Adapting your gas cooker into a heater?

[portvasgo]

A long time ago I dimly remember reading an article about someone who placed an inverted clay plant pot over the flame of their gas cooker to heat the cabin. The idea is that the terracotta heated up and then radiated out heat. I have also seen proprietary sold adaptors (metal towers that sit on top of a Coleman stove) that are based on the same theory. I was wondering if there was some way of doing something similar on my Plastimo stove. I don’t want much heat, I would rather wrap myself in a sleeping bag if it came to it, and I am aware of the condensation problems etc. But I was wondering if there was such an adaptation that anyone knew about that would take the chill off the cabin from time to time. I am trying to find out whether the metal towers that fit the Coleman stove will fit others, but I am doubtful.
The thought occurred to me to perhaps use some of the heating bricks that you get in electric storage heaters, I actually have some of those in the shed. My worry, which was my first thought when reading the article on using a terracotta flower pot, was the risk of the thing exploding! The blocks from storage heaters, are of course high density and designed to be heated up, but would they be ok when heated on a naked gas flame?
Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome.

 

[cliffordpope]

Look on the Bin Laden web site. Lots of ideas for amusing things to convert gas cookers into.

 

[FrancisRutter]

Remember that you must watch your ventilation. I can remember in my days as a police sugeon, having to go to a broads cruiser to certify a chap dead [from carbon monoxide poisoning] who had done just what you suggest.

 

[rogerdog]

If even considering this for a moment - fit a CO detector before you even try it. As you rightly state condensation etc will be an issue - but CO does kill. I've had CO poisoning - and I was lucky - my advice would be not to take the risk - If you want heat get a proper heater (externally vented) correctly installed, and still fit a CO detector !

Yes the brick would improbably work and store quite a nice bit of warmth - but I would shield it from the direct flame with a sheet of metal to prevent bits of the surface from breaking off (due to heating at differing rates.

But ultimately -how much is your life worth - I would not take the risk.

 

[Poignard]

How about one of these? web page . Seems like a good idea for occasional use. No installation required and it has a flue pipe to take away the deadly fumes

Meanwhile, I do use a big inverted plant pot but, being scared of carbon monoxide, I leave the hatches open a fair amount so a lot of the heat escapes.

 

[earlybird]

There's no point in putting anything over the burners, apart from possibly shielding the flame a bit. Their heat output will go to raise the general cabin temperature anyway. I'd have to be pretty cold before I thought this was a good idea.

 

[Relax]

Anybody have experience of using a paraffin lamp in the cabin?

Was thinking of getting one for this reason - if I have the stove on for even a few minutes to make tea the heat builds astonishingly - so I wondered if a hurricane lamp would be enough to keep snug?

 

[Salty John]

We've used the cooker to take the chill off the cabin. Tried the flower pot trick but couldn't see much advantage over just the cooker. The pot gets warm but not to the point of exploding. It retains a bit of heat after you've turned off the flame but it's of marginal additional benefit.
I can't understand why people would think that using the cooker to heat would be any more dangerous than using it to cook. You need to provide ventilation, of course, but you need to do that whether you're cooking up a curry or warming your tootsies! I must be missing something.

 

[billiew]

Don't bother with any of this as a nice oil lamp will throw out a lot of heat,particularly with the correct glass.They also look good and will add to the ambiance.
Bill

 

[vyv_cox]

Yes, my thought too. If the cooker hasn't poisoned you with CO, why should the cooker plus a brick or a flowerpot, unless you sealed every opening perfectly and ran the cooker for hours? There are so many examples of things that people have been doing for centuries suddenly becoming hazardous. Not that I am suggesting that some commonsense is not required, of course. The one safety rule we have always had is that we would never leave any form of flame heating on all night - a good sleeping bag nowadays is so cheap that it just isn't worth the risk.

On the paraffin lamp query, a hurricane lamp doesn't give out any appreciable heat. A Tilley or Aladdin is another matter, gives out something up to 3 kW. I have spent many a cosy evening in the middle of winter in camper vans heated only by a Tilley.

 

[rogerdog]

[ QUOTE ]

I can't understand why people would think that using the cooker to heat would be any more dangerous than using it to cook. You need to provide ventilation, of course, but you need to do that whether you're cooking up a curry or warming your tootsies! I must be missing something.

[/ QUOTE ]


The problem is sleep/ventilation - if you're cooking - you tend to ventilate well and are a little more active -if you are using it for heat -the temptation is to close up the cabin (to keep the heat in ) and also to sit down and relax. The problem now is you have reduced the ventilation so as the oxygen is slowly used up by the cooker you become more and more drowsy + the cooker now has insufficient oxygen and partial combustion occurs resulting in much higher levels of CO being produced.

It's not that using the cooker for heating is altering the way in which it works - its the idea of trying to conserve the heat produced and keep warm that's the issue + once you get warm (eg after a long days sail) who doesn't feel drowsy ?

 

[Saddletramp]

I wonder if the flower pot is supposed to reduce the condensation. As you say I don't not see how it could improve the heat, only if it made it dry heat.

 

[stevebrassett]

I use a paraffin lamp on my boat. It gives out lovely warm light, but not a lot of heat. You can warm your fingers on it though, and it will generate enough heat to burn. I tend to use it for reading in the evening, and then it's close enough to me to keep my face warm, but it won't warm the cabin. It's one with a wick, rather than pressurised.

 

[bedouin]

The point of the flower pot is to capture the heat in the hot air coming off the burner and convert that to radiated heat to warm the boat.

Without it most of the heat will be lost through the ventilation.

 

[alan17]

CO is a silent killer and is heavier than air and therefore gets trapped in a boat rather like gas. When using the cooker to cook one is awake and watching the items being cooked and hopefully conscious of any ill effects like sleepiness. Also the boat is hopefully well ventilated. When generally relaxing or even sleeping CO concentration can build up and kill because one becomes drowsy (if not already asleep). CO kills by blocking the transfer of oxygen inhaled to the blood. Reduced oxygen in the blood results in clinical shock and death.

 

[earlybird]

Don't forget, the human body gives out several tens of watts, so pack your cabin with your mates. Better still, a large sleeping bag and a nubile blonde, (or two), only joking!!

 

[vyv_cox]

<< CO is ....... heavier than air >>

Is it? The molecular weight of nitrogen, some 75% of air, is 14 x 2 = 28. The molecular weight of oxygen, some 22% of air, is 16 x 2 = 32. The molecular weight of CO is 12 + 16 = 28. So I would have expected CO to be marginally less dense than air.

 

[dnickj]

NO - it is lighter than air - detectors should be just below roof level and not near the floor

 

[bedouin]

As I understand it CO is marginally lighter than air at room temperature, but tends to sink in temperatures near zero.

However just because a gas is lighter/heavier does not necessarily mean it will sink/rise. Otherwise we would be breathing pure Oxygen, and the Nitrogen would be up in the upper atmosphere.

The reason ventilation is important to prevent the build up of CO is not really to disperse the CO but rather to ensure that no CO is produced in the first place by ensuring that there is a sufficient flow of air/oxygen to the burner.

CO does kill a lot of people on boats every year (mainly on inland waterways). That is almost always because they have blocked the ventilation to the cabin.

 

[vyv_cox]

I think you forgot the rider that I included earlier - while asleep. It must take a very long time to use all the air in a boat sufficiently that the stove suffers the oxygen starvation necessary to produce CO. It would be interesting to know whether any of the deaths you refer to happened during daytime.