stove for small uninsulated cabin

[Steve]

Greetings, I have small (12' x 16') uninsulated stick frame cabin with 10'-12' ceilings and a little sleeping loft. We currently have an old wood stove in there that is not very airtight. It is attached to stove pipe that goes up 5' or so, turns 90 deg and connects to a double-wall stainless chimney that goes through the wall and then up the exterior of the cabin.

Draft is strong and air access is plentiful even when fully closed down. This stove has no issue heating the cabin and will easily overheat it if you load too much wood. Its main problem is that we are lucky to get over 2 hours of burn time and will overheat the place to do so. However, once the fire goes out, due to its size and lack of insulation, the cabin gets freezing quite quickly.

I am looking for a small stove that costs $1000 or less. I'd like something that will close down very tightly, so that I can let logs coast through the night. I'm looking to open it up in the morning and throw on a log or two to get the fire going again, rather than build a new fire while I'm freezing in my jammies. I am used to waking up, seeing my breath, and having zero desire to exit the bed.

I realize this is not the best way to run woodstoves in terms of creosote, but the chimney is easy to clean and I would rather clean it more often and build fires while I'm freezing less. Ideally it would have a smaller firebox so I could run it hot during the day and not overheat the cabin.

 

[mellow]

This is where a catalytic stove would shine. See if you can get a hold of a used older Woodstock Fireview or Keystone as they would be a softer heat and would be able to be burned lower and slower.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Steve.

In that small of a space, heating is difficult. For sure the Fireview or Keystone would be way too much stove for this. We found that in this small of an area, propane will actually work best just because any stove will be too much heat for that small space.

 

[dmmoss51]

You could also invest $1,000 in insulation and find it goes a long way to keeping you warm.

 

[mellow]

You would have to talk to Sandy about this but maybe you could build a smaller version of their 4" rocket mass heater.

(broken link removed to http://www.dragonheaters.com/4-rocket-mass-heater-castle-build-kit/)

 

[logger]

There are no woodstocks or most popular brands for that matter that are made for that small of a space. I'm guessing you're running the small vogelzang or a franklin. It's going to be tough to find something with decent burn times and not heat you out. I'd look at marinestove.com for the heck of it, they're pretty dam cool but maybe not what you're looking for. I've seen used ones go for $500-$700.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

You would get a lot of benefit from WAY less than $1000 worth of insulation. IF you have wall cavities like sheathing outside and drywall or paneling inside you could blow those cavities full for very cheap. Possibly less than $200.00 That would get you 20 bags of blown-in.

 

[begreen]

As you may have guessed this is a challenging situation. Modern stoves are not designed to smolder. That said I think the PE True North TN19 will do the job for you at your price point. If the temps are mild outside just burn a few splits and let the fire die out. For cold nights load up the stove and let it roll.

 

[fossil]

Insulation and a really nice down sleeping bag.

 

[1750]

That and an electric blanket!

I used to live year-round in a little place like you are describing. We had a built-in electric unit with a big ceramic element that kept the place toasty, and gave off a very nice orange glow. Or, as Backwoods has suggested, a propane system. Where I live, propane is a little more expensive to heat with than electric, but it's probably a wash.

Or, you can just rock-paper-scissors your bunk-mate to see who has to get up in the morning to stoke the fire.

ETA -- and I'd insulate the heck out of that place. The time/$ you spend doing that will return to you forever in winter AND summer.

 

[YkDave]

I've got the same issue as you!

Myself and a buddy both have 20x20 cabins, 16ft peak, insulated walls only

Regardless of the heat source it's pretty hard to keep them at a steady temperature.

We've got an old fisher grandpa bear in the one shack. Basically for an overnight fire we have to get it running nuclear with a full load (cabin door open!), choke it off and pray it's not freezing in the morning

A nice heavy built stove goes a long ways in a small cabin like this

Personally I opted to just keep wood for backup and run my oil drip stove for primary heat. A little expensive to run, and a pita to lug fuel, but it's nice to be able to hold decently steady temperature in the cabin

This far we've stayed in the cabins many many times at -45c and didn't die. Actually that's when the massively oversized wood stove worked best

 

[Seasoned Oak]

If they were insulated a little better you could heat a space that small with a few infrared lamps a an electric blanket. Im planning a small cabin and i dont plan to skimp on the insulation. That way i dont need a nuclear reactor to heat it and dont forget cool it in summer.

 

[mfetcho]

I have a 24 x 24 cabin with a 16' ceilng and loft that I heat with the Quadrafire Yosemite. I have good insulation and I have no problem keeping it warm. My fire won't go through the night due to the small stove box. A cat stove might be a good option to get you through the night.

 

[Cynnergy]

Can you put a door on the sleeping area? We have a 20x30 cabin (with a 1/2 attic above) and find that we can get an overnight burn in the super27 in the living room (similar size to the true north) and still be comfortable in bed if the door to the bedroom is open a bit. The living room gets pretty toasty at night, but so far so good.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm inclined to think insulation would not help much. A stick-framed building this small just can't hold much heat to begin with, so even with good insulation it won't last long. Plus, I would have to finish the interior, which is more time than I want to put in to it right now.

We used to have a insulated 16' x 20' cabin with 2x6 walls. We had a stove with a 3 hour burn time. On cold nights, we could fall asleep with a full fire at 75 deg and still wake up to temperatures around 50-55. We added on to make it 26' x 20' and wow, what a difference. Same stove, but now, with morning temperatures in the sixties, we can wake up and leisurely build a fire in a t-shirt. The current cabin under consideration is much smaller and has 2x4 walls.

Can anyone recommend a small stove that has a completely air-tight box, door and damper. Even though the lack of a well-burning fire would not help to heat much at night. I would be happy to run out from under the covers to add a log and open the damper, jumping back into bed before I got shivering.

 

[Steve]

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention this is an off-grid cabin with no electricity and its also in the woods, with no easy access for a propane truck. We want to use wood because it is everywhere around us.

 

[eclecticcottage]

Englander 17-vl, about $550 at Home Depot around here. We are looking to get one for a similar sized space we use as an office. Or maybe a used Lopi Republic 1250/Answer.

 

[Steve]

The Englander 17-vl looks interesting. Can anyone tell me about the damper on this unit?

I'm a little skeptical of the push/pull control mechanism's ability to make a tight seal, but don't have a lot of experience with these. I have seen screw down dampers that seem to do a great job of closing off completely. Is there a particular style of damper that is best at creating a seal?

 

[eclecticcottage]

EPA tube stoves control the secondary air with the push/pull "damper". Pretty much all of them have the same type of set up. You can't completely kill the air even when it's all the way in. They do use the wood more efficiently though via the secondary burn. There are some threads about the 17-VL around, apparently the designer was a regular poster here (he does still post sometimes).

 

[BrotherBart]

EPA tube stoves control the secondary air with the push/pull "damper"

Correction: Secondary air is unregulated in the majority of EPA certified non-cat stoves. It is the "primary" air that is controlled with the draft control.

 

[eclecticcottage]

Correction: Secondary air is unregulated in the majority of EPA certified non-cat stoves. It is the "primary" air that is controlled with the draft control.

Knew I should post at the same time as working on some designs and watching tv...oops. Thanks for the correction!!

 

[begreen]

For a cabin that is going to be starting up from cold I would go up to a ~2 cu ft stove like the True North TN19, Drolet Eastwood 1800, TimberWolf 20, Englander 13NC, etc.. Run half loads when the weather is mild.

 

[Dustin]

For a small space, I would go with a jotul F602.

Short burn times, about 4 hours, but it heats up and pumps heat out quick from a ice cold stove.


You can also cook on it and, it will draft well with a pretty short stack.

 

[begreen]

That would work if getting up in the night is ok. The 602 was designed for cabins. For comparison, I have a 602 in an insulated 12x20 greenhouse. It takes about 3 hrs to go from 35 to 60, average burn time when being pushed is more like 2 hrs. 4hrs is max. burn time.

 

[rowerwet]

http://www.clarrypelletstove.com/ http://www.wisewaypelletstoves.com/
not wood, and not quite the budget you wanted, but the burn time you wanted and made for non electric cabins