Four Ways to Heat Your Tiny House
When you build your own Tumbleweed, heat is one issue you need to think about. The type of heating you choose will depend upon where the final destination of your tiny house will be.
Normal central heat or large wood stoves, etc., just produce too much heat for your small space. So what are some of your options? In this article we will look at some ideas for using four types of heat. Wood, gas, propane and electric heat.
Wood
The original Very Small Woodstove is the Jotul 602, from Norway. This model is a mere 12 inches wide, 19 inches deep. They are found most often in cottages and cabins in the woods, where the 602’s good looks are a highlight. It’s been around almost forever. Although very small it can heat amazingly well.
Jotul 602
12 x 19
$700
The tiniest very small woodstoves are those built for boats. These are designed for very tight quarters, and often have a railing on the top to keep pots from rolling off. Here is a typical one from the Canadian coast measuring all of 12 inches by 12 inches. They are made of cast iron and porcelain and are so cute and enchanting, folks have thought of getting a sailboat just so they need one. You can use one in your tiny house just as easily.
Sardine
12 x 12
$650
Available from Marine Stove
Propane
Propane is also popular in tiny houses and Tumbleweed uses the Dickinson heater. This lovely little heater/fireplace. Ideal for boats or houses up to 32 ft. The combustion process is completely isolated from the inside of the structure by the unique, direct vent design. A built-in blower provides good heat circulation. Heater is sold with all accessories including a stainless steel backing plate and 28″ of flexible, double stainless chimney. Safe, easy to use and extremely economical.
Newport Propane Fireplace (P9000)
17 x 9
$1044
Available from Dickson Marine
Gas
Gas is also an option and Woodstock Soapstone Company has the perfect little stove for tiny spaces called the Cottage Mini Soapstone Gas Stove.
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- It’s 8,000 BTU heat output is perfect for a cozy, intimate area. It takes up little space (it can be installed on a stand or wall- mounted shelf). It’s a handsome design.
The Mini Franklin(tm) will bring warmth, grace, and style to any room setting. Its small fire will add ambiance and though it is just 17″ tall, it will produce almost 8,000 BTU/hr!
Cottage Mini
17 x 14
$1049
Available from Woodstock Soapstone Company
Electric
There are many small electric heaters that will work extremely well in your tiny house. Following are a couple examples available at your local Walmart. Electric heaters cost much less than the above wood stoves and propane or gas stoves. If electricity is easily available this might be your most affordable option.
Oil-Filled Radiator De’Longhi EW0715W Safeheat Oil-Filled Radiator features Patented Easy Snap Wheels, Adjustable Thermostat and Three Heat Settings
$39.87
Available from Walmart
Titan Ceramic Heater with Thermostat #TCM16W-U
Compact yet powerful, this ceramic heater sports a thermostat that lets you choose how much heat you want.
Available from Walmart
Toe Kick Heater
Electric Kickspace Heater (120 Volts)
$156
A toe-space heater will fit where no other heater will. It can be recessed into toe space areas under kitchen or utility room cabinets or into the soffit area above them.
It can also be recessed into the risers of a stairway or under the vanity in the bathroom. It is convenient for checkout counters, ticket or toll booths and many other places where no other heater seems to fit.
Hopefully this will give you some ideas and a starting point to figure out what type of heat is best for your tiny home.
You should also talk about pellet stoves. I know of one that is intended to heat a single room
I’d love to know more about this pellet stove, Denis!
Denis, please share.
No pellet stoves! They are extremely noisy, the 40# bags are a pain and they are just awful to clean. Much worse than a wood stove! From one who knows!
I was researching small direct vent gas stoves for a small space (350 sq ft) and came across small units made by Ashley. Model AGDV8 width measures only 13 1/2″ and Model AGDV12 measures 17.30″ They are wall mounted and think they would work well for tiny houses. There is not any reviews that I could find. Not sure if they are new. Anyone know about these? I thought I’d put it out there as you know small size economical seems to be not the norm. These two are $550 and larger one is $1,009.00 on sale currently.
People that bought these on Amazon gave reviews of these models and the company itself as something not to buy with many problems.
Will Tumbleweed install a Williams Direct Vent propane heater instead of the Dickinson?
Just in time, as propane prices jump 54%, I’ve expanded my DIY solar panels array on my offgrid 96-sf tinyhouse to 1,300 watts, gotten five 100-watt, 12VDC minifan-equipped PTC heaters (each on its own separate switch), and now even on dark, cloudy prewinter days with nights falling into the 20’s°F, I’m by day thus solar-electrically heating either my (midroom-partitioned) actual livingquarters, or at least my insulated-drawcurtained bunkcubby space. I guess I should mention I had my tinyhome’s framing cavities thickly-sprayfoamed, and have gradually added additional insulation, including foamcore radiant barrier…
And re tinyhouse-(cooling) in summer, here in East Tennessee, where temps years ago already had spiked as high as 94°F: thus far, those measures mentioned in my post above, a reflective, likewise thickly-sprayfoamed Galvalume roof, South & West sides’ deep, solarpanels-roofed overhangs/canopies with vertical latticework and shadecloth that 100%-sunshade those walls (as temps of sun-heated outdoor objects measuredly hit as high as 154°F), plus powerful 12VDC blowers blowing-in, thru floor grates, gables-exhausted cool underfloor air that’s replenished only from my tinyhouse’s shady North side, all keep me sweat-free-comfy even on the hottest days, when merely stepping outside feels like stepping into a furnace. Since all surrounding INdoor-surfaces’ temps, even on hottest days, nonetheless stay several degrees COOLER than my body’s SKIN-temp, and because heat always radiates TO cooler objects (not FROM them), I stay summertime-cool thanks largely to this highly-effective ‘radiant’ cooling. And like many of us in the tinyhouse community, I’m interestedly watching developments in new ‘microsplit’ (actually one-piece) window-mountable heatpump-AC units, as summers appear to be heading toward ever-hotter temps. If I owned my land insteada leasing it, an aircooling ‘earthtube’ system, plus a small solarpowered dehumidification unit, would be another watts-saving, more Earth-friendly possibility…
Where can I get a pellet stove for a small space 300 square ft