I'm very late to this parade but this might be useful to some folks coming along later.
We live on a ger camp in the mountains of Mongolia at quite high altitude about 1700m (5500') and have an extremely cold winter. Just a deep freeze though. This week it's been in the -40's (C or F doesn't make a difference). So heating is about survival not just being cozy.
I have 2 x 7m (23' dia) 'gers' (Mongolian word for yurts) of a modern design and one 6m traditional 'ger' which we lived in while the modern ones were being built. We live in the modern ones now and keep the traditional one for summer guests. The modern ones are not your traditional Mongolian gers by any means but they are our main residence because they are practically houses.
Summer view:
Autumn view:
Winter view:
We have a combination heating strategy with backups. The primary heat is electric underfloor heating. Each one is 40m/2 internally (about 430 sq ft) and there's 27m/2 of heating mats in each. This works well but slowly and it costs quite a lot to run even with cheap electricity rates here in Mongolia. There's not much to see because it's all hidden, unless you go to Infra Red:
The secondary heating is German wood stoves. They are claimed to be efficient dual-burners or something better than standard. They offer a heat top-up on cold evenings or whenever we need quicker heat. They vent through the roof, add a lot of ambience and can raise the temperature relatively quickly. Too much sometimes so you have to control the burn with double vents. The downside is they need a lot of attention so we can't run them at night when it gets really cold.
Then to the backups. We have a propane room heater. This is fierce but it needs to be vented carefully. Leave the crown open and put the heater under the crown or if it's primary, get a vented version. It heats up almost instantly and runs more conveniently than the other sources. It has 3 bars (3=furnace, 2=roaring fire, 1=a hot day in Saigon).
I also have a diesel burner which is pretty good but you need to vent in and out. My wife complained of the fumes because they were blowing back towards the ger (this time a traditional one) and gers are porous. So we keep it for emergency use for the out buildings. The theory is good and it has a thermostat.
The exhaust:
So, we have a mix and match approach. If your nights aren't too cold, I'd go with a wood burner. Mongolians use this to heat and cook. For eons this has been wood or dung burning. More recently they've moved to coal which can burn all night, if done right, but it's rather nasty to handle. It requires a different stove. We've got the traditional wood burner in the traditional ger.
Finally, in our gers we get loads of passive solar heat through our glass windows, doors and crown. We can turn the heating off completely when the sun comes up. Luckily, despite being a very cold country, Mongolia's winter is very sunny.
Re: Heating a yurt
Re: Heating a yurt
Re: Heating a yurt
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