Masonry Heater for my Yurt

[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.