I like wood heat. I like the dry heat from it. The way it soaks into you. I like the sound of wood crackling. I love to watch the flames dance. I want a wood burning stove in my tiny house. This is proving a difficult search though. If money was no option I know what I would buy. I live in the real world though and I have a budget. A small one.

Even here in the south heat is important. I don’t want to go cheap and freeze. I don’t want to a shoddy stove that burns me down either. My tiny house is 12×20 so a normal sized stove is too much heat. Although easy to find on craigslist they are too big. I don’t have the space for something to eat up that much room. I’ve done some research that I will share with you.

Commercial Wood Stoves

There are a few good option for tiny wood stoves. One market building tiny wood stoves is for boats. Space is a big concern on boats. There are a lot of marine options for tiny house appliances. Shipmate Stove Co. makes some beautiful little stoves for boats. I love the classic design on it. The marine stoves usually have rails on the top to keep pots from tipping off.

The Mini 12 CT Survival Stove wood stove is built in the US. I like to try to go with American made when I can. In this case it is one of the lower priced options. The mini 12 is welded steel. It uses a firebrick lining for thermal mass. A flat top for cooking. It has a huge window to view the fire. The mini 12 comes just under a grand in price.

Now let’s look at the top of the line. From all my research on wood stoves the Kimberly Wood Stove is the best. It installs easy. It requires only 6 inches of clearances on the sides and back of the flue. This is vital for us tiny space people. Other wood stoves I looked at required up to 36 inches. It has a modern simple look to it. You will pay for the best too. It comes in just shy of 4k.

DIY Options

Man has heated with wood for thousands of years. Wood stoves can be cobbled together from just about anything. My own younger brother built one for a shed with my moms old water heater. It was not pretty but it sure worked.

I’ve seen the barrel kits to make wood stoves. If I cut and welded a barrel to be tiny house sized this would be an option. The kits run about $50. With barrel and pipes it would be much cheaper than the commercial options.

Rocket mass heaters are another option I’m looking at. The plus with them is the tiny amount of wood you use. They dump their heat into heavy cob masses that radiate heat for days. The draw back is weight. They are heavy. Much too heavy for mobile tiny houses. Maybe to heavy for mine too. They do take up more space with the mass but it is functional.

I would love to just buy a Kimberly wood stove. It’s just not in the cards. I’m leaning more towards a DIY option. I have kerosene heat for now while I decide. Have any suggestion?