Safe wood stove options...

[Edcski]

Looking to get a woodstove for our 16 round yurt.... Do they need to be hud or epa approved? I want to be sure oxygen / carbon monoxide are not an issue...any reccomendations?

[Jafo]

Don't need to be, up to you. I love my Ideal Steel stove from the Vermont Soapstone Company, though probably overkill for a 16 footer. Yurts are very drafty and as long as your do your chimney properly, no worries about CO...

[Bob Rowlands]

A friend gave me an old used, 1980s vintage, airtight Sierra 'Cricket' fireplace wood stove insert. That was in my 12, 14, and 16 yurts. The stove had an elevated hearth that was maybe a foot high bolted to the base of the stove. The bottom of the stove featured a 6" welded ring around the air supply hole ( for damped down closed door use) that could have been ducted to the outside. I simply drew air from the yurt.

I ran a 6" single wall pipe straight up and out the ring. Pipe probably was about 3' above the ring. I had a canvas cover that got a fair number of ember burn holes in it, so I made a spark arrestor out of 1/4" wire mash. That completely solved that problem.


The firebox was about 1.6 cu. ft. Non catalyst. The stove just barely heated the yurt when it was nearing zero. But my yurts were homemade uninsulated drafty nomadic type. If the yurt had a better fitting door, and the bottom of the wall cover was sealed at the platform, and it had a good wool cover, that stove size would have been ok. A 2 cu ft firebox would have been better.

Carbon monoxide wouldn't be an issue as long as the stack dumped smoke to the outside. An exterior oxygen supply directly to the firebox is ideal.

As for codes etc. beats me so no comment.

[Bob Rowlands]

Some additional points to consider. Single wall stove pipe adds heat to the yurt, vs double wall. The longer the run, the more heat you get off the pipe. I got alot of heat off the pipe orienting it in the traditional way up through the ring.

As far as safety, single wall pipe does get very hot. On occasion I ran my stove wide open to get it heated up quickly when it was really cold outside. The pipe would glow slightly red for a couple feet above the stove. I had my grandkids in there for smores. I told them the pipe is hot don't touch it, and also me and grandma kept watch on them.

Also, as far as 'dangerous heat' up at the ring, I put my hand up there with the stove running wide open, and yes it got very hot. But >nowhere near< hot enough to set anything on fire. I had about eight inches of clearance around the pipe to the wood ring. Plus I had a sheet metal china cap sitting on top of the ring to help hold in the heat. Yup it was hot up there, but the yurt burning down was a non issue. If you look at photos and video of Mongolian yurts, they all appear to have a single wall pipe up through the ring. Having the stove in the middle of a trad yurt is ideal for

heating

.

I should mention, after my first yurt was destroyed in a blizzard, I rebuilt the next ring so it was 24" in diameter at the ring, instead of 22". That gave one more inch of clearance all around. Additionally, I had the pipe sections screwed together, and screwed to the stack ring on the stove, and the stack solidly tie wired through the center of the yurt ring so that there was no way the wind would knock it off center. It >DEFINITELY!!!< would be dangerous to have a single wall pipe leaning against wood or combustibles.

I'm not saying that is the best way, or the safest way, but that was how I did it.

[Ivan]

Where are you located? We are in the mountains New Hampshire and have a Vermont casting “Dutch west” rated for 30,000 btu.. about a medium size wood stove.. Our Yurt is 24’ , and if it is 20 deg and above it cooks us out of the Yurt, which is not a problem as we can open the

dome

or door and make it manageable .. We went out the side, as there is less water proofing issues, and installed a couple of supports 4x4 into the ground to support the vertical section..

[Bob Rowlands]

Thanks for the info, Ivan.