Heating a 40ft Skoolie at -13°C: Wood Stove Viability and Alternatives

[Conversion Noob]

Hey just wondering if there are any members who may have experience heating their 40ft skoolie using only a wood stove when outside temps were at least -13 degrees?

I live on Vancouver Island so the winters are very mild, especially the region I live in so was thinking of skipping insulating sidewalls of the bus as I'll be heating using a wood stove, in fact was thinking of two wood stoves, an average sized one up front and small one in my bedroom at the rear.

 

[JasonHurst.studio]

While I don't have direct experience with a wood stove in a 40ft school but I do have experience with a Wood stove in a 12ft Ambulance in temps as low as -10f

When I first built my Ambulance I installed a Cubic Mini wood stove in the back corner and it provided good, dry heat. I really enjoyed the smell and cozy warmth of having a wood fire in the rig.

The downside of a small wood stove is that in order to keep warm you have to continuously tend and feed the fire. Even using dense oak it would only burn for 2-3 hours max. So if you fall asleep and don't wake up in time you wake up to a frozen living space.

That's why after a year I switched to a Dickinson Marine Diesel stove. It's the same principle of burning a fuel source in a fire chamber but instead of being the solid fuel of wood it's just diesel fuel. This also provided me with dry, cozy heat that I didn't have to tend to all night. I enjoyed it so much that I will be installing another one in my bus conversion.
Now If you can use a slightly larger wood stove due the size of your bus and you can get a longer burn time from larger pieces of wood then a wood stove would be a good option for you. Your concerns will be moving that heat around the bus to warm the far ends and fire safety. Take both seriously and you can have a wonderful experience.
hope this helps
J

 

[#1FordFan]

One heater stove (all the way in either end )would be sufficient. And it would work great with the proper fan hooked to a tube to take warm air to other end. Same principle as a ceiling fan.
You are making it hard not insulating the walls. Same if you have kept all the single pane windows.

 

[SkyMaster]

These little diesel heaters seem to be all the rage as of late

Amazon.com

 

[Mr. Beefy]

That's why after a year I switched to a Dickinson Marine Diesel stove. It's the same principle of burning a fuel source in a fire chamber but instead of being the solid fuel of wood it's just diesel fuel. This also provided me with dry, cozy heat that I didn't have to tend to all night. I enjoyed it so much that I will be installing another one in my bus conversion.

You sure have good taste. That's a sick heater. I really wanted that model, but for our small bus it was just too many BTUs. We went with the propane P12000. Yet to test out but it should work great if the math works out. Just checked out the todays-world price for here. Ouch. Guess those tarriffs have kicked in. By the way... your toes are longer than your fingers. You might want to get that checked out.

Also, lol at -13 being mild weather, ConversionNoob. If temps hit that around here it would be considered armegeddon. Society would break down, people would be eating each other.

 

[Beeb2]

I used a wood stove in my 35ft skoolie and it worked great! I eventually swapped out to two diesel heaters because my wood stove was a very cheap model that leaked smoke too much, and insurance didn't like it. The diesel heaters work incredible and can be tapped right into the main diesel tank. But if you have a good quality wood stove and if you’re parked permanently, a wood stove will be all you need.


Note: my bus has horrible insulation and all original windows, so I can say with certainty that both options are very good despite the worst possible setup.

 

[Cheezewhiz]

never got down to that cold, but our wood stove would crank so much heat we had to open windows in the dead of winter. Fed it with $0 scavenge, lots of pallets.

Shitty fast grown wood like that is hard to bank, so the first cup of coffee was rough, but I honestly kinda liked the cooktop/heater being the same object. At least in the winter

 

[Conversion Noob]

One heater stove (all the way in either end )would be sufficient. And it would work great with the proper fan hooked to a tube to take warm air to other end. Same principle as a ceiling fan.
You are making it hard not insulating the walls. Same if you have kept all the single pane windows.

you mean I'm keeping it easy by not replacing windows & insulation.

I realize if I did all that work it would better insulated but I live on Vancouver where the weather is very moderate, winters rarely drop below freezing(1°C - 8°C) and summers are warm and comfortable with temperatures ranging from 18°C - 25°C.

I'm surrounded by wood so keeping it warm for free won't be an issue and since I'm shopping for a 35Ft to 40ft bus there will be room for a wood storage.

Heard how I "have to remove windows" because they leak yet I took a bus for 4 years and never saw a leak, I've watched about 50 conversion videos so far and never once heard of a leaking window except from the one guy who's jobs was to convert buses, he had a client return 9 months after having his bus converted because it had mushrooms growing from a leaky window other than that there's very few reports of leaky windows, also the weather stripping and entire window is easy to change if need be.

Same for insulation, except for spray foam applications most said there wasn't much of a difference in efficiency between new insulation and original.

 

[Conversion Noob]

You sure have good taste. That's a sick heater. I really wanted that model, but for our small bus it was just too many BTUs. We went with the propane P12000. Yet to test out but it should work great if the math works out. Just checked out the todays-world price for here. Ouch. Guess those tarriffs have kicked in. By the way... your toes are longer than your fingers. You might want to get that checked out.

Also, lol at -13 being mild weather, ConversionNoob. If temps hit that around here it would be considered armegeddon. Society would break down, people would be eating each other.

Well in Canada our winters are cold and unpredictable.
And yes we've been that cold many times before.

The night before I picked up my dog in Cranbrook BC it was -24 Celsius.

Our record so far was Braeburn, Yukon, it measured the season's coldest reading of -55.7°C on the morning of Dec. 23, which was the lowest temperature observed in Canada since Jan. 1999.

 

[BusBiz]

Hey just wondering if there are any members who may have experience heating their 40ft skoolie using only a wood stove when outside temps were at least -13 degrees?

I live on Vancouver Island so the winters are very mild, especially the region I live in so was thinking of skipping insulating sidewalls of the bus as I'll be heating using a wood stove, in fact was thinking of two wood stoves, an average sized one up front and small one in my bedroom at the rear.

Yes, it stayed quite warm why are you asking?

 

[SkyMaster]

Fed it with $0 scavenge, lots of pallets.

Don't use pallets, they can contain formaldehyde and other harmful checmicals

 

[Cheezewhiz]

Don't use pallets, they can contain formaldehyde and other harmful checmicals

what, you wanna ****in live forever?


osb doesn't smell too bad, but a lot of the toilet paper pressboard reeks of turbo cancer. I'd recommend not burning either, but if it's that or freezing to death...

Pallets are a much cleaner option.

I ain't shelling out for artisanal grown hardwood that had some new age dipshit humming against it every day, I'm grabbing what's quick, easy, cheap, and aiming for not killing me immediately

So, you know, I passed on a stack of painted, used motor oil drenched pallets. Got the fresh tree rounds when they were around. Play it by ear, jesus

 

[BusBiz]

what, you wanna ****in live forever?


osb doesn't smell too bad, but a lot of the toilet paper pressboard reeks of turbo cancer. I'd recommend not burning either, but if it's that or freezing to death...

Pallets are a much cleaner option.

I ain't shelling out for artisanal grown hardwood that had some new age dipshit humming against it every day, I'm grabbing what's quick, easy, cheap, and aiming for not killing me immediately

So, you know, I passed on a stack of painted, used motor oil drenched pallets. Got the fresh tree rounds when they were around. Play it by ear, jesus

Don't be a p****. I love the smell of napalm in the morning..

 

[turf]

i dont use a wood stove but have survived a few winters in the Colorado high country.
you need more than a single source of heat. sure a stove is great, but that wont work as a sole source of heat.
i have diesel as my primary heat, then electric, then propane heater buddy for emergency. if you're on the option #3, then you probably had a real bad night.
if you have water in the coach, it needs heat 24/7, whether you are there or not. a fireplace is impractical when you want to leave for more than a couple hours. your pipes would freeze and its the start of a bad day.

for plumbing to exist, you need some sort of furnace that can run unattended. you pick the fuel. and then i'd recommend a secondary heat source and a backup to both of the them for emergencies.

 

[djdalfaro]

That's why after a year I switched to a Dickinson Marine Diesel stove.

I also use a Dickinson Diesel stove. Mine is the Bristol stove/oven model. I've not taken it anywhere near -13, so I can't speak to that, but it does pump out heat all night long without any tending.

 

[SkyMaster]

what, you wanna ****in live forever?

I don't mind the dying part but formaldehyde inhalation isn't at the top of the list of how i wanna punch out

 

[desrtdog]

I don't mind the dying part but formaldehyde inhalation isn't at the top of the list of how i wanna punch out

Why not? It’d save on the embalming fee…

 

[nikitis]

"Hey Harry! How's life?"

Harry: "Taking forever...."

 

[Bjorkinman]

I brought my bus home with no insulation in the walls and a dwarf 5k cubic mini wood stove. I froze my butt in Montana just below freezing. I don’t have the wood anymore but instead a diesel heater. I could see having both. I prefer the diesel heater because it’s cleaner, and I don’t have to wake up and tend it. I tapped it to the main tank (easy) and I’ll probably add a second. The wood stove is a problem for insurance and you shouldn’t/can’t burn it while driving.

 

[SkyMaster]

Why not? It’d save on the embalming fee…

Good idea, id throw in some extra $$$ for mumification. I could scare people near and far for a millennia