Cabins are supposed to be a shelter from the cold. So if you have a cabin with no heat source how do you keep the place warm?
How to add heat to a cabin with no current heat source? You can add heat to a cabin through wood, gas, or electric means. you can find stoves or space heaters that will emit heat for your home based off of whichever resource you plan on having the heater use. In this manner, your decision is more based on which of these sources of heat would you prefer to use over the others.
The Pros and Cons of Wood, Gas, and Electric Heating
| Heat Source | Cost | Heating |
| Wood | $700 | Centralized |
| Gas | $1050 | Centralized |
| Electric | $400 | Spread out |
First note that you will need to have wood, gas, or electricity to run any of these heaters. If you don’t have one of these resources available then you will have to find the means to gather the resource before you can use these heaters.
Wood and gas stoves work in the same manner the just run off of a different resource as such choosing which ever resource you have more available is likely the best option. Having a cabin likely means that you are near a wooded area or can gather wood easily so maybe that is the best option. Otherwise getting gas or propane is any easy thing to achieve in our society today so that may be a better option.
Electric heating will work off of several systems that are plugged into outlets throughout your house. This means that the heat will come from multiple places instead of one place within the house. They may have a more even spread of heat throughout the house but will also require you to have multiple of these units. Since these units are generally under $100 it is generally a cheaper option to go with these heaters.
Staying Warm in an Emergency
When an emergency strike and your main form of heat is gone what do you do? First you’ll want to try to get more of whatever resource you need to stay warm. Assuming this isn’t going to be an option for some time there are quite a few steps that you can use to keep your house warm.
Fire is and has main the main source of heat for millennia, so when in danger of it getting to cold start a fire. Find wood or other easily flammable objects and light them. You’ll want to start with kindling in this process, so everything that is small and will easily light and catch flame with be used to start up this process.
From there you’ll want to add tinder which will be able to keep the flames alight for some time until finally, you are able to place the larger logs and branch of the tree as fuel into the flames.
When building a fire you will want to be sure that you have a proper way to take care of the smoke. If you build your fire outdoors than you won’t have a problem but taking a fire indoors will ruin the roof above you and send everyone indoors into a fit of
If a large fire won’t work for you then use candles. The flames aren’t as strong so you will need to have more of them but they are less harmful to your home than a whole campfire would be.
Apply more layers. This is an easy solution to the concern of getting cold. The more clothes you have on the more your personal heat will be insulated so put on a sweater or jacket or both and keep yourself warm.
Make sure that you keep the pressure points all over your body warm. So wrists, ankles, neck, head, armpits, and stomach are all important places that you keep covered up. It allows your body to stay at it’s naturally heated temperatures. Allow your body to do what it wants to and that is stay warm.
Similarly, if you have your family with you then cuddle up to them. S
Finally, if these tips are just not working or you still aren’t able to make your self as warm as you would like than be active. That’s it if you are feeling cold than what you need to do is one distract yourself from it and two have something to replace it. In this manner, play some games, or have an active conversation with someone around you.
If you are all by yourself than exercise that way your blood is pumping your mind is working and your to distracted and your body is too active to feel cold.
Keeping Your House Warm With no Heat Source
Realistically, heat will always move from warm to cold. It is impossible to have a house that is warm without any form of heat in it. However, there are ways to have a house maintain a lot more of its warmth than other options.
Insulation that is the name of the game here. Insulation is the padding that is going to keep the warmth in and the cold out. See scientifically there really is no such thing as cold it is really just a lack of warmth. Use this idea backwards and try to maintain the warmth of your house.
We do this all the time with our own bodies. We put on clothes and therefore our bodies are warmer as the heat that our bodies generate are both trapped inside our clothing and reflected back at the source of the heat our bodies. To do this with a house there are quite a few ways to go about it.
The most obvious is the actual insulation that you can by during the construction of your house. You stuff whatever it is that you are using into the walls of your home and the heat gets trapped in that. but there are simpler ways to heat your home also.
The orientation of your house can actually increase it’s insulation. Ever heard of a south facing garden. This theory works off of the sun and the direction it faces the earth. See moss grows on the north side of trees because it doesn’t like the sun. On the contrary when we are talking about warmth we love the sun.
So have your home and the main door you will be using facing the sun with should decrease the amount of heat leaving the home.
Next you’ll want to have sealant on all exists of the home. Doors windows, every conceivable place for heat to leave the home should be backed up with sealant. The outside is where the heat is going and where you don’t want it to go the less opening for heat to get there the better.
Finally, you want to be off the ground. When you are on the ground the earth is going to suck out your heat. This is why you have a mattress to sleep in it is both comfortable and a buffer between you and the cold floor.
Related Questions
How to heat a log cabin? Log cabins aren’t much different from other cabins in terms of heating with the exception that using a campfire probably isn’t your best option. Since what you are living in is flammable you’ll want to keep whatever your heat source is on top of something that isn’t as flammable. So having a ceramic dish under a heater is a good idea in a log cabin home.
How to spread heat throughout a cabin? The best way to spread heat throughout a cabin is through proper ventilation. If you are able to have ductwork within your home than have ducts around or connected to your heater. That way the heat will be spread by those ducts throughout the whole home instead of stuck within the small vicinity of the heater.