Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Electric thermal storage (ETS) heating units?

We are using the cabin more in the cold months now then in the past. Presently it is heated with a wood stove so it so it takes awhile to warm up the space and when we leave we have to take all the perishable goods with us. Going to enclose the front porch of the cabin that will increase the living space to 620 sq. ft. and want to install a heating unit to be able to heat the place when the wood stove goes out.

Anybody using ETS units?

Thanks.

Wayne

Wayne:

We are in northern MN and have two years using a Steffes system. We get off peak electric which heats up a furnace ( a pile of bricks with electrical mats between them) to about 1000F. When the house needs heat, it triggers a pump that pumps antifreeze through tubing in the concrete of the floors and warms the place. With our fireplace, we use the electric heat only early in the am. Seems to be cost effective, and you should be able to retrofit the rest of the cabin either with heat coils under the floor or radiators.

With a hot water system, you can also add an outdoor wood fired furnace to the system.

Hope this helps.

I looked at the Steffes website before posting and a 69,000 btu room unit looked like it would do the job. 387#, wow, that is a heavy unit.

Thanks for the feedback.

We have been using two Steffes ETS units for 16 years as the basic heat source for our place. They have been trouble-free and function very well as advertised. They are clean/efficient - direct radiation units plus fan triggered by a thermostat - no liquid or piping involved.

We also use a wood stove in our vista room when there, and a couple of wall mount/vented propane heaters in more distant areas of the house.

The ETS units are clocked to charge up at off-peak electric rate hours and, unless the surroundings are very cold, they continue to radiate some heat until re-charged each night.

However, it seems to take a while (couple of charges/days) for them to get rolling once we turn them on in late Fall. So, am wondering if they would be satisfactory for a cabin situation where you show up in cold weather and need heat right now. OTOH, if your electricity is cheap, you could leave it on the "low" setting when cold weather sets in - that would probably keep the place decently warm or, at least, not freezing - and turn up the setting when you arrive.

Hope this helps.

CCCC, yes this helps. The main purpose of the unit is to keep the building at 50 degrees during the cold months so we can keep perishables there, also when we open up the cabin, the wood stove can easily bring the building temp. up to 70-80 degrees.

I have been thinking of something in this line too. I have a place in northern WIs. and it takes 4-5 hours to make it comfortable in there when it is 30 degrees. I wish I could warm it up faster. The only other thing I can think of is propane or electric but we are not on the grid. Maybe an hour of propane heat would help but I am afraid it will stink. My son is so sensitive with is asthma I think it will trigger an attack. He is just starting to not need breathing treatments in the cabin.

There have been times when we go to the cabin and hunt coyotes in January and February the cabin inside temps have been in the single digits or teens. It takes awhile to warm up the place. Would be great to have it about 50 degrees.

I have a 1400 sf. house in the UP, I'am there at least 7 days a month year round it heated with propane, when were there wood stove. The thermostat is left at 45 when not there, past 2 winters have been very cold I pre-buy propane it usually cost about $800 a year.

When we arrive I turn furnace up to 68 and get the wood stove going it take about a half hour to warm it up. About a day to get the walls warmed up.

My thoughts and several other people I've talked to over the years, its not good for a house to be allowed to freeze then be warmed up and freeze maybe several times a year. Not good for foundation a very good possibility of moisture building up in walls that could cause "black mold".

Good point.

That also goes for RV's. Keeping it plugged in with a battery trickle charger and a small electric heater to keep it around 40 can prevent a lot of problems caused by freezing.

The OP mentioned perishable goods. You can move them all to 1 room or build some kind of insulated storage box with heat to greatly reduce the amount of heat needed.

We have been using the Steffes in Rusk county Wi. since the small house was built 21+ years ago. About 1400 SF.

We replaced 2 of the 3 original units ( which were still working) to go to digital controls. Bedroom addition got new unit when built about 7 years ago.

All use off-peak power.
We never set thermostat below 50* , heated when we are not there as more a permanent house even though we call it the cabin.

House is extremely well insulated. We built it as such.

Very good system and more economical than one may think.
No wood stove but fireplace.

Unless not insulated, I recommend them.