Yurts and energy consumption (Firewood)

[jo17]

Hello everyone,

I am near completing my 2nd winter in a wonderful 30' Pacific yurt in Southern British Columbia. Wondering if you may be able to chip in on my winter setup and help improve/lower my wood consumption.

Some details to paint the picture, the yurt is heated by a Neostone 2.5 wood stove. This stove weighs is at a hefty 460 lb' of stove + 370 lb's of soap stone wrapped around it as a heat sink. This stove is rated to heat large spaces, I cant remember to exact sqftage but I believe it was double the sqft of the yurt.

The platform of the yurt is insulated with r22

insulation

which is under 3/4 t+g plywood. The yurt has

Pacific yurts

insulation

kit on the walls and celling and three doors at 12 o'clock, 3 and 9.

I have a kitchen sink inside the yurt but the shower and bathroom are in an outbuilding so water vapour inside the yurt is quite minimal.

The winter temps here do go below 0 but often only over night or sometimes for a week or 2. Snow amounts seen to increase each winter and so does the cold.

Ive been burning dry Fur wood mostly with some maple, the issues is I seem to burn though around 6-7 cords a winter which seems considerable to me and what the acreage I live on can sustain.

The stove runs like a champ, Im pretty seasoned on wood stove operations. The stack comes out the top, up 24" then 90s back and out of the yurt. I have had some creo build up at the very top but its normally if I have dampened the stove down to much trying to get a long burn and I've learnt my lesson.

The temperature in the yurt is aways fluctuating a bit but in general it is in-between 18c (64f) to 25c (77f) at head height on the main floor, the sleeping loft is of-course always warmer. Is this above the temperatures other yurt dwellers try to maintain?

I do use a fan on the ceiling to create air flow, on cold nights I hang a wool blanket under the doom and this helps a lot and I also cover the door with micro fibre sheets to stop drafts. In addition I added a strip of insulation around the top edge of the platform where the canvas comes over, this created a seal around the walls of the yurt to stop drafts.

Covering the doors seems to be an issue as the plexiglass condensates considerably.

Is this just par for the course or is there a way to improve this?

I have researched a lot regarding adding insulation the

Pacific yurts

and I am not closed to the idea but am very aware of vapour barrier issues, mold and losing the beautiful celling display.

I love living in my yurt but also consider budding a cabin some days when I think about the insulation qualities that can be built in easily.

Many thanks in advance.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by jo17

The yurt has ...... three doors at 12 o'clock, 3 and 9.

No additional windows?

How often do you open the doors for ventilation while your´re

heating

?

Do you open your

dome

for ventilation too?

Originally Posted by jo17

Covering the doors seems to be an issue as the plexiglass condensates considerably.

To me, it kind of seems like a mismatch of ventilation and

heating

.

A sufficient supply of fresh air is very important for the indoor climate. Incorrect ventilation and heating or very strong insulation prevent an automatic exchange of humid air.

In order to ensure adequate air circulation in winter, you have to be careful not to set the heating too high. Wet windows come about when the yurt is in a tropical climate of hot and wet.

Maybe you should try to solve first the condensation issues and second focus to reduce the consumption.

[Jafo]

Do you have the ability to put in an outside air kit, which supplies combustion air to the stove from the outside via a pipe, rather than through windows, doors, cracks, etc.?

Is it a catalytic stove? I use one called the Ideal Steel stove that gives me long burns when I engage the catalyst:

https://www.woodstove.com/ideal-steel-hybrid-wood-stove

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by Jafo

I use one called the Ideal Steel stove that gives me long burns when I engage the catalyst:

https://www.woodstove.com/ideal-steel-hybrid-wood-stove

Some questions about:

In the technical details is stated:

BTU Output: 9,323-43,263/hr (per EPA cord wood 2020 tests)

I´ve some problems to understand the correct performance of this stove and to convert the BTU into KW (https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/...BTU_to_kW.html) for comparison.

How many Sq Ft do you heat and in which climate zone (https://learnmetrics.com/heating-btu-calculator/) is your Yurt located?

Which impact on wood consumption has the catalyst from technical side. I always thought, that it is only for reducing emissions.

[Ivan]

i like Jacob idea of a supply air to the stove, which should be easy to do.. I think if we stayed at our Yurt full time we would go through 5 cords and ours is a 24’ in New Hampshire. your walls probably have R-1 insulation value, and that is a lot of surface area with minimal insulation.. good luck !

[Bob Rowlands]

Adding an exterior air supply to the stove is an excellent idea.

That's a reasonable amount of wood for a yurt that size, and in that climate. Consider a yurt is a tent covered with cloth. No yurt is capable of holding heat as well as a house. Scientists in the arctic don't choose yurts as their primary living quarters.

FWIW I've read that folks living in log cabins way up north can put up 20 cords a year, heating substantially less square footage.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by Bob Rowlands

Scientists in the arctic don't choose yurts as their primary living quarters.

But the autochthones (like the Nenets....) are doing that with Yurt similar tents (chums) till -70 degrees Celsius....

[Bob Rowlands]

Ice Station Zebra!

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by TSRalex

How many Sq Ft do you heat and in which climate zone (https://learnmetrics.com/heating-btu-calculator/) is your Yurt located?

Which impact on wood consumption has the catalyst from technical side. I always thought, that it is only for reducing emissions.

709 sq ft, 30' diameter yurt with tall walls. It is located in northern central NY in the Tug Hill region where it frequently falls well below zero (-27F yesterday) and several feet of snow each year.

The stove reduced my wood usage dramatically. I use about a 1/3 of the wood I used to. The catalyst ignites the exhaust that would otherwise be emitted and that heat is is captured by the stove and therefore radiated out to the room.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by Jafo

The catalyst ignites the exhaust that would otherwise be emitted and that heat is is captured by the stove and therefore radiated out to the room.

Thanks for the explanation.

I need to familiarize myself in detail with how a catalytic converter works over the next few days.
Until now, I was of the opinion that the polluted exhaust air flows through the catalytic converter and the filters inside it just retain certain parts of the exhaust gases.

The situation, that the catalytic converter itself ignites exhaust gases and thus generates heat, which in turn can be used, is new to me - but I'm happy to learn.