Thread: Wood stove - Minimum heating standards

What are the minimum heating standards for a home?

I am thinking specifically a home that has a wood stove as the sole source of heat. HUD has established Minimum Property Requirements for purposes of appraisals, "Homes with a wood burning stove as a primary heat source must also have a permanently installed conventional heating system that maintains a temperature of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit in areas with plumbing."

In the IRC, R303.8 Required Heating:
"When the winter design temperatures in Table R301.2(1) is below 60 degree F, every dwelling unit shall be provided with heating facilities capable of maintaining a minimum room temperature of 68 degrees F . . . ."

But the IRC does not seem to state that the source of heat has to include something other than a wood stove. What if you have to leave the house for a day or two, and can't be there to shove more wood on the fire? Plumbing eventually freezes.

Aside from common sense, is there anywhere else in building code that requires a "conventional" source of heat besides a wood stove?
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Not that I'm aware of, but clients may find it difficult to get a loan......

I doubt the AHJ would allow that as the wood stove would need to be hand fed with fuel to maintain that temperature, while a gas, fuel oil, electric, etc., furnace/heater would be 'self-sufficient' and able to maintain the required temperature.

We don't have any local AHJ's outside a few small cities. There is an old wood stove in the main floor, but what I loved the most was the wood burner in the basement. Notice the black color of the floor joists in the ceiling of the basement. He must have already replaced the OSB sub flooring. Oh, and that rock wall face behind the spiral staircase - it is about ready to fall down.

The owner / weekend builder had a welder, can you tell? Had metal support posts all throughout the basement, even against the walls and in the corners. He obviously didn't trust his foundation (for good reason).

As it turned out, he also didn't believe in installing a septic system (everything flows out to french drain pipes according to a neighbor). I'm curious how the well water test will turn out. Used schedule 40 PVC for all the supply plumbing, and did a pretty poor job at that. Old and new leaks everywhere. I have inspected a lot of old homes (this one was handcrafted in 1983), but this is the first time I have told a buyer to plan on completely replacing ALL the plumbing in the house, plus add a heating system, plus install a septic system.

Oh, by the way - is there any reason why you can't install a mobile home gas water heater in a normal house? And set it on top of a dolly that still has the wheels?