Hello everyone,

Im planning on building a shack or something up in the mountains in vermont were my brother and i can go camping on the weekends. The problem is that vermont gets really cold, so we need something to heat the place with. We would use a woodstove, as it seems to be the only plausible solution, but my brother has horribly bad asthma and the smoke and ash from the woodstove could cause (and has caused in the past) very serious problems.

So, i was hoping you guys might have some ideas or anything on heating a small 2 room house. It would have to be something that could be set up by a few guys without much experience in anything of the sort (but we can learn if its not that complicated) and not be super expensive - and also not be anything that could cause asthma problems(smoke, ash, anything in the air). We have about 4000 to 6000 $$ to spend on the whole thing together (including the house and everything)

Anyways, if anyone can help me with this problem i would appreciate it so much!

What we have used in our retirement cottage is an airtight stove. There are lots of them on the market, we built in 1994.

It does not draw air from the house, nor release air into the house. It intakes from the outdoors (so as not to deplete the oxygen in the house) through a small pipe directly into the firebox. (Ours comes into the crawlspace through the wall and from there up through the floor into the firebox.)

It burns very clean if you use well-seasoned wood. The only time air escapes is when you open the door to load in firewood. And once it reaches optimum heat, there is no smoke release when you open the door. It burns cleanly with little smoke out of the chimney.

We clean out the ash in the morning when the stove is cold. We're careful, so there is little ash that gets airborne.

These stoves are not cheap, not expensive either; but the heating cost savings make up for the slightly higher initial cost because they are very efficient.

You might want to run this by your brother's doctor, because whether this system might work for you depends on the severity of his allergy.

I'm guessing that you're going to be doing this without electricity? If you're going to have power, then a couple of oil filled electric radiators will serve admirably, assuming you take care to insulate well.
If you're using a generator, electric space heaters have gotten both safer and more efficient in recent years.

If you can stretch the budget to plumb for Propane, a cabin the size you describe could be heated safely with a propane furnace that is no bigger than would be used in an RV.
Plumbing for propane would also open up the possibility of later adding an "on demand" water heater. I've dealt with this companyand been happy with their services.

If electricity and propane are not possible, then a kerosene heater might be one option. Wikipedia has a good page outlining the benefits and drawbacks of this type of heater, pay special attention to the article on
Laser Heaters, a new safer type of kerosene heater.

For effiency and to save on building costs, you might consider a large single room with a pair of lofts built in for sleeping instead of two rooms... I lived for years in a single room cabin, very cozily. Just a bit of food for thought.

Good luck!

We cant get electricity or a propane line up there. The kerosene heaters are very bad for my brothers asthma though according to what is on Wiki, and although the Laser Heater sounds good i cant find anything about it or were you can buy one anywhere! Im looking into the airtight stove, it seems like a good solution.

The reason I suggested propane instead of natural gas is that with propane, the option exists of using a portable tank... a 20 gallon tank is manageable to move and will generally last anywhere from 2 weeks to a month, depending on what you're running on it.

Here's more about the Laser heaters They even offer one that has a woodstove look!

My vote would go with the airtight, though, if that can be done... I was just brainstorming non wood heat options.

Non-wood options would be the safer way to go for air purity. It depends on the brother's level of tolerance. I have mild C.O.P.D., and I'm fine with the airtight.

deeep cycle batterys and a power inverter would be the ticket for ya the you could use some low power drain heaters. and when you need to charge the battterys up just plug in a battery charger to a seperate power supply or charge from you cars trucks what ever you drive. id say that about five batterys would hold for a couple days not for sure but. maybe you can build some sort of self charging type of system where the batterys could supply power for the inverters the in turn something could recharge them batterys.there are 12 vold heater out there soem where and you could use them too.if there is any wind that maybe an answer as well but that can get real expensive.maybe you could get a small 12 volt motor to run an alternator to charge those batterys back up.insulating that building really good would help a lot more than you think really think insulation floors walls roof.

The battery idea, while sounding easy, is not so easy to do.

For the electrical purest out there, these are just rough figures.

To operate a 120 volt, 1500 watt electric heater on 12 volt DC you figure you would use an inverter. 1500 watts is about 15 amps.

To make 120 volts from 12 volts is a 10 to 1 ratio so to get 15 amps, you will draw 10 times 15 amps or 150 amps off the battery. Also watch your wire size.

A deep cycle, 700 amp hour battery will last you 4.6 hours per battery. 700 divided by 150 amps. Re-changing time is around 4-5 times that. There are rapid chargers that will do it faster but they shorten the life of the battery. They can cook the battery.

It makes no difference whither it is a 12 volt heater or 120 volt heater, 1500 watts is 1500 watts of heat energy. 1500 watts equals 125 amps at 12 volts.

Once again, these are rough figures to help explain power.

Here is a calculator to help figure amount of heat needed. Replace the sample figures with yours.

Heat

i dont know about you but i can charge a dead battery in 12 minutes. you can also get a small gas engine to run one or two alternators to recharge as needed. but i think if you insulat very well then you wont need as much heat as you think. take a look at underground buildings they dont need any heat. insulate is the key

Propane TANKS - not a line, come in many sizes and shapes, from the pull me trailer 2-5 gallon size to the 100 gallon size.

Campers (that sit on the back of a pick-up truck) use the smaller propane tanks (so to BBQ grills) and they use a furnace which is very small and highly efficient considering.

Air stream (the aluminum pill) trailers also used these.

IF you build wisely, meaning build with the intent of having the shack insulated well (Do a search for Straw Bale Construction for one possible idea) then you will require less heat, thus a smaller furnace situation will work.