How's Your Yurt Handling The Cold?

[amberoons]

Well... the deck definitely helps the snow bank up. In the kind of cold we have here and with the wind and persistent heat loss... the banked up snow to the roof is a welcomed change after a cold fall/winter. We aren't nearly blowing though so much wood to heat the place. We were actually kind of worried we weren't going to be getting much snow this year and would have trouble banking the yurt. Its

insulation

:-). A Yurtgloo!!! bahahaha

[SeverTheTether]

We also have yurtcicles, but they only form when the temperatures are hovering around freezing. The snow doesn't seem to melt off our roof much, a but around the

dome

when we have that cracked to vent

moisture

. The south side of the yurt had all it's icicles melt off, but the north side will have them until the thaw.

[Joe Chapman]

My location is Oxford, England. I have a 5 meter diameter Mongolian Yurt made of steamed willow held together with raw hide, covered with thick sheep felt and poly cotton canvas.

Last winter was one of the longest and coldest on record here. The yurt was covered in snow for a very long time. Regretfully, I was too scared to install my stove and left it too late so only had a 4 kw electric radiator. Despite that and some very, very cold days, I have no complaints.

This year, so far, the winter is very mild due to the the shift in the jet stream from the Atlantic. Sadly, that's much worse! Things would be a lot better if it were really cold. I have my stove working really well (wood burning oven) but due to the jet stream being right over us, it's really mild and it's dumping the Atlantic over us. Why is that bad? Well, when the jet stream isn't over us, it's cold but there's little rain. There can be lots of snow but when the snow isn't melting it doesn't start saturating the canvas so much.

I do also have a house but I find at certain times of the year, without any

heating

, the yurt is much warmer. There's a good reason for that, because the house is so solid that the building materials don't heat up, the yurt acts more like a green house and heats up with a little sun.

Fuel isn't an issue. I've seasoned some wood, I have a supply of non chemically treated scrap wood and a know someone who works in forestry. So for most of the time my fuel is free. Well, I say free, apart from the large investment of time and energy in gathering it, breaking or chopping it up and so on.

Last winter I have 'yurtsicles' from a long time. Very pretty.

[dennishl]

I'm doing well. We had a cold snap with several days bellow 0F and the biggest challenge I faced was keeping my drinking water warm. I heat with kerosene so I have a huge problem with condensation. (I turn off the heater when I go to bed) Temps inside quickly fall to match those outside, but I have plenty of sleeping bags and quilts to keep me warm. I have no complaints, even on the coldest nights. I love yurt living and can't imagine moving back into a "normal" house. This is the happiest I've ever been! (With a dwelling)

[Joe Chapman]

What are you using for

insulation

?

[dennishl]

I use the double sided reflective bubble wrap. I could only swing one layer this year. I plan on adding more insulation this summer.

[Jafo]

Have you considered putting in a wood stove? Even a barrel wood stove would heat better I would think.

[Groovyyurts]

Had family over between Christmas and New Year and installed a 16' (authentic Mongolian) yurt in the backyard with one layer of felt insulation. I put two 1200W space heaters instead of the usual wood stove. I was very pleased to see that by -25C (-13F) ovenight, my guests completely stopped one of the heaters and lowered the 2nd to half the power!

[Bob Rowlands]

Wow! I'm definitely impressed by that. Thanks for posting that detail.

[dennishl]

I broke down and installed a wood stove in my 16 foot yurt. I gotta say, early on I had mixed feelings about it. Honestly, in some ways, my kerosene heater (23000 btu) does a better job than the wood burner--It's a decent stove too, and had no problem

heating

(over heating!) a 10x19 foot cabin. In the yurt, however, it takes hours to get the thing up to a decent temp.

I played around with them during the polar vortex when temps were below zero for several days. The kerosene heater warms the yurt to above freezing seemingly in minutes and to a comfortable 65F within 2 hours. The wood stove takes better than 2 hours to warm the yurt to 50F!

I hit upon a good combo though, if I know I'm going to stay home all day or going into town for only an hour or so, I'll light the kerosene heater first thing in the morning and fire up the wood stove. I'll then turn off the kerosene heater as soon as the wood stove gets up to operating temperature. At that point, I'll notice a drop of a few degrees, but the wood stove will hold inside temps to 65-70F and keep them there as long as I feed the stove now and then. On the coldest night, -15F, I kept the stove going all night. It was kinda nice waking up for once without ice in my beard.