Masonry Heater for my Yurt

[Bob Rowlands]

OK. Good luck.

[hierony]

Well I've come to like the heater. Once I cut done on some more drafts (mainly the platform/canvas seal & door), it should actually keep the yurt at room temp--right now it's generally 50 F in the morning after a load in the evening. It's nice to lean against in the mornings (surface temp 80-90 F).

The firebox only fits 10-20 lbs of wood (I wanted a small footprint & 5-10k btu/hr), so I burn a load in the morning & a load in the evening. I have to place the wood vertically (the firebox is only ~10" wide, maybe 15" deep) to get that much wood in. With the air inlet open I make a tiny little fire of fine kindling near the door, give it a teaspoon or so of ethanol, then set a misch metal spark to it; once that's going, I open the key/stove pipe damper and build the tiny fire up until the bigger splits start to catch. Then I close the door and ignore it for an hour or so until everything is mostly ash and maybe a little charcoal. Close the stovepipe damper and the air inlet and the thing slowly radiates heat.

My first loads were a little too small (5-8 lbs), I wasn't using small enough kindling or enough intermediately sized pieces, the matches were going out inside the firebox, I was trying to set splits horizontal (harder to catch fire), and maybe some other things. But it's working nicely now (except when the wood is too wet...).

[Bob Rowlands]

Good stuff hierony. Thanks. See... it's all about just doing it, and learning.

[Tallgrass]

Ha, what synchronicity I just bought a used 16' Pacific Yurt that i'm planning to set up in the Spring here in the Loess Hills of Eastern Iowa while I build my strawbale and cob home. I've been hanging out with some members of the MHA (Masonry Heaters Association) and attended their annual meeting and workshop the 2 years and have been excited about the prospect of putting a small masonry heater in my yurt. I decided i would search to see if there was a yurt forum somewhere on the web and after finding this forum, this is the first post I see. A good sign a believe! Excited to here how this one operates for you, nice masonry work going with the ecobox right away! I've been thinking of installing one with a metal cookplate on top to get some instant radiant heat coupled with the mass for long term storage. How cold do your winters get? Does your yurt have any

insulation

? I've helped build 2 iterations of this stove with my teacher Max... http://www.firespeaking.com/cabin-stove/ But i really like the slickness and bake oven option Matt Walker incorporated into his... http://walkerstoves.com/walker-brick-cook-stove.html Can I ask where you got your blueprints? Nicely done on such a budget.

One note, Roxul works better than fiberglass as a fire resistant

insulation

of spun ceramic instead of glass but doesn't have the same kind of heat rating your Superwool has. Insulated pipe gets expensive. I've seen people use perlite or pumice to fill between the void of a homemade 6" inside an 8" Both single wall to some success.

Also, can I ask for a photo of your stove exit from the roof? Custom made flashing? Thanks for documenting this build. Its a pleasure to join this forum!

[hierony]

Hello Tallgrass & welcome to the forum!

My yurt is insulated a little bit--one or two layers of a wool-blend blanket material. I need to add at least one if not two layers to the single layer already on the roof poles. Right now the yurt doesn't hold heat terribly well--I can feel cold drafts on my feet near the walls. Make sure your yurt shell/platform seal is nice & tight if you're going to try an Iowa winter!

Temps here right now are in the teens to twenties (Fahrenheit) but the heater will keep things 20-30 degrees warmer; it was only designed for 5-10k btu/hr and I'm probably loosing 15-25k right now due. The forecast has some lows in the negatives soon...

The ecobox works pretty well, though it can be a little too drafty to light. I actually get a lot of heat out of the door & stovepipe--because of the small size, the refractory can't pick up all the heat. Stovepipe temps are 250-450 F. I've overheated the door several times (glowed red in the dark, has an interesting white coloration to it now...). Based on his webpage, specifically an article about low-cost diy heaters, I had Alex Chernov/Stovemaster design it. It might have been nice to have visited some of the somewhat local W. Washington stove masons though.

For the venting, I bought class a chimney (selkirk) locally. Mainly to make it easier if I needed to add more later & because good stainless steel pipe doubled up would've been about the same cost (for the sources I checked). I got a silicone flashing boot thing to seal around the chimney--I riveted (screws could puncture the canvas) it to a thin sheet of metal that was then glued & sealed to a canvas triangle with silicone. I built a wood frame of 2x4 to sit in the crown ring (needs cross bracing yet) and got the selkirk Universal Roof Support Kit to hold the chimney.

[Ski Trooper]

Really curious how this has worked out over the past few years....if you're still around.

[hierony]

Still around--just trying to not poke my finger in too many pies :P

I moved in the middle of January and am storing the yurt until I find another place to set up. I paid a fellow with a 20 ft livestock trailer to haul everything--worked really well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the heater in the trailer--it takes a bit of finesse I didn't have time to learn. So the heater is sitting outside (tarped up) waiting for me to get back to it...

I liked how the masonry heater worked. I wish it had more

heating

capacity and/or my yurt had been sealed up way better. I liked not having to constantly maintain a fire to keep everything from freezing. With two firings a day, it usually kept everything 40-50 F; during firings the yurt would heat to 60-65 F (dead of winter, outside low frequently single digits/low negatives, 1-3 acph). I only had crappy lightweight wood that was dry this last winter, too--things might be a little different with some nice oak. I still need to get around to plastering it too...

Next yurt setup I'm going to use Tyvek under the platform & bring it up between the platform & canvas to create a sort of underseal bucket. Hopefully that will reduce my draftiness even further.

I was gone over Christmas this last winter for 2 days--outside got a low of -22 F, inside only got to 2 F due to the heater (without any firings!). With a regular wood stove, the yurt would've matched outside temps within a couple hours of me leaving...

If you're looking at a larger & more permanent yurt that would be lived in regularly, I'd highly recommend a masonry heater. My setup is pretty marginal, but I often do things the hard way :P

Let me know if you have any other questions.