Cold Weather Report 2017

[Jafo]

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.

[KaptainK]

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.

[Ivan]

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

[Stea]

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

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by Ivan

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

What type of

heating

source/insulation do you have?

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by Stea

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.

What stove do you use?

[Stea]

Originally Posted by Jafo

What stove do you use?

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.

[hierony]

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!

[Jafo]

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.

[Jay Aimes]

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.