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Lake Metigoshe, North Dakota

Lake Metigoshe cabin

A fifty-year-old lake cabin north of Minot traded baseboards and a wood stove for thermal mass floor heat, warm enough to give up winters in Hawaii.

Building
Fifty-year-old lake cabin, remodeled
Replaced
Electric baseboards and a wood stove
ThermaRay thermal mass panels laid out on sand inside the new foundation at the Lake Metigoshe cabin
Panels laid out on the sand inside the new foundation.

The challenge

Linda and Jim B. spend part of each year in Hawaii. Their permanent home is a cabin on Lake Metigoshe in the Turtle Mountains, just north of Minot, where the winters are very cold.

The fifty-year-old cabin was heated with electric baseboards and, mostly, a wood stove, because the baseboards couldn’t keep up. The lower-level floors were cold enough to need wool socks and mukluks. When the cabin needed major repairs, they used the remodel to fix the heat for good.

The system

They chose ThermaRay thermal mass storage floor heating. Panels are laid on the ground, covered with sand and then the concrete slab, so the whole mass under the floor stores heat and releases it evenly.

The result

Linda says she can finally be warm and comfortable year-round in North Dakota, and the couple expect to stop leaving for the winter altogether.

“We’re now warm enough to know we will eventually just stay the winters and give up Hawaii … crazy, eh?”

Jim B., Lake Metigoshe, North Dakota

From the project story on premierenergyusa.com. Read the original post

Crew working beside the lake, and the finished slab poured over the heating panels
The crew at the lake, and the slab poured over the panels.

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