Jack, this podcast couldn’t have come at a better time! Yesterday, I got home and our power had gotten knocked out on our block. I was actually wondering what would I do if they couldn’t get it on in time for bedtime. Fortunately, they had it up by about 6pm, before the boys get home, so heat was on in time.

On the topic of the contest, I really wish you’d go back to the old format where you collect emails in a given time and then pick random winners from the pool. The way you do it now is not equitable to all listeners, as not everyone can pull up the show right away when you post. =-]

I just read this article that was posted yesterday.

“93-year-old freezes to death after city limits power over unpaid bills” (http://tinyurl.com/azeu97)

The fact that he didn’t pay his bills aside, I only brought this up to say that your timing on this subject is uncanny.

We have gas range/oven as well. We also have a gas furnace. I hadn’t even considered that losing power would kill the heat (duh).

I had forgotten about the stove thing, so thank you for pointing it out. We do have a fireplace and we all do like to get cozy. We have tons of blankets, so we’re set on the cocoon, but I should go get some log starters and a ¼ or ½ cord of wood to keep in the garage (it is cleaned out now). =-]

Good show on an important topic, more so for us up here in the midwest, (Wisconsin). I have a kerosene heater I use in the basement family rec room and at 24,000btu, it does a nice job.
runs for about 8 hours on 1.5 gals of K-1.
Very, very little kerosene smell, if you are careful not to spill the fuel while refilling. It warms the room and travels up to warm the upper levels as well. In this climate, you also have to consider the risk of water pipe freeze up, and a heater in the basement will cover you there till things get back to “normal”.
Make sure to find a source for bulk K-1 sale, other wise it is Very expensive in those gallons for sale next to the heaters.

I found a great source for the heaters are on closeout at the big box stores, starting in a few weeks around Easter. Home Depot traditionally will mark these things down 50%.. to around $50. cheap insurance I have an extra heater, still in the box to use at my neighbors, couple in their 80’s, if they also have a problem.
K-1 has a low flash point, can also be used in those old time lanterns for year round lighting.

Jack, Thanks for getting me going on this deal. You are a great patriot .
p

another good one could be pellet stoves… need electric to run the auger and blower motor, but it’s 120V and if you get a decent one they can throw a decent amount of heat. I have one at my BOL that heats it to 70 on two 40lb bags of pellets a day…

I have considered many types of emergency heat,and before the advent of the unvented LP gas heaters that were made for homes (Buddy heaters, http://www.mrheater.com/ buy them on ebay save mega bucks) I utilized what people that have boats use to heat thier boat cabins with , denatured alcohol, ORIGO makes the best (again check ebay) http://www.swego.com/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=33 and get you a case of denatured alcohol. Whats cool about these is that when everyone is hunting coleman fuel or kersosene,any paint store and many drug stores has denatured alcohol, get a mil surplus Swiss mess kit too, do a google search ,these have alcohol trangia stoves cheaper than you can build one out of a coke can and improvise a mess kit (about 8 bucks() or get them by the dozen at sportsmansguide.com and put survival kits in them and through in your car and 72 hour kit.
Another way is a coffee can ,rubbing alcohol and toilet paper>put one in your car if you are in snow country.

Winter Survival Emergency TP (Toilet Paper) Heater
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf430238.tip.html

Have some clay planting pots? here ya go

Candlepowered heat

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/candle-powered-heater/

Solar Heater Built With Soda Cans

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/canned-heat/solar-heater-built-with-soda-cans-256740.php

Mother Earth News has plans for a simple thermo siphon window box heater using used news print available locally (sheet metal) as the conductor that works great in my southern clime to raise the inside temp 15degrees.
There are many ways to do emergency heat, The book Rural Ranger Survival guide even uses garbage bags on your windows to make a thermo siphon to raise the temp in your house 5 degrees or more. I like denatured alcohol because its less competition for fuel. The old ranger trick of a poncho and a tea candle will get you by in a emergency, but I could use the advice in the rural ranger book of a trangia burner with gas dewater etc if I had too for many more hours. It is not about the heater you have it is about how you fuel it. The old Indian saying about how a white man stays warm by continually staying up all night gathering wood for this big fire he has in order to keep it going, a Indian builds a small fire and gets closer and feeds it small twigs and branches and sleeps the night through. In Alabama and I am sure other places we say would warms you atleast twice,once cutting and gathering, then burning. Using less energy to heat will serve you well,if not do some jumping jacks and get back under the covers. Jack I owe you an apology for a bad day influenced post where I psycho babbled my frustrations, consider it given and heartfelt.

Good broadcast Jack. Just to mention, newer, high efficiency gas furnaces with variable speed blowers require very little electricity to operate. A small PV system with a battery bank & an inverter may be enough to keep your furnace operating during the outage. That said, I rely on my wood stove & a supply of seasoned wood.

Jack,

Very timely episode. Last weekend our furnace was working sporadically. It took three visits over three days for the problem to be fixed. It was negative pressure in the system that was giving the thermostat a false reading, at least that is what I was told. Of course it was below degrees for those three days.

Unfortunately our fireplace was walled up, before we bought our house. I live in an old house and the whole thing seems to be crumbling, so we are talking major dollars to repair it.

Like Jack said, I went out and bought some electric space heaters. They kicked out just enough heat to keep us warm. In the basement, I had something called a Mr. Heater Portable Buddy 9,000 BTU Propane Radiant Heater. I kept it by the hot water heater and pipes so keep everything from freezing.

There is a good article in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Backwoods Home magazine about an ice storm that hit Springfield Missouri. It knocked the power out for three weeks in some places. The author had a gas stove, so he did okay. It was interesting, none of the ATMs worked, so hospitals and gas stations only took cash. The author went to Wal-Mart the second day of the storm and the store was cleaned out. Great article, worth reading. One great thing I got out of it was if the power goes out like that, unplug everything. Sometimes when it comes back on, it creates a power surge. The author said several days after the storm, they saw tons of dead TVs, refrigerators, microwaves, etc. around town.

jack – when I pre-purchased them, I bought them for $3.79 roughly a bag. I purchase them in 40lb bags with 50 (one ton) per pallet.

If you can, you can save $$ if you buy them in bulk this way (bagged) or if you can find a retailer where you can buy them in bulk (loose).

The latter would be cheaper, but you’d have to build some bins to store them in. They have to be kept dry!!! If not, wetness will cause the pellets to swell (which won’t be good for the auger) and will fall apart and be reverted back to their original state as sawdust.

Let me know if you want some more info on them, I’d be glad to share any information if anybody is interested in purchasing one.

Craig

Great show..
you could always warm up rocks outside your house in a fire and bring them in your small room and place them in some pots. no pollution.
Alladin lamps put out 60 watts of light
and you can cook over them.
during the summer one can make paper paper pulp slabs for cheap insulation for the winter.
old newspaper can be pulped and cast.
I converted a canope bed into a sleeping pod with electric heat. i let my house go from 40-55 degrees and keep snug as a but with an electric heater on a desk inside the the sleeping pod area.

Being an engineer I was always a bit curious why the pump was needed, since a regulation of thermodynamics states that heat all the time flows toward cold. Theoretically, the combo valves below the sinks ought to perform with out the pump. Nicely, one day I unplugged the timer to see what would happen. You already know what? The taps produced hot water just as quick with out the pump working! Now we go away the pump off all the time. My advice is to save lots of yourselves money and simply buy the undersink valve kits (about $50 every). The pump can at all times be added later should you find it is still necessary. Perhaps some water systems require the pump. Hope this helps!

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