Ventless propane stoves

[Bert Kemp]

I 'm thinking how inefficient my forced hot air furnace is and how much propane it gobbles up. I'm thinking about a ventless propane stove. Mostly want it for the living room, kitchen open area about 600 sq ft for early morning warm up as I basically shut the heat off at night and by 10am most days its warm enough outside you don't need heat anymore. but from 6am till 9 or so a little heat is nice when I'm sitting by the computer checking mail and listening to the news on the boob tube.
Does anyone use these? any advice on what to get ? How much gas do they use?

[Jerome Stanek]

I have a vent less Gas heater in my house and a vent less propane heater in my shop. They both work very well. The one in the house has 3 settings 6000 12000 and 18000 btu we will run it at 6000 most of the time and when it gets down to below 15 degrees we kick it up to 12000 very seldom go up to 18000 and our house stays at about 65 wich is what we like. Our furnace only runs once in a while mostly at night when the temp drops down. we do keep a ceiling fan on low to keep the air moving.

[Lee Schierer]

Just be aware that you will be adding moisture and CO2 to your living area the entire time the unit is running.

[Jerome Stanek]

Just be aware that you will be adding moisture and CO2 to your living area the entire time the unit is running.

yes that is the nice thing about them I don't have to run a humidifier

[Jason Roehl]

Just be aware that you will be adding moisture and CO2 to your living area the entire time the unit is running.

His location does say Arizona...I don't think the moisture's a problem. As for the CO2, millions of people in this country have gas ovens and stoves, be it natural gas or propane, and those don't necessarily get vented.

[Moses Yoder]

For your purpose I would buy a vintage Coleman 502 stove off ebay and learn how to run it. You can get a heat drum to go with it. I would never run it while sleeping just in the off chance something goes wrong with it. Similar to this one, you can probably buy them cheaper. Item # 201161719626

[Brian W Smith]

Not commenting on the choice of weapons(gas vs ?) but instead....your notion of zone heat.We've been doing this for 30+ years,with an in-wall,elect forced air unit.It's mounted under the kitchen table so largely goes un-noticed.It functions exactly how it seems you'all are proposing,and would never be without this type of zoned heating,irrespective of what type/style main heater is.Best of luck with your decision.

[Art Mann]

For 20+ years, we supplemented our central heat with a high efficiency wood burning cast iron stove. A few years ago, I got tired of cutting wood and cleaning up the mess associated with a wood fire and replaced it with am authentic looking vent-less gas burning stove. Our original intentions were very much like yours - just a few hours in the morning. What actually happened was we began to depend on it more and more to heat only the parts of the house we stay in most of the time. At this point, I would say our usage is about 50% central heat and 50% stove. It does not smoke, smell or leave any soot or other residue. We no longer run a humidifier. The thermostat is at least as accurate as the programmable one installed on our central system. We don't worry about running it all night because that is what millions of people do with similar equipment every day. Being afraid of burning gas is, in my opinion, equivalent to worrying that you are going to burn to death in your car because it carries 20 gallons of highly flammable liquid. If you are really concerned, you can buy and install inexpensive propane and CO sensors that look and work similar to a smoke alarm. I have both in my travel trailer.

Incidentally, carbon dioxide is not a poisonous gas. You can suffocate from it but it is quite difficult. If you breath too high a concentration, you will know it immediately whether you were asleep or not. It is not the lack of oxygen that induces the gasping reflex when you try to hold your breath too long but rather an excess of carbon dioxide. Other gases like N2 or CO are much more dangerous because they don't induce the gasping reflex.

[Bert Kemp]

I'm not worried about running a stove at night at all, I like a cold bedroom to sleep in and why keep the rest of the house warm at night anyway so I shut the heat down at night, I do live in AZ and the house seldom gets below 45 50 inside even in Jan. But when I get up I like it around 65 to 68 to sit around and watch news answer emails and stuff, so a small gass stove might work for that instead on the central heat.
Mose's that stove you gave me a link to is a little less then what I'm looking for and doesn't look to safe. I can picture that sitting in the middle of my living room floor and the cat knocking it over and then a big fireball . I'd buy that for the bob house on the lake in NH tho.

[Bruce Volden]

I have been running a Comfort Glow lp heater (wall mount) in my office for 20 years now.
It is a ventless model and I added on a blower for heat distribution.
I have it hooked to a 300# lp tank which lasts me an entire year.
It does throw out moisture which is fine for SD's -20F winters.
HTH

Bruce

[Tom Stenzel]

The real problem isn't the carbon dioxide or the moisture, it's carbon monoxide. Normally heaters don't give off much CO, but if the oxygen level in the room goes down it can then start to give off prodigious and fatal amounts of CO. So make sure you have enough air leakage to keep that from happening. From the usage that you describe (run a short time to take the chill out) you shouldn't have any problems.

Just as a point of reference, an 1500 watt electrical heater puts out about 5100 BTUs. If you have one, try it for a day and see if that's enough heat. Don't know how much electricity costs in your area but if you can do it it'll give you an idea how much heat you need. And if warms the room up as fast as you would like.

I would think Jerome Stanek's recommendation makes the most sense. You'll never need 18000 BTUs but looking at the wall mount propane heaters that size is common.

-Tom

[Jerome Stanek]

most have an oxygen depletion sensor and if you have a Smoke CO detector you should be good to go

[Brian Elfert]

I have a Mr Heater Big Buddy heater. It is vent-less. I don't like it because the air starts to smell and taste funny after a while. I always use it with a CO detector and it doesn't go off, but it is certainly putting something into the air.

[Lee Schierer]

The real problem isn't the carbon dioxide or the moisture, it's carbon monoxide. Normally heaters don't give off much CO, but if the oxygen level in the room goes down it can then start to give off prodigious and fatal amounts of CO. So make sure you have enough air leakage to keep that from happening. From the usage that you describe (run a short time to take the chill out) you shouldn't have any problems.


-Tom

Both CO and CO2 will kill you. As the concentrations start to increase you will first feel drowsy, then you will get a headache, then you fall asleep or unconscious just before you die. The fire requires far less oxygen to continue than you do.

If you have a ventless device get a CO detector and install it in the same room as your device. If the alarm ever goes off get out.

[Brad Adams]

I run a plumbing and heating business, my employees are instructed to not hook up, or re-light a vent free heater period. Too much liability, in all the bad things that can and eventually will happen. We had a customer a few years ago who ran a vent free heater all winter in workshop/detached building. Needless to say it filled the building with moisture, which in turn caused a big black mold problem. Guess who his homeowners insurance blamed for the situation, even though all we did was run the gas line to the unit. So my opinion is DO NOT INSTALL ONE!

[Jerome Stanek]

Here there is more moisture in the summer than my ventless puts out in the winter