I have a gas stove. Natural Gas. It would be handy for me to use it to heat my kitchen/living areas. Turning it on and having just an open flame seems unwise. I tried putting a pot of water on the stove and heating it to just below the boiling point, such that it would, in turn, heat the room, but that just makes steam.

I was wondering, what if I got a block of Aluminum or some other metal and put it over the flame. This way the Aluminum (or other metal) would be heated to a nice hot temperature and this would in turn heat the room. But then I'd have this red-hot piece of Aluminum on my stove. This seems unwise too.

Is there a better way, or should I just stick to the portable electric heater (which by the way, Skins has said he hates --- and I agree with him.)

Yes, I have central heat, but in the mornings before I leave, there's no need to heat the entire house. I just need the kitchen area heated and I'm good.

Theoretically it work just fine.

There are a lot safer ways to heat the room than the fire hazard that you have described.

Not that I have a gas stove, but I am curious about the question myself.
A quick Internet search says, “Don’t use a gas stove to heat the room!” because of the danger of CO poisoning. But why then is it okay to use a gas stove to cook food? As for the fire danger, why is it then okay to cook food with an open flame?

buy a cheap space heater. it would be a heck of a lot safer.

Well, consider this....

using the stove, 100% of the energy is converted directly to heat. Heating up a pot of water or metal block (or rock or...) is using energy to heat the block, which will then radiate the energy over time.

Also, a by-product of combustion is water, so using the gas stove is already humidifying the house.

The problem is there isn't a good way to "distribute" the heat. A central heating system blows it around. Space heaters blow it around. Radiators work because there are many of them throughout a house. A stove will just put heat in the immediate area. And if you do try to fan the heat from the stove, you may change the combustion aspects, which may produce carbon monoxide.

If you're only trying to heat a small area, I'd probably use the electric space heater. I like to sleep cold, but like the bathroom warm once I'm up, so that's what I use there.

when my furnance went tits up last winter in -30 temps. I used the oven with the door open!.

So I would use the oven. I'd be a little leery of using gas tops for an extended period because of carbon monixide

Bake a cast iron skillet of biscuits every morning. The cheap refrigerator ones will work.

Yeah... do a lot of baking.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
when my furnance went tits up last winter in -30 temps. I used the oven with the door open!.

So I would use the oven. I'd be a little leery of using gas tops for an extended period because of carbon monixide

Sadly the oven is electric. It's an odd unit that I have -- gas stove-top and electric oven, for some strange reason. I wanted to stick to gas since it's a cheaper way to heat in my living area. Natural gas is dirt cheap here.

I guess I have the option of portable electric heat for the kitchen or just biting the bullet and using the gas central heat to heat the whole house.

Sounds like using the gas stovetop to heat the room is a non-starter, so to speak.

My crock pot set on high will boil 212˚ plus, and even low will get 204˚ or more. Warm is 183˚.

Simmering a pot of water overnight will add humidity and make it feel warmer.

It ain't the heat, it's the humidity.

The gas range burners are probably 12,500 BTUs. Maybe less. A wall-mount ventless gas heater is about 20k BTUs minimum but probably has an O2 sensor built into it.

No, do not use a gas stove to heat your home.

The CO produced from just running open flame constantly from a gas stove is very high.

If you're even going to try to do this, make sure you have CO detectors and they work.

Humidity produced will be an issue, but itself is not dangerous.

I would not recommend this practice to a friend.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
“Don’t use a gas stove to heat the room!” because of the danger of CO poisoning. But why then is it okay to use a gas stove to cook food?

Hmmm ...?

Since you already have gas, get a small gas wall heater installed, properly vented. It won't cost much and they produce a LOT of safe heat.

These are safe for indoor use and run on those 1lb propane bottles or you can hook it up to a larger bottle.

I do it all the time, but don't sleep with it on. No difference IMO from cooking a turkey, but just with the door open.

Sure you can though I would not suggest it.

I used to work a certain part of town and when weather was in the 30s or below at least a 1/4 of the houses I went into for calls used this method.

What about your clothes dryer?
Run a load of wash then use the clothes dryer with the vented room module.



la-274777784040&psc=1" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Deflect...a-274777784040&psc=1

Or get up early and bake a cake and take it into work.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
“Don’t use a gas stove to heat the room!” because of the danger of CO poisoning. But why then is it okay to use a gas stove to cook food?

Hmmm ...?

I think most places have codes for ventilation. Not an HVAC guy. Others may chime in. Rough guess is 60,000 btu’s of cooking heat gets 600 cfm of venting. Locally anything over 400 cfm needs make up air.
There is probably a statistic somewhere about the negative effects of using a range/oven for heating a space. Like smoking in bed, or sitting in a running car in your garage.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

LOL!