Heat for the home (in cold palces)

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Somehow, I just can't feature this geeky chick just 'following along' LOL
 
well if you in a outdoor situation I have found that the Dakota fire pit is a great little fire, ten hundred examples on youtube. but thats just my 2 cents work
 
First thing I did this year was buy a small wood stove to tap into my old chimney.
I live in town but still am able to collect a lot of dead stuff in my yard and neighbors
are happy to get rid of there stuff as well. The place I work at doesn't recycle so
ive been taking it home for back up fuel if needed. I will burn some of it to prevent
hoarding lol. Also my garage is very old and made of wood and should burn nicely
assume raiders don't steal it!
 
Coleman makes a catalytic heater that runs about 7 hours on the small propane bottles, (16 oz). It is considered flameless and puts out about 3,000 btu's of radient heat. It is, of course, a temporary solution, to undetected heat and depending on how insulated the space, it can heat a three man tent to a tolerable level. They have been around awhile as I used them on bivouac's in the Boy Scouts growing up. They run under $100 and would help as a heat souce in covert situations. They are easily portable and very quiet also. In an overnite survival situation, a very compact space blanket wrapped around your sleeping bag will keep you warm enough to sleep in a sheltered location. Yes, you do sweat some, but you can sleep. Lol Used one to earn my Polar Bear Merit Badge! As for a permanent heat source, I think we limited to a good location and a combutable materials. However there are many methods to reduce smoke, light and smell. All useable heat is radiant in nature, so it is important to surround your fire with items that will heat up and continue to radiat heat even when your fire is down. Heavy rocks, metal and even a pit will all help your fire to be more effective. A fairly light cover of dirt, about 6 to 12 inches, over a good bed of coals will provide hours of heat if you set up over or close enough to benefit from the warm ground. Just some suggestions from my past experiences. You can even put some of the hot rocks around your bedding and cover them to provide heat through the night.
 
What about a solar heater?


That's not me, just something I saw on youtube.

If not get a lot of dogs. When I had 7 dogs we lost power and the three of us on a mattress in the middle of the floor and the dogs all piled in with us. It was fun, at least my daughter thought so.

kerosene is ok, but smells a little and you get soot from it.
 
That's pretty cool! I wonder how well it would work at freezing temps.

I just finished my pieces for a small wood stove I bought, to run through
my old chimney. I don't think its safe to use as 1st source of heat, but
it should keep us warm if the power goes out for any periods of time
during the winter.
 
I saw a DIY video by southernprepper1 about turning a pop can into a burner, which can run on alchohol, or other source of methenol.

Probably the best source you have is wood as it is everywhere in many areas. Making a simple tin can burner is probably going to be your cheapest solution. You can always rig up a smoke filter to reduce the amount of smoke it puts out. Methanol type things burn smokeless though.

I've found using multiple thermal sleeping bags rated for subzero temperatures with hoods in opposite direections so you get a full face shield and a balaclava works good to make things comfortable for sleeping. Throwing a bivy ontop can add a couple degrees. If outdoros getting old grass or leaves can add insulation between your layers. If heavy snow you can dig into the snow itself. and sleep in the snow.

Even funny things like a laptop can act as a type of heatsource. Jogging if you have food energy.

Everything slows down when you are in a cold environment. I find that using the ECWS layering systems are good which you can approximate, but for many of the components it is cheaper for the military kit than commercial equivolents. Wool, polyethelene, fleece are all freinds, multiple sock layers, and for outdoors a good solid cold weather combat boot or mukluk.

There are electric heaters if you have electric, there are wood stoves, but you are suppose to vent and there are often safety laws on it, but the smokeless fuel sources are probably you best for safety. Limiting the amount of space is also a good idea you can do this by hanging a blanket at a hallway entrance.

Exercising for body heat only doesn't work when 1 you have no hot water to shower, 2 you don't have food for food energy. Normally you can get your body temp up without causing a sweat though. You want to exercise a bit before jumping into the two sleeping bags and you can also throw in a thermal layer on the inside re space blanket... keeps the body temp warm enough for sleep but if it gets really cold maybe not I've never done it for really low sub zero temperatures only up to around -10
 
There was another video with a guy who built a solar heater and the outside temp was -14 degrees F. I think he said it raised the inside temp by 3 degrees but I'm not sure what he said due to my hearing is bad. The heat coming out of it was 159 degrees but I don't think it's enough in very cold weather. A wood stove would be better provided you had a good sourse of fuel.
 
Be careful burning the wood your garage is made from if it's painted. You said it was old, but is from before lead based paints were banned? If it is older, beware of breathing in the fumes/lead when you burn the wood.
 
We have a kerosene heater and a fireplace/w blower fan. It heats about half the house. We really should get a second kerosene heater. Our usual heat is an electric heat-pump.

Down is the warmest thing I can think of. I have a heavy Woolrich down jacket and heavy down comforters. In TN we probably would need little heat at night.
 
If it's not blizzard conditions allot of UV hits the snow, got solar? ethanol burners, hexamine burners?

Probably the first winter is the most important one for not being found, after that those who are not prepared will have been eliminated, not a nice thought but at least the next winter you could most likely burn wood freely.
 
Probably the first winter is the most important one for not being found, after that those who are not prepared will have been eliminated, not a nice thought but at least the next winter you could most likely burn wood freely.

It wouldn't go on that long. The Gov, such as it is, would regroup and other countries would come in and help. I don't believe we'd be living in 1800s conditions for long with American's starving to death in large numbers. That would only happen if a large meteor hits the earth (or maybe a few countries unleash nuclear bombs)... something on the scale of what killed the dinosaurs.
 
That's not me, just something I saw on youtube.

kerosene is ok, but smells a little and you get soot from it.

There's very little smell if you get one of the better newer units. And you have to trim the wick as needed. We never once get soot from ours.
 
It wouldn't go on that long. The Gov, such as it is, would regroup and other countries would come in and help. I don't believe we'd be living in 1800s conditions for long with American's starving to death in large numbers. That would only happen if a large meteor hits the earth (or maybe a few countries unleash nuclear bombs)... something on the scale of what killed the dinosaurs.
By other countries do you mean the UN? NO THANKS!! And when was the last time another country hepled the US? And by the way I've travled to many other countries most are still living in 1800s conditions now, some even back in the dark ages. Don't fool yourself, if something bad happens we're on our own, and also FYI Noah's flood killed the dinosaurs.;)
 

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