Dome freezing

[Skibum]

New to the crew but have read all previous posts, thanks for the help, living in a 30' pacific yurt on an insulated platform with reflectix insul. When the temps get below 5 degrees Fahrenheit, the

dome

freezes overnight and then drips in the morning. This is with ventilating during the day, ceiling fan 24 hrs, bathroom vented outside, woodstove and mostly electric appliances. We are in the Tetons and when the temps go into the negatives the

dome

gets worse, even with constant venting and humidity below 17% in the dome. What to do? I don't have a screen insert with my fan, so I can't put plastic on the screen easily. Any help?

[Jafo]

Which way is the ceiling fan blowing, down or is it sucking air up?

[Skibum]

I have tried both ways with the fan for days at a time, haven't noticed any difference with fan direction, my remote makes it easy to switch but provides no help with the freeze.

[Bob Rowlands]

Do you live in Wilson, Kelly, or in the banana belt south of town? lol My wife and I lived there from 78 to 83. The sliding door in the kitchen of our apartment had an ice dam on it to about waist level. It was -50 in Jackson, Jan 1 1979.

Blowing a fan isn't going to do anything to alleviate things from freezing solid when it is well below zero. You might try running electrical

heating

tape around the assembly and add

insulation

. That works on pipes under trailers and such that I carpentered on up there. Good luck.

[Skibum]

I guess the main question is how to insulate a dome. Our domes are basically single pane acrylic skylights, which everyone knows would never work as a window without condensating, yet we have single pane domes on our roof? I already replaced the front door, which was freezing all the time because of very thin single pane acrylic window and poor fitting wood frame. Now we have a metal door with half window, dual pane and it works perfect.

[Asheville Yurt Company]

You might try getting a thin acrylic disk made to fit the underside of your dome and attach it with screws or whatever - careful with the drill or it'll crack btw. A red hot wire will also melt a hole but don't breath the fumes obviously. Then make a hole in the middle and place a bucket on the floor to catch the drips - or some other creative way of catching them.

You might also consider attaching a weight of some sort in the center of the acyrlic to bow it down a little to act like a funnel and even maybe a tube glued into the hole to direct the flow...

With the extra barrier there you'll also keep a lot of the

moisture

from getting up there in the first place.

Nate

[Skibum]

Definitely creative, very challenging around existing ceiling fan and support, I wish that we could get triple pane dome windows like smiling wood yurts sells. They are just so hard to get in touch with, and I've had no luck.

[Asheville Yurt Company]

Originally Posted by Skibum

Definitely creative, very challenging around existing ceiling fan and support, I wish that we could get triple pane dome windows like smiling wood yurts sells. They are just so hard to get in touch with, and I've had no luck.

I suppose you could put the disk up above all that on the bottom of the dome itself and glue in the tube I suggested. There are fittings for that too, with bulkheads that tighten down onto rubber gaskets so attaching the tube shouldn't cause too much drama.

We plan to make double gas filled domes eventually but are still working on other projects.

Nate