Query about the RMH at Wheaton Labs in a Tipi...?

Hi,
I have seen around on here that there is an RMH heating a tipi or canvas tent up in Montana and that it keeps the occupants warm even during a Montana winter.

The plan here is to acquire land and build our house naturally but we'd like to be able to stay on site while we are building and I suggested something like a higher end glamping tent with amenities that could then be rented out to tourists or weary travelers once we are finished with our home.

Since I haven't been to Wheaton Labs in person, I'd like to know more about this set up, what sort of insulation requirements it might have, amenities it has, toileting issues, bathing issues, etc, since we'd be living in it until construction is complete. I have to house: me, him, a 13 y/o boy and a 7 y/o girl, 1 dog with boundary issues and 4 cats of variable intelligences.

I am located in Ohio and looking for land in SE Ohio where we still do have 4 separate seasons, sometimes all in the same day, and whereas the snowfall in SE Ohio can be scarce due to temps, we do get rain, cold nights, wind, etc that make us need to have 4 season environmental controls. Lots of ice, mud, iced mud, some snow, random sunny days and the like.

We are deep in the planning stages. What kind of land, what does it need to have, what can we work around, how far out in the boonies, what's the nearby schools like, is civilized life stuff within a reasonable (< 1 hour) distance, what kind of house are we building (rammed earth, earthship, cob, earthbag, etc) and alllll that. Within all that I am thinking about housing while we build. Right now, we live 1.5 hours from the desired area and that's too long of a commute for me. I'd like to be on-site while I live/build and not have to commute. (I used to produce out in Los Angeles and these types of things make me put on my producer's hat and get happy.)

I am interested in that set up and all that it entails. What could have been better. What went well, what went wrong, etc.
Thank you in advance.

Holly Magnani wrote:Hi,
I have seen around on here that there is an RMH heating a tipi or canvas tent up in Montana and that it keeps the occupants warm even during a Montana winter.

I would guess that "warm" equals a temperature starting with a 4.  Hopefully I'm wrong but I think there's a cocoon of heat that you sleep in on the mass, once you pop out of bed you may want to put on a coat.

There are no facilities in the tipi and there's a bit more info here: RMH in a Tipi

Hi Holly;
Mike is correct that it will be rather cold in the morning anywhere but sleeping/ sitting on the mass.
After all, a Tipi or Yurt, or any glamping tent is still just a tent.
Hop out of bed and fire up the J-Tube and it will become warm in short order.

I suggest that rather than a tent you consider a small stick-framed house that can be insulated.
Here is why,  Unheated tents are subject to mold, rodents, and other incidents.
Yes, while building your home it would be nice.  However, once it sits empty and unheated...  things happen.

Around here there are smaller uninsulated buildings for sale with free delivery.
They are called sheds and some are simple sheds but most are tiny homes with no wiring, plumbing, or insulation.
The costs are reasonable considering it is delivered and ready to sleep in the day it arrives.

As a possible B&B after you move into your new home it would remain clean and tight compared to any of the tent-style structures.

I don't know anything about the rmh at Wheaton labs, but my husband and I lived in a tent for 7+ months while we built our house.

Humidity was a big issue, so I wouldn't want to be doing any cooking, bathing, etc inside. The year we did this was very cold and wet, so it might not be as bad for you. We slept on one of those tall air mattresses. On top of the air mattress, we had a bunch of blankets, then a 4" wool mattress. It got worse in colder temperatures, but even normal 10C overnight type temperatures made for dampness where moisture condensed when it hit the cold air in the mattress. We had to pull out all our bedding every day it wasn't raining and hang it all up. We built an A-frame kinda deal for the wool mattress. Everything, especially the wool, still ended up with mold. We had to buy a new mattress when we moved into the house. Our tent was unheated. If you plan on heating yours, you'll be way ahead of what we were dealing with. Something to keep in mind, though.

One thing that really helped us was having a large outside area around the tent covered. We had somewhere dry to store things and do stuff like cooking. It also helped keep mud and dirt from getting into everything. We took our work boots off and had "inside" shoes for the covered area. No shoes in the tent, of course. All our dirty work clothes could stay out of the tent and we didn't have to undress in the rain.

I'd recommend keeping the tent off the ground, too. We put ours on top of pallets. In between the pallets and the tent, we had layers of cardboard, which we could scrounge easily, to cover up the spaces between slats on the pallets. We actually had a mini flash flood during a particularly bad storm, and there was a stream running under the tent for a while. I was sooooo glad I'd insisted on a raised floor!

thomas rubino wrote: Unheated tents are subject to mold, rodents, and other incidents.

Yeah, for a while we had a packrat that would come practise its sprinting in the middle of the night, doing laps under the pallets the tent was on. The bassett hound loved it. The humans, not so much.

I am with Thomas on this.  Get a storage shed. You will have use for it after your home is built.

I lived in northern MN in a tent for a number of months while we built our cabin.  It worked within reason, but a shed would have been much better.  Most terrifying was the night we were visited by a bear.  Where does a bear piss? …..anywhere it wants to.  It chose the side of our tent. I and my sleeping bag were soaking wet.

John F Dean wrote: Most terrifying was the night we were visited by a bear.  Where does a bear piss? …..anywhere it wants to.  It chose the side of our tent. I and my sleeping bag were soaking wet.

That sounds terrifying with a horribly unpleasant after effect.

One of the first thoughts that was floated was a pole barn that would turn into the workshop after the house was built. We did some pricing and it seems like a pole barn would end up being about the same price as the house, all said and done. It was a bit disheartening to see that the prices for everything are sky-high. It makes wanting to live simply and frugally an expensive endeavor.

Hi Holly,

Starting out is always challenging.   A simple 8x16 structure with a metal shed roof will be reasonably roomy and as inexpensive as things get these days.  With a little planning, you should be able to build one in a couple of days.  

I have no idea which tents you were looking at, but I did a recent search and the price ended up in the thousands.  

I really like the shed idea that has been presented.

Our first tiny house was a Tough Shed from the HD big box store.

We had priced several alternatives and for the money and convenience of the shed built by someone else on our land was great.

Once the builders are complete, which was two days then we finished the inside.  It could be lived in as is though we wanted some conveniences.

The RMH could go in a shed if designed around it.

There are also kits that can be bought for a DIY project.

This forum has some suggestions:

https://permies.com/f/488/Kit-buildings

we also have a Tiny House Forum where you might get some ideas.