3 Ways Amish HEAT Their Homes

all right so in this video I'm going to explain three ways that the Amish Heat their homes and I'll also briefly talk about the so-called Amish Miracle heater which some of you might remember making the news in a big way from around 10 12 years ago what was that all about so first of all how do Amish keep their homes warm there's several ways they do this one of the most popular ways is simply by using wood or coal stoves these are typically located in the basement or on the first floor a system of vents will help to shuttle the heat around the home you know there's typically an open vents in the floor of the living room recently while I was eating friends in Pennsylvania my friend would pour water down through this vent onto the stove which would help prevent the air from getting too dry here you can see an example of a coal stove maker in an Amish community in Indiana cook stoves and Amish kitchens are also good sources of heat in many homes second way Amish Heat their homes is through the use of heaters and these can run off of fuels such as propane natural gas or even kerosene kerosene is a more popular fuel in the planar communities so what about the Amish heater which made a lot of news back in 2009 this was marketed as a miracle heater and had a lot of Amish branding on it with pictures of supposed Amish people it had some I would say some quite suspect other photos that were used in the advertising you had these ads showing up in major national Publications like USA Today they were actually made by a company called a Heat Surge out of Ohio they had a really big marketing campaign and I imagine sold a lot of these however you know these were basically electric heaters the heater itself I believe was made in China although the actual wooden mantel that went around the heater was produced at least in part by on producers in Ohio so not something the Amish really would use can you still find the Amish Miracle heater today this company is still out there making products although I don't think they're doing the same major advertising as they once were now a third way that Amish keep their homes warm this is an interesting one because this is a case of heat coming as a byproduct of something else the way the Amish light their homes is something of a heat source as well now Amish use a variety of types of lighting even including battery lights but a lot of Amish are using types of lighting that are based on natural gas or propane some of them can be based on things like mineral spirits which is essentially paint thinner or naphtha also known as white gasoline all these sort of fossil fuel based lighting sources also have the benefit of generating a lot of heat and this can be a plus in the winter although it can also be a minus in the summer when you don't need all that extra heat these work by igniting what's called a thorium mantle which burns with a very intense light and again gives off a lot of heat these can be hanging lights or lights that are built into a cabinet that you can wheel around the around the living room there's also a little invention here that the Amish use this is a metal what's called a fan that you place on to a stove basically the heat is what causes the fan action and the fan in turn disperses some of that hot air throughout the shop or the home you may be wondering now what about fireplaces now you might see these in some Amish homes I just spent several days with Amish friends in Pennsylvania who have a fireplace in their home they recently moved into a new uh old farmhouse 150 plus years old which has a fireplace and they do use it sometimes in the summer we actually cooked Mountain pies on in their fireplace because it had happened to rain that day if you don't know what mountain pies are see my video on five favorite Amish foods but not really their primary source of heat Amish don't really build fireplaces in their new homes uh probably because it's not the most efficient way of heating a home especially compared to say a wood stove but you may see these in some Amish homes so there are several ways the Amish stay warm and Heat their homes if you liked this video do me a favor hit that like button for me I thank you for that if you'd like to know more on Amish homes you can check out more videos on that topic here thanks a lot see you next time

Channel: Amish America

Views: 1,000,038

Keywords: simple living, off-grid living, low-tech lifestyle, heating methods, Amish homes, Amish & technology

Id: W0hCA43bywA

Length: 4min 29sec (269 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023