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Small Cabin Forum / General Forum / Direct vent wall mounted LP heaters
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Wilbour
Member
# Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:57
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Quoting: creeky
I think, Wilbour, you have the 9k btu heater?


Yup

Wilbour
Member
# Posted: 31 Mar 2018 11:03
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Quoting: creeky
The hardest part for me was the 3' from a corner of a building. It has something to do with wind


That would make sense in that wind blowing parallel to the perpendicular wall would create a vacuum vortex as it rounds the corner. This could create a backdraft pushing exhaust back into the intake. Kinda like the same suction when a semi passes you and your little Smart Car is drawn back behind him.

Fanman
Member
# Posted: 9 May 2018 20:34
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My cabin is heated by a wood stove in the living room and a coal stove in the bedroom, but my 1800 sf house is heated by a propane "fireplace" in the living room (30,000 BTU) and two 7500 BTU direct vent wall mount heaters (Housewarmer, a discount brand from Empire). They work great and require no electricity, which has been a godsend during some extended power outages. After the first winter I removed the old oil furnace. The living room fireplace I bought used for $300 with all the piping, the other two IIRC were also about $300 each, new on ebay.

KinAlberta
Member
# Posted: 12 May 2018 10:10
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Is there an attic mounted unit available? Or ceiling mounted?

Relatively speaking, I have lots of attic space compared to wall space.

A small solar powered fan would be nice but could always wire it in or just rely on ceiling fans to circulate the heat.

Fanman
Member
# Posted: 12 May 2018 10:53
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I doubt you can get a ceiling mounted heater that doesn't require electricity, since they work by convection, i.e. hot air rising.

Wilbour
Member
# Posted: 12 May 2018 18:44
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Yah. The draft into the heater is created by the cooler air being heated and really only works if the heater is close to the floor.

Champ7ac
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 11:00 - Edited by: Champ7ac
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I installed the Northern tool heater- 15,000 btu as mentioned in the earlier part of this thread.
My cabin is 12 x 24 , the heater is able to keep our cabin temps about 64 deg.

My problem is: I 've tried using 30 lb tanks. And they seem to be freezing up on me. I've read that it is suggested to use at least a 100 lb tank.
Would it work, it I was to place the thirty pound tank in
A plywood box wrapped in styrafoam? Just an idea.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. I really like the ability to use the smaller tanks for refilling purposes.

Fanman
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 11:21
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Insulating the tank would make it even worse.

hueyjazz
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 11:45
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Champ

I think your issue is the 100 lb. tank has more space in it to allow liquid to become gas. A propane tank is never all the way filled with liquid. It needs some void space to create gas.
I may be wrong in this but I believe that's the way it works. I have the larger Housewarmer unit but it look like they aren't sold anymore by Northern. It was a nice unit that had a fan and thermostat. It's connected to a 100 pound tank and has worked like a champ. My main use of this was to give the cabin warmth while the woodstove got up and going. It was also a nice perk not to have to get up early in the morning to toss another log into woodstove.

Both of these attributes make for a much more pleasant co-inhabitant of cabin facility. Especially since we cabin is a top a mountain in Upstate, NY.
We had 14" of snow until recently.

Fanman
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 12:57
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It's not the amount a gas space, it's the surface area and total volume. As the liquid propane evaporates into gas, it takes heat, so the propane in the tank cools. The cooler it is, the lower the gas pressure. If it cools too much, there won't be enough gas pressure to supply the heater. A larger tank not only cools slower, it has more surface area so it can more readily draw heat from the surrounding air to replace the heat lost evaporating the gas.

Insulating the tank would just make it harder for the surrounding air to replenish the heat.

Nate R
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 13:04
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You could link 2 30 lb tanks together, and draw from each at the same time.

NorthRick
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 14:45
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I'd get two 40 lb tanks and tie them together. Still manageable for filling but should solve your problems with lack of gas.

hueyjazz
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 15:10
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Fanman
That makes sense. Should have thought that out better. I know when it changes state from liquid to gas there’s a cooling effect. That the basis for air conditionering. Condensing back into liquid gives off heat

Champ7ac
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 15:38
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I had a pretty good feeling that there would be some
good advice available here.
That heater does a nice job keeping the cabin about 64 deg. We augment the heat with either electric baseboard, or a small kerosene stove.

FishHog
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2018 15:47
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i twined 30lb tanks and runs my heater perfectly, along with the other stuff intermittently. Last winter we had a week of -33C temps and it never had an issue.

i run a wood stove as well, but the propane one is on all the time and picks up the temps when I'm not around to stoke the stove or am sleeping well.

deercula
Member
# Posted: 11 Dec 2018 01:17
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Quoting: NorthRick
I'd get two 40 lb tanks and tie them together. Still manageable for filling

I did this. Got all the fittings and hoses for a "t" set up. Ran (2) 40 pounders together into 1 regulator. Worked for my 30,000 BTU furnace. Only problem is that they both go empty at the same time. Then you need 2 filled back-up tanks, or you are without heat until you get them refilled.
I decided to get a bulk tank (100 gallon) so I wouldn't have to be lugging around (4) 40 pounders all the time. I had 2 stolen from a previous camp, so I was reluctant to leave them when I was not around.

FishHog
Member
# Posted: 11 Dec 2018 07:46
Reply 


If you get a switching regulator, it will run one empty, then switch and alert you that the first one is empty giving you time to get it filled.

But if that is your only source of heat, I'd have more than 2 tanks handy. I think I have about 8 kicking around.

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