Heating options for a trailer (Presque Isle, Caribou: insurance, mobile home, contractor)

[reindeerlady]

I have just finished searching the threads on pellet stoves, and saw the Forest uses peat in his woodstove, as well as wood. Does anyone else? And Forest, if you read this, do you have an idea of how many acres you'd need to have to use peat as a backup fuel? We are looking at a couple of trailer/land situations, and a couple of them have a "pond" or "stream" (read, bog) on them, so I'm curious about that.
Also, what is the going price for wood that is green and split in Northern Maine right now? Pellets? One of the places we're considering has a pellet stove in it, DH is going over on Monday to spend a few days checking out the region. I am not comfortable running a chainsaw, and he will be working full time back here, so other than hand-sawing felled wood, I will need some sort of backup. I have many years experience with heating a home with a woodstove, but pellets and furnaces are newer to me.
Oh yes, are those Miller furnaces in a lot of the trailers reliable? Things to look for? Do any of you know anyone who has a woodstove in their trailer, and if so, were they able to get insurance?
Sorry for so many questions, I'm not at all familiar with the pellet stoves, and want to be able to dicker if necessary for a washer and dryer to stay instead!

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Peat is hard to harvest and harder to dry. It is illegal to dig it up in a wetland where it normally exists. Old timers used to gather a little to use as chinking in log cabins.

Hardwood logs in tree length are selling for $85 a cord. You cut and split it. Small quantities of dried and split wood are going for up to $280 a cord.

In order to get a wood stove a safe distance from the wall in most trailers it would have to be in the center of the room. It it's up to code you should be able to get insurance.

Pellets are about $220 a ton. However, there is a shortage of raw material for pellet mills due to so many saw mills being down. Supplies are tight.

A Miller gun furnace is reliable and they last about 15 years before needing a lot of maintenance.

[reindeerlady]

Thanks for the help!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by reindeerlady

I have just finished searching the threads on pellet stoves, and saw the Forest uses peat in his woodstove, as well as wood. Does anyone else? And Forest, if you read this, do you have an idea of how many acres you'd need to have to use peat as a backup fuel?

Peat is commonly used to extend coal. We use it to extend wood.

Sphagnum moss when being farmed grow up to 30 inches deep a year. Farmed peat bogs can be harvested every 8 years. It is a renewable sustainable fuel.

Peat can double the Btu of wood and will extend the hours of the fire.

You could easily use an area of peat bog maybe 20 foot by 20 foot in a winter. Harvested properly and you could harvest again in 8 years.

A pound of wood has a set amount of Btu. Coal has much more. Peat is right in between wood and peat.

Old textbooks used to teach that peat was a 'fossil' fuel. Now we know better.

... We are looking at a couple of trailer/land situations, and a couple of them have a "pond" or "stream" (read, bog) on them, so I'm curious about that.

Very exciting.

Also keep in mind the other uses of peat.

However you will want to put yourself on a anti-fungal supplement, as harvesting peat does subject you to possible systemic fungal infections. I take a Potassium Iodine supplement, which helps to fight all fungal junk.

Welcome to the CD forum.

[reindeerlady]

Oh jeepers thanks for mentioning the fungal side of it; I never would have thought it was fungal! I am terribly allergic to black mold. Found out in my last house, where the cellar had sheetrock that got wet and black mold grew up inbetween the front and backsides of the walls. It was also behind the tub walls. I am normally pretty healthy, but started to get flu-like symptoms, then before 2 days were out, I was flat on my back - sick as a dog. We were pulling all of these walls down just before I got so sick, and when I wasn't home for over 12 hours, I felt much better. We eventually put two and two together, fixed the place up enough to resell to an older guy who was a contractor and got out. Guess I won't be going that route Sounds interesting, tho. I'm always fascinated with the bog people they pull out of the peat in Europe every so often. Incredibly well- preserved.
Isn't Potassium Iodine also used to help fight effects of radiation poisoning?
Anyway, it looks like the 1990's vintage trailers would need possibly a new furnace, or at least an overhaul of the existing one, and a pellet stove that didn't need electricity on for ignition. Trailers get mighty cold fast, I would imagine. I am scared to death of having the furnace "overworked" and start a fire, like I've read about this winter. How do you know if your furnace is working too hard, anyway?

[nutleynut]

Just a thought;
Is it possible for you to insulate any trailer you might choose? I know the trailer's I have seen and lived in are fairly flimsy insulation wise. Effective Insulation is a great way to keep warm and save money.

[Cornerguy1]

reindeerlady, when you say "trailer", are you referring to a conventional camping trailer or to 10 or 12-foot wide mobile home?

Conventional camping trailers are very difficult to heat in cold winter weather due to thin (1 1/2 inch) walls and lousy windows. They can be winterized by closing in around the bottom and adding storm windows, but they still require a lot of heat input unless you're going to add additional insulation on the interior of your walls.. There's also the matter of keeping interior water piping from freezing.

Most mobile homes of later vintage are more stoutly built with and should be heatable if closed in underneath. Good windows or decent storm windows are a must for winter living.

One thing to keep in mind when you're busy making your trailer or mobile home as airtight as possible to make it easier to heat: your wood stove or pellet stove requires an air source to combust. Many woodstove manufacturers make a "mobile home" kit for certain models of woodstoves. These kits allow the stove to draw its combustion air from outside the trailer rather using the warm air in the mobile home.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by reindeerlady

Oh jeepers thanks for mentioning the fungal side of it; I never would have thought it was fungal! I am terribly allergic to black mold. Found out in my last house, where the cellar had sheetrock that got wet and black mold grew up inbetween the front and backsides of the walls. It was also behind the tub walls. I am normally pretty healthy, but started to get flu-like symptoms, then before 2 days were out, I was flat on my back - sick as a dog. We were pulling all of these walls down just before I got so sick, and when I wasn't home for over 12 hours, I felt much better. We eventually put two and two together, fixed the place up enough to resell to an older guy who was a contractor and got out. Guess I won't be going that route Sounds interesting, tho. I'm always fascinated with the bog people they pull out of the peat in Europe every so often. Incredibly well- preserved.

Anyone who might have problems with fungal infections might want to consider a maintenance dose of an anti-fungal.

I know other vets who must be maintained on maintenance anti-fungals to maintain control of fungi issues.

My Dw's first Heart Attack seems to have been brought on by fungi growing in the air ducts where she was working. Lung infections apparently directly effect the heart.

Anyone who has chronic issues with fungi might want to consider an anti-fungal.

... Isn't Potassium Iodine also used to help fight effects of radiation poisoning?

Only within the context of protecting your thyroid. No other organ is protected by using it.

...
Anyway, it looks like the 1990's vintage trailers would need possibly a new furnace, or at least an overhaul of the existing one, and a pellet stove that didn't need electricity on for ignition.

Pellet stoves need electricity to feed the pellets into the hearth. without power they stop.

...
Trailers get mighty cold fast, I would imagine.

It really would depend on the insulation.

...
I am scared to death of having the furnace "overworked" and start a fire, like I've read about this winter. How do you know if your furnace is working too hard, anyway?

I have not read that story.

Usually combustible things are placed too close to a furnace. [which is bad]

Or the clearance around the exhaust is not enough. [which is also bad]

Most furnaces are designed to be very safe. They should be capable of running around the clock with no risk.

[SportFury59]

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

reindeerlady, when you say "trailer", are you referring to a conventional camping trailer or to 10 or 12-foot wide mobile home?

Conventional camping trailers are very difficult to heat in cold winter weather due to thin (1 1/2 inch) walls and lousy windows. They can be winterized by closing in around the bottom and adding storm windows, but they still require a lot of heat input unless you're going to add additional insulation on the interior of your walls.. There's also the matter of keeping interior water piping from freezing.

Most mobile homes of later vintage are more stoutly built with and should be heatable if closed in underneath. Good windows or decent storm windows are a must for winter living.

One thing to keep in mind when you're busy making your trailer or mobile home as airtight as possible to make it easier to heat: your wood stove or pellet stove requires an air source to combust. Many woodstove manufacturers make a "mobile home" kit for certain models of woodstoves. These kits allow the stove to draw its combustion air from outside the trailer rather using the warm air in the mobile home.

I had a friend who heated his mobile home with a wood stove. In really cold weather, say -20 -25 degrees below 0 his water would freeze because the lines were located under the floor between the insulation and floor and the wood stove heat couldn't reach them. Whereas the heating ducts from your gas/oil furnace are in/under the floor and water lines are fairly close to them thus receiving heat from this duct work. (side note) One year this same fellow plowed out a "winter" driveway in back of his house which was right over buried water line and by removing snow from this area and driving over it, the frost went down to his water line (no snow to insulate ground) and froze it and he had to carry water from the neighbor til spring. Needless to say he didn't plow that area ever again.

[reindeerlady]

Wow, many good points to consider- thank you all. Given that we have a very low - rather pitiful, actually - budget for all this, we are looking at older farmhouses with all their "fun" project possibilities and mobile homes, which I've always called trailers. When DH comes over this week, he'll be doing a drive by of several of them, which I've been busily Google Earth-ing and making a route for him to go.
If we go with a mobile home, we will be almost immediately looking to add a masonry stove and a super-insulated addition to it, so we're looking at the lower-priced ones, definitely. My top consideration is the lay of the land and that it be mostly open, as I'm a gardener.
DH leaves tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on the weather, as it's a 12 hr. drive, whew. I have to stay here and care for our kitties and keep the home fires (ok, furnace) burning. We have a very ill kitty who has to eat every 4 hours, round the clock - just try to find a pet sitter willing to do that! I'm eager to see what DH comes up with, based on my research of the area. We're focusing in more on the Presque Isle, Caribou and Houlton areas. Please keep him in mind for a safe trip? Thanks!