It is good to have a camping trailer for recreational use and to have as part of your emergency preparedness plan. Several areas on your camping trailer can be converted to be sustainable in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. A wood burning stove is a smart upgrade to make to your camping trailer as propane may not always be available for use, and if it is, it can be expensive. Here are three tips to help you during the process of converting your camping trailer from propane heat to wood burning stove heat.
Clear an Area for Your Stove
Camper trailers are designed and built to use all the inside space as efficiently as possible. Your camper trailer is not going to have an open space to accommodate a wood burning stove with the necessary clearance, so you will need to create a space. You can remove a couch, chair, or separation wall between a bedroom and your camper's living space. Then, you may need to install a platform lined with non-flammable materials to keep your stove up off your camper's floor. This depends on the specifications of the stove you select.
Depending on the size and type of your stove, its instructions will indicate the amount of clearance necessary around your stove, so it doesn't burn your camper down. Wood burning stoves made for small spaces, such as the one you want for your camper, have a much smaller required clearance than traditional full-sized stoves. Full-sized wood burning stoves need 36 inches of space around the outside of the stove to prevent accidental burns on the surrounding walls and floor.
Appropriate Ventilation
When you are looking to buy a small wood burning stove for your camper trailer, you want to find one that has a direct fresh air source. This is to allow your stove to draw in air from outside your camping trailer to feed the fire. If your wood burning stove does not have a direct fresh air source, it will burn the air inside your camping trailer. If your trailer is sealed tightly, your stove will use all your oxygen, which can be deadly for you and your family.
You also want to make sure to install a chimney pipe running from the top or back of your wood burning stove and out the roof or wall of your camping trailer. The chimney pipe allows poisonous gasses safely to be released from your camper's interior. Make sure the chimney pipe and stove are installed by a professional so your family isn't put at risk of inhaling deadly gasses from your wood burning stove. You may want to have your stove installer fit your camper with a removable flue top so the top of the flue does not get damaged while you are hauling your camping trailer.
Carbon Monoxide Detector
Although your wood burning stove should safely and appropriately be installed by a professional, the joints and connections in your stove's ventilation system can become damaged or broken during an extra bumpy drive. Your camping trailer is not always going to be hauled over smooth paved roads. For this reason, there is still a chance for a carbon monoxide leak from your camper's wood burning stove. So, it is important to install a carbon monoxide detector.
Plan to purchase your wood burning stove and a carbon monoxide detector together and install them at the same time so you are never without a carbon monoxide detector. According to the CDC, every year, more than 400 Americans die from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning. More than 20,000 people visit the emergency room, and more than 4,000 are hospitalized because of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Use these three tips to upgrade your camper's heat to wood burning heat. You can purchase a wood stove from a company online at a site like http://www.aquarec.com.
