Anyone else using a wood-burning stove as their primary heat source in a timber cabin? How are you managing moisture?

We've just finished insulating our 6x4m cabin in rural Shropshire — 100mm Rockwool between the studs, 25mm PIR board on the inside face, then OSB3 and cladding on the outside. The wood burner is a Hobbit stove (5kW nominal) and it does a cracking job of warming the space, but I'm starting to notice the RH creeping up when we're cooking or drying clothes in there over winter weekends.

Currently running a small Meaco 10L dehumidifier off a 600W inverter, powered by two 200Ah LiFePO4 batteries and a 400W solar array. On grey January days the solar isn't keeping up and I'm eating into the battery more than I'd like — maybe 80-100Ah over a 12-hour period just on that dehumidifier alone. Thinking about whether a passive ventilation strategy (Passivent tile vents or similar) would reduce the electrical load, but worried about losing heat.

Has anyone found a decent balance between keeping RH under control and not chucking all your stove heat out the window? Interested to hear what ventilation setups people are actually running, and whether any of you have ditched the electric dehumidifier altogether in a well-ventilated cabin.

@ShedGenius79 that insulation spec sounds solid but I'd be watching your vapour control layer closely — with a wood burner cycling heat dramatically, you'll get condensation migrating into that Rockwool if there's no proper VCL on the warm side of the PIR.

In my setup I used an Intello Plus membrane which is humidity-variable, so it tightens up in winter when you need it most. Made a noticeable difference to how the structure behaves.

Also — are you running any mechanical ventilation? A stove pulls air, cabin gets negative pressure, moisture-laden outside air gets drawn in through every gap. MVHR feels overkill at cabin scale but even a simple trickle vent arrangement helps enormously with the moisture balance.

What stove did you end up going with? Some of the smaller 4-5kW units are genuinely better suited to well-insulated cabins than people realise.

Great setup @ShedGenius79! One thing I'd add on the moisture front — with a wood burner running hard in a well-insulated cabin that size, you'll likely see condensation issues on cold mornings before the stove gets going. We had exactly this in our Welsh cabin until I started leaving a small vent cracked overnight rather than battening everything down tight.

Also worth investing in a decent hygrometer — I use a cheap digital one from Amazon and aim to keep relative humidity between 50-60%. Once you start cooking or drying wet gear in there it climbs surprisingly fast.

@NotAnElectrician makes a fair point about vapour control — are you running a continuous VCL on the warm side of your Rockwool? Any gaps around your services or stove collar will cause you grief eventually. That junction between the flue collar and ceiling is worth sealing properly too.

Been there with my shepherd's hut — a hygrometer is your best £12 you'll ever spend, keep relative humidity between 50-60% and you'll know exactly when to crack a Titon hit-and-run vent rather than guessing.

Also worth knowing: freshly split wood can be 50%+ moisture content, and burning it pumps litres of water vapour into your cabin before it even hits the flue — seasoned 2+ years or a moisture meter reading sub-20% is non-negotiable with a tight build like yours @ShedGenius79.

One thing @NotAnElectrician and @LuckySocket haven't flagged — that PIR board on the warm side of your Rockwool is actually doing you a favour as a secondary vapour check, but make sure your OSB3 joints are taped externally or you're just trapping moisture in the studwork itself.