Winter survival, or the no power blues!
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2002 7:46 am
Well hopefully everyone has the power back now and it won't happen agian anytime soon.
But you never know.
If you got a couple bucks to spend and don't already have stuff here's a couple things that have helped me out when roughing it or loss of power. Also good for other uses! Maybe you can get some ides for your situation.
Get a car battery or (deep cycle trolling motor type is better) and a power inverter. My deep cycle was $60 and a cheap 350 watt inverter is about $40-$50 at wallmart. You can get better for more $$
Then you have several lights or more. You might could even use an electric blanket, but I never tried that.
I used a flouresent screw in bulb in a lamp That worked real well for a long time! Uses much less power than a regular bulb and the battert lasts longer, though I don't like the light it gives as well. I mostly use this out in the woods now at night. But real handy if the power is out a long time.
When I first moved to my property I did not get power for several months, about 6! Winter included and a bad one too! SInce I was not wired to the grid I used a pigtail to plug into the inverter into the wall outlet. I could go through the house and flip the switches for the over head lights room by room. Don't do that connected to a power source though cause if the power comes on you'll fry something or worse! Anyway my batteries lasted for a couple days the way I used it, then I had a dual battery set up on my van. So when I went anywhere I installed the battery and charged it while i drove. Free electric, though not a major source!
I also had a car altenator connected to an old riding mower to charge the battery if I wasn't going anywhere. Course I was in it for the long term, not just emergancey use.
If you have a fireplace, maybe even with just gas logs, see about getting one of those U shaped pipe grates/ Not sure what they are called. What it does is the pipes heat up and suck the cool air from the floor and vents hot air out the top. You can even get them with blowers, but of course if you don't have power the blower won't work! These can realy put out alot of heat from your fireplace and help heat the whole room! A fireplace alone is normally not that good, most the heat goes up the chiminey and it sucks cold outside air into the house to replace what went up! I know I used them before and the pipes realy help! My fireplace is useless, since I have a wood burner I don't use the pipes in the fireplace, it's just for a nice fire to look at. Can't use both at the same time either because they fight each other and fill the house with smoke unless you open a window or door for a daft.
You would be surprised the insulation value of a blanket or old cardboard box! I froze water before while staying nice and warm a few feet away! Yep. Hang a blanket (thumb tacks work most the time)
Across the doorway of your warmest room to block off cold from the rest of the house! Make sure it is up against the ceiling. Since heat rises thats were it's most important to block and the sides too. Got cardboard? sit that on the floor near doors your not going to use or in windows the sun doesn't get too.
As far as frezzng water I did it more than once! I had one of those half wall room dividers, open at the top. Had a wood burner in the living room where I was sleeping and the conected kithen on the other side of the divider. Was getting a cold draft so I put a couple boxes on the floor blocking the walkway.
Heat rises as you know, so my living room and kitchen down to the top of the boxes were all very warm all night. In the morning the water in jugs on the floor in the kitchen was frozen! It got to about 10 or less that night outside.
When We moved into the back bedrooms of the trailer when the wife and kid moved down here I built a little room for a wood burner in the back of the trailer. I hung a blanket loosely from the ceiling to the floor in the hallway near the kitchen. I did not need heat in kitchen or living room at night, just back bedrooms and bathrooms. I froze water again in the kitchen! So those little things do make a big difference!
Course now I got power and a well and all the other stuff. I think I like dit better the old way though
Of course you want all the sun heat you can get so open all the curtains anywhere the sun shines in, and close them or hang an extra blanket over them when the sun stops shinning in. If you need to, keep that room closed off from the rest of the house all the time! Will be much warmer at night in there as is can build more heat in the day if not trying to heat the whole house.
Also as many people know but many don't, the light from the sun does not heat the air, it is when the sun hit's something the heat is produced. If nessasary sit various objects in direct sunlght to heat. Thermall mass is very good. In other words put heavy bulky items in the sun to collect and hold as much heat as you can! When the object is warming it will help heat the room, when the sun leaves the object is still warm and giving off heat for awhile.
Although I wouldn't expect anyone to do this, here's an exaple of how something works well like this.
I had a small cabin I wanted a little heat in. I got some 55 gallon drums. Put one outside in a little plywood building and put a couple cracked car wind shields on the sun side. This alloughed the barrel and little building to heat up quickly in direct sun. Inside the cabin I had the other barrels a little higher than the one outside. Conected the barrels with copper tubing, top of outside to top of inside, and bottoms to bottoms. Filled them with watter. Of course again heat rises so the hottest watter was always risng to the barrels inside and the coolest watter was dropping to the barrel outside. This also prevents cooling at night since the warmest barrels were higher inside than the cooler one outside.
Worked extremely well too! Cabin was always nice and warm, sometimes even too warm. This was durring cold, but not severe tempatures.
If you have a gas stove, now would be a great time to eat lots of cakes! Cook alot! If needed use the light on the inverter to see with while cooking
Don't forget to block off the vent if you have one of those hoods that vent to the outside, major source of cold air plus if you can still cook you want all the heat in the house anyway now!
Got lots of other things that work too I have used many times alot of people don't think about.
But you never know.
If you got a couple bucks to spend and don't already have stuff here's a couple things that have helped me out when roughing it or loss of power. Also good for other uses! Maybe you can get some ides for your situation.
Get a car battery or (deep cycle trolling motor type is better) and a power inverter. My deep cycle was $60 and a cheap 350 watt inverter is about $40-$50 at wallmart. You can get better for more $$
Then you have several lights or more. You might could even use an electric blanket, but I never tried that.
I used a flouresent screw in bulb in a lamp That worked real well for a long time! Uses much less power than a regular bulb and the battert lasts longer, though I don't like the light it gives as well. I mostly use this out in the woods now at night. But real handy if the power is out a long time.
When I first moved to my property I did not get power for several months, about 6! Winter included and a bad one too! SInce I was not wired to the grid I used a pigtail to plug into the inverter into the wall outlet. I could go through the house and flip the switches for the over head lights room by room. Don't do that connected to a power source though cause if the power comes on you'll fry something or worse! Anyway my batteries lasted for a couple days the way I used it, then I had a dual battery set up on my van. So when I went anywhere I installed the battery and charged it while i drove. Free electric, though not a major source!
I also had a car altenator connected to an old riding mower to charge the battery if I wasn't going anywhere. Course I was in it for the long term, not just emergancey use.
If you have a fireplace, maybe even with just gas logs, see about getting one of those U shaped pipe grates/ Not sure what they are called. What it does is the pipes heat up and suck the cool air from the floor and vents hot air out the top. You can even get them with blowers, but of course if you don't have power the blower won't work! These can realy put out alot of heat from your fireplace and help heat the whole room! A fireplace alone is normally not that good, most the heat goes up the chiminey and it sucks cold outside air into the house to replace what went up! I know I used them before and the pipes realy help! My fireplace is useless, since I have a wood burner I don't use the pipes in the fireplace, it's just for a nice fire to look at. Can't use both at the same time either because they fight each other and fill the house with smoke unless you open a window or door for a daft.
You would be surprised the insulation value of a blanket or old cardboard box! I froze water before while staying nice and warm a few feet away! Yep. Hang a blanket (thumb tacks work most the time)
Across the doorway of your warmest room to block off cold from the rest of the house! Make sure it is up against the ceiling. Since heat rises thats were it's most important to block and the sides too. Got cardboard? sit that on the floor near doors your not going to use or in windows the sun doesn't get too.
As far as frezzng water I did it more than once! I had one of those half wall room dividers, open at the top. Had a wood burner in the living room where I was sleeping and the conected kithen on the other side of the divider. Was getting a cold draft so I put a couple boxes on the floor blocking the walkway.
Heat rises as you know, so my living room and kitchen down to the top of the boxes were all very warm all night. In the morning the water in jugs on the floor in the kitchen was frozen! It got to about 10 or less that night outside.
When We moved into the back bedrooms of the trailer when the wife and kid moved down here I built a little room for a wood burner in the back of the trailer. I hung a blanket loosely from the ceiling to the floor in the hallway near the kitchen. I did not need heat in kitchen or living room at night, just back bedrooms and bathrooms. I froze water again in the kitchen! So those little things do make a big difference!
Course now I got power and a well and all the other stuff. I think I like dit better the old way though
Of course you want all the sun heat you can get so open all the curtains anywhere the sun shines in, and close them or hang an extra blanket over them when the sun stops shinning in. If you need to, keep that room closed off from the rest of the house all the time! Will be much warmer at night in there as is can build more heat in the day if not trying to heat the whole house.
Also as many people know but many don't, the light from the sun does not heat the air, it is when the sun hit's something the heat is produced. If nessasary sit various objects in direct sunlght to heat. Thermall mass is very good. In other words put heavy bulky items in the sun to collect and hold as much heat as you can! When the object is warming it will help heat the room, when the sun leaves the object is still warm and giving off heat for awhile.
Although I wouldn't expect anyone to do this, here's an exaple of how something works well like this.
I had a small cabin I wanted a little heat in. I got some 55 gallon drums. Put one outside in a little plywood building and put a couple cracked car wind shields on the sun side. This alloughed the barrel and little building to heat up quickly in direct sun. Inside the cabin I had the other barrels a little higher than the one outside. Conected the barrels with copper tubing, top of outside to top of inside, and bottoms to bottoms. Filled them with watter. Of course again heat rises so the hottest watter was always risng to the barrels inside and the coolest watter was dropping to the barrel outside. This also prevents cooling at night since the warmest barrels were higher inside than the cooler one outside.
Worked extremely well too! Cabin was always nice and warm, sometimes even too warm. This was durring cold, but not severe tempatures.
If you have a gas stove, now would be a great time to eat lots of cakes! Cook alot! If needed use the light on the inverter to see with while cooking
Don't forget to block off the vent if you have one of those hoods that vent to the outside, major source of cold air plus if you can still cook you want all the heat in the house anyway now!
Got lots of other things that work too I have used many times alot of people don't think about.
