Portable woodstove

[Treehugger]

Has anyone tried using a portable wood stove to heat their home on wheels?  What was your experience?  I have seen wood stoves in tiny homes and some bus conversions, but I am wondering about use in a van.

I am still in preparation phase for van dwelling.  Though I think solar panels will provide power for heat and cooking, and propane can be used for heat and cooking, there will be times that I am in wetter climates, less sunny places, or may be low on cash, and want to consider the safe use of available natural resources where allowed.  A friend shared this link with me of a portable wood stove as a more flexible possibility.  It doesn't have to be a permanent installation.  It appears to dismantle to be very compact and could be stowed under the bed, or wherever convenient.

Thoughts ??

http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/frontier-plus-portable-woodstove-anevay.html

 

[highdesertranger]

I know at least one person here uses one(forgot the user name), the Dickerson marine solid fuel heater. I am planning on putting a small marine wood burner in the trailer I build. I have seen them in many skoolie conversions. I have military wood stove for my tent. however in a van with limit room you would need a very small one, like Dickerson. I like the looks of the one you linked to, but it's in the UK. remember it's not just the size of the stove you need to be concerned about but the clearances from flammable objects, with any wood stove this makes the foot print quite large. highdesertranger

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I have to agree with hdr, that stove looks too big for a van.  A school bus, maybe.

Have you ever heated a building with a wood stove?  I have.  You can't just turn them off when you don't want any more heat, you're stuck with it until the fire goes out.

Personally, I wouldn't try to use a wood stove in a space that small.

Just my $0.02.

Regards
John

 

[WriterMs]

This member's thread is what HDR is referring to I think:

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-last-winter-at-Assateage-island?highlight=Sprinter

He has since switched up his heating system with a remodel, I believe. He goes into the pros and cons of what he has had in one of the posts:

its a dickison solid fuel unit . stsinless unit originally designed for marine application. i burned natural lump charcol. which burns clean wit no smoke out chimney n almost no ash left over. the van is so insulated that i was able to burn on its lowest setting. would get about n hour n half off fill. it had adjustable venting under the unit ad you can see in the pic. with a tiked section to catch ash,sparks, quickly stsrted with blowtorch. , wind was no problem ad i had a damper midway up on pipe. no backdraft at all. the step to the right was so i could reach up on the roof to put the chimney cap on or off. pic shows driving cap on.

And then discussions of having to feed it during the middle of the night, etc. continued.

 

[compassrose]

I use electric plus LP for heating. I'm also heating a great deal more floor space than vandwellers do. I a small use a residential LP fireplace (Procom FDB28T vent free & I will probably have to run it all winter 24/7) plus brick type heater. Brick type heaters are more dust friendly than a CAT heater. Plus I've had the little brick heater since 2004. It has been used to heat a pop-up camper, my living room when the power was out, the 6X5 food cart in winter and the bus. I have it wall mounted in the bathroom section where it can heat the back half of the bus. Or just the bathroom section when I need it warmed up in that one space. I never run it on high. I don't run it overnight although I could ("low-oxygen sensor that shuts the heater off when oxygen levels in the room get too low. The heater also will shut off if the pilot light goes out"). It eats a 20lb tank in 7 days. That is running it 12-14 hours a day. Electric heat does not heat well once it gets below 40-45F.

My daughter has a Mr Buddy brick heater. I think it is the middle sized one. It was her heater in the Class C.


Northern Tool is running a sale right now on their heaters. It's a good, fast way to look at various heaters & read reviews to see what you may be interested in. Then I suggest you shop around looking for the best price (price plus shipping). Read the reviews everywhere. Amazon is generally a good source of reviews. Not always the best price (including shipping).

Defender Marine generally has good prices. Here is a solid fuel heater they have listed http://www.defender.com/category.jsp?path=-1|2061076|2061078&id=2061091

Check out other places. If you want a solid fuel (charcoal) vented heater, you can do a search for "solid fuel heater".

 

[compassrose]

Here is a Dickinson Marine Newport solid fuel on sale for $381 (shipping unknown). Heat output 3,000-8,000 BTU/hr. so you are looking at the equivalent of the little tag-a-long or mid sized Mr. Buddy in propane. If you are wintering, you might need to lay in a supply of charcoal or burn something else. In some places, charcoal get's scarce in the winter. It's why we ended up switching from charcoal to gas grill in the mountains of NC. No charcoal at Christmas to grill outside with.

 

[jimindenver]

I was looking into the various wood stoves and found a you tube on some one firing up a sparks pot belly stove salemans sample. Cute little thing and I have the perfect spot for it in the camper. (Honey would kill me)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grey-Iron-C...belly-Stove-/271988468744?hash=item3f53c6ac08

It wouldn't be as air tight as a newer design but less expensive.

 

[Gary68]

i've live with a wood stove for most my life,my prefered way to heat,i know a guy in a tiny single wide with a huge stove not to hard to adjust the air flow or open a window,better to have to much of a heat source then to little

they have some nice stuff made for boats you can check out

http://www.fatscostoves.com/

 

[highdesertranger]

thanks for the link Gary that's where I have been looking, the marine stoves. highdesertranger

 

[Treehugger]

I was looking into the various wood stoves and found a you tube on some one firing up a sparks pot belly stove salemans sample. Cute little thing and I have the perfect spot for it in the camper. (Honey would kill me)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grey-Iron-C...belly-Stove-/271988468744?hash=item3f53c6ac08

It wouldn't be as air tight as a newer design but less expensive.

That's a very sweet looking  stove, though you wouldn't be able to cook on it and add wood at the same time. Tempting though!

 

[Treehugger]

Wow, you all are just a treasure trove of information. I don't think my friend had checked the price before sharing the link. It was more about the concept of "hey, would this work for this van you've been talking about?"

 

[highdesertranger]

I think that stove that Jim linked too was like for demo purposes so the sales rep could show what it looked like and the features, I don't think it was ever meant to be used. highdesertranger

 

[Gary68]

thanks for the link Gary that's where I have been looking,  the marine stoves.  highdesertranger

here a video of a guy talking about it,jump to the 7.30 mark

[video=youtube]

 

[Vivid-Dawn]

Do all the pipes have to go straight up and through the roof? I was thinking of getting one, but putting some sort of little "elbow" and direct it out the window - which I would have cracked open anyway to vent any carbon dioxide if I was using a propane heater instead.

 

[offroad]

Have been looking at tent wood stoves with fire proof pipe Jack (aka passage). Some interesting self made youtube videos for sure.

 

[Sabatical]

Do all the pipes have to go straight up and through the roof? I was thinking of getting one, but putting some sort of little "elbow" and direct it out the window - which I would have cracked open anyway to vent any carbon dioxide if I was using a propane heater instead.

The chimney outlet needs to be above any obstructions so that it can get a draft. Wood stoves require air in/air out to burn. If you don't have a draft you get smoke inside or worse just CO. They are a great way to heat as long as you take care to use them safely.
Just to illustrate...the last stove I put in was in our house and the first year the chimney ended even with the ridgeline which was 8 or so feet away. It worked ok but not extremely well. The next summer I added one more leignth and bracing. It made a huge difference getting above the ridgeline.
We are putting a small stove in "tiny house". It's called the "hobbit" and is 12"x12". Probably too much for a van or camper...heck it may be too much for the tiny house. We'll see. It's good for up to 500 square feet. It will get vented above the ridgeline. One of the cool features it has is fresh air intake so we aren't competing with it for breathing air.
As soon as I get it installed i'll start a thread with details.

 

[highdesertranger]

on wood stoves you can have a limited number of elbows. most stove recommend against 90's and say 45's max and only two of those. a strait flue works best. another point I have seen on a couple of threads recently. it is carbon monoxide(CO) that you must worry about not carbon dioxide(CO2), I have seen this error a few times lately and wanted to point it out. highdesertranger

 

[Vivid-Dawn]

Oh, whoops! I meant monoxide... isn't dioxide the stuff in soda pop? LOL I was writing that at 2am

I know that you have to have the pipe as high up as you can. I was thinking a 45* out the top of a window would be good. I forgot about the draft thing to "feed" the fire, though.
I just really don't want to use propane. In the dead of winter, I'll be using it 24/7, and that can get expensive... a 15 gallon tank would only last me 3 days max (I recently went camping, and had a heater on it which lasted about 30 hours - 10 hours, for 2 days and then a little left over). I just don't know if I can afford up to $50/wk just on heating. And I will have no electricity for a plug in space heater, unless I can get a solar kit set up, and I'm too stoopid to know how to do that. I keep trying to do research, but all those numbers just confuzzle me :/ Solar output amp hours, battery banks, parallels...ugh!

I can get firewood for free ALL the time in the local classifieds. I think this would just be an easier way to heat my van when I live in it. I plan to insulate the van as much as possible (starting to collect this cool sort of 'bubble wrap" stuff that is in 24" rods, rather than bubbles...it's awesome!), but I would still need a source of heat to have any to keep in

 

[JT646]

Has anyone tried using a portable wood stove to heat their home on wheels?  What was your experience?  I have seen wood stoves in tiny homes and some bus conversions, but I am wondering about use in a van.

Just don't go this route:




Yikes!!

 

[highdesertranger]

wow JT646, that's unbelievably bad design. he also used galvanized flue pipe a huge no no. it's a wonder Darwinism hasn't caught up to this guy. highdesertranger