3 Ways Amish HEAT Their Homes

Sources:
"Amish Space Heater: Is That an Oxymoron?" by Steven Kurutz, New York Times, Feb. 11, 2009

"We had to ask: What’s up with the Amish space heaters?" by Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 3, 2009

"How Miraculous is the Amish Fireplace?" by David Wood, Consumer Affairs, Feb. 4, 2009

Further info:

Living Without Electricity: Lessons from the Amish
by Stephen Scott & Kenneth Pellman

[teresaames]

I had a miracle heater. It was called a wood stove. Wood can heat you up 3 times. 1: when you cut and split it. 2: when you carry it in. 3: when you burn it. 🤣🤣🤣🔥🤭

[jeaniemcdonald]

After the freeze in Texas, we invested in a small wood stove. Our two storied home has a fireplace, but it never really heated our home. The new wood stove is awesome. It is vented out the back, through the fireplace. That little wood stove heats the entire first floor in no time, and I can cook on it. A total win, win.

[brucestorey]

When one of my Amish friends rebuilt the house he lives in now, he had under-floor radiant heat installed throughout the entire house. The heat is generated with a propane boiler. This is one of the most comfortably warm houses I have ever been in.

[shootingsportstransparency]

I am not religious at all but am starting to appreciate the Amish way of life more and more

[blackberry]

This home is so simple and beautiful !! I once saw a stove that ran on dry corn in an Amish store. It was awesome. America for the most part has forsaken the old ways.

[donadams]

I grew up in a 1910 Farm Victorian home. The home has no exterior decoration. The heat was base board hot water but only on the first floor. The 2nd floor was heated by the stairway and vents in the floor that let the hot air rise from the 1st floor. The bedrooms stayed comfortable during the cold Northern Missouri winters.

[RBCHOKE]

I lived in the free state of Bavaria as a child, near Switzerland. The common space like the living room, with the bathroom being in a close proximity, was heated by a wood stove, we also wore pajamas and warm slippers or socks . Our bedrooms had no heat, and the windows were actually left slightly open!

[shawncooper]

As a Mennonite we use wood stove and electric heater and coal to heat up our homes. In the winter time my dad would use the wood stove to cook breakfast and lunch and dinner and hot up to tea pot for his coffee in the morning.

[suttonbogedain]

Their home architecture also helps with heat dispersal. The large central room, wide doorways, even the stair placement helps heat move about the house. Our friends also have an airlock entryway front and back to knock down outside air and heat loss. The back door one also has an open bathroom/mudroom design that allows the hot water to humidify the house and disperse the water heat. Pretty ingenious actually.

[TheYTSucks]

I had a DS Machines Heatorola 1600 coal stove built by the Amish. Thing was a beast, weighed 600 pounds empty, held 120 pounds of nut anthracite coal in the fire box and another 60 pounds in the hopper. It was gravity fed. I had it in an old drafty house that was built in 1948. The house was so drafty that you could feel the wind through it. There were sections of walls that you could see daylight through. That stove would keep the house anywhere between 70° and 75° all winter. I miss that stove. I burned coal from 2010 until 2015.

[Subgunman]

We heat our home with a fireplace equipped with a boiler. A low power circulation pump circulates water throughout the lower level of the home to radiators. The upper two levels use in floor radiant heat. In order to control water temperature to the upper levels there are several heat exchangers that isolate the 90°C water used in the radiators from the 40°C max temperature needed for the radiant heat. This fireplace / boiler is made in Italy and does have an electronic brain to regulate air flow into the closed burn chamber. This system draws cold dense outside air into the burn chamber instead of pulling heated air out of the home. To heat a 200sq meter home it can use up to 10 metric tons of wood in a very cold damp winter. The system also heats water for the home as well but the water heater also is solar powered, on sunny winter days it provides enough hot water for evening showers and doing dishes. It’s an equivalent size to your homes 40 gallon water heater.

[steveo]

The Chinese diesel heaters are really nice, along with the Big Buddy heater but nothing beats a wood stove!

[RetreatfarmFarmvilleVirginia]

In my " Dawdy Haus" i have a fireplace woodstove insert that is mounted on a freestanding stone and cement block pedestal and the exhaust fan mounted underneath blows the heated air from the double walled stove down thru the floor into the ductwork to distribute heated air to all of the rooms, I Heat, cook meals and heat water and dry clothes with the stove. And i have a heat pump that runs off of solar panels that heats mostly down to 40 degrees. My lights are either solar powered string lights or wall mounted crane type oil lanterns. (8) and natural window light in daytime.

[tsmith]

All electric heaters are maxed at 1500 watts. Basically all the same. I’ve been in quite a few Amish homes and they are some of the most beautiful homes I’ve seen.

[whyzup]

Our seperate summer cook kitchen has the old heat stove as it was converted into a guest room.
The family is long gone now.
Ive spent many years in a trailer on Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania with no water, heat or electric in the winter.
On the coldest nights...I would just sleep in my car.
I'm not paying 500.00 plus dollars a month to heat this old farmhouse with the new HVAC system
It's been a good winter outside of the Christmas freeze.
It's 42° on the porch tonight
Just the way I like it
Johnny in Coopersburg PA

[TheLizardKing]

Excellent video Erik.. When i was a kid, i used to haul split wood in the basement and feed the wood stove. I would wash my clothes and hang them up in the basement, and they would dry very fast. An old Amish trick i learned as a kid. Brings back a lot of memories. Keep the cool video coming!

[amberenyeart]

We went to an Amish Christmas party one year and they were using their cookstove as a heater and omg it really worked well! That whole house was HOT! I learned fast that if you visit the Amish in winter dress light lol.

[lumity]

Back in the 60s, I remember having a wood stove in our living room, kitchen area and i use to sit in front of the Wood Stove after i came home from sledding.
The Upstairs of our house we used are winter coats to cover the bedroom windows, i slepted in the hallway by the stairs and i could feel the heat coming from downstairs, I miss being a kid back then, we were poor, but felt Safe and loved my parents.

[sabbathwasset-upatcreation]

My Mom bought me one of those Amish heaters when they first came out. It broke fairly quickly and since it was under warranty, we got another one for free. But the new one also broke after a year or two of use. The woodwork was nice, but the heating element was a piece of junk, imo.

[mrs.g.]

While I was looking for a house a few years ago, I lived in an unelectrified cabin from April to August. Outside of candles, battery-operated lanterns, flashlights and headlamp, there were three propane-fed ceiling lamps. I hardly ever used them after May because they did give off a lot of heat! But the oil-drum wood-burning stove was perfect for when the weather was still cold. Because I worry about fires, I have no hearths, wood stoves, space heaters or candles in the house I finally found and bought.