# Winter, Barns and Space Heaters



## LauraM (Nov 29, 2009)

I thought I'd post an article here that I wrote in hopes that it may help keep someone safe.    It's been picked up by a couple of magazines and online sites so I thought some of you here might find it helpful, too.



*Winter, Barns and Space Heaters*



With winter here (or, very close), the need / desire to keep warm becomes important. However, theres one way of staying warm that bothers me....space heaters. We've all used them.....and many people use them in their barn's tack room, bathroom, or lounge.

Every year structures burn down in the winter due to electrical fires and often the cause of the electrical fire is a space heater. In the majority of the cases, the cord of a space heater burned through right where it connects to the plug. That is the weakest point in a space heater (when unplugging one, always pull on the plug itself....not on the cord!).

Every winter, we hear of people and animals dying in structure fires, so Id like to address some safety concerns that are often overlooked or unknown by many people.

One concern is the false sense of security people can get from plugging a space heater into a GFCI outlet (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor). These are the ones you most often find near kitchen and bathroom counters, in the garage, and outdoors. They are designed to prevent a person from being electrocuted in case the power shorts against the frame of whatever theyre using, and they work well for that. However, they sense a problem from ground to hot....but not from neutral to hot (in all outlets, there are two slots....the bigger one is neutral and the smaller is hot....but there is a third round hole below or sometimes above these slots....that one is ground). It's not unusual for a fire to get started with the space heater plugged into the bathroom GFCI outlet and it did not trip because many space heaters do not have a ground (third) prong. Imagine how much chance of a fire there is in barns with dust, dirt, spiderwebs, bugs and all built up in and around wiring and plugs? Yet a GFCI will not protect a space heater from shorting.

There is a solution for this, although it could be a bit pricey (still, how much is your life or your horse's life worth?). Any electrician can install what is called an AFCI (Arc Fault Circuit Interruptor) at the breaker panel to protect any circuit where a space heater may be plugged in. The cost of the breaker is usually around $35 - $40 U.S., plus the cost of installation. These will sense any arc between hot and neutral and will trip instantly (turn power off), and they can be used in conjunction with GFCI outlets. In other words, an AFCI breaker could be installed to protect a circuit which has GFCI outlets on it. It does not interfere with the GFCI at all.

NEVER, NEVER go to sleep with a space heater running in the barn, and never leave your barn with a space heater running. Of course, they should also not be used near anything flammable (clothes, flammable liquids, etc.). Use them only when you need them, while youre right there, and turn them off (or, better, unplug them) as soon as youll no longer be nearby. This is not to say they shouldnt be used, but just that people should be aware of the potential problems with them.

One of the main things to check for in an older barn is whether it was wired with aluminum wire (instead of copper). They were done that way for a time....way back when...... Fortunately, that was finally done away with....they're wired with copper wire now. Also, there was a time between aluminum wire and copper wire when they used copper-clad aluminum (aluminum wire with a coating of copper on it). It was a slight improvement, but not much better than aluminum. The problem is that aluminum is weak. It is more prone to breaking and burning through than copper. If you are not familiar with doing electrical work, it would be well worth it to hire a qualified electrician to check it out. In fact, insurance companies will not insure a barn wired with aluminum wire (for obvious reasons).

The weak point of any electrical circuit is where wires are spliced together. This is especially true of aluminum wires. Many barns have outlets spliced in as more horses are added and more people are around. There is a specific procedure requiring special equipment and special training in order to splice electrical wiring correctly, and some electricians can do it. They will need to go to every single place in the structure where wire is spliced and redo the splice using a special crimping tool which makes it so tight that the spliced wires become like one wire. Downside is, it's expensive to have it done (not to mention finding someone qualified to do it).

Even if a home or barn isn't old enough to have aluminum wiring, it still doesn't hurt to check the circuits and connections, since they can loosen up over time; particularly in a barn where they are often not installed as securely as in a home. When that happens, they can start arcing and eventually arc so bad they could start a fire. In short, all connections should be tight and splice boxes should be checked to be sure splices aren't working loose and starting to arc.

Another thing to watch for are old outlets which seem loose when you plug something in. If they feel too loose and plugs don't go in good and solid, the outlet should be replaced.

Best overall way to handle it if it's in the budget is to hire a qualified, licensed electrician to just give the place the once-over. They'll know what to look for.

Since there are fires every winter caused directly by use of space heaters, I just feel that putting out a word of caution doesn't hurt, especially the part about not leaving the barn with the space heater running or going to sleep with one running.

I wish everyone a comfortable and safe winter!




Laura Martlock - 2010 (c)


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## big brown horse (Nov 29, 2009)

Thanks for sharing Laura!


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## mully (Nov 30, 2009)

Thanks ...good article.


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## ducks4you (Nov 30, 2009)

Thanks for posting this!  I'm SURE that there have been numerous discussions on BYC about keeping the coops warm, too, BUT, the most important point is that you don't really NEED to heat a barn.  If your barn is made out of wood, it will be Infinitely warmer than a "Morton" building with steel walls.  HOWEVER, your horses will still be warm _even in that_, if they've had the Fall to acclimate to the cold and grow a good coat.  I remember the numerous family horse vacations that the 5 of us took to Colorado in July and August.  I would see my horses go from summertime coat to an obvious growth in as little as 3 days!  (We camped at 6,000-10,000 ft, you see.)  Don't baby your ponies--let them have turnout with a shelter when the temperatures start to fall and they'll shaggy up for you.  Mine already have beards and are pretty shaggy.  BTW, my old barn is wooden.  Then, when it's  R E A L L Y  cold you won't have to blanket them when they're stalled. Frankly, my blankets have dust on them, since I used them so infrequently.  Glad to have them, though, when I do need them.
I understand about the show-folk who have to blanket because their horses are clipped.  I'm referring to pleasure horse owners.  I've even witnessed a horse moved from Texas to C. IL in January, and double-blanketed.  He made it through okay., in a stall with an open window.
So, before you consider that space heater, try dressing yourself in layers and then take out your calculator and figure out how much it would cost to rebuild that barn and how long your horses would be without one...in the middle of the winter.


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## LauraM (Nov 30, 2009)

A lot of times its not the stalls or horses people want to keep warm....it's the tack room or feed room or a lounge area.  Often people want to keep supplements from freezing, or they want to have a place to warm up a bit while out at the barn.  They'll leave space heaters on to keep some sort of liquid supplement from freezing in the feed room or forget to turn off the space heater when leaving a tack room.  

A number of years ago, a very good friend of mine once lost her prize Arabian stallion and two phenomenal broodmares because they were wanting to keep a tack/lounge room warm and would leave the space heater on all night because otherwise "it took too long to heat back up in the mornings" during the winter.


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## FarmerChick (Dec 1, 2009)

Barns and heating sources usually do not do well together.
animals do not require heat usually...it is for people comfort.

if you heat a tack room, make a separate shed for it....like our barns in PA.  heated tack rooms were separate and no electric other than lights in the barns.


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## Chickerdoodle13 (Dec 1, 2009)

During the winter, our horses are usually out most of the time with a run in shed. They rarely even use that. We've never blanketed and we put them in their stalls only on the worst weather nights. My dad is thinking about building a new (but smaller) wooden barn on the top of our hill so that we can have four stalls. Right now we only have a two stall cement barn and four horses, but we do have enough space if we had to bring in all four at the same time. Our horses just hate being inside though! They'll tolerate it, but not happily.

Too many people worry about keeping their livestock warm during the winter, but if they have adequate four sided shelter, the animals are usually fine. Chickens grow more feathers, horses, pigs, goats, cows, and anything else I'm forgetting typically grows a heavier winter coat. I think these days people baby their animals too much and that's when they run into problems.


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## FarmerChick (Dec 1, 2009)

You are so right!!   I agree---unless needed for show coat during winter etc....let the animal be the animal.

adequate food, protection from wind, hay etc. and animals are "fine outside"   (severe extreme weather expecptions noted of course)


--it is "us" throwing human situations on animals


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