Winter survival in your house

[jbett98]

When I was a newlywed, I looked forward to the power going out.
Thirty years later I now own a dependable generator.

 

[ChiefStealth]

I have a natural gas stove. Had that installed the first year we bought the house. Warms the whole house. Did great during our recent cold snap.

 

[HuckleberryFun]

If power goes out in the Winter for hours first we light a fire in the fireplace. Then light some candles and lanterns. Then we make some hot cocoa on the gas stove (backups: a Coleman and a propane stove). If power isn't on the next day the generator gets fired up to power essentials and re-charge the deep cycle batteries. On standby are propane tanks with mini-heater heads.

 

[Joe13]

.

How long will your tank last? What brand? Do keep the tank inside or out?

I have a my buddy that will run for 8+ hours on a 1lb green tank or for a couple days with a 5gal tank and extension adapter hose.

I also have a larger radiant heater that will run for about 24 hours amd puts out MEGA heat but I have an older home and with a connected garage so there are lots of "air gaps" but never run the big one while sleeping.

The buddy heaters have CO2 sensors and would easily heat a large room - too small of a room and you'll be turning it on and off a lot.

Tanks are inside and I'm a little OCD about checking for leaking connectors.



Also, people would be surprised at what a few candles in the room will do for the temps.

 

[CoastRange57]

A friend lives in Alaska and sent a picture of a thermometer showing a minus 60 temp this morning. In those very isolated areas, people have to have secondary shelters on their properties , because if they have a fire and lose the primary shelter and it is below zero, you are in serious trouble. They may have some type of shed, or secondary place with some type of heat source to go to. Usually wood stove.

Those of us who live out a ways need to keep this in mind too, and back up heat source is good. I have two 3500 watt generators and that will keep the heat going, but I need to look at one of those buddy heaters to allow my electricity to go to other needs.

 

[11Charlie]

Guess I am checking out these buddy heaters for a back up

 

[Camelfilter]

+1 for a Buddy Heater. I use the Big Buddy to heat my garage (man cave) and it works great. Indoor safe, I run it off 20lb cylinders and the circulation fan does wonders. I've used it in a power outage to heat my house (1800sq/ft two story). It's definitely not ideal for that much space, but it was better than nothing. It will heat my two car garage up from 40-70+ in no time.

I'm a big fan of the buddy heaters. Have a big buddy & the single element buddy as well. Have 30lb, 20lb, 5lb & a bunch of 1lb tanks.

Filled up the 30 & 20 a week ago Sunday, and still have a little left in the 20. Heating using both of the buddy heaters set on high off of a tree & lines around 4 to 6 hours per day thru yesterday. Just a simple test.

---tanks stay outside---never put the big tanks inside!---

Had the living room above 70, without using central heat.

I could easily extend the useable time by only using 1 of the heaters & setting it to medium. That would likely last 2 weeks or more off of the 30lb tank with similar use time per day.

Part of the same test, we've got a propane lantern set at the top of the tree. Trying to see how long 1 mantle will last. Almost 2 months now, with a good bit of jostling (changing out the tanks, setting the tree & lantern on the ground etc etc). Pretty pleased with that, & the light output is REALLY impressive. Easily enough light to do outdoor work at night, if need be.

 

[albin25]

Advice from my uncle Dmitry Polenco...
"Plenty vodka, wool socks, fir hat, warm blanket, fat young woman.
Good for 2, maybe 3 days... if have perogies and bacon? 6 days!"

 

[Joe13]

I have stayed away from anything larger then the 5 gal tanks for a couple reasons.

5 gal tanks are plenty heavy to move if my wife or daughter should need to do it.

Bimart sells them cheap in the camping season and it's about $25 to fill one.

They do take up more room to store them but I also live in a densely populated neighborhood and the power rarely goes out. The 90 min outage we had was one of the longest in my 15 years living in this house.

If I lived in the boonies, a Generac 25k with a 250 gal propane tank outside would be ideal imo. Properly maintained, the generators are beasts - we used to use them to power cell towers during bad outages so cell phones would work (they probably still do).

Of course you need to add an automatic transfer switch to your power setup but that's not hard if you know electricity or if you can afford the generator then you can afford the installation...

 

[Joe13]

A Coleman stove and pot will get you cooking.

Water also is essential just in case your main breaks.

Sandbags for flooding if appropriate.

 

[Camelfilter]

A Coleman stove and pot will get you cooking.

Water also is essential just in case your main breaks.

Sandbags for flooding if appropriate.

We grill off of a small Coleman stove both at home & camping. With a hose it ties into the propane 3 outlet tree along with 1 heater & the lamp, or uses 1lb bottles.

Pretty nifty unit, has a grill for 4 burgers & a few dogs plus a burner for a pot or kettle.

Ours is an older version of this one, where the burner is on the right side:

Camp Propane Grill/Stove

We also have a teflon griddle plate for it, handy for pancakes, bacon/sausage & eggs etc, plus a kettle for coffee on the burner.

We have a couple of those stoves, both purchased 2nd hand. The most recent one was $30 off of the Craigslist in near new condition.

The older one we've had for about 4 or 5 years, and is still in great working condition.

 

[Caveman Jim]

+1 for a Buddy Heater. I use the Big Buddy to heat my garage (man cave) and it works great. Indoor safe, I run it off 20lb cylinders and the circulation fan does wonders. I've used it in a power outage to heat my house (1800sq/ft two story). It's definitely not ideal for that much space, but it was better than nothing. It will heat my two car garage up from 40-70+ in no time.

I opted for the Big Buddy also & I'm impressed with it as it will run me out of my enclosed top on the boat.

 

[B3dlam]

Based on your situation I would say a backup generator is going to be your best option. Although a good one won't be cheap its going to beat any of the other options out there buddy heaters are well and good but in the end nothing can really beat a generator powering your house even to a limited capacity.

 

[partsed]

If the power goes out for any length of time I will drag out my Honda generators, plug them into the 5th wheel and we will sleep in the trailer.

 

[CoastRange57]

If the power goes out for any length of time I will drag out my Honda generators, plug them into the 5th wheel and we will sleep in the trailer.

Exactly. I could be " in residence" in my trailer in about 20 minutes, 5 more to get a couple 5 gallon bottles of water from the house to there. 3500 watts goes a long way in an RV.

 

[Brutus57]

In gold camp north of Nome in the 90s we had diesel fired heaters in the bunkhouses...but that would mean a stove pipe.

Brutus Out

 

[Mark W.]

Our Pellet stove on full power uses less then 360 watts I have a 4000 watt inverter and the necessary cables to connect it to either vehicle. My house while 1750 sq ft. is very well insulated and can be compartmentalized down to just the Living room and Kitchen if need be. We already sleep in a very cool bed room (typically in the Winter around 50-54 degrees) I can run the stove for 2 hours and make the whole house warm so I have no doubt that we could make it through a few days with no power. Last week during the cold snap the exhaust fan motor went out on the stove on a Saturday so we were heating the downstairs with a small 1500 watt electric heater and it was very comfortable. Got the stove back up and running Yesterday.

 

[tfbit]

Current backup is a gas "fireplace" and a RV battery/inverter (have a large solar panel to charge) to run the fan in the insert, getting more heat out of it.

I've kinda been on the lookout for a old freestanding wood stove/yard ornament to buy and keep in the yard along with the required flue pipe and floor tile (in the garage) to be able to punch a hole in a wall and have wood heat... Wood provided from the houses of the dead.

 

[fyrediver]

Can you get a propane fireplace with a largish tank outside? That's what I've done and I only had electric as well. Tank gets filled regularly and will heat most of my 1100 square foot house if I circulate the air. In an emergency where I had to milk it a bit I'd close off the unessential bedrooms and only heat the essential areas.

If you can't I think the Buddy line of heaters is the best option. That's what I've done as well.

 

[fyrediver]

Another thing to consider is a 12 volt battery backup system with deep cycle marine or golf cart batteries. Use the generator to recharge the battery bank and draw off it what you need. A generator is a poor choice for light loads as the engine will run in excess of what you actually consume if you're only drawing a light load. Think diesel-electric submarine or hybrid car.

Can directly charge 12 volt items with car chargers, run a AA/AAA battery charger for flashlights, run an inverter for light 120 VAC loads, and, what is most pertinent to the topic, run a 12 VDC electric blanket. Won't warm the air but it'll warm a body. Heat the person not the space.

PREP1234.com Has all of the Prepardness items you need for the next disaster or storm.