kjburns made an important distinction...electric heating whether that be space heaters or overhead heat strips won't heat your basement or water bay areas. You will want to use your furnace with floor vents to help in that area.
This is our first fall in east central IL that we hope to leave by Nov 27th for TX. We area about to see some lows in the upper 20s next week. Odds are we won't see terribly cold weather before we get out of here. That being said here is my general game plan which is subject to change as I get smarter/wiser.
1. I have all my hoses set up with quick connects so that I don't have to monkey around with screwing and unscrewing hose ends when needed.
2. We will disconnect both ends of our water hose from the faucet to the MH when night temps are forecasted to be below 35* That may be extraordinarily cautious but that is how I am. Disconnecting the ends will let the water out of the hose to keep it from splitting.
3. My coach has a fan in the basement to force furnace air into the water bay. I will turn that on when the forecast is below 35*. If the temps start to get down to 25* I will then add a trouble light to the water bay area.
4. Since we have large fresh, grey and black tanks, we can work with these for several days if we aren't doing laundry. We don't expect to have to because day time temps should rebound nicely for the most part making dumping waste and refilling fresh water practicable at any time during warmer day temps.
5. As long I have a smooth downslope for my sewer hose from the MH to the sewer I don't plan to close my grey valve. If that wasn't the case, then I would close it.
6. When outside temps get below 45* I use my furnace and electric space heaters instead of heat strips. The heat strips are not very effective below 45* and could jack up your electric bill if you pay that separate. As an example, I have noticed that when it got down to 40* and I set my bedroom thermostat to 68* that the BR heat strip ran nearly continuously. The air coming out of the overhead vents wasn't warm enough to raise the temp enough to keep the heat strips off for long. Also, keep in mind that if you use electric space heaters you won't put as much heat into the basement area because the furnace won't run as much. It is a balancing act that shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Of course, if you choose to use a space heater or a trouble light in the water bay then use of the furnace to keep the basement and water bay areas warm is not really needed that much. IMHO, it is still good to avoid letting the basement get below freezing to avoid any unintended consequences.
7. When temps are above 45* I use the heat strips to minimize propane usage. If I was going to be here for the really cold times I would have the local propane supplier bring out a larger auxiliary tank to reduce the number of refills. Since I am trying to gut it out without the aux tank I am probably a bit more concerned about conserving propane than I would be otherwise.
Finally...whew...I'm a feakin' novice so I may find my own suggestions a PITA. LOL They say that a battle plan only remains intact until the first bullet is fired.
Still, it is fun testing my theories out and learning how to do it better.
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