Stove ideas for heating a ski cabin for 1-2 weeks between visits?

[alexmoot]

We have a ~1500 sq ft ski cabin with baseboard electric heat and an old, large freestanding (and very inefficient) wood stove. We come up about 3 out of 4 weekends during the winter. When we are in the cabin, we heat the cabin with the large freestanding wood stove and turn the electric heat off.

Our problem is that between weekends the house is heated (at 50F) by the baseboard electric heat, which costs us ~$100/week (unless we turn off the water and turn off the electricity, which is very inconvenient).

We are interested in any ideas for a new freestanding stove (pellet, wood, coal) that could keep the house at ~50F over 1-2 weeks without the need for any feeding. I have seen some info on pellet and coal stoves with automatic feed mechanisms, but I am unclear whether any of these stoves can keep running for 1-2 weeks between our weekend visits.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex

 

[Harley]

Just a thought, but if the water freezing is the main issue, wouldn't it be much easier to use some sort of heat tape/wrap on the pipes, and then you could just turn the t-stat off when you leave for the week? Then you wouldn't really have to worry about the cost of heating the rest of the cabin (either by electric baseboard or by stove).

 

[alexmoot]

Thanks for the suggestion - I will see if it might work.

We tend to leave freezable groceries in the refrigerator, though, and it's also nice to have the house partially heated and the water on when we arrive at the cabin at ~10pm on a Friday night (so we can put the kids into warm beds), etc.

Alex

 

[Harley]

Aside from gas, I really don't think you would be able to find something that would be able to keep up the heat for up to 2 weeks.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

nope, you need gas, or hot water panels on the roof and radent floor heat...
i would look into the mass storage devices like this:
(broken link removed to http://www.steffes.com/offpeak/consumer/index.aspx)

 

[DiscoInferno]

Just a thought, but if the water freezing is the main issue, wouldn't it be much easier to use some sort of heat tape/wrap on the pipes, and then you could just turn the t-stat off when you leave for the week? Then you wouldn't really have to worry about the cost of heating the rest of the cabin (either by electric baseboard or by stove).

Even if he emptied the toilets and poured RV antifreeze in all the traps each time, he'd still need to wrap everything left with water in it, including the pipes in the walls, the pressure tank (if a well), etc. Hard to pull off unless the plumbing is pretty central and exposed. I fully winterize a house twice a year, and it's truly a pain, but I've never figured out a way around it that didn't cost big $$$.

I'd say look at a gas/propane furnace, and that may not be a lot cheaper.

 

[citizanken]

Depending on how it is layed out, it may be zoned in such a way that you do not have to run all the baseboards to keep the pipes from freezing. Just run the heat in the critical zones. It might cut down on the bill some at least.

 

[Willhound]

Your electric baseboard heaters are the easiest hassle free way to heat while away in your situation. Propane will work, but not neccessarily at less cost, and then you have the extra cost of installation and purchasing or renting the stove to consider, and also, you then have a flammable fuel/flame appliance burning while you are away.
Don't know about building codes, if any, in your area, but I have seen low temperature baseboard heater thermostats that bypass or replace the factory t-stats that allow you to keep the temp just above freezing, thereby saving you some $$$. A buddy of mine heats a washroom in his garage with one of these, and he is able to set the temp for around 34 or 35F, just enough to keep the pipes from freezing. Be careful if you go this way though, because depending on the location of your heaters/thermostat, 34 at the heater might mean colder temps where your pipes are, so you need to give it some thought.

 

[Hogwildz]

Anyone I know that has that type setup. Has a good neighbor or friend they arrive.
I don't think theres an easy solution in your case. I know some coal furnaces that are auger fed, not sure if they make them that auto grate shake.
You would still have to deal with ash when you showed up.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

nothing is reliable enough unless its pressure fed like gas or coming in through power lines. I would look at a more efficient way to heat with electricity.

 

[Corie]

I thought summits would keep themselves running on low for at least 2-3 weeks?

 

[Hogwildz]

I thought summits would keep themselves running on low for at least 2-3 weeks?

SHHHHH, don't tell everyone!

 

[restorer]

My worry is, what if the power fails?
Close friend here in town, during our single digit weather turned the heaters off and took some time off in his shop. After we hit a booming high of 25 he got a call that 8 inches of water was flowing out of his shop. His landlord did not let him know that a 3 inch water line ran through a back room he did not lease. The damage is still being figured out.

An A-frame ski cottage with any kind of basement could really do some damage if not detected. Think about other safety fixes, also.
If you don't have a back up you could be in trouble.

 

[restorer]

I thought summits would keep themselves running on low for at least 2-3 weeks?

You're not thinking about some of those rare TMI nuclear pellets, are you?????

 

[begreen]

Agreed, the money is much better and safer spent on improving insulation, isolating the heat to where it is really needed. If necessary it might be worth considering replumbing to make the place much easier to drain.

 

[JBinKC]

If you are not open to heating the cabin I would probably invest some RV antifreeze, an electric air compressor with a rubber tipped point to fit into the faucet/hose bibb . I would provide two hose bibbs one as a shut off closest to the ground and one next to it as the spill out then I would heat tape the line from the first hose to the potential frost line and make sure you have some access to blow out the the faucet at your highest level in your home. Make sure when you do it keep all faucets open. I think your return on investment would be well worth it.

 

[Jay H]

Has anybody looked into the use of PEX lines versus standard copper lines. PEX is somewhat new and I believe it can and is used for domestic water lines in a fashion that is a lot less likely to burst when cold. Wont stop your pipes from freezing but I think it would help for catastrophic failure.


They also make electric cord that is wrapped around copper pipes to prevent them from freezing. If you have access to all your pipes handy, it would probably use less electricity than trying to heat the entire space.

Jay

 

[Corie]

I'm going to detail the procedure that we used to shut down our cabin for about 25 years in the adirondacks.



Drain weel pump tank, drain hot water heater. Turn off all water at shut offs below the unit. Siphon all water out of the toilet bowl and tank. Had to use a sponge to get all the water out of the tank. Then, slosh a little blue windshielf washer fluid down the bowl and into the tank. After opening all the faucets and letting the residual water run out of the faucets, we'd slosh a cup full down the shower drain. Slosh a cup down the kitchen sink drain, and down the utility room sink drain.

That's it.

In 25 years we never had a line freeze.

 

[Highbeam]

[quote author="Corie" date="1171400932"]Siphon all water out of the toilet bowl and tank. quote]

The sewer gasses will come up into the house and reek to high heck. Methane goes boom too. You need to keep the toilet's trap, all traps, full of liquid. Antifreeze will work here.

 

[Harley]

I'm going to detail the procedure that we used to shut down our cabin for about 25 years in the adirondacks.



Drain weel pump tank, drain hot water heater. Turn off all water at shut offs below the unit. Siphon all water out of the toilet bowl and tank. Had to use a sponge to get all the water out of the tank. Then, slosh a little blue windshielf washer fluid down the bowl and into the tank. After opening all the faucets and letting the residual water run out of the faucets, we'd slosh a cup full down the shower drain. Slosh a cup down the kitchen sink drain, and down the utility room sink drain.

That's it.

In 25 years we never had a line freeze.

Cabin????? Hot water... shower.... indoor toilet??????? Corie... That aint no cabin!! That would be condidered a palace!

 

[Andre B.]

Personally I would go for the low tech work with nature approach rather then the brute force burn as much energy as it takes to make it work.

Say a 50 gallon insulated tank in the rafters, gravity feeding a sink in the kitchen area and one in the bathroom. Both sinks would have a 5 gallon bucket under them that would get dumped when full.
Sponge baths instead of a tub or shower.
Composting or incinerating toilet.

When you want to leave, dump the buckets, and open the drain valve for the 50 gallon tank.

It is a weekend cabin it should be cheap, easy, low maintenance, low energy design. Unfortunately building codes are making such low energy designs illegal, forcing the use of high tech resource intensive solutions to what were once simple problems.

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

I family I used to stay with in Northern Michigan heated only the main bathroom with Elct. Baseboard. The kitchen pipes were heat taped. The main bath had a pantry closet for freeze sensitive groceries. They had a cooler to more ordinary groceries back and forth. It worked pretty well if everyone knew the drill.

ATB,
Mike P

 

[Corie]

Siphon all water out of the toilet bowl and tank. quote]

The sewer gasses will come up into the house and reek to high heck. Methane goes boom too. You need to keep the toilet's trap, all traps, full of liquid. Antifreeze will work here.

We didn't suck the water out of the trap, we simply removed the fluid from the bowl using a clean kerosene siphone. We then sloshed blue windshielf washer fluid into the drain.

In 25 years of being winterized, no methane, no boom, not stink, no frozen lines.

 

[Corie]

And also, I'm with Andre on that one! That's exactly what i want to do as soon as I have the money and the time. I've got a pretty sweet power free setup for a cabin, just need the land and the money!

Cabin????? Hot water… shower.... indoor toilet??????? Corie… That aint no cabin!! That would be condidered a palace!

Yeah, I suppose you're right. It was a cabin in that there was just bare sheetrock on the walls and plywood on the floor. And thed kitchen counter was a craftsman work bench. However we've always had septic, hot water and of course a wood stove. Although up until 6 years ago, the wood stove sat on three sheets of asbestos.

 

[slowzuki]

Air-air heat pump is cheap and would cut the power bills in half. Other than that there are pellet boilers with large capacity auto refilling hoppers but I wouldn't like to leave one for weeks. Solar is another option but insulation is probably the cheapest way to go.