Vent Free vs Vent through wall heaters

kenhill · September 20, 2013, 12:10:23 PM

As I recall you had a thread about headaches and the cabin. If I recall, your cabin is airtight. If you are going to dump a weeks worth of carbon MONoxcide into your cabin and then enter it, I would be very cautous. Carbon MONoxide is deadly, it does not easily leave your system. Wood stoves produce Carbon Dioxide that is totally exhausted outside. I enjoy reading your posts and I would not like to see it come to an end.

Carla_M · September 23, 2013, 05:41:25 PM

Catching up on some reading here. I find this an interesting thread. I see something that was nor mentioned. maybe everyone else knows the altitude of where oljarheads cabin is; I don't. I have a small portable propane heater that refuses to work from about 5000 feet and up. That was a surprise I encountered after I had owned it several months. I should have read the owners manual because it was mentioned right there. Something to do with the ODS not working accurately at higher elevations. So they make them to fail-safe and the heater does not work at all. Something to check into.

September 24, 2013, 08:30:34 PM

Hey John. I had a thought re your cabin and heaters. Your logs are probably absorbing a lot of the moisture given off. Your windows and doors are good so they are not likely to be a place where condensation occurs. After the logs absorb moisture they would then slowly release the moisture as the air inside dried down. My theory anyways.

Redoverfarm · September 24, 2013, 08:45:45 PM

Quote from: MountainDon on September 24, 2013, 08:30:34 PM
Hey John. I had a thought re your cabin and heaters. Your logs are probably absorbing a lot of the moisture given off. Your windows and doors are good so they are not likely to be a place where condensation occurs. After the logs absorb moisture they would then slowly release the moisture as the air inside dried down. My theory anyways.

Yes Don they are pretty dry in this stage of their life. Might be a possibility as I have never noticed any condensation issues. Only once when it was extremely cold and I had the kitchen going but the tile was ice cold so not sure. I seldom turn them on high anyway just low. You all almost

had me convienced to take them out. Oh well except for the bathroom one. Karen would never forgive me.

MountainDon · September 24, 2013, 09:13:35 PM

She would not

But then as you said it did not get used for long.

October 04, 2013, 08:32:54 AM

I am going to throw in my anecdotal quip for whatever its worth. I used a ventless propane heater for a little over a couple of months in my garage one winter, had rust on all my tools in no time. Installed a hygrometer and literally could watch the relative humidity rise 20% or higher in as little as a few hours. Ventless propane combustion produces a tremendous amount of moisture and if your house is tight enough I will guarantee you will have air quality problems eventually. This a false economy savings over vented if you ask me.

OlJarhead · October 04, 2013, 04:24:21 PM

Thanks for the replies.

We're at 3200 feet and not as tight as I thought (can run the wood stove all night without issues now and have no idea what happened before -- maybe it was just me)

We're going to use this heater as backup and I'll let you know how it turns out. Luckily I can always convert later if it doesn't work out.

However, for the composter room it will be a vent through the wall unit and I intend to use it a LOT more which goes to show I'm not a complete fool! lol

rick91351 · October 05, 2013, 04:14:34 AM

One of the things I have thought of that I keep coming back to is the extra humidity in your area in the winter with a wood stove going most of the time when you are 'home' might not be a bad thing. Especially when it gets down in the single digits and below - that is if your area is anything like ours and I think it is. Here after the the first few days of such we will go to almost nil.

Believe it or not last summer here just before the fires broke out we had several days of zero percent humidity.

OlJarhead · October 05, 2013, 08:48:29 AM

Quote from: rick91351 on October 05, 2013, 04:14:34 AM
One of the things I have thought of that I keep coming back to is the extra humidity in your area in the winter with a wood stove going most of the time when you are 'home' might not be a bad thing. Especially when it gets down in the single digits and below - that is if your area is anything like ours and I think it is. Here after the the first few days of such we will go to almost nil.

Believe it or not last summer here just before the fires broke out we had several days of zero percent humidity.

Yup, we put a pot on the stove to try to get the humidity back and keep it going most of the time.