Heating With Water. An inexpensive, low tech solution

www.thegreenlifefarm. com for our blog and heating with water. It's snowy outside and the temperature is 0ºC and falling. We are living in an insulated room, in our barn, for the winter. This summer we will build a cabin in the forest and install a wood stove but for now we manage to heat with a small, flameless, catalytic heater used normally in RVs. It is good but costly to use. We don't want to risk the fire hazard of installing a wood stove in our 100 year old barn, so we do what we can to improve our heating system without spending too much money or going on the grid. Heating air is very inefficient. Heating masses such as water is far better. The warmed masses retain heat for a far longer period of time than air and emit a healthy, radiant heat. In order to capture and store as much as possible from the heater, we built a stand to hold a pot of about three gallons of water over the heater. Heat rises and we realized that a lot of the heat is trapped over our heads near the ceiling. In order to capture the "lost heat" near the ceiling and store it, we placed gallons of water no further than 10 feet away from our heat source on the upper shelves around the room. It seems to work. It's now easier to warm up the room and it stays warm longer.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• altternative energy
• renewable energy
• self sufficiency

[Annahealthseeker]

Propane? Isn't that flammable? Please be careful.

[thegreenlifefarm]

@Annahealthseeker The style of heater we are using is the new, flameless, catalytic, heater that is often used in RV's because of it's flameless technology and minimal ventilation requirements. We are always mindful of the dangers of experimentation and follow the recommendations in the heater's instructions for clearance etc.  Thanks for your concern.

[drakethick1]

This is creating higher humidity in the air in the shack and the specific heat of humid air is much more than dry air so you get moist air that can store more heat than dry air.

[laferriere78]

not very nice looking but you got the concept across. thanks for the vid.

[milestogotilisleep]

Why don't you heat the water with a wood stove? Very cheap. If you burn seasoned wood it burns clean. We harvest trees that are blown down in storms and we season then of 1 year before we burn.

[scarekrow9]

my grandmother heated the house like this 50 years ago.

[dmacosta1]

love it .I do the same but i use metal 5 gallon can

[man4cannabis]

its a good idea but the 2x4 around the propane heater looks dangerous thanks for vid will sub

[coolpat71]

if i am not mistaking you live in Nova Scotia right ??? i'm in Fredericton NB so nice to see someone close to here living like this