount of electricity to create a cocoon of warmth. With multiple settings, you can dial in the perfect temperature for a comfortable night’s sleep, even if the ambient air in the RV drops into the 50s.
This single piece of gear allows you to turn your main thermostat way down overnight, effectively silencing your propane furnace for eight hours straight. The comfort is immense, but the propane savings are even bigger. You’ll wake up warm, rested, and with a much fuller propane tank than you would have otherwise.
Vornado VH200: Your Safe Electric Heat Source
Heat your space evenly with the Vornado MVH, using vortex air circulation for consistent warmth. It features tip-over protection, auto shut-off, and an adjustable thermostat for safe, efficient comfort.
Many RVers turn to portable electric heaters, but not all are created equal. A cheap, glowing-red coil heater is a serious fire hazard in a confined space filled with flammable materials. Safety must be your first consideration when choosing an electric heat source for your rig.
The Vornado VH200 is a popular choice for a reason: it’s designed with safety and efficiency in mind. It has crucial features like automatic tip-over protection and an overheat shut-off. Its plastic casing also stays cool to the touch, making it safer around pets and kids in tight quarters.
Instead of just blasting a narrow beam of intense heat, the Vornado uses vortex circulation to gently and evenly warm the air in an entire room. This makes it perfect for "zone heating." Use it to keep your main living area comfortable during the day or evening, allowing you to keep the central furnace off without having to huddle in one spot.
Reflectix: Your Secret Weapon for RV Windows
This Reflectix bubble-pack insulation features two layers of highly reflective film bonded to durable polyethylene bubbles for effective thermal control. Its easy-to-handle, no-mess design simplifies installation for various projects.
Your RV’s windows are thermal black holes. They are typically single-pane and poorly insulated, allowing precious heat to escape at an alarming rate. No matter how much heat you pump into your rig, you’re fighting a losing battle if you don’t address your windows first.
Reflectix is a simple, inexpensive, and incredibly effective solution. It’s essentially a foil-faced bubble wrap that acts as both a radiant barrier and an insulator. By cutting it to fit snugly inside your window frames, you create an insulating air gap and reflect heat back into your living space.
Making custom-fit Reflectix inserts for every window is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost winterization projects you can undertake. The difference is immediate and dramatic. Your heater will run less, drafts will be eliminated, and the entire RV will feel more stable and comfortable, directly reducing the workload on your propane furnace.
Protect Your Underbelly With AirSkirts Skirting
Protect your dual-axle RV tires with these durable 600D polyester covers. Featuring UV protection and a secure elastic backing, they fit most trailers with 27"-30" tires.
The cold ground and biting wind beneath your RV are constantly working to steal your heat. An exposed underbelly chills your floors, making the entire rig feel colder and putting your tanks and water lines at risk of freezing. This is a massive, often-overlooked area of heat loss.
RV skirting creates a barrier against this, trapping a pocket of dead air under your rig that acts as an insulator. While traditional skirting can be a pain to install, inflatable systems like AirSkirts are a brilliant solution. They set up in minutes, require no drilling into your RV’s frame, and create an excellent thermal seal against the ground.
By insulating the entire foundation of your RV, you drastically reduce heat loss through the floor. This single upgrade can raise the ambient temperature under your rig by 20 degrees or more. The result is warmer floors, protected pipes, and a significant reduction in how often your heating system needs to run to maintain a comfortable temperature inside.
Camco Heated Hose: Keep Your Water Flowing
Prevent frozen water lines with Camco's 25-ft heated RV hose, providing freeze protection down to -20°F. It features an energy-saving thermostat and a drinking water safe hose.
If you’re staying at a campground with full hookups, a frozen water hose is more than an inconvenience—it’s a showstopper. It cuts off your water supply and can lead to burst pipes and costly repairs. Many people mistakenly believe they can keep it from freezing by letting a faucet drip, but that’s an unreliable and wasteful method.
A heated water hose is an essential piece of winter RV gear. The Camco heated hose, a standard in the industry, has a heating element that runs its entire length, preventing freezing even in sub-zero temperatures. It’s self-regulating, meaning it only draws power when it needs to, making it an efficient and reliable solution.
Without a heated hose, you might be tempted to use your propane-powered water heater and furnace to try and keep your water bay and plumbing warm. This is a blunt and expensive approach. The heated hose solves the problem at its source with minimal electricity, ensuring you have reliable running water without wasting a drop of propane.
Eva-Dry Dehumidifier: Fight RV Condensation
Efficiently remove moisture from large spaces up to 4500 sq. ft. with this Energy Star 2024 certified dehumidifier. It features a smart compressor and intelligent humidistat for optimal performance and energy savings.
Winter RVing creates a perfect storm for condensation. Breathing, cooking, and showering in a small, sealed space releases a surprising amount of moisture into the air. This moisture collects on cold surfaces like windows and walls, leading to a damp, chilly feeling and, eventually, a serious risk of mold and mildew.
A damp environment feels much colder than a dry one at the same temperature, which instinctively makes you want to crank up the heat. Furthermore, unvented propane heaters (like a Mr. Buddy, which should be used with extreme caution) release even more water vapor as a byproduct of combustion, making the problem worse. This creates a vicious cycle of dampness and high heating costs.
A small, low-wattage dehumidifier like an Eva-Dry unit is the answer. By actively pulling moisture out of the air, it makes your living space feel warmer and more comfortable at a lower thermostat setting. Breaking the condensation cycle is key to winter comfort, and it directly reduces the demand on your heating system, saving propane and protecting the long-term health of your RV.
Your Warm and Cost-Effective RV Winter Plan
The key to a successful and affordable RV winter is to abandon the idea of using a single, powerful furnace to do all the work. That’s a strategy for high bills and constant anxiety. Instead, you need to think like a systems engineer, using multiple specialized tools to manage your environment efficiently.
Your plan should be multi-faceted. First, play defense by insulating your biggest points of heat loss with Reflectix and RV skirting. Then, go on offense by applying targeted, low-wattage electric heat exactly where you need it with a heated mattress pad and a safe space heater. Finally, protect your critical systems with a heated hose and manage your interior climate with a dehumidifier.
This approach transforms your RV from a leaky, hard-to-heat box into a comfortable and efficient winter home. You’ll use your propane furnace as a backup instead of a primary heat source, slashing your consumption and your bills. With the right gear and a smart plan, you can stop worrying about the cold and truly enjoy the beauty of winter on the road.
Ultimately, thriving in an RV during the winter isn’t about having the biggest furnace; it’s about having the smartest strategy. By shifting from brute-force heating to a system of targeted insulation, efficient electric heat, and moisture management, you take control of your comfort and your budget. This allows you to spend less time worrying about your propane levels and more time enjoying the unique freedom that four-season RVing has to offer.
