Advice on heating kid's room with their door shut at night

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By definition a bedroom has more than one way out. The door acts as a fire stop, showing the fire so you have a better chance of getting out the window if necessary.

Right, but if you can't open a door I think you'll have a hard time opening a window. I just don't think it's safer to have someone trapped in a room that they have no way to get out of. For able bodied adults, sure. Not a huge deal either way. But, in terms of the OP I wouldn't say keeping the door shut is the safest route.
 
Right, but if you can't open a door I think you'll have a hard time opening a window. I just don't think it's safer to have someone trapped in a room that they have no way to get out of. For able bodied adults, sure. Not a huge deal either way. But, in terms of the OP I wouldn't say keeping the door shut is the safest route.

Smoke kills more people than flames. When you are asleep, you have no sense of smell. None. The smoke will kill you before the flames ever reach you. Having the door closed, even if you are too young to open the door, will buy valuable time when every minute counts. It is much 'safer' to sleep with the bedroom door closed.
 
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I would think you could add a couple grates to the door (top and bottom so air can circulate), or just add a couple warm blankets to his bed. Possibly put an electric heater high up like on a shelf or dresser?
 
Smoke kills more people than flames. When you are asleep, you have no sense of smell. None. The smoke will kill you before the flames ever reach you. Having the door closed, even if you are too young to open the door, will buy valuable time when every minute counts. It is much 'safer' to sleep with the bedroom door closed.
Very interesting bit of info. Food for thought....
 
I have to argue with this one as well- I have woke up to the smell of skunk from outside or wood smoke if the fire decides to smolder.
 
We had a climber so we used two baby gates on his door. One on top of the other. It worked for us. He never tried to get out after that.
 
FWIW I have a similar issue. We have toddler twins. Our house is an antique cape, the upstairs is small so we have our bedroom and the kids nursery on the first floor. The stove is in a formal living room/DR/kitchen open area and there are doors from the stove room to the kids nursery, our MBR, TV den etc.

When the kids where little we would put them to bed, close the door for noise, and then I'd open the door when I went to bed.

Now that they are almost 3, my son knows how to open doors, including the outside door. We worry he might wake in the middle of the night and just go out of the house (the outside door has a thumblatch and is not easy to child lock, and yes he can reach the deadbolt too). So we just leave the door closed all night. In our case the kids room door is about 10 feet from the stove and with all other doors open the room is surrounded on 3 sides and above by heated space, so we find that while it cools a little it does not get cold in there.

If I ever feel the need for heat I would use an oil filled radiator and put a baby gate around it.

I also have smoke and CO detectors in their room. Every bedroom should.
 
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Look at the second picture on post #13

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/venting-through-concrete-foundation.115360/#post-1544323

Enclose the heater like this with smoke alarms and timer.


Off topic, but it's entertaining listening to parents talk about their kids. I didn't know there was such a rash of 2 year olds picking locks, scaling walls and making a break for it. I envision them with their sippy cup raking it across the kid gate yelling "ATTICA! ATTICA!"
 
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We have a six year old and a 19 month old. The six year old usually sleeps with his door open. We keep a small oil filled electric radiator in both kids rooms. We keep the little guy's door shut when he sleeps. It works well for us. That thing doesn't get that hot so it's not really a safety concern for us. We keep small space heaters in each of the bedrooms. We like having the option to close our doors if we want.
 
If you go with an electric heater in a childs room you should put a smoke alarm in that room.

It is code here to have a smoke alarm in every bedroom - probably a good idea to have one in there in any case eh?
 
A friend of ours took an old door and cut it in half just above the door handle. Keeps the little guy in his room and allows heat (and sound) to travel through the house in case of emergency. Works really well!
 
Smoke kills more people than flames. When you are asleep, you have no sense of smell. None. The smoke will kill you before the flames ever reach you. Having the door closed, even if you are too young to open the door, will buy valuable time when every minute counts. It is much 'safer' to sleep with the bedroom door closed.

Unless, of course, the fire starts in his room or in the hall in front of his room. Or, in his parent's room and they can't make it out. Or, the hall in front of his parent's room. This is macabre, but being locked in a room is not particularly safe. Also, I wake up to the smell of bacon often. :)
 
I've been burning our new Hearthstone Heritage for a week now and would appreciate your advice.

We have a one story ranch with no basement. All four bedrooms are down a short hallway off the main room where the wood stove is in the center of the house. What tips/solutions do you have for warming our two year old son's room at night? Due to his age we keep his door shut. It's gotten pretty chilly in there, but now I'm worried when temps drop even more we'll have to stop using the stove at night and kick on the electric furnace. :(


-- I run a small floor fan in the hallway pushing cold air towards the wood stove room. This has helped a lot in heating the hallway, but not his room since the door is shut.

-- I installed a ceiling fan in the stove room and run it on low drawing air up towards the ceiling.

-- Until he's older, I don't feel comfortable running an electric heater in there where we can't monitor him.

-- I read a lot after searching and it seems very mixed whether running the furnace fan On all the time will warm the rooms.


I would imagine this situation arises often, so what do I need to do?

Thanks.

Just saw an ad for this one and thought it may exactly fit your bill: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/envi-highefficiency-electric-p-105971

Small electric heater, wall-mounted, cool to the touch. Probably just right to keep the room at temp while he is sleeping.
 
For both our kids rooms I put in the Reiker room conditioner, think ceiling fan with build in electric heater. Works great to keep the room at a set temperature with the doors closed. Plus when I did have a problem with one they were very quick to send replacement parts and instructions. I think I bought them at Lowes or Menards.
 
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