I spent the weekend Weatherizing the Yurt and the following couple of days it was so warm in here I had to turn the heater down to its halfway point! But this also coincided with unseasonably warm weather. We had temperatures in the 60s in January! So I couldn’t tell if my weatherization had actually helped or if it was so much warmer in the yurt just because it was warmer outside.
Now that it’s gotten colder again I can tell that it’s a bit of both. The temperature outside makes a pretty dramatic impact on the temperature inside because the yurt doesn’t have a lot of insulation. But Weatherizing the Yurt helped a lot, too, because I stopped convective heat losses through air sealing. There aren’t any drafts anymore and that helps enormously!
I’ve also boosted my passive solar gains by putting reflective bubble wrap on the ceiling above the door in spots where the sun, at its obtuse winter angle, strikes the ceiling. Now that heat and light is bounced back into the space. It’s much cozier in here now even though we’re currently experiencing some of the coldest days of the winter. (See my Yurt Panorama for more photos of the yurt!)