It’s possible there’ll be guests before the end of the month. For their comfort I will probably give up the Lair for a few nights and sleep in Ian’s Cave. But Ian’s Cave is, how you say, not heated. With its massive thermal mass it never goes below freezing in there but that doesn’t mean it’s a comfortable living space in winter. So I dug out my old faithful Mr. Heater…
…which…
…has spent the past 11 years in a dirt-floor barn that’s not exactly hermetically sealed.
And it seems that either the thermocouple or the electromagnet inside the gas valve that is run by the thermocouple has given up the ghost. I can light the pilot, but after a few seconds the flame dies with an audible click.
I spent some quality time with it this afternoon, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how they ever expect you to replace the thermocouple on this thing. Maybe they don’t. There is a way to bypass it: In fact now that I’ve done all the hard stuff it’s a rather simple way. But thermocouples are good. I live with Uncle Murphy’s antics but I don’t give him the keys to the place. So…
I dug out Plan B, my not all that faithful L’il Buddy Heater…
…and wouldn’t you know it seems to work just fine. Not convinced it has the horsepower for the job, but we’re going to find out. If not, no big deal. Like I said, it never gets all that cold in Ian’s Cave and it’ll only be for a few nights.
But still. I was a bit disappointed.
I looked at mrheater.com and they carry replacement thermocouples under accessories > replacement parts. Might be worth a call to see if they still have the right one for your heater – and how you are supposed to get it out of there.
Yeah, Amazon sells some too. Haven’t found one that seems to match; apparently there are a whole lot more variations than I knew.
So you might end up having a few One Dog Nights?
Don’t sell that Lil Buddy short. I have worked on cars in a freezing garage using that thing, kind of aiming at the hands and work area from about 3ft away and it warms me up just fine. Radiant heat. Don’t expect it to heat a large volume but a single smallish room it could well take the edge off the cold.
I know it’s a little late, but if you can scrape up the cash, these heaters are amazing. My Bro-in-law has one, and he uses it to heat his 20’x30′ workshop. The nice thing is they are designed from the ground up to be serviced at home by the owner.
https://www.vevor.com/diesel-heater-c_10321/8kw-12v-all-in-one-diesel-air-heater-lcd-thermostat-boat-motorhome-truck-trailer-p_010495550284
When the dome was being designed, I’ll bet a bunch of people said, “Ya’ll better put a fireplace in there, boy.”
Yeah, well, about that. It has a chimney for stovepipe, and it inherited the little woodstove that wasn’t enough for Landlady’s cabin. But the cave is so high and the pipe so long that the little stove can’t get a draft going. So the fire won’t stay lit. If anybody ever moves in there, a bigger woodstove will be a must. Even then I can’t imagine how much wood and time it would take to really warm that much space and thermal mass.
Electric blankets start around $40, and are available as close as your Amazon account. If the cave’s batteries can’t handle one all night, your Honda certainly can, and it would use less fuel than any space heater.
So, water channels built in, so the well pump pipes go through the house walls before coming out of the spigot, keeping the house at a uniform well-water temperature.
If existence is infinite, I’m going to do this some day.
Ah, but when that thermal mass GETS WARMED, it also takes a long time for it to cool down.
True, which is why it never gets below freezing in there.
Could try and give the thermocouple a good cleaning where it meets the flame. Sometimes the carbon buildup affects it.
Yeah, tried that. Made no difference.