How's Your Yurt Handling The Cold?

[Jafo]

If you will be there most of the time as a residence, then I wouldn't worry too much about snow load. Keeping the yurt warm usually means the snow will slide off the roof on its own. That has been my experience anyway with a vinyl roof.

[Jake]

That is much my thinking, looking at pics of Yurts in Mongolia I dont recall seeing any with snow on them.

Otoh, I want enough

insulation

that it could lay there. Better to prepare, just to be safe. I have seen pics of a collapsed yurt with snow. Not nice.
With well fastened rafters to prevent twisting, a strong tono w/baganna and walls I think we'll be fine.

[TORV]

We are just getting fully prepped for winter (a bit late) and I we are doing some troubleshooting with our stove. We have a huge Jutol Rangley piped through the wall, and tees up (simliar to Jafo's) and at first we were getting alot of smoke filling the yurt. We're not getting enough draft up the stove. Yesterday I added another 3' section to the chinmey (total of 9 feet up from tee) and that seemed to impove things. I know our wood is a bit wet (oak and ash seasoned probably less than a year, and dry birch) but I'm looking for ideas to increase the draft. Our tono cover is just poly platsic sheeting/wood so I plan on sealing that up better to combat against the yurts natural chimney effect. I'm also experimenting with a fresh air intake behind the stove. Has anybody head of or used one before?

[Jafo]

I think the intake will help. My brother has one on his stove and he can't stop talking about it. I am getting one with a new stove next season. Once the fire in my current stove gets hot enough, the draft is great, but initially I make sure the

dome

and front door to the yurt are closed.

[TORV]

on his stove? I'm talking about a vent for make-up air to replace the air the stove has sucked up the chimney with fresh air from outside. A woodstove can suck up anywhere from 10 to 50 CFM, so I figured I got roughly 1200 ft^3 (16' diameter, short walls) so in about 1-2 hours I'm creating a vacuum in the yurt. I open the door, and smoke flows inside. I always crack the door for about 10 seconds but still get smoke inside. Anywhere that air could filter in gets frozen shut by

moisture

escaping. I'm getting a load of better wood next week, I think that'll fix the smoke issue, and I'll keep the intake (2x2 wedged between fabric/strap and platform) for now, probably until it gets mega-cold

[SeverTheTether]

This sounds like your stove just isn't getting hot enough to create the draft. Do you have a thermometer on the stove pipe? (external if single wall, internal for double wall)

If my stove is above 200 degrees, it never has a problem creating a draft. If it goes below that, or when I'm lighting a new fire in a cold stove, I have to close everything up or I get smoke inside.

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by TORV

on his stove?

Yes, there is a round vent on the back of his wood stove that accepts tubing, which you pipe outside so as to pull the combustion air in and not pull it from inside.

Some of the newer stoves have a coaxial pipe where the stove pipe is surrounded by a second pipe which brings in the combustion air. I am not familiar with those though.

[Bob Rowlands]

My stove sits in the middle of my yurt. I never thought about 'make up air' from outside the yurt. For sure I'm thinking about it now. I'm thinking if you have a centrally located stove, you might be able to rig a supply air pipe to your upscale wood stove via a hole cut in the floor. Or something.

[Bob Rowlands]

I've read where folks living in a tipi during the winter will dig a trench from the outside of the lodge to the firepit, and cover it so that an outside air supply is directed to the fire. Outside air supply seems like a good idea to me.

[Jafo]

The only thing you have to be aware of when you install is, the tubing can frost up if the air coming in is super cold and the air inside is warm and moist.