Hello, and cords of wood for 100 sq ft.

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Pitroff

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May 16, 2012
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Hello everyone. New to the site, but I've read many helpful things and interesting tidbits here and there. I was just looking for some advice. I recently I built a 100 square foot, 10 x 10 shack, which I am going to live out of for the winter. It isn't finished yet, but it will be well insulated and pretty airtight, with only one window. I was looking to get an opinion on how many cord of wood you think I should get for the winter. I will be sleeping in it every night and spending part of my days there as well. I was thinking around two cord, but wanted to know what you all thought would be best. I have to buy the wood the first year (a friend of the family sells seasoned hardwood) as I haven't been able to get as much split and stacked as I would have liked, but i don't want to waste the wood or money right now. Any thoughts or questions or input would be appreciated. Thank you.

Should be quite the adventure. Last year I stayed in my uncles shed for the winter, which is more like 800 square feet and it was fun, albeit cold. His pellet stove didn't heat as well as I had hoped and the insulation hadn't been finished. It was uncomfortable many nights, but I made it through. Learned a lot though, and am adapting this year to a smaller space and with a woodstove as opposed to a pellet. I always wanted to have a wood stove and this will be my first year using one. Totally looking forward to it and should be fun, but just not sure how much wood to get.

I am living in the North Western corner of Massachusetts, just a ways from the Southern Vermont tip, so the winters can be harsh.
 
Why put a wood stove in a small sealed room? This seems better for an electric space heater. Is there no electricity?
 
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Well, you'll definitely need an outside air kit, if you do this! I can't imagine maintaining the necessary clearances in that sort of space, with room for a bed, clothing storage, bathroom, and kitchen. Fill us in on what we're missing. Got a sketch of a floor plan?

For the sake of scale, the opening of the fireplace in my avatar is bigger than 1/4 of your entire living quarters. Is this sleeping space only?
 
I think this plan needs rethinking. Instead consider a small, vented propane heater. This area is too small for anything but the smallest stove. And it would need an outside air supply which usually are not on small (boat) heaters. These tiny boat stoves have a short burn time too.
 
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I think your temperature swings would be pretty uncomfortable with even a small stove. The frequency of reloadings would also be tough for when you want to sleep.

I'd go with propane. A hundred gallon tank would last a long time in a well insulated 100 sq ft room and would be easy to refill and move around.

Matt
 
I like his idea and enthusiasm on heating with wood but as many have already said, there are many obstacles. Even the smallest stove to heat that small space will have difficulty with long burn times, nevermind overnights. And where he is living is tough in the winters, he will have to hurry to get his priorities for heat in order
 
In order to install a stove to the required clearance's it will take up most of the space. You possibly could consider a wood boat heater like this http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/heater-newport-solid-fuel-4000-6500-btu-108944/4,3112.html?gclid=CMnin5vF-7kCFZKk4Aod5FUA8A. The trade off is your wood will have to be cut very small and unless there is some thermal mass in the building you will be running it often. Then again I expect your plan is to use a warm sleeping bag and only heat when you need it. There are folks who live year round on boats and they get away with similar setups.
 
Have you already purchased a stove? What is your budget? A small soapstone stove, with a small shoulder season fire burned in it once or twice a day might not heat you out of house and home. But it would require a hearth pad about 4 feet deep and five feet wide - 20 feet of your 100. You could cook on it. (and in it). And you need a stovepipe/chimney, which has to be tall enough to give you a decent draft. Starts to get into real money, and it sounds like you are trying to avoid that. Woodstock does make a small soapstone gas stove that is designed to heat one room, and will run on propane. It is tiny, can sit on a shelf, would take little room out of your living area. It could be vented through the wall. You might look into that...it might be perfect for you.
 
Pitroff, I have to say I am very interested in why you are living in sheds in the winter. I love the idea of minimal subsistence living. In 100sf I don't think it's safe to have a wood stove. Can you build a larger shed? I am in full agreement with everyone suggesting a different heat source. Maybe this isn't the right thread for it, but I'd love to hear more about your plan for winter, and what you did last year.
 
A 10 x10 shack with no electric to live in over the winter in vermont. Talk about "low" overhead. Webbie may have some suggestions ,i think he used to do this kind of thing in a tent. Id at least run an extension cord out to it.
 
Craig S. said:
Seasoned Oak said: ↑ A 10 x10 shack with no electric to live in over the winter in vermont. Talk about "low" overhead. Webbie may have some suggestions ,i think he used to do this kind of thing in a tent. Id at least run an extension cord out to it. Yeah, seems rough. Stay safe & warm.
Click to expand...

People wouldn't even blink over doing something like this in Alaska (except maybe those in Seattle's northern suburb Anchorage). There's a lot to be said for tiny and small home living and not being saddled for life with mortgage payments, not to mention the savings on heating. I myself live in a place that is just barely over 2 1/3 times that size and truthfully, a lot of the space goes underutilised. As of this week, I've had this place for 10 years (you can take off a few months for the time that I was finishing off the interior and moving) but since the summer of 2000 I have not lived in anything over 16 x 24 (this one being 12 x 22 after I enclosed the porch that sat under a small sleeping loft)
 
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You are crazy, but if you must do this Thoreau thing, then I vote for the Morso Squirrel. And even there you are talking about a 30,000 max BTU heater. If you really want a wood stove in a ten by ten space, maybe you should skip the insulation altogether!

And I wish you all the best. A winter in a tiny cabin in the Berkshires? Where do I sign up?
 
Ok, so according to the Hearth.com BTU calculator the shed, if well insulated, would need a max of 2400 btu to heat it. Lets say 6K btu would be needed in short spurts as the OP will probably be walking into this place when it is cold and would want it to warm up in a reasonably fast period of time... a couple of hours. Most of the wood stoves that could put out this level of heat, say the small Century I run in my cabin, put out around 10K/hr on low. You can play with this a little by using different sized loads and different types of wood. You could probably slow the heat transfer a bit by encasing the stove in bricks or some other type of thermal mass. A couple hundred lbs of masonry would even the heat out nicely.

I wonder what the requirements for one of the rocket stoves are. I've seen people using them as couches. Maybe they would work here? I have no idea of the safety of these things though.

Matt
 
Really think you should look at the Woodstock mini-Franklin gas stove. It is designed to heat one room, from 100 to 400 square feet in size. Puts out a maximum of 8000 BTU. Thermostatically controlled. Direct vent. Weighs 72 pounds, is 17 inches tall, can sit on a wall shelf, has 2 inch clearance to wall
 
A very small stove and chimney with a can of Sterno burning in it.
 
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The problem with having one of these"off the grid" guys on the forum is they're off the grid. The past 20 posts are us talking to each other while he's out purifying a coffee can of water for tomorrows squirrel and pine needle stew.
 
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