# "Lil'House" heaters-anyone have one?



## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

They are outdoor woodstoves that are enclosed in an insulated "house". The hot air is passively transferred through a duct into your house. Usually the duct goes through the wall or window. They're not the same as those awesome but expensive outdoor furnaces that heats water. 

My hubby has been thinking of building one. He wants to use a 55 gal barrel as a woodstove, then enclose it in an insulated box, then put a duct through the wall of the house. We only have a heat pump, and it's crazy expensive. We put a pellet stove in the basement last year, but it doesn't do a good enough job to heat the whole house. 

Any thoughts? If you have one of these outdoor woodstoves, I'd love to hear opinions and see pics! Thanks!


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Without a fan to move air, ( I assume that is what you mean by "passive" ) it won't work as good as the pellet stove in the basement....but it will probably do a dandy job of heating the box outside 

Seriously, go to Tractor Supply and buy a wood furnace that's already set up with a jacket around it, and a couple of duct ports. Plumb it into the existing heat pump ductwork, and just use the 'fan only' setting on your thermostat to circulate air. That is why your pellet stove won't heat the house...you're not moving the hot air to the far ends.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

Hmm....maybe you're right....I guess it does have a fan in it to move heat into the house. I can't remember.  

Plus, our pellet stove is probably too small to heat the house, and the heat just doesn't travel all the way upstairs like we were hoping. 

We'll look into those furnaces from TSC, but we're working on a tight budget so I'm not sure it'll be do-able.


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## 3ravens (Mar 16, 2006)

Could you put in a couple of inexpensive old fashioned floor vents to help the heat get upstairs? The kind with the grid that goes in the floor and opens into the basement?


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## Ky-Jeeper (Sep 5, 2010)

Exactly what 3ravens said. My parents installed a wood stove in the basement years ago. Put a vent from a gas furnance in the hallway floor open to the basement. Then the stairway became an instant cold air return. They installed a ceiling fan beside the vent and the fan blades overlapped the vent, worked great. A cheap dust filter was used also.

That may be your cheapest option at this point.


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

We have an old Mamma Bear wood stove in our basement. What we did to move the air upstairs was to cut two holes in the living room floor. We bought nice metal floor grates that close up. When we want the warm air upstairs, we just open up the grates.

Also, we cut a hole in a step that goes to our loft space - the step links to the basement stair well. The hot air was getting caught up in the stair well but did not "suck" up to the living room. Now, we just open up the vent in the step too, in addition to the floor grates and enough warm air comes up to heat that whole end of the house.

In summer, we just close them up.

Another thing we do if it is extremely cold here - like below freezing for all day more than one day in a row - we have an access hole in our basement and the hole goes to the crawl space under the rest of the house. We open up the crawl space opening and let the warm air go up under the house. Since we cover the crawl space vent holes in winter with solid pieces of foam insulation, it helps hold the warm air up under the crawl space. When we do this, we close up the vents going up to the living room and we just use the 2nd wood stove upstairs. 

We only do this stunt when we want to be sure no pipes up under the house freeze up and usually we only warm up under there for half a day.


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## free-2-b-me (May 9, 2005)

We have one for going on 4 years now . Am considering going back to an in house wood stove . Here in New york state the has been a change in the use of outside wood stove - boilers . You might want to check your states laws through the DEC . 

It has worked well for us and much of the time too well . We have the windows open quite often in the winter because it gets too hot in here . There is not much on the stove to control that even when there is a small amount of wood in the stove . 

We have a mobile home and it heats it well . Uses way more wood than I'd like it to . Although it uses all kinds of wood . .. .even pallets we get for free .


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

If I had to only have 1 stove in my house it would be our 55 gallon drum home made stove. Husband made it maybe 15 years ago or more with sand or kitty litter in the bottom to prevent burn outs and it is in our basement with an open stair to the laundry room. It will heat all the floors on the first floor and keep you very warm. Upstairs will heat also if the door to up there is open. Cheap and can be filled to the top with wood for longer burn time. No fan, no holes in the floors, just heat rising upwards. Good Luck !!


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