Mod Project 3 - Heater Cutout Switch

I did this in my last camper and loved it.  Here, on the 179, I installed a small rocker switch just below where my pillow is.  It’s wired to break the connection from the thermostat to the heater.  When the rocker is open, the heat won’t come on. 

Since we generally dry camp, I don’t like to have the heater draw down the batteries at night, and I really don’t like hearing the heater run.  But it is nice to get up in a warm camper.  

So, I set the thermostat for the heater at 65 before bed and I get to slip into the sheets with warm air.  Then I move the rocker switch to the off/open position, and the heater goes through its cool down cycle and shuts off.  In the morning I just lean over and hit the switch, and the heater comes back on.  In 5 minutes it’s warm enough to get up and make coffee.  I know, it’s a lazy thing.

Of course all bets are off if mother nature has an urgent calling.

Ok, now the weather is getting better and may need to stop playing with Pod Mods for a bit.

It should be easy to route over to that side, take out a couple drawers for access to the back of the wall and install the switch.  The thermostat wire on my Pod is a small 2 wire - Red, White and covered with Brown.  I cut the red.  You for sure don't want to cut the 12v power directly, as that would defeat the cool down cycle.  The gray wire in the photo goes to the rocker switch.

Thank you. I have been turning down the thermostat at night to 60F and then in the morning, I get up before my wife and turn the thermostat up. If it is really cold, we have one of the Mr. Buddy portable heaters which works to heat things up quickly.

I tried the Little Buddy and do not recommend it. It is top-heavy and the newer cylinders with the plastic base do not work well enough to hold it stable. It will tip over. After it happened several times, I returned the Little Buddy and purchased the Portable Buddy. The larger base is much more stable. The little Buddy put out enough heat. The design of the base is (in my opinion) flawed since it did not hold the unit steady but allowed it to fall over too easily. The Portable Buddy has two heat settings. It seems to work better at full-throttle, but that is more than what is needed. The instructions say not to run it at in-between settings although I don't see why that won't work just as well as having it at the low and high settings. If it burns cleanly at those settings, it should be able to work well at the intermediate settings also. Regardless, adequate ventilation when using one of these is essential.

Nice addition.  Only way to get lazier would be to add a remote control, maybe.