[vickers]

Hello all. Looking for tips, other than those to move.

We live in an all-electric house in northern Alabama, and hoping for alternative heating sources for when the power goes out.

We have a generator, but I'm worried of having the whole neighborhood know that I have one. its 5,500 watts and is loud as all hell.

We have blankets, hot hands (the heat activated things that go in your gloves), and a few smaller items, but im really looking for a way to heat the air inside, even in only 1 or 2 rooms.

Anyone else in my situation? What is the recommended sources of heat you use? Small propane heaters? Larger Propane tank toppers (i know these have to be vented).

Ive also seen portable wood stoves converted to vent out the window using a piece of plywood. I dont see how this could be safe, but maybe im wrong.

Thank you in advance.

 

[goose3]

There are a few issues here--one is ensuring your plumbing doesn't freeze. One way to handle that is to open the cabinet doors below sinks so that air from the room can circulate and help keep the pipes warm.

A second issue is how long you want to be able to heat w/o electricity. A couple days and the comments below will help; two weeks and you may want to look at a more permanent solution.

There are lots of ways to deal with this depending on circumstances. One way is to reduce the area you have to heat (you already know that). Some people even plan to use tents indoors or make a "tent" out of blankets and furniture. It's a good idea. Choose a room on the lee side of the house if possible.

You can choose a kerosene heater (they're relatively inexpensive, though you must ventilate to use them, and not for a tent), propane heaters, and as you've noted, a wood stove.

Something you can do to bring in heat from the outside is use a rocket stove or a grill w/ charcoal or a propane grill or burner to boil water or heat bricks (or other thermal mass).

Cover the water or transfer to another vessel; put the thermal mass in a cooler insulated with blankets, and then pull out inside the house to allow the mass to shed its heat. As long as you've reduced the area you need to heat, this plus warm bodies will help a great deal.

If you're really worried about this, you could build a carrier out of wood insulated with fiberglass or foam insulation. Keeping the warm mass inside the carrier allows you to remove it some at a time to keep things warm.

Water is an excellent thermal mass, but you want to avoid having it give off steam; it'll condense everywhere causing issues. You could heat up canning jars, fill with boiling water, and cap them and put in a cooler. Voila! Fabulous thermal mass, no steam. Be careful not to pour boiling water into cold glass.

I'm sitting in Wisconsin right now looking at overnight lows forecast in the -24 range so this isn't just theoretical for me. This approach is, in fact, my "last ditch" strategy for heating my house. Or should I say, the small area to which we retreat.

Finally, here's an ongoing thread where I wrote about this, and you may find other ideas there that work for you: http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?p=6200158#post6200158

 

[LordOpie]

EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS

(yes, not ideal)

We have a 3-season tent to set up in one bedroom (no tent? see Goose's post above). We'll put a plastic sheet over the bedroom window and fill it with clothes, towels, whatever. Put a blanket over your tent. No tent? Build a "fort" from furniture (Goose3 is the only one i've seen say this, so he gets exclusive credit. thanks!). Seal up a room with multiple layers and your body heat may be enough alone.

Still to cold to sleep?

Find a way to boil water. No inside fireplace? Do it outside. Buy (before you need) water bottle heaters, less than $10 each. Fill with near boiling water, don't burn yourself. Put in your bed a few minutes before sleep.

Obviously, add layers, but what about exposed skin? Petroleum jelly adds a warming layer to your face, wherever. useful with small children.

Kerosene lanterns add heat, not much, but maybe enough to help with the chill in a room. Dietz #80 puts out 1000btu. Use a carbon monoxide (CO) detector while using the lantern. Do this before going to bed and remove and extinguisher lantern before going to sleep.

A Mr. Buddy Heater generates about 10x a typical lantern, less than $100. While it has a built-in oxygen sensor, I'd still use a CO monitor. Also don't use while sleeping. One pound bottles can be had for less than $3 each -- lasts about an hour on high, but maybe that's enough to keep a room warm enough all night? After you stock up a dozen, maybe get an adapter and 20# bottle? Can be used with a propane stove to cook... boil that water for the hot water bottle with stove in the bedroom. (again CO detector)

drink plenty of water as it helps with blood circulation and that helps heat your body.

 

[LordOpie]

There are a few issues here--one is ensuring your plumbing doesn't freeze. One way to handle that is to open the cabinet doors below sinks so that air from the room can circulate and help keep the pipes warm.

and let the water flow from all faucets more than just a fast drip.

Water is an excellent thermal mass, but you want to avoid having it give off steam; it'll condense everywhere causing issues.

this is true in areas of high humidity. you need some as humidity helps heat. Where I live, I will try to create humidity from boiling water in a pressure cooker and move that to the sleep room. Without that, two of my family will get a sinus infection in short order.

The more than boiling hot pressure cooker will add heat and steam without the dangers of Carbon Monoxide, but will burn my kids, use caution in your house too.

 

[LordOpie]

We have a 3-season tent to set up in one bedroom (no tent? see Goose's post above).

lol, i copy-pasted-edited my post from a previous. I forgot that I had said "see Goose..." or I would've deleted it, but wouldn't you know, he beat me to a new "heat" thread, once again anyways :thumb:

 

[Illini Warrior]

is piped in natural gas available to your home? .... a single ventless gas heater could handle two rooms .... wouldn't need to be a permanent installation .... have the capped off gas line ready and the heater available to hang & connect ....

 

[goose3]

and let the water flow from all faucets more than just a fast drip.

Even just a drip will help a lot. Good advice.

this is true in areas of high humidity. you need some as humidity helps heat. Where I live, I will try to create humidity from boiling water in a pressure cooker and move that to the sleep room. Without that, two of my family will get a sinus infection in short order.

The more than boiling hot pressure cooker will add heat and steam without the dangers of Carbon Monoxide, but will burn my kids, use caution in your house too.

Some moisture is desirable, it's just that some people will decide to boil water inside and if the house cools down a lot, you'll have that steam condensing on EVERYTHING from windows to walls to floors to whatever. It's something to be monitored, and if a house is very leaky--a home in Alabama heated electrically probably is--that moisture may never build up.

If, as it is in your case, humidity levels are a concern, might be worth getting a humidity meter. You can get digital ones for fairly cheap. It isn't always clear what the number represents, but I've found they work as indicators of relative moisture in the air.

I have some experience here as my house is very, very well sealed. So much so that I use a mechanical air-to-air heat recovery ventilator to ventilate it. This allows the humidity levels in winter to be much higher than in most normal houses, which makes it feel far more comfortable. But when it gets very cold outside I get condensation on the bottom of windows which is bad for the wood.

I have a humidity monitor/gauge/meter on top of my humidistat (it will go on when humidity gets too high, engaging the ventilator). In fact, I have two of them and they differ by 10 in what they register, and yet both move up and down in tandem! So which is right? I don't know, don't care.

All I know is the normal indoor number is 36. When it gets colder, I let the humidity fall to where it registers 30-32, and that keeps condensation down.

These things are fairly cheap. Here's just one: http://www.walmart.com/ip/AcuRite-Digital-Humidity-and-Temperature-Monitor/16888914

 

[LordOpie]

also, make sure your neighbor doesn't burn down his house... and yours too.

 

[MattB4]

Propane wall heaters connected to a outside bottle. I use the Pro-Com as my emergency got to have heat. Northern Tool carries these.

 

[soldier506]

Hi, I live in Canada. It is common for temps to be below -40c . This morning the wind hill was -49. My main source of heat for my house is an electric furnace. We are remote so no natural gas here. The pros to electric heat is it is more safe. No worries about carbon monoxide poisoning . No worries about smelly diesel heating fuel. However as a backup we do have both a wood stove and a fire place. They are positioned properly to heat the house. They are located at opposite ends of the house plus on lower floor as heat rises. We do have other heaters that run off of propaine and kerosene but never had to use them. The wood provides enough heat. During cold spells when the wood stove is running the furnace would not even cut in despite a nasty blizzard going on outside. We have an old shed out back that we store our firewood in to keep it dry. We also have a small supply of wood on hand in the house that we keep inside for when we do start a fire. Keeping the small amount inside dries the wood big time allowing it to start a good burn.
When the weather does warm up that is when we prefer to replenish our wood supply. The cold makes cutting more difficult. You go though blades more often

 

[elliott264]

wood stove and plenty of firewood would be my first choice and is what I have.

those Mr. Heater Buddy heaters and a bunch of propane would be my second choice. Ive heard nothing but good about them

 

[grizzlylabs]

How about a pellet stove. Its relatively cheep and feeds itself. He could also use it in normal times to reduce the electric bill.

 

[Kansas Terri]

We have used a kerosene heater during a power failure. It kept the kitchen 65 degreed when it was about 30 degrees outside!

 

[BrianWorf]

I have 2 Mr. Buddy propane heaters and have used them in the past during winter power outages. They will keep a well-insulated room liveable. I just recently bought the 2nd heater when the last super cold front was coming, in case power failed. I have 10 1lb propane bottles, 15 20lb tanks, the hoses to connect the heaters to the tanks, and the adapter to refill the 1lb bottles from the tanks.

 

[Alore]

Another good way, is that we just had a cold front come through, where the high was
10F. As an experiment, I placed a bunch of the "emergancy" blankets on the wall and celling of my spare room and blocked the heating vent in the room, plus made sure that the door was closed. To make sure it was as close as possible to being a room without heat.

I was really surprised on how warm the room got, when the 3 of us went in, just for a few hours before bed. Granted that we still had to have layers on, but seemed quite warmer than it would have been without the "emergancy" blankets on the walls/celling.

Mind you even though we turned the heat down to 55F in the house, technically the house was still heated and above freezing. But was interesting experiment to try with the family. I think had we had a some sort of heating element, it would have really kept us warm.

Might try it again, this time without anything on the walls, just as is and see if we feel the difference between the 2 different room setup. Granted this experement has all kinds of flaws, but like anything we do, have to try it first before we really know if it it works or not.

 

[GG42]

Just how cold you expect it to get? You are in the South, so probably, not too bad. Here are the simplest solutions. 1. Mummy sleeping bags, weight is not a factor, so they are inexpensive, zero degree should do it. This may be too hot in them, so you may want to have a set of even cheaper, rectangular bags, nominally rated at 25 degrees. They would be fine down to about 35 deg in reality. 2. Coleman's Cat heaters, provide about 5k BTUs and attach to 1 lb cylinder. The downside: lasts about 6 hours only. Upside: doesn't require venting. 3. Have supplies to insulate the room: rug on the floor; plastic film on the windows; cheap blankets stapled to windows (over plastic); the same for entry doors.

 

[Operator6]

I live in south Alabama and have total electric. No problem when the power is on as we have a heat pump equipped with heat strips for emergency heat. Heat pumps do not work well when it gets really cold outside so the heat strips supplement.

If the power went out for any lenght of time I have a fireplace centrally located and can shut doors to effectively make the house about 500 sq ft. The fireplace does a nice job heating this to 70-75 degrees.

For an extended power outage I would go to a hotel or a relatives house for simplicity however I do have enough firewood to last a couple weeks and some propane heaters and propane.

 

[woodyp]

Chain up the jenny, sound insulated with plywood on a couple of sides-------and run the hell out of it. Isn't that why you bought it? Might inspire the neighbors to get one so they can't hear yours over theirs! Got extra oil. gas, spark plugs? Next question please!

 

[Malakie]

Hello all. Looking for tips, other than those to move.

We live in an all-electric house in northern Alabama, and hoping for alternative heating sources for when the power goes out.

We have a generator, but I'm worried of having the whole neighborhood know that I have one. its 5,500 watts and is loud as all hell.

We have blankets, hot hands (the heat activated things that go in your gloves), and a few smaller items, but im really looking for a way to heat the air inside, even in only 1 or 2 rooms.

Anyone else in my situation? What is the recommended sources of heat you use? Small propane heaters? Larger Propane tank toppers (i know these have to be vented).

Ive also seen portable wood stoves converted to vent out the window using a piece of plywood. I dont see how this could be safe, but maybe im wrong.

Thank you in advance.

In Wisconsin a lot of wood burning stoves are used.. However in the last year or so, many people are switching to 'pellet' stove/heat. Basically they burn small pellets made of wood sawdust and other stuff. You can buy a bag of them cheap and they last quite a while. Amazingly, they actually do a better job of producing regulated heat than a standard wood burning stove PLUS you have no need to chop or cut wood.

One caveat to this is you for survival purposes is you will need to either build a simple pellet maker or buy one.

My last place had one installed into the main heat system so that it sent heat through the main heat vents of the house in every room. And it used its own fan induction system to do so without the need to run the primary heat unit or fans.

 

[Nomad 2nd]

Cheapest/Smallest/ most versatile thing is several of these:

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Mr-H...gclid=COLP69Xs57sCFShk7Aod208AQw&gclsrc=aw.ds

Propane tank mounted heaters (mine were MUCH cheaper, just used the first link I found)

I grew up with a kerosene heater
http://m.globalindustrial.com/m/p/h...ane-Kerosene-biz_shop&infoParam.campaignId=WZ

For sustainability I'd install a woodstove.