Electric Heaters In A Fish House & Generator Size

[BunchOfish]

With all this heat we are dealing with, it has me thinking about ice fishing and using my new house I built.  I still have yet to put a heater in it and I have been doing some thinking.  My buddy uses a milk house heater in his fish house and it works good and he told me to do that and save the propane.  I'm going to be buying a 2000W inverter generator or that's the plan right now so I can run my TV and have power to my outlets.  My question is... has anyone else used a space heater before to heat your house?  Also will a 2000w generator be big enough to run a spacer heater and a TV without over loading it? If I had the money to put in a direct vent and buy a generator I would do that but right now I only have the option for one and the generator appeals to me much more for the fact I can use it year round.  Let me know your thoughts?

[Pat K]

I tried several years ago to heat a fish house with a milkhouse heater with a 2000 watt yamaha generator. It would not work on the high heat setting because the output was 1500 watt and the heater not being 100% efficient required more input than the 1800 watt continuous output of the generator. I found out the 2000 watt is surge output rating to start an electric appliance but the generator isn't designed to produce that much power for an extended time.

[leech~~]

Milk house heaters suk.  If you want a great little heater go with the ceramic heaters. They throw lot's of heat. I have used them for years in the Deer shack, out house, 40 foot camper and last year when our furnace died on the coldest night of the year two of them kept our house warm until I could get parts and fix the furnace the next day. I agree with Pat K not sure your going to do everything with a 2000W though. 

 

Holmes Compact Ceramic Heater with Thermostat.

Compact design with comfort control thermostat and integrated carrying handle.

See more details at Walmart - UnbeatableSale »

$31.96

 

 

 

[delcecchi]

If you can get an estimate of the BTUs per hour for your fish house, you can convert that to watts of electricity by dividing by 3 (roughly).

 

Running a generator to power an electric heater seems silly to me.   But it might be the easiest and least out of pocket expense.   Disadvantage is you would be running generator at pretty much full load much of the time.  

[BunchOfish]

So maybe I'd be better off spending a little more for the 3500w generator?  My house is only 6.5 x 12 so I don't have much to heat.  I know there are duel watt heaters (750/1500).  If I can get by on 750w then that would only be about 50% load on a 2000w generator. 

[Pat K]

If your floor is insulated you may get by at 750 watts, but if it's not insulated it won't keep it very warm in the house.

[BunchOfish]

15 minutes ago, Pat K said:

If your floor is insulated you may get by at 750 watts, but if it's not insulated it won't keep it very warm in the house.

I'm planning on insulating it.  When I built the house I never did but after thinking about it for awhile I'm going to now.

[Big Dave2]

If it were me, I would buy the furnace and wait on the generator. Who needs tv in a fish house? If you really need to power a tv, i would think you could handle that with one of the cheap little 900 watt generators you can get at harbor freight for a while until you save up more money.

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/900-max-starting-watt-max-starting-2-cycle-gas-powered-generator-63025.html

 

[BunchOfish]

7 minutes ago, Big Dave2 said:

If it were me, I would buy the furnace and wait on the generator. Who needs tv in a fish house? If you really need to power a tv, i would think you could handle that with one of the cheap little 900 watt generators you can get at harbor freight for a while until you save up more money.

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/900-max-starting-watt-max-starting-2-cycle-gas-powered-generator-63025.html

 

Don't get me wrong, I like that idea but I will be able to use a generator all spring, summer and fall for camping.  I go to a lot of campgrounds with no power and tend to run more things then just a TV.  I will just get more use out of it.  Some day I will have a direct vent heater in the house but its not happening this year.  Maybe come tax time in the spring.

[Hawg]

LED lights and newer tv will use very little electricity but unless your house is foamed tight from roof to floor do not even think it. You will be very slow to get to temp and have a tough time keeping it there. Buy a used small VENTED propane heater and be safe and warm. Used ones have to be at rummage sales for 50-100 bucks. Then buy the thru the wall or suburban style when you can afford it. 

[papadarv]

On 7/19/2019 at 7:57 AM, BunchOfish said:

With all this heat we are dealing with, it has me thinking about ice fishing and using my new house I built.  I still have yet to put a heater in it and I have been doing some thinking.  My buddy uses a milk house heater in his fish house and it works good and he told me to do that and save the propane.  I'm going to be buying a 2000W inverter generator or that's the plan right now so I can run my TV and have power to my outlets.  My question is... has anyone else used a space heater before to heat your house?  Also will a 2000w generator be big enough to run a spacer heater and a TV without over loading it? If I had the money to put in a direct vent and buy a generator I would do that but right now I only have the option for one and the generator appeals to me much more for the fact I can use it year round.  Let me know your thoughts?

Won't work! I have an electric heater in my 6.5' x 12' "non sleeper" wheel house, 3" insulated top, sides & bottom, tyvek wrapped. Electric heater's are 1,500 watt (leech post above). It takes about 3 hours to raise the temp from 0, or below to 60 deg. I plug it in at home the night before to pre heat the inside for next day fishing. Also get cabin/motel on overnight trips, and remove WH each night, plug in heater overnight clean fish and keep warm for next day.  The top shelf 2000 watt Honda @ $1,100 has a STARTING watt of 2000 & RUNNING watt of 1,600 watt. If I recall, you used pink poly hard foam on roof & sides with no insulation on floor. Pink Poly 2" is 7.5R for walls & roof, 0 on floor. My R factor is 13.5 fully insulated. Your electric heater will run 100% of time using Max power from a 2000 watt generator and be lucky to get above 50 deg. Last summer I put a 19,000 BTU Suburban $318.00 new in my house. At -14 deg. it ran 22 min per hour. I get about 65 hrs of fish time on a 20# tank at below 0 temps. Suburban price now gone up a bit but you can do better if you shop around. Electric heater in yellow circle