[JustPiper]

Would a camping type propane be ok? Venting ?

[brucecw]

Would a camping type propane be ok? Venting ?

Unless you do some serious work to vent the propane stove to a chimney or ventilate the room very well, DO NOT use it indoors. You run a huge risk of asphyxiation due to carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide. It seems like every year a few people around here try using a camping stove or something similar for heat - especially those who came up to the middle South from the deep South or Mexico (yes, I know....) and are surprised by how cold it can get at times. Not very many things sadder than reading about the deaths of an entire family.

Any kind of stove that works by burning wood or any kind of gas or kerosene that you might use for heating or anything but incidental cooking needs to be very well ventilated. Usually it isn't worth using a stove that's not ventilated to a chimney indoors for any length of time because in order to make it safe you have to open too many windows which defeats the purpose.

[Oorang]

We have a free-standing (fake logs) earth stove type, that uses propane. It is vented through a chimney (pipe). It is a great source of heat. It heats the whole house (2600 sq. ft, single story, 10 foot ceilings, lots of windows). The only drawback is the fan requires electricity. Without electricity it would still generate heat, just wouldn't circulate as well but still keeps the house quite toasty (we experiemented with the fan off). We have a generator in case electricity goes out which it has a couple of times this winter (downed trees due to storm). The only reason we turned on the generator was the power was off all day and I wanted to use the computer (gee, imagine that!) If you had a wood stove, or pellet stove electricity would not be an issue. We have some neighbors with a pellet stove and they love it. Heats the whole house. We also live in cold/snow country. Snow on the ground 4 months out of the year.

Another advantage of propane (IMO) is other uses. If we are without electricity we still have hot water and the stove/oven still works as they are all propane and electricity is not an issue with the hot water heater or the stove/oven. Hope that helps.

[Oorang]

Duh, I didn't answer your question! I've heard that camping type propane stoves are dangerous to use in the house because of the venting issue. I guess I would consider a more permanent type designed for household use.