Wood stove for a School Bus!

[commandpost225]

Hi everyone,
I have always loved wood burning stoves and have been doing tons of research about them in the past few months. This forum has been a really great resource. My girlfriend and I are turning a school bus into a full time residence in Upstate NY and we have decided to heat (hopefully entirely) with wood.
The bus will be less than 300 square feet, and extremely well insulated. The wood stove will be located somewhere in the middle.
I have not ruled out using a propane heater on low just to keep things from freezing but I would ideally like to stick to wood.
Here's the particulars of my situation, as I understand them, and my main question.

What should I look for in a wood stove (materials, features), and does anybody have any specific models or types to suggest?

We want to be able to pack it full of wood so it will burn for a long time, without heating up so much that it cooks us out of our house.
This leads me to believe we want something of smallish size because we are space limited, but with the most possible capacity in the firebox. We probably want to logs to stack with the ends facing the door to maximize usable space, and we want something very air tight so it can be easily controlled.
Maximum log length is not that important, because we can cut our own wood.
It would be nice if it had a cooking surface on top to heat water, and a stove pipe that comes from the top, not the back, to save space.
Also, we want to maximum burn time for when we leave the house or go to sleep. We don't want to have to wake up or come home to stoke the fire too much. I have some understanding of the factors that contribute to this, but some guidance would be appreciated.

What do you think?
Thank you in advance
-JJ

 

[Squirrel]

A small wood stove in a small space is right up there with puppies and small children in the amount of time and attention it will take to see any benefits. Unless you are prepared to adjust your life routines around a wood stove......stick with propane.

 

[thechimneysweep]

You'll need a TINY firebox to avoid blasting yourselves out of a school bus! Check out the boat stoves at http://www.marinestove.com/. Warning: tiny stoves require frequent refueling.

 

[tarzan]

I actually have experience with running a wood stove in a school bus. My uncle converted an old bus into a hunting camp. With no insulation and the bus all original except sleeping bunks in the back and some chairs and a cook stove near the front we would leave windows and, at times, the door open. It's been a while but I suppose the temps were between 20*F and 40*F. The stove was rather large for the bus but it would stay miserable hot in there. I can remember that no one ever wanted to sleep in a top bunk because of the heat.

I agree that propane is the way to go in such a small space.

 

[webby3650]

We just sold a Jotul 602 that's going in a school bus. It fits your description except for the large firebox part.

 

[commandpost225]

A small wood stove in a small space is right up there with puppies and small children in the amount of time and attention it will take to see any benefits. Unless you are prepared to adjust your life routines around a wood stove......stick with propane.

I do love to tend wood stoves. More of a hobby than an appliance.

 

[begreen]

Add to the criteria a stove that can be safely and firmly bolted in place. Not all stove legs are amenable to this. The Jotul F602CB or the Morso 2B are nice small box stoves. You might also consider a small cat stove like the VC Intrepid II. With the boom in tiny house construction there is a new market developing for small stoves. Here's a company that has some novel stoves for this purpose:
http://www.tinywoodstove.com/store/
Also do a google search on - tiny house wood stove. You will get lots of links and articles. Also go to the images for that same criteria to get visual search results.

 

[Squirrel]

I do love to tend wood stoves.

OK. I have a Morso squirrel 1410, it was the smallest stove I could find that I could get approved by my insurance company to install in my house. It has a fairly small footprint and a rear clearance of 6" with a vertical pipe. It is heating 750 sq ft on 2 floors.
After 2 years of practice I can maintain the temperature of the house within a degree or two of where I want it except on very cold windy nights when it may drop a bit. It takes 15-20 mins from a cold start to get a decent bed of coals before loading with the real wood. To maintain a low level of heat requires loading every 2-3hrs. To give heat overnight means loading with larger wood and getting the stove really hot (700f) before closing it down, this generally means there are enough coals to relight after about 7hrs.
There is nowhere to buy 10" seasoned firewood so if you go this route start cutting ASAP
I heat my house for free but there's no way I could have done this before retirement.

 

[commandpost225]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what we need is a stove that is nice and tight, so that we can light it and get it burning, pack it up tightly and shut it down so it burns slowly over 8 or so hours, without melting us.
Thoughts?

 

[commandpost225]

Add to the criteria a stove that can be safely and firmly bolted in place. Not all stove legs are amenable to this. The Jotul F602CB or the Morso 2B are nice small box stoves. You might also consider a small cat stove like the VC Intrepid II. With the boom in tiny house construction there is a new market developing for small stoves. Here's a company that has some novel stoves for this purpose:
http://www.tinywoodstove.com/store/
Also do a google search on - tiny house wood stove. You will get lots of links and articles. Also go to the images for that same criteria to get visual search results.

Cool Thank you!

 

[commandpost225]

OK. I have a Morso squirrel 1410, it was the smallest stove I could find that I could get approved by my insurance company to install in my house. It has a fairly small footprint and a rear clearance of 6" with a vertical pipe. It is heating 750 sq ft on 2 floors.
After 2 years of practice I can maintain the temperature of the house within a degree or two of where I want it except on very cold windy nights when it may drop a bit. It takes 15-20 mins from a cold start to get a decent bed of coals before loading with the real wood. To maintain a low level of heat requires loading every 2-3hrs. To give heat overnight means loading with larger wood and getting the stove really hot (700f) before closing it down, this generally means there are enough coals to relight after about 7hrs.
There is nowhere to buy 10" seasoned firewood so if you go this route start cutting ASAP
I heat my house for free but there's no way I could have done this before retirement.

Thank you this is really helpful too.

 

[Jags]

pack it up tightly and shut it down so it burns slowly over 8 or so hours,

This is the hard part. A small stove that is not gonna over heat you will also have a small firebox. I am not aware of any of the small stoves that are going to run for an 8 hour stretch.

 

[mellow]

Check out the Kimberly: (broken link removed)

RV install video: (broken link removed)

 

[begreen]

Check out the Kimberly's price too.

 

[peakbagger]

I bought a Jotul 404 cookstove a few years back but haven't used it myself. The prior owner bought it new and used it in his summer porch to heat it while watching TV, It has a small footprint and a small firebox plus it is a cookstove including an oven. They are hard to find but expect they would make a nice heater/stove for small space.

There is a very overpriced on on Ebay right now if you want to see one, they usually go for $1000 to $1,500. They are popular with survivalist/preppers.

 

[jetsam]

Is the bus going to be driveable or is it permanently 'parked'?

If you built a masonry chimney outside the bus, you could make a mostly-external fireplace and put a full sized insert in it.

With good draft, a regular fireplace insert that can burn very low, like a BK Princess, would possibly not be too much, and it could burn for a long time on such low settings.

Also, I am thinking that a bus with a brick chimney would be really cute!

On the other hand, when your 18' brick chimney falls over, it might be hard on the bus. Plus no doubt someone with a briefcase will turn up to explain how this makes the bus a Permanent Residential Structure subject to subsection 17194(c) and now you have to buy a gold plated jeep for the building inspector.

 

[claydogg84]

What about a smaller cat stove always ran on low?

 

[begreen]

The smallest is the VC Intrepid II cat stove I think.

 

[commandpost225]

I bought a Jotul 404 cookstove a few years back but haven't used it myself. The prior owner bought it new and used it in his summer porch to heat it while watching TV, It has a small footprint and a small firebox plus it is a cookstove including an oven. They are hard to find but expect they would make a nice heater/stove for small space.

There is a very overpriced on on Ebay right now if you want to see one, they usually go for $1000 to $1,500. They are popular with survivalist/preppers.

Yeah that thing is expensive but seems really nice

 

[commandpost225]

What about a smaller cat stove always ran on low?

This is what I mean.
Efficiency, and set to low heat, so longer burn time without turning the bus into an oven!

 

[BrotherBart]

 

[Darl Bundren]

If you are going to be travelling in the bus, you might also check minimum chimney height--I got a smaller stove to install on our sunporch, and it requires a 15' chimney minimum. And, if you get something too short on there, the draft won't be sufficient for proper stove operation. Good luck with the project!