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[jackel440]

Here's what I do. I have a $15 portable hotplate. I plug it in and put it inside the firebox - even with the cord the door closes fine. I put the hotplate on low and close the chimney. I've set this up for two weeks before - I'm in northern MN so we had a few -25 nights during that time. When I come home the temp of the water in the boiler jacket is usually ~40-50 degrees. I also have electric heating strips on the exposed piping in the garage - they turn on if the temp gets below 35 degrees.

I agree this does work.As I was building my stove I kept an electric space heater.One of those "milk house" style ones.I kept it in the fire box or gas chamber depending on when i was building.It kept the inside of the boiler quite warm.I imagine that if water was circulating and you had the exhaust stack blocked off it would work quite well.I did this all through december during my build plus had a heat lamp shining on some pipe that had some water in them on the back of the stove.