Heating....

last week we had some pretty bitter temperatures up here in the mountains, dipping to 10 degrees before the windchill, and I had a chance to test the limits of my heating system. Now this was not an accurate test as the walls and floor are still unfinished and there is still some drafts that need to be corrected but I decided to take some measurements with the unfinished house. So basically the house is a shell. It is dried in for the most part and the walls and ceilings are insulated with fiberglass insulation,R13 on the walls and R19 in the ceiling joists. There is no insulation under the floor yet. For heat I have my tiny Neptune 1-A marine wood stove and a small blue flame heater (the smallest I could get that still had a thermostat).

The stove heats the house very well, almost to the point of discomfort. I am slightly warm blooded and at times with a roaring fire it was a little too warm. I am getting good draft in the stovepipe and the fire is burning near 400 degrees when it is roaring. The stove works great but the small firebox and the fact that it is not airtight means that the fires do not last very long, about two hours. The idea was to find a propane heater that will kick on when the stove cools and that is what I have....kind of.

I bought a little blue flame heater from Lowe's. It was on sale for 122$ so I snatched it up. I was going to get a plaque heater of the same size but they were 80 bucks more and I am trying to stay under budget. The heater is mounted on the wall at the far end of the building. The first really cold night I set it to low and it did what it was supposed to do.....turn on when the fire in the wood stove went out. The lowest setting, however, was too low and I woke in the morning to a crisp 43 degrees. The next night (even colder!) I set the heater to about 3 and added a small fan in front of it to blow the heat into the room. That morning the temp (at the bed) was about 56 degrees. Much more comfortable. The heater cycles on and off as it should and I hop that it will not use too much propane. My space is so small that a larger wood stove would not be practical so I am going to have to rely on expensive propane more than I would like. I know that when the walls are finished and the floor is in the building will be much more efficient. The large sliding door really lets a lot of sun in during the day so even on super cold days, as long as it's sunny, the building should be bearable with the minimum of heat.

And now a quick word about safety. 2 People died up this way from carbon monoxide the other day. They had both a kerosene heater and a generator in the living space. It is unclear which appliance did them in but is was a stark reminder about safety. Always......always keep a window cracked when using an un-vented heater. Always.....always have a smoke and carbon monoxide detector installed with fresh batteries and always have a fire extinguisher at hand. These things can save your life.

I promise to post pics soon. Tomorrow I will put my new flooring in and Sunday I plan to put the wall boards up.
soma