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I do not want to freeze! |
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Angel 
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Joined: December 08 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 346 |
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 Topic: I do not want to freeze!Posted: February 10 2006 at 7:08pm |
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I
have been very worried about losing electricity. Our home is
heated with an oil furnace and if there is no electricity to run the
blower we have no heat. Today my husband and I went to Home Depot
to look for a wood burner and was thrilled when the Manager gave up 1/2
off. I couldn't believe it. We are surrounded by woods so
there will be no problem finding firewood.
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Angel
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corky52
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Joined: January 20 2006 Status: Offline Points: 168 |
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Posted: February 10 2006 at 7:14pm |
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Solar panel, battery and inverter would run the normal furnace and give you power at the same time. Might even look at getting a 12v blower. How about a hand cranked blower, exercise and heat at the same time. Having hauled wood and done the back to nature thing, I'd say it's hard work, especially if you have a tank full of fuel oil sitting there laughing at you.
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Spoon
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Joined: January 29 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 607 |
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Posted: February 10 2006 at 7:34pm |
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You can also run a diesel generator using your heating oil. It's completely legal, as long as you don't drive your generator down the street
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It's not so much the apocalypse... but the credit card bills ;-)
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 2:12am |
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Angel, I lived with a wood burning furnace for about 10 years in Missouri. Heated a 4000 sf house with it. It does have some advantages.
But it's important to get your firewood for next season cut, split, and stacked this spring. Wood needs to season, and dry out, else you will have a devil of a time burning it. Six months of seasoning is just about minimum. Burning `green' wood will choke up your furnace with creosote, be difficult to keep going all night, and will produce poor heat. Also, hardwoods are far preferable to softwoods, like pine. Each spring we'd put up about 25 rank of firewood. Things to consider Make sure you cut the wood to the proper length. Nothing worse than having a 30" firebox and a bunch of 32" logs  Wood needs to be stacked off the ground, with air spaces, and covered. Watch out for the critters that inhabit wood piles in the fall. I've seen brown recluse, and black widow spiders. Get heavy gloves for use when emptying the ash tray. It will be very hot. Use a maul to split wood. Not an axe. Make sure you have enough starter material. Small stuff to build the fire with, along with the bigger logs to burn all night. You need to think about ash disposal. We used a couple of metal barrels. Then hauled them out into the woods to dump once they are cold. But ashes can stay hot for days. Use caution. Get a Carbon Monoxide detector. CO poisoning can ruin your whole day. Now that I'm back in Florida, I can dispense with the wood furnance. But were I still up north, I'd definitely have one, at least for a backup. |
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 5:44am |
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A small genny 3500 watts or larger would run your furnace motor and the fridge also. You can store fuel for it or use this http://www.propane-generators.com/a-c_kits.htm#tri-fuel This kit allows you to run a gasoline genny on propane,nat. gas, or regular gas. You can safely store large amounts of propane. Many honda genny knock offs made in china can be had cheap at pep boys. here is a thread on those http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/1513 1645/gotomsg/17019226.cfm#17019226
177 pages of info on these affordable gennys. I have 4 mr. buddy heaters, 2 coleman cat heaters, 2 25K BTU kero, heaters and around 200 pounds of propane stored. This is plan "C" heat. My honda genny 6500 watts with 125 gallons of reserve fuel will power the home/ furnace until I run out of gas or propane. |
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bruss01
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Joined: January 12 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 448 |
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 8:23am |
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Great tips, Fla_medic! I've lived in woodburner country and can vouch for what you say. We used to put the ashes on the garden. Ashes are high PH (basic) and shredded tree leaves are low PH (acidic) and since we used tree leaves in the autumn to add organic material to the soil, the ashes helped keep the soil from becomming too acidic over time. One last comment I'll add is to be careful if burning a lot of softwood, like pine - they are notorious for building up tar, creosote etc on the inside of chimneys, creating fertile ground for a chimney fire. Hardwoods are a safer bet. Heat is important for more reasons than simply comfort. Without heat, water pipes can freeze and burst. Anyone who finds themselves suddenly without heat needs to shut off the house water immediately and drain the pipes by opening the highest and the lowest faucets in the house. Of course collect this water if possible, since you might have limited access to running water until the heat is restored. The post about diesel generators is true: they will run on home heating oil. HOWEVER, have you priced diesel generators? Mucho Dinero. Still, if you expect to need a home generator long term, rather than simply for occasional emergency usage, they are a good bet because they outlast gasoline generators many times over. Edited by bruss01 |
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TNbebo408
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Joined: December 10 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 295 |
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 9:12am |
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Wood heat is OK, but I will use my propane till it runs out, then I have a wood cookstove to cook and heat ONLY one very small room. Cookstoves are for cooking, not heat.
When I was kid, we heated two rooms living room and kitchen, with a coal heater, or wood heater, the bedrooms were COLD and we used a small electric heater for the bathroom. You can put a wood heater in any room with a window, raise the window, put a piece of tin with a hole cut for the stove pipe, be sure to clear the house with the end of the pipe, sparks will cause you a BAD day. |
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 11:49am |
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I know power and water are fragile but what about gas will that get cut offf. I have a gas furnace and solar heat
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fritz
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Joined: February 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 332 |
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 1:11pm |
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Angel, Re: freezing to death. Winter does not worry me that much. Lots of hot tea, warm clothes, heavy blankets, hot water bottle, hot hubby and dogs to cuddle with. (In that order of course) But what about summer?? Indoors, the windows closed! 90 degree temps! No ice! No a/c! No refrigeration! No power! No showers! Talk about a pressure cooker situation!! UGH! |
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"I am only one; but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." -- Hellen Keller
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Angel
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Joined: December 08 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 346 |
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 4:27pm |
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Thanks
for the "great" ideas. All around our home are fallen trees that
have been down because of high winds, past snowstorms and people
selling timber and that is whats left. So there will be a lot of
firewood if we are able to go out and bring it in.
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Angel
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Deej
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Posted: February 11 2006 at 4:43pm |
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i have been stacking wood all day, put in a wood stove in nov. have only used 1/3 tank of fuel oil - and i live in north east. it feels very good to be ahead in the wood department & excuse my french screwing the oil company !!
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dee
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janetn
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Joined: February 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 333 |
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Posted: February 12 2006 at 12:04pm |
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And then there is the warmth of a woodstove - no heat warm you as much as wood heat. We have a furnace but even set at 75 I 'feel ' cold, but with the wood heat Im warm through and through. It maybe alot of work but to my cold bones its well worth it
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KOMET163
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Joined: January 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 278 |
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Posted: February 18 2006 at 7:13pm |
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If you don't have woods , use a coleman propane heater. it works well uses those 16.4 once propane tanks heats up too 3000 btu's for 8 hours. I am buying one and I am buying lots of propane bolttles with it. heat for 25 cents per hour. I am buying about 30 bottles of these things. I dont intend on frezzing when the power goes out.
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scooter
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Joined: February 14 2006 Status: Offline Points: 15 |
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Posted: February 18 2006 at 7:48pm |
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I have 2 coleman propane heaters one with a fan built in that runs on D batt. the tanks last about 8 hours each, i know because i lost power for 4 days this year because of a ice storm.it sucks!!!! I have 16 month old son he could not understand why we had no lights just lanterns I ran my small emergency tv and radio by one of those battery jumpstarts it ran for days without going dead on the little radio. I suggest you get at least 2 per household. people there is so much you can buy to prepare yourself but until it happens you are always wishing you had more I found out just being without power for 4 days.. ouch
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birdflueducation.net
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gypsybeach1
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Joined: February 03 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 57 |
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Posted: February 18 2006 at 9:48pm |
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where can i get a small propane heater, how much,
how long does the propane store for, where do i store propane cannisters? tammy |
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 3:56am |
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I have thought of this also many of times..but I have also thought about the fact that people are going to have to adjust...I am instead getting together some barter items..during the waves hopefully there will the chance to barter these items...for wood and extra cooking supplies..I am sure that for alot of people survival instincts will kick in and there will those out there that are still looking to make the ole mighty big buck...car plants might be turned into making stoves....car repair shops into, fixing and repairing wood burning stoves....we will have to turn back to our old survival instincts...we all have back up skills and even thou we are planning on bunking in..once we come out it will be a whole different world and somehow we will have to adabt to survive... P.s if anyone can help with this..you can also use a dryer drum to make a fire pit... |
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cosmicpixie
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Joined: February 13 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 89 |
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 4:55am |
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hi, i live in the Uk.have also been wondering whether to stock the freezer incase of power outages.I have a protable gas stove,portbale camp cooker,and am getting gas for both.Don't really have a place to put a genrator,will use candle/oil lamp.Heating system runs off an electric combi bolier. QUESTION- if i wanted a small generator just to power up the fridge freezer,where on earht do i get one in the UK? do not want to order from abroad,do you know any online stores based in the UK? you say they run off propane bottles? how big is this generator I'd have in my kitchen? how many hours does each propane bottle last if using it to power the fridge freezer? how much are these botttles each do you reckon,approximately,in english money? I really would appreciate some help here,i do want to stock my freezer you see and not worry about losing it all. Not so worried about not having hot water intermittently,you can always do strip washes with bolild water in a bowl . thanks in advance |
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 9:09am |
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The small coleman cook stoves and heaters typically will all hook up to the larger 20 lb cylinders. Locally the cylinders cost less than 20 dollars each, and can be exchanged almost any where for about 15 dollars. If you go to a propane supply place the cylinders are even cheaper filled. Wal-mart, lowes, home depot almost always have the tanks. Depending on what you bought you may have to buy a hose that connects the tank to heater/cook stove. The propane gas supply places also have 30 pound cylinders found on alot of RVs. It will save alot of money over the 1 lb cylinders.
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TNbebo408
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Joined: December 10 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 295 |
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 9:13am |
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Hey Steve, you can get a fill adapter also, fill the small cans from a big one. I saw one at harbor freight for about $15
I made my own, from a old propane torch and a couple of brass fittings I had. |
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outsidethecamp
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Joined: February 16 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 361 |
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 9:32am |
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We purchased a soapstone woodstove 2 years ago & even though it was
expensive ($3000), it was the BEST investment we ever made!
Prior to purchasing the new stove, we used an earthstove (piece of c--p!)  It was ineffecient, dirty & smoked up the hse. everytime you went to fill it. The soapstone woodstove continues to retain & radiate the heat in the stone sides and top for up to 6 hours after the fire has gone out! Hence, we're not up all hours of the night trying to keep warm. Oh, by the way...last night it got down to -40 and while it was "nippy" this am when we got up, the stove was still warm to the touch and radiating heat. Peggy in MN |
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 1:08pm |
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outsidethecamp Peggy, I can't imagine the weather you have - I think I would have to have TNbebo spring water running through my veins. |
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