How big of heater???

[rippinlipz]

I have converted a camper into an ice shack and now I need to buy a Heater. I am going to go with a direct Vent. How many BTU do I need for a 7X14 house. Could I get by with a 10,000btu or will this not be enough.

[hanson]

I'm guessing you'd be alright. If it was my house however, I'd be steppin' up to a 15,000. Its easier to pay the little extra now than to realize you made a mistake and have to replace it later. My 7' x 12' has a 15,000 Empire in it and it works great. I wouldn't need more than 15,000 in my shack but I'm not sure if I wanted to find out want the 10,000 was like.

[deepportage01]

I would go 15,000 BTU, 10,000 BTU will work but on cold nights the extra 5,000 will make a world of diference.

We had almost the same size camper conversion a few years back and cheeped out on the heater, big foul up on our part.It got "warm" but was never enuff.

[CatManLee]

Yah, I'd go as big as you can. I have a 7x14ft Camper converted to an ice house (not insulated well) that I heat with a Big Buddy Heater (18,000 BTU) and on normal nights, above zero it does the job just fine, but if it's really cold and windy outside, it's a tad cool inside the house, not really cold, but you can feel it. I guess it comes down to how well your house is insulated. My house has thin walls, and no insulation in the floor, so it takes a good amount of BTU's to keep it warm.

[cold one sd]

I have a 7x13 and a 22,000 btu heater. The biggest problem is staying cool enough to sleep at night. It is well insulated and I heated it last winter at night with a little buddy heater and had the window open a bit. I'm going to put a valve on it this year so I can slow the flow of propane down to get it cool enough to sleep. I wanted the extra btu's for cold winters when I want to warm the ice house up in a hurry.

[pathogen]

If you are well insulated, 10,000 will be fine---once you get it up to temperature. When you start out cold, it takes a smaller heater a relatively long time to heat the air, the walls, and all objects in the house. For this reason, it's better to go with a larger heater, because you can crank it up to start, and turn it down later to maintain temperature. Also, A small fan or two go a long way to keep the temperature uniform and not boiling at the ceiling and freezing on the floor.

[beer batter]

If this camper is anything like most campers, it's probably not insullated real well. 10K would make for some cool nights.