Tent Wood Stove and Reflecting Heat

riden

riden

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Heading to moose camp tomorrow, I woke up today and it was -12. We camp pretty high in the hills and it is always colder there.

I am in charge of our woodstove and I am always trying to make it more comfortable at night. Seems like an awful lot of heat is wasted on a wood stove as it gets absorded behind it, into the tent wall.

Has anyone ever tried setting up a refelective surface behind the stove to kick back heat toward the cots? I am thinking if it reflected back more heat then I could turn the stove down more and get a longer burn.

Has anyone tried anything similar?
 
Reflecting Heat

At the cottage we used some sheet metal behind the wood stove to direct the heat out of the corner into the rest of the room. It worked well.

When camping I've often used one of those metalic plastic survival blankets to reflect the heat from a campfire. They're cheap and easy to pack. As long as they can be placed far enough from the stove to prevent them from melting, they could work too.
 
Yes..we used a reflective, fireproof material for the back side of the stove. As the stove is in the corner, it worked very well It was about 4' high, and 8' long. I believe was purchased at Home Depot. It is flexible, and rolls up for easy storage, and transport.
 
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We used the wall of an old steel shed behind our stove.
Worked well, but still needed stoking during the night, a job for those on pee parade.
 
One of our guys in hunt camp consistently does not bring enough blankets - so he is always the guy getting up 2-3 times a night to stoke.

Back to point another idea is to build a small rock wall around that corner. They will not only reflect the heat but also absorb it and release it for when the fire goes out.
 
I bought a chunk of aluminum flashing from the hardware store that was about 2x4 feet for next to nothng, bent it in two places to match the stove and stood it up behind the woodstove in our last house. Instant change in the amount of heat felt in the room and it cost me next to nothing in effort or money. I highly recommend trying it!
 
Years ago I saw an article in a hunting magazine about building a reflector oven out of sticks and HD tinfoil.

The idea of a hot apple pie on a moose hunt would be freakin' awesome.:p

I've always thought this would work in a wall tent.
 
The most important refinement of all is ---- outside air feed.

The difference is night and day.

Instead of a drafty, cold, floor and chilly back corners due to the sucking interior vacuum created by the feeding of the fire from the inside, an outside air feed is the opposite, it creates a positive pressure in the room.
Expanding warmed air is forced out. No drafts at all and toasty right down to the floor. Tee shirts and socks at -25c. You can also damp down for a long sleep without refilling the stove. Six to eight hours with hardwood.
We control our fire with a flapper valve 'throttle' mounted inside the 4" intake pipe, and a normal damper in the 6" stovepipe to fine tune.
For the system to work the stove itself must be airtight.
A 'gooseneck' is mounted outside up high to deal with deep snow.
Wood consumption is dramatically less.

Our homemade sheet stainless stove was purpose built this way, and yes, it does add some 'complications' to achieve the benefit's. We'll never go back though, spoil't rotten after 30 years of "Ahaaa"!!. :cheers: :) :canadaFlag:

Remember always our servicepeople. It is through their sacrifice's that we enjoy this day of freedom.
 
Some great advice on this thread, especially about bringing in outside air and creating a positive pressure. I bought a 10x10 canvas tent with the intention of doing some winter camping, so this is perfect timing. If a person was going to be camping in the same spot all the time, having a few things stashed would be good. The aluminum flashing is a good idea, too.

A buddy and I tented in the late Fall of '09 and we found out that sleeping on the ground is not the way to go, so I need to find a reasonable cot. We had blow-up mattresses, but the cold still crept through. We also found that wearing a toque helped immensely. We each had a little tent, no heat. We were warm enough, but it wasn't real cold out.

On to the next level!!:p
 
ht tp://www.anglerguide.com/articles/505.html

ht tps://forums.cabelas.com/showthread.php?t=12066
 
Worst comes, just stockpile the cut wood along the front wall and wide wall near the stove. This will help. This is a ll we ever did for moose camp and when we set up the walltent inthe mountains for winter snowmobiling. Never had an issue with heat, but we built a good stove.

As mentioned, you can get some product on a roll, approx. 4' in width and roll it out to reflect some heat back. Maybe line part of the inside ceiling of the tent close to the stove and place a tarp over the outside roof . Cut a small cross slot where the stove pipe (if up thru the roof of tent). Fit pipe thru it and it will melt back a bit from the heat of the pipe.
 
We always put sheet metal behind the stove to reflect heat. This is in a deck off a trailer covered in plastic, you'd be surprised how warm it gets in there. We have one of those fans that runs on the heat from the stove, works amazing. New this year was an extension to the chimney that gave the stove more draw and made it burn better.
 
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