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Cold Weather Report 2017

Jafo

Jafo

Administrator
Staff member
With the official start of winter coming this Wednesday, I thought I would check in with everyone and ask how their specific heating/insulation setups are working this year in their yurts? Please remind us what you have for a heat source and insulation.

We had a warmer than average start to the Fall here so we used very little wood. I am using an Ideal Steel wood stove from the Vermont Soapstone Company. I have the reflective insulation in my 30' Pacific yurt.. So far so good when I visit, but I think I will know more next month when we get back to visiting it more often. Time to break out the snowshoes.

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We had a cold snap recently with lows in the single digits and the yurt did fine. It is a 16' Pacific with Insulated SIP flooring and reflectix insulation. The yurt is heated with a small cast iron Upland 17 wood stove. While burning, the inside temps easily hit mid 70s when the outside temps were 5-10 degrees with gusty wind.
 

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We are mid New Hampshire in the mountains, with a 24' WMY. Generally we are pretty comfortable "Tee Shirts" till we get below 0, than the sweaters start coming out.. at -20 pile jackets
 
2 weeks ago 10 degrees and had the yurt at 82 degrees. 20' Shelter design with reflective insulation , foam insulated floor and heated with a small multi fuel stove burning wood and coal.

Will be up there again next Monday and it's supposed to be around 0-5 degrees. Will see how it does.

Built a snow roller and ski track maker to pull behind one of the snowmobiles. Originally built a groomer to pull but I found out fast that it needs to be packed before grooming. Snow depth is at 32 inches right now.

Hopefully we can. Do some crosscountry skiing.

This was 2 weeks ago. Reports show another 18 inches since then

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Ivan said:
We are mid New Hampshire in the mountains, with a 24' WMY. Generally we are pretty comfortable "Tee Shirts" till we get below 0, than the sweaters start coming out.. at -20 pile jackets
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What type of heating source/insulation do you have?
 
Stea said:
2 weeks ago 10 degrees and had the yurt at 82 degrees. 20' Shelter design with reflective insulation , foam insulated floor and heated with a small multi fuel stove burning wood and coal.
Click to expand...

What stove do you use?
 
Jafo said:
What stove do you use?
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Stove is a multi fuel stove by Blue Ridge.

No brick so no mass to hold in heat, but it works real well with coal.

Wood is nicer to watch but the coal puts out the heat and damped down it will run all night with a deep coal bed. We usually use wood until bedtime and then load it up with coal to get us thru the night.

 
Winter hasn't been too bad here--mid/late November temps dropped into the 10s/20s F usually, with the occasional excursion below zero (we stayed in town those nights...). We've 1 1/2 ft or so of snow on the ground and it keeps going...

My 20 ft canvas yurt has two layers of wool blanket in the walls & just one layer on the roof poles with just the canvas over the crown ring. There's drafts all around the platform edge (bare feet feel it) & the door. With the masonry heater (5-10k btu) & the drafts, it gets down to 40-45 F when I wake up in the morning. With the unvented propane heater (usually 15k btu but up to 25k btu) going plus the masonry heater, we keep it 65+ F.

I'm working on a better platform seal. My first attempt at the chimney roof penetration (separate triangular piece of canvas) didn't sit very well with the main flap (ie, very drafty), so I just put the chimney through the original flap. Once I have the platform & door sealed up & the second insulation layer in the roof, the masonry heater will hopefully keep things nice & warm.

I've got some great yurtcicles going. The 2-5 inch thick ice columns that surround the ropes aren't all that easy to work around. But I'm actually glad the snow melts off the roof--I really don't like it accumulating. In fact, there was a nice looking pole barn/shed a few miles down the road that collapsed this last week from the snow!
 
Hierony, I put the that foam weatherstripping between my walls and platform before I screwed the wall to it. That helped a lot with draft.

I believe it was 1 inch foam.
 
Seasons Greetings One and All.
I've had minus 15 C. Minus 28C with the wind chill and aprox. 30 inch of snow. In southwestern Ontario. I heat with an old Lakewood Unicorn wood-stove. Reflective foil in the walls and roof. 6" of blue styrofoam SM in the floor. I've closed in under my deck to keep the wind from under the yurt. and stapled all the way around the skirt, literally staple to staple. Took pretty near a box of staples. but well worth the time. I also used the roll down storm flaps to seal my new windows. I'll upload pics soon. That made the biggest difference. Sitting now in T shirt and bare feet. Plus I put down carpet runners where I sit and on the walkways. What I found really helped with the drafts was closing in the bottom of my couches. The bigger the fire, the more air it sucks. closing in the couches at least stops the draft across the floor at your feet.
All the best in the new year.
 
Two layers of wool felt in our 19ft 5wall Mongolian yurt then 24oz cotton canvas. Jotul 602 cast iron wood stove. Outside temp was 2 degrees fahrenheit. We left about 6 inches of snow on the roof for several days to help with insulation. Inside temp when the stove was running was about 75-80 degrees. Morning time the yurt would be in the 50's. Normally we have a space heater turn on when the yurt gets below 50 degrees but it didn't during the coldest several days I think because of the built up snow.
 
I'm in a 24' White Mountain Yurt in the lakes region of NH - with the winter package and an insulated platform about 3' off the ground. The past 3 winters I've enclosed the platform with a ring of bagged leaves and brown tarp. Probably kept it a bit warmer, but the mice were a battle all winter. This year I left the platform open and no mice. Yay!

For heat, I have a small wood stove - a Vogelzang TR-001. I could probably use a bigger stove on some bitter nights, but like being able to keep it burning hot (less creosote build up) for more of the season. Also because I live here, I'm not trying to thaw a yurt frozen solid because it's unheated all week. One might need a bigger stove for that.

Each fall when it gets cold and windy, I go around the inside of the yurt and look for drafts and plug those. That makes a big difference. Rugs on the floor help too, as Jay Aimes said. I personally make generous use of hot water bottles - to heat the bed at night and again in the morning while having tea and checking email - waiting for the stove to get going. Basically anytime I'm sitting still and need more warmth, I use a hot water bottle.

Built pegs to hang things over by the stove like boots and winter gear - both to dry, if wet, or just to keep warm. (Being super careful they will not fall on the stove!). Would love to have radiant heat, but off-grid, so slippers are a must. Also warm clothes as needed. Yurts do get super toasty, but - at least for me - huge temperature variations most days. Because they are tents, right Bob? ;)
 
It has been unseasonably warm here in Colorado Springs excepting a few cold days here and there. I mean up to 70! degrees in December is down right weird. Nice, but weird. I'd rather have the mountains getting totally pummeled since that is several western states water supply.

My yurt won't hold heat for squat. If I actually lived in it, it would be tight and insulated for certain. If it was tight and insulated my little fireplace wood stove insert would surely suffice to heat a small 16' yurt.

You all have a good one. Bob
 
We have standard foil backed bubble wrap , on walls and ceiling, and 1-1/2" rigid foiled back insul. under the floor.. Probably need to improve the installation, as there are spaces ( small) . Originally bough a used small Dutch West wood stove (7800 btu-26,000 btu) .. The stove works well, just would rather have purchased a larger one, as this one starts getting cool around 2 am. Burn time at a hot level is around 5 hours.. I have not noticed any drafts at all, so happy about that..
 
I hear you about the air leakage with a stove. I ended up putting in an outdoor kit on my stove so it would grab combustion air from the outside. That worked wonders.
 
Probably a good idea to check out when we return. although you can see we are still pretty comfortable :-)
 
Finally got a pic of the stove. I was wondering about an outside air source but I don't think mine has provisions for it.

 
Nice photo. I'll jsut fixin to start a fire in our fireplace in just a few minutes. Dang it's cold here now, and I worked outside better quite a bit today. Brrrrr....

As for ext air, there would be a supply port on the stove. If you don't see one, well....go ahead and enjoy the fire and warmth anyway. :D
 
Stea said:
Finally got a pic of the stove. I was wondering about an outside air source but I don't think mine has provisions for it.
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You should get a metal wood ring. You can usually find them at yard sales or on Craigslist. I got one for my camp for $5. Keeps the wood off the floor let's you store more inside.

Example:

46b19845cb0baa2bd1bb226cc20aa2cd[1].jpg
 
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