Think you are getting a handle on it.

Heater Buddy is a brand and like EndGame posted its made by Mr. Heater.  Mr. Heater also makes a line of outdoor heaters that are not indoor rated.  They are portable heaters designed to be carried from place to place for indoor use such as garages, tents, sheds, or room heat.  

There are better options for primary home heat.  I personally like the freestanding ventless better than the wall units because they put out heat 360 degrees but that really depends on if you have room, which I don't.  We do have one at my BOL.  

I do like the thermostatic controlled heaters.  They do a decent job of not overheating the room making you either keep the house colder than you would prefer or always making adjustments.  

Like Endgame, I have two Heater Buddys but my backup to my primary heat is a kerosene tower.  I use the Heater Buddys for outdoor activities in tents, my garage, and such and when my primary heat is out as single room heaters for like the bathroom or heat up the bedroom in the mornings.  Kind of a not all the time just some of the time thing.

I have yet to open a window in my house to use a gas heater.  Unless you are in a very small place that is very airtight, a house normally has plenty of oxygen to go around.  I assure you a tent or small shed is different story.  I'll never forget the first time I tried a catalytic heater in a tent.  It was as a Coleman with no low O2 shutoff.  I left the right size crack in the window and even had a CO monitor.  Still it was quite alarming the next morning to not be able to light my Zippo.  A candle is a good way to check O2 level if your stove doesn't have that option.  Simply turn them on high, let them run a while, and see if the candle stays lit.  Keep the candle close to the stove.  Its no big deal and you don't have to stare the candle.  Just light it and go about your business and if you notice its out then investigate why.  Shouldn't be a problem in a house though.  

A CO monitor on the other hand is a very good idea.  All of the ventless and catalytic heaters depend on same principle which is double burning the gas which converts CO to CO2.  This is usually a screen type addition to the product and depending on the design may corrode with time or break.  I haven't had that happen but there is the possibility.

The little heaters like the Heater Buddy or around 5K-9K BTU except on their very top typically do not get awfully hot on the outside so not much of a fire hazard.  The bigger heaters though get pretty hot even on the sides.  I wouldn't keep any highly flammable material right up next to any stove and especially not on its top.  

Gas in room heat does dry the air out lowering the house humidity level much more than about any kind of heat.  I personally run a large Sears Evaporator type humidifier with humiditystat all winter.  A good trick to using gas stoves is to simply keep a pan of water on top of the stove if its cold and running all the time.  Of course, make sure the pan doesn't have a plastic or wood handle.  That will put humidity back into the air.  The big humidifiers are simply less hassle.  Mine I has two large tanks about I fill one every night before I go to bed.    

Kind of weird for me this time of year for I'm humidifying upstairs and dehumidifying downstairs. Man I like humidity stats.    

Tj

Quoted: Quoted: Good info except about the humidity.  The ventless units PUT a lot of moisture into a house.  I put one in my sister's house and she already had some moisture problems.  The vent free unit put that house over the top and she started having problems with mold.  We did a few things to solve that (mainly putting in a clothes dryer and a vent system in the bathroom)  However, the fact remains that burning a vent free unit in a house WILL INCREASE your moisture.   Can you explain that? Where does the moisture come from? Are you sure the (pre-existing) moisture issues were not from condensation and bad insulation?

No, he's right about that and I should have nailed my response down better.  A by product of  natural gas is water.

If its too little or too much depends on the ambient humidity and area being heated.  For example, a larger well insulated home in a very dry cold climate it won't be enough but in a humid climate it will add problem.  

Its the same thing using humidifiers, you have to adjust your stat so that you don't get condensate on your windows.

Tj

The adapter for the 20lb bottles to the stove and to the bottles are sold at Lowes.  Its around $25 for the hose to stove adapter and another $10 for the male to female adapter that uses the same hose for the bottles.

Filling is like charging a car with canned refrigerant except you want to do the opposite.  In a gas bottle there will be both gas and liquid with the gas on top.  In a car you don't want the liquid because it has a compressor compressing the gas and it will cause the compressor to explode while can to can you want the liquid.  I charge mine with the 20 gallon tank upside down.  That way I get a better fill.

Now a little off topic for your last question but back on topic for your original post.  I considered putting a ventless gas fireplace in my living room.  The method I was going to use was twin hundred pound tanks just on the outside of the wall from where the fireplace will be, drill through walls, pipe, then back fill with spray expandable foam.  The 100 lb tanks last longer but is still of a size that with a dolly you can still handle yourself to take and have filled/switched instead of calling for a switch out.  This is nothing more than bendable tubing with flare fittings so something I can do.

My thinking is my living room is quite large with a very large opening to the foyer and kitchen.  15,000 btus I could heat my entire upper level by keeping it turned down while using the living room then turning it up at night leaving the bedroom doors open.  It will be cooler in the bedrooms but that's OK.

Tj

Quoted: As for refilling the 1# propane canisters from the 20# tanks, some people say they're more likely to leak after being refilled.  I've never done it and I don't know, but I suspect the refilling adds a few percentage points of risk.  Other people say they do it all the time with no problems. As someone mentioned, you might consider the kerosene option, too, as a totally independent source of heat.  For $200 or $250 you could easily buy a heater and enough kero to heat a large room for a month or two or three.  Say a KeroHeat CT-1100 (11,000 BTU) for $90, six 5-gallon kero containers @ $6.50 each for $32.50, and 30 gallons of K-1 kero for $100, that's a total of $222.50.  Each gallon of kero should last somewhere around 10 hours, so depending on how often you run the heater, it can last for a long time.  A good place to pick up some info about kero heaters is here.

Good post and I agree both points.

I have noticed once the little tanks are used they have a tendency to leak.  What I have found that really helps is to re-use those little plastic caps the the new tanks come with.  I know we all get in a hurry and tend to cut those things off, but if you use a screwdriver and take your time you can get them off without damaging them.  

Most of the time, they provide just enough back pressure to make the valve seal and prevent the little tanks from bleeding off.  I guess they put them on there for a reason.

My primary backup heat for my house is a kerosene tower.  My house is 2880 sq/ft, very well insulated, with half below ground.  I put a single tower on the lower level leaving the door open to the upstairs and it heats my entire house.  Its not warm as toast but during the blizzard of 93' with no power and temps below zero, it kept the place warm enough to be tolerable.

Tj