Wood stoves work in a variety of environments.
Mobile homes are assembled in a factory rather than built on your property, but use most of the same heating systems as normal homes. Wood stoves offer an alternative to gas or electric heating that saves money for homeowners who can cut their own wood. If you live in a mobile home and you'd like to add a wood stove, first consider the extra safety precautions you must take. Does this Spark an idea?
Restricted Areas
Installing a wood stove in the kitchen, living room or even bathroom of a mobile home is permissible, says the Woodstock Soapstone Company, but you can't install one in a bedroom. Bedrooms are full of highly flammable materials that are too susceptible to catching on fire from an errant spark. Clothing, bedding and mattresses will likely be within 5 feet of a wood stove, because bedrooms in mobile homes rarely have enough clearance for both furniture and a wood-burning appliance.
Special Stove Pipe
All wood stoves, regardless of where they are installed, require properly sized stove pipe for ventilation. This is even more important in a mobile home. Mobile home wood-stove installations require a special close- clearance pipe that dissipates heat before it reaches the walls it is installed near, according to the Walden Effect. This prevents the thinner walls of the home from being damaged by the intense heat that is vented through the stove pipe.
Wall Clearance
A wood stove needs to be a certain distance away from the walls in your mobile home to prevent heat damage from the sides or back of the appliance. There needs to be 36 inches between any part of the wood stove and the wall, says My Great Home. Installing heat-resistant materials over the walls around the heater may lower this clearance, but these materials must be ventilated panels approved for use around a wood stove.
Floor Tie-Downs
Mobile homes are more likely to shift and move than homes built on permanent foundations. To prevent a dangerous fire from occurring, wood stove legs must be attached to the floor below the hearth in a mobile home, according to "Mother Earth News." This makes installation difficult, especially if you are trying to install over a stone or concrete hearth from a preexisting fireplace. Using long screws that run through the hearth and reach the sub-floor is a common way to anchor the appliance in an existing hearth.
Fresh Air Intake
Any kind of combustion, including the fire producing heat in your wood stove, requires fresh air to fuel it with a supply of oxygen. Mobile homes are constructed with fewer gaps that leak air into the home than traditionally built homes. For safety a length of stove pipe should be run to the air damper inlet or similar opening on the back of the wood stove. This prevents dangerous carbon monoxide levels inside your mobile home while keeping the fire well-fueled.
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