howdy folks,
you'll be glad to know we haven't died in our sleep or been asphyxiated with too much hookah smoke yet.
we were fortunate enough to be on vacation in New Mexico for most of the month of January, which was consistently 20-30 below at nighttime. after many delays from navigator stove works, our stove was waiting for us when we got back, and we have been enjoying its heat immensely for the last week. when we received the TINY box it arrived in, I was a little doubtful that this toy of a woodstove could possibly provide enough heat. but now that it has kept us toasty through the last two nights of subzero temps, I'm loving it.
as soon as we fire it up, the temperature starts rising at about the rate of a degree every minute or two, and the humidity in the trailer starts dropping from 65-70% to about 30%. of course, due to the stove's miniscule firebox and the trailer's relative lack of insulation, it needs a handful of wood about every half hour to keep warming it up. that would probably annoy me if there were any other options... but I think a bigger stove would be uncomfortably hot to be right next to all the time, not to mention the fact that there's not a spot for a bigger stove at the moment. the stainless steel heat shield is doing a great job of reflecting heat and keeping the walls and ceiling cool.
so that's all great, except for a bunch of chips in our $550 porcelain job. it's just an aesthetic thing, but after paying a ridiculous amount of money and dealing with totally crappy customer service for three months, I was hoping to at least get a near-perfect stove out of it. but we sure as hell aren't returning it... because we finally have all the heat we could possibly need! and it's awesome.
our PV panels have been providing ample electricity to run lights, music, and computer whenever we want, and the dust buster and propane furnace at strategic times. and as the sun rises higher in the sky each day, we're definitely gonna be rolling in electricity. haven't had to use the generator yet, and the most we've discharged the batteries is down to 75% full.
here are some pics of the woodstove, and our thermometer showing that it's -13 degrees outside and 70 degrees inside. yay!
I've also discovered the joy of skiing down the hill from school to the trailer, which is what I'm gonna go do now.
thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
The trick is to keep the embers going, so you don't have to get up in the middle of the night to load wood. I usually do have to get up on cold nights.
Your wood stove is awesome. Do you have to load yours every 30 minutes?
Anyway here is another idea . What about a wood stove or a pellet stove in the shed, with a fan blowing warm air into the trailer. It might be worth the luxury of a full nights sleep. Pellet stoves can burn for 24 hours.
There is a $ 40 kit available to turn a 55 gallon drum into a wood stove.
Read the forums on the Navigator website, there are tips for getting more hours out of a load of wood. It might be enough to get a full night's sleep.....maybe.
Good luck,
Woody
__________________
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
Ah to be young again,
I lived in a camper year around for three years to save up the down payment on the farm I've lived on for the past 35 years. You have received an abundance of really good advice from the posts. I live in the Great Lakes snow belt and have a couple suggestions for you from my experience with wood burning stoves, furnaces and being off the grid. First off you need a place to keep your firewood dry and available, next the clearance issues are valid concerns as are the oxygen depletion worry. These stoves use a lot more oxygen than you might imagine. Just a suggestion but you might want to consider putting the stove in a well insulated metal storage shed next to the trailer where you can store your wood and then rig a hot air duct into a window from high on the side of the shed. These are available at Lowes, Home Depot and local lumber yards quite cheap.
You definitely need to drain and antifreeze the plumbing. I used one of those big 5 gallon picnic Jugs for my water (it never froze). I also installed a propane light above the kitchen stove and tapped into the stove supply line. Upon returning home at night I'd light the gas light and put dinner on the stove. Within a half hour the trailer was toasty. After dinner was cooked the stove went off and the light kept it comfortable for hours until I jumped into my winter sleeping bag. One tank of Propane lasted me all winter, I never had to fire up the furnace one time.
If you are using an old fashioned out house you will discover that the disposal of your wood ashes from the stove will serve nicely as top cover in the privy keeping down odor when the weather warms up AND lowering the Ph of your compost.
Good luck Kids, if nothing else you will be more appreciative of luxury when it comes your way in the future.
howdy folks,
you'll be glad to know we haven't died in our sleep or been asphyxiated with too much hookah smoke yet.
we were fortunate enough to be on vacation in New Mexico for most of the month of January, which was consistently 20-30 below at nighttime. after many delays from navigator stove works, our stove was waiting for us when we got back, and we have been enjoying its heat immensely for the last week. when we received the TINY box it arrived in, I was a little doubtful that this toy of a woodstove could possibly provide enough heat. but now that it has kept us toasty through the last two nights of subzero temps, I'm loving it.
as soon as we fire it up, the temperature starts rising at about the rate of a degree every minute or two, and the humidity in the trailer starts dropping from 65-70% to about 30%. of course, due to the stove's miniscule firebox and the trailer's relative lack of insulation, it needs a handful of wood about every half hour to keep warming it up. that would probably annoy me if there were any other options... but I think a bigger stove would be uncomfortably hot to be right next to all the time, not to mention the fact that there's not a spot for a bigger stove at the moment. the stainless steel heat shield is doing a great job of reflecting heat and keeping the walls and ceiling cool.
so that's all great, except for a bunch of chips in our $550 porcelain job. it's just an aesthetic thing, but after paying a ridiculous amount of money and dealing with totally crappy customer service for three months, I was hoping to at least get a near-perfect stove out of it. but we sure as hell aren't returning it... because we finally have all the heat we could possibly need! and it's awesome.
our PV panels have been providing ample electricity to run lights, music, and computer whenever we want, and the dust buster and propane furnace at strategic times. and as the sun rises higher in the sky each day, we're definitely gonna be rolling in electricity. haven't had to use the generator yet, and the most we've discharged the batteries is down to 75% full.
here are some pics of the woodstove, and our thermometer showing that it's -13 degrees outside and 70 degrees inside. yay!
I've also discovered the joy of skiing down the hill from school to the trailer, which is what I'm gonna go do now.
thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
__________________
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
I am currently living in a 1979 31' Land Yacht, outside of Ithaca, NY., and am preparing to winter in it also. I am curious how you "attached" the shed to the/or next to the airstream. I am contemplating building a "shed" either next to or around the airstream, and adding a wood stove. What have you done re: water? And could you tell me more about the solar installation? I currently have a 6500 watt generator, which is HUGE for my use...and rarely use it. I think my converter is bad, so we've bypassed it and use a battery charger to re-charge my two batteries when I'm running the generator.
folks put in wood stoves in yachts all the time. someeven come with them installed. i bought a 27' st. pierre dory that had a "lil cod" in the boat with a gas engine. the boat was built in me in the 60's. an alden yawll i owned in the 80's had a coal stove built in her
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