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travellerw
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2021 17:45
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Well it looks like I'm gonna give my newly insulated cabin a real test on new years eve. Gonna be lovely and clear, but darn cold (-36C). Gonna be tired of carrying wood by the time we leave!

I convinced my wife it will be romantic


Clear. Wind up to 15 km/h. Low minus 36 with temperature rising to minus 30 by morning. Wind chill near minus 42. Frostbite in minutes.
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gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2021 18:10
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Once in and stove going it'll be a snap
Hope you have some good books and games.
Have fun!

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2021 19:45
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Wood splits easier when its frozen, it's also harder to break a sweat.

What kind of insulation do you have?

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2021 20:46
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Quoting: Brettny
What kind of insulation do you have?


I think there are some pics in my other posts.. Its R20 in the walls, R25 in the roof. All just pink batts with vapour barrier at this point. I'm most worried about the floor as we have R15 foam to put down, but didn't get a chance yet... We will see..

Last time we were there it was -25C that night. So this will definitely be colder. We plan to sleep up in the loft so it should be cozy, but will suck to head down the stairs to stoke the fire!

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2021 21:43
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I used to sleep in the loft with one arm out from under the blankets, when it cooled off enough that I wanted to pull my arm under it was time to re-feed the stove.
I kept my fleecy jacket close to put on, the fire would be down to still good coals for a re-start, Id stack some wood in and sit in front for a bit until it took off.
This way the fire never really went out (learned the hard way), restarted well and the now well heat saturated cabin wasnt deep cold again.

paulz
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2021 09:59
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Give us an update from the cabin! We are heading to our cabin today for NYE. The rotating party we've had with our friends over the last 20 years was interrupted by the pandemic, we hoped to resume this year but again it's cancelled.

I've learned from experience, going back and forth every week, that the first hours and night, getting the cabin structure and contents up to temp is most of the battle, after that successive nights take much less wood and effort.

Happy New Year!

jhp
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2021 11:36
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Don't forget to bring the toilet seat in from the outhouse when you get there.

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2021 18:28
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Well -26 when we got here. Been here for 1 1/2 hours, it’s plus 6 in the cabin, but outside temperature is dropping fast. Guessing it’s gonna be colder than -36c. It’s plus 15 in the loft, so we will be cozy..

Happy New Years all!
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Brettny
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2021 19:19
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20* gain in 1.5hrs isn't bad at all. Considering your wood stove prob hardly put out heat the first 30min or so. Is that the only form of heat?

paulz
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2021 20:40
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Snow sure is pretty compared to wet dirt. Otoh...

Happy New Year!
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travellerw
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2021 20:48
Reply 


Damn.. at -38 and it’s 6:45pm.. might see the magical -40 (without windchill). Loft is steady at +16-18..

@brettny yes, wood heat is all we have.. a run of the mill Drolet wood stove.
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gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2022 15:46
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So, how did this go?

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2022 16:30
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Quoting: gcrank1
So, how did this go?


I think it was a Great Success! It officially hit -40C ambient and hovered between -39 and -40 for the whole night. We were able to keep the loft a toasty 16-22C by filling the stove every 3.5 hours. I slept without covers most of the night.

I think if we had better wood, we could extend that to 5 or 6 hours. However all we have this year is white popular that was standing dead and I didn't season it! We just cut what we could in the late fall and have been burning that! We have some really nice pockets of Tamarak on our land that I plan to cut and season for next year! Personally I think Tamarak is one of the best firewoods. Its hotter than Birch, but pops and snaps (which I like, but some don't).

I'm really looking forward to insulating the floor and seeing the difference. We were loosing a lot of heat out the floor as if you set anything liquid on the floor more than 10ft from the stove it would freeze. My dog wasn't happy with the frozen water bowl. LOL!
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FishHog
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2022 17:38
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glad it worked well for you. Don't think your actually losing heat through the floor as opposed to gaining cold through the floor.

Insulation will help alot.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2022 18:54
Reply 


On our 1st cabin with 1" blue DOW styro under the deck/between the joists we didnt have stuff freezing on the floor. It was 12x24 and we could put the ltr pop bottle in the far corner to be handy through the eve then put it outside in the cooler for overnight (no bears here then that we knew about).

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2022 22:45
Reply 


Quoting: gcrank1
On our 1st cabin with 1" blue DOW styro under the deck/between the joists we didnt have stuff freezing on the floor.


That is excellent to hear.. We are doing 2" concrete grade styro over the existing floor, with 5/8 OSB over top. I'm hoping that will be enough to keep things from freezing (and our dogs paws from being cold).

I have a novel idea for skirting as well, but that won't happen till summer.

All in all... It was a great new years.. and it was romantic according to the wife.

Things got a little more interesting this morning as it snowed about 6" and getting back out was a little iffy! However, it all worked out!

Aklogcabin
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 11:05
Reply 


Thanks for the report, glad all is well. I still need to insulate the floor in our cabin. I know the just a throw rug helps.
I'm going to insulate the floor and then sheet over the bottom of the floor joists. Been wondering if putting skirting on also would help. Well I guess it would but concerned about a lack of air flow under the cabin and excessive moisture. And having a mold or moisture issue.
Oh well, put some slippers on n throw another log on the fire.
Its still cabin time right

paulz
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 11:35
Reply 


Always good memories the first few times staying in the cabin, seeing how it does, what it needs next.

Quoting: gcrank1
On our 1st cabin with 1" blue DOW styro


Is there anything of 1" or less thickness that can be put on top of plywood and under T&G wood flooring that would be of any insulation value?

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 11:45
Reply 


Quoting: paulz
Is there anything of 1" or less thickness that can be put on top of plywood and under T&G wood flooring that would be of any insulation value?


We are putting down 2" FOAMULAR 600.. You could do 3/4 or 1". It has a compressible strength of 60psi and you can put flooring right over top (maybe not tile). It would give you an R-Value of about 5 (because of its high compressible strength and density it looses some R-Value over other types of foam).

ICC
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 13:34 - Edited by: ICC
Reply 


Quoting: travellerw
FOAMULAR 600.

Wow! Overkill?? You can pour a concrete slab on top of the 15 PSI and build a house on it. I used 20 PSI for my home

Aklogcabin
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 13:59
Reply 


Isn't that the type of blue board insulation that you would use under a concrete slab ?

BRADISH
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 14:14
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We had a decent test of insulation and build quality this NYE weekend too. 60mph winds in the 10-15F temp range made for some pretty wicked times. Luckily we were happy and warm in the cabin we use for now. Friends weren't so lucky and couldn't keep their place above 45F by noon 🤪

Ultimately we were still bested by the wind as our house in town lost power from the storm and I was concerned it may be awhile before it was restored. Loading up and drive out of the cabin was less fun with 50-60mph wind than usual.

Oh well, it was a good demonstration of nature for us as we head into the summer building season. There are a few items I plan I putting an extra few nails in when it comes time to build the cabin 😆

Trail cam at the build site still got a false positive trigger on this gust despite it's sensitivity turned down to 2 of 10, but I don't really blame it. 😁 Hard to capture was the flex of the 4'*5' picture windows on those big gusts. Free entertainment right there!
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travellerw
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 14:24
Reply 


Quoting: ICC
Wow! Overkill?? You can pour a concrete slab on top of the 15 PSI and build a single story house on it. I used 20 PSI for my home


It was a craigslist find (actually Kijiji, but same thing).. Left over from a big construction job. I was told it was onsite for like 3 years tarped. It was dirty, but otherwise looked new. The company was just trying to recoup some costs by selling it off quickly (with a minimum buy amount). I bought it for less than 1/2 what HomeDepot wanted for the 20 PSI stuff.

I figured since its overkill, I would only go with 5/8 OSB on top, saving me more! We will see if that is a mistake!

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 14:26
Reply 


Quoting: BRADISH
Ultimately we were still bested by the wind as our house in town lost power from the storm and I was concerned it may be awhile before it was restored. Loading up and drive out of the cabin was less fun with 50-60mph wind than usual.


That is some big wind.. Damn..

I wished I had a lovely mountain view like that..

BRADISH
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2022 17:30
Reply 


Quoting: travellerw
I wished I had a lovely mountain view like that..

It is lovely indeed, but we end up paying for it via exposure! Big forest fire in 2006 burned down many cabins and much of the dense forest. Sounds like the state may reclassify this area as grasslands instead of forest since the trees are having an awful hard time re-establishing themselves 😢

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 08:33
Reply 


Well your place was far toastier than mine this weekend. I have zero insulation in my place except for the couple batts around the pellet stove. It was single digits or below outside during the night. I was lucky to keep it in the 30's farenheit inside the cabin for my stay, needless to say i slept in the loft. I burnt through 6 bags of pellets in 2.5 days

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 11:11
Reply 


Quoting: WILL1E
I was lucky to keep it in the 30's farenheit inside the cabin for my stay, needless to say i slept in the loft. I burnt through 6 bags of pellets in 2.5 days


Its amazing how much difference insulation makes. Even partial insulation.

With that said, I was a little worried that I couldn't maintain a warm enough temp, or would run out of wood. Nope, I was surprised at how little wood it took once the cabin was up to temp. So once you get it all insulated and vapour barrier, I expect your 6 bags will go down to 1 bag!

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