Heating with wood.

[somewhereinusa]

Just wondering what those who heat with wood, especially those who travel, do for firewood? I heat my small 520 sq ft workshop with wood. It is very well insulated with spray foam. This pile of wood probably won't last till spring. In below 0 weather it takes about a tree a week.



I am fortunate in that I have a lot of dead ash trees and a wife who likes to help split and stack. Well, actually, she likes to pull the handle on the log splitter. Are you buying it, seems expensive? Scrounging for pallets, supply seems iffy and more work pulling pallets apart than cutting and splitting would be. If you are stationary and have a supply it kind of makes sense you can amass a large pile. If you are mobile I just don't see how you can carry very much.

I will be the first to admit that my homemade stove heating arrangement is very inefficient and I like to keep things warm, wife says hot. Will those tiny wood stoves keep a fire going all night? In the last few days I have seen posts by people who are heating with wood and are freezing (don't know particulars of their build other than heating with one of the mini stoves)

Dick

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

Will those tiny wood stoves keep a fire going all night?

Dick

Nope, not a chance. It'll take the chill off during the daytime, for sure, but it needs to be fed every 1 1/2 to 2 hrs (optimistically) so it's not really something that'll let you get a full night's sleep without feeding it. The firebox on our Cubic Grizzly only accepts 6"-ish chunks of wood. We've slept in cool weather (30's at night) comfortably, but "comfort" is in the eye of the beholder.

We're exploring options to add some thermal mass to the outside of the stove but until we really start living in it, it's all speculation as to how it'll shake out. Perhaps a larger pot-belly stove is something we'll look into, I dunno.....we're assuming that both the bus and our lifestyle will morph as we're living in it. It'll be an evolution in many respects.

[Dog Rescuer]

My Cubic Grizzly Mini will not heat overnight - As Drew Bru mentioned - they have to be fed every hour or so. I use it to heat up the bus in the evening - it will get the bus nice and warm (70's) when it's about 30-40 outside. I still haven't been in a spot that is much colder.
I wake up to cold air - but then use the Mr. Buddy to warm up the bus in the morning for a bit. If it is going to stay cold - I will get the wood stove going in the morning.
It does use a fair amount of wood - I have yet to find wood that will burn slower...





I just need to find a gnome, troll, or elf to feed the fire every hour over night....

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by Dog Rescuer

I use it to heat up the bus in the evening - it will get the bus nice and warm (70's) when it's about 30-40 outside. I still haven't been in a spot that is much colder.
I wake up to cold air - but then use the Mr. Buddy to warm up the bus in the morning for a bit. If it is going to stay cold - I will get the wood stove going in the morning

That's been our exact experience as well, we've used our Mr. Buddy heater to take the chill off in the morning and if we're going to hang around we'll get the stove going again. Between the two options, we've had a pretty good experience in 30s-40s weather......and if it's a sunny day the bus is easily 25 deg. above the outside air temp. and the Grizzly will keep us toasty. So it's nice to hear the perspective of a full-timer that has the same equipment as us. We'll have to pick your brain sometime about full-timing with dogs....we're still on the fence on that one.

[CMORGANSKOOL]

Just got one of these for the bus. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Won't be great for all occasions but will do the trick on chilly nights.

[_rideswell_]

I have an even smaller bulkhead mount stove that needs to be restocked every 20min or so. Great for ambiance and surprisingly not bad on heat...