Hi, I have read up on some other of the other yurt owners problems/solutions. I would like to present my situation and get some input/advice for my specifics. We have a 30' yurt that is around 700 sq ft and has a center height of approx 20'. This is a tall yurt, so a lot of heat goes to the ceiling! We do have some NASA-type insulation, however this is not one of the nicer Pacific brand-type yurts, so it's pretty drafty. Last year we received and installed a free wood stove that would probably be considered a smoke dragon. It's an old cast iron with double front doors that do not seal properly due to being slightly off-kilter/possibly warped and a side loading door as well. This is a very narrow stove, only 12" deep, so it's hard to stack the wood in it. The ashes would build up quickly blocking the air inlets, so we'd often end up cracking the front doors to get a good burn and get heat in the house rather than up the pipe, but it felt really dangerous...and it was! On windy days it would back-smoke so bad we'd have to leave the house because even if we closed the stove doors, they weren't airtight, so the smoke would still pour in. I'm pretty sure that a big part of the problem was too short of a chimney, though most of the time we seemed to have a decent draft. We have 8" Dura-Vent DVL double wall pipe running straight out of the top of the stove collar for 2' to a 90 degree double wall elbow that transitions into a 3' Duravent Class A chimney pipe which passes through the yurt wall (it does have a slight upward angle) into a Class A chimney T up an 8' Class A chimney stack and ending in a chimney cap with spark arrestor. From what I've read it sounds like I need a taller chimney. Additionally, we were burning cedar, madrone, oak, and cottonwood. All well-seasoned.
Problems we are looking to overcome:
1. Back-smoking on windy days
2. Burning through wood so quickly
Things we'd like our new stove to do:
1. More consistent temperatures (the old wood stove was okay when we got it blazing but the rest of the time was meager despite all the wood we shoved in)
2. Easier starts without having to keep the doors open for long periods of time
3. Overnight burns, coals in the morning
4. A relatively clean burn
5. More radiant heat, so we don't all have to crowd around the front of the stove
I have been searching Craigslist for a used wood stove, but I'm kind of leery since it's hard to know how it will perform without firing it up. I've started to think that maybe it'd be smarter just to invest in a new one. The used ones are usually $200-600 whereas the new ones are $700-$1000.
As far as buying a new stove goes, we have an Ace Hardware which offers free shipping to store. The stoves I was considering through them are the Century Model CB0004, England's NC-13, or the NC-30.
Another local hardware store stocks, or can order, the Vogelzang Durango (I'm not sure if the shape will work well for my hearth), Vogelzang Vg-650ELG, and the SBI-Drolet DB02800.
Any opinions, advice, experience is welcome! Thanks!
Problems we are looking to overcome:
1. Back-smoking on windy days
2. Burning through wood so quickly
Things we'd like our new stove to do:
1. More consistent temperatures (the old wood stove was okay when we got it blazing but the rest of the time was meager despite all the wood we shoved in)
2. Easier starts without having to keep the doors open for long periods of time
3. Overnight burns, coals in the morning
4. A relatively clean burn
5. More radiant heat, so we don't all have to crowd around the front of the stove
I have been searching Craigslist for a used wood stove, but I'm kind of leery since it's hard to know how it will perform without firing it up. I've started to think that maybe it'd be smarter just to invest in a new one. The used ones are usually $200-600 whereas the new ones are $700-$1000.
As far as buying a new stove goes, we have an Ace Hardware which offers free shipping to store. The stoves I was considering through them are the Century Model CB0004, England's NC-13, or the NC-30.
Another local hardware store stocks, or can order, the Vogelzang Durango (I'm not sure if the shape will work well for my hearth), Vogelzang Vg-650ELG, and the SBI-Drolet DB02800.
Any opinions, advice, experience is welcome! Thanks!