TOTOM - October Staying warm indoors

Locally, winter has arrived. Given our recent 7.2 shaker, one begins to think hard about staying warm if there is a utility failure....

I have a primary oil heater (A Monitor direct vent - 43K BTU)


with a set of portable kero heaters
One is 23K BTU - a Kero Sun clone


and a pair of 9.5 K BTU "IR" directional kero heaters.

The one downside to burning kerosene indoors with the potable units is the amount of moisture these type of heaters can generate. It helps that, in winter, here in Anchorage, the air is as dry as found in the Gobi desert...

Storage of fuel is somewhat problematic, but there are at least 5 major fuel dealers here in the Anchorage Bowl, so the odds are that obtaining a couple of 55 gal drums for the winter will be - at least in theory - possible. We do keep 5 x 5 gallon containers on hand, and the Monitor can burn ultra-low surfer fuel (Diesel road fuel) without an issue. .

The Monitor requires 117 VAC, which I can provide via a battery/inverter setup. This is more for rolling blackouts. Idea is to ramp up interior heat with the monitor and then use the portables to maintain until the power is back up.

We at least have a plan of sorts and the installed equipment on hand w/fuel to make it happen.

What do you have planned to stay warm?

 

It's still in the 90s here in The Heart of Dixie (aka Alabama), but they claim that the high temp. on Monday will be in the low 70s. Hallelujah! and break out the sweaters! It isn't too bad due to the fact that it was a dry heat...it hasn't rained in a month! But that is normal for this time of year and it helps with the cotton harvest. The fan motor on the A/C went out the other day and it was warm for a few days. I guess with the cooler weather we will have to think about closing the swimming pool soon? Bummer!

 

About two years worth of maple and oak stacked under cover on the south side of the nearest out building, and a fireplace insert. (I'd much prefer a standalone air-tight, but Mrs. overruled that...) The good thing about the insert at least is the monstrous thermal mass provided by the hearth - solid concrete eight feet down to the footer, and concrete/brick work eight feet wide and 18 feet high.

 

October here in the mitten can mean a fire in the insert one day, windows open on another, followed by a fire and then maybe the windows open again. But, considering it's the first Saturday in October .. means today I get up on the roof and sweep the chimneys in prep for November and beyond.

 

First frost here this AM as well,. Topped out at 59 at around 3 pm. Heater is checked out and ready, gas log and wood stove are also on standby. Weather weenie is still not mentioning that white word. I'm OK with that.

 

Even though I live in southern California, in the wine county it still gets into freezing even snow from time to time but I am a cheapskate and use a wood cookstove for heating and cooking from time to time. during the summer months, I cook with propane.
I have a surplus of firewood that is getting old. for this reason, I have cut long logs, to slow the drying process.

 

Woodpile was getting overly dry, so we're down to about a year and a half that's split and ready to burn in the woodstove. Got some logs cut but not split for future winter heat. If for some reason the woodstove dies, there's another one stored away along with extra stove pipe. Additonally, a 35k btu kerosene heater is stored with extra wicks and enough fuel for about a month 24/7 (which hasn't happened in the last 25 years) along with a three burner kerosene stove...and a propane tank-top heater.

This is in case the solar powered heat pump goes down or can't keep up.

Also...an afterthought that really is important...two CO detectors. I hate the idea of waking up dead.

 

That is what I like to hear...back-ups for the back-ups. Natural gas and electric, propane, wood, kerosene, etc., if everything is like that y'all got this prepping thing down to a science.
PS We put the cover on the pool today, so I guess summer is officially over.

 

A Heatilator fireplace and 27 acres of hardwood.

 

Doesn't matter don't you know any thing about climate warming....

 

Primary heat pump, secondary propane portable heater, building an outdoor wood stove to heat water with a coil in the heat pump to save $$ on the coldest days. I was caught short once during an ice storm, and myself, an ex-girlfriend, and a yellow lab shared a 2 man tent set up in the living room for 4 days. I learned it's easy to store propane and Labs put off a lot more heat than skinny girls.

 

In a ideal world I keep a 5 year rotating supply of firewood in a dry barn and under tarps close to the cabin. Over recent years that has shrank to a 2 year supply as the health issues prevented me from being able to properly make wood So the barn supply dwindles and the outside under tarps grows.

My Cabin ain't that big 14x48 and it is very heavily insulated top to bottom and side to side.


My favorite Box Stove sits inside during the winter and moves out in the spring. The old Voglezang is not the most efficient burner out there but with the Damper and airflow adjusted right it gives a 6-7 hour burn time that keeps the whole cabin in the 65-75 degree range. This model also serves as our primary cooking surface over the winter. I hear they stopped making this model.

Wood is obviously my primary source of heat and box stoves the preferred method of conveying that heat in this camp.

A load of Hickory coming out of the woods. While most of the Hickory I cut goes to the smokers for the Chuck Wagon food a good amount gets burned in the cabin. The Hickory dries out and cures much faster than the oaks. It also great for the first and last fires where you don't need the long burn abilities of the oaks.


The Close to the Cabin under tarp wood. The Space between those two trees and going 6' high is 1 cord of wood. During a average winter we burn 3 cords of firewood.


The next stack of fire wood comes off of the tree on the right in the picture above. The Space between it and the tree on the right in this pic and 6' high = 2 cords of wood. The wood being located here is no accident I placed the cabin and most of the buildings in the the SE Corner of the woods and the North and West winds can howl and we only feel a breeze from them. THe SW Winds however come through and pound us. They are usually warmer winds that swirl up from the gulf but when it is 30 degrees and there is a 20-25 wind it is nice to put as many barriers and wind breaks as possible around the cabin. It is also very nice to have a large supply of firewood 30 feet from the front door instead of having to get the tractor started and go the 1/8th mile down the dirt road to load up from the barn.....when it is extremely cold, pouring rain, ice or the occasional deep snow.


The porch of the cabin gets load up with a 7-9 day supply of wood as needed. The building opposite is the commercial kitchen. I can't heat it with wood and electric is too expensive. So Every fall I move a 500 gallon bulk tank over and have the delivery truck fill it up with Diesel. I have small efficient diesel burner furnace in the kitchen and since I don't do much business out of the kitchen over winter just maintain the temp at 45-50 degrees to keep pipes from freezing. Usually have 100-200 gallons of diesel left in the tank at the end of winter and just pump it into the tractors when spring rolls around and move the tank and heater back into storage in the barn.


As I get older I get less inclined to wake up and wait to warm up to a comfortable 70 degrees. Part of the mobile food service business is PROPANE TANKS. I have 8 100# tanks and a dozen 20# tanks that I pretty much keep full. So I use the 20# tanks with tank top heaters to get the cabin warmed up in the mornings as the fire in the wood stove is getting going. When I was at my sickest a friend moved my blueflame wall mount over to the cabin from my office and set it up to run off of the 20# or 100# tanks with the tanks outside. That has since moved back to the office but is always a option to use again if needed. The tank tops are easy to light, don't take up much room and get it warm in the cabin in about 5 minutes time. Have been lazy and ran them for 24 hours and actually get 2 days burn out of a tank if I keep it on the low setting. Get about 6 hours burn from a tank on the high setting. But they are primarily a supplement to the wood stove and get at most 10-15 minutes of burn time in the mornings.




Listening to other folks complain about their winter heating bills now days........ I spend a teeny tiny fraction of what they do on winter heating. I figured up the cost of gas, chainsaw maint and chains, bar oil and propane and my winter heating bill works out to around $18 per month. Average around here using propane or electric seems to run around $400-$500 per month. With a few moaning about $1000+ monthly heating bills. LOL a lot of folks laugh at me for being on the primitive side of the coin. I laugh at them for pissing money away to propane and electric companies

 

If you think about it 60-65 F is not that cold for an inside temp., if the day time high in February was 60-65 F people would be running around bare-footed. So learn to keep the temp. down, wear more clothes and save on heating costs. The same holds true for summer. My AC was off for a few days the first of October when the outside temps. were 95-100 F, we ran our ceiling fans, dressed appropriately and survived. The inside temp. didn't get over 80-85 F, which was only 10 degrees more than normal. I spent a lot of time outside, sitting in the shade with a book and cool drink. Just learn to live with higher temps. in summer and lower in winter, if your family will put up with it.
PS Today the high temp. was 68 F, 30 degrees lower than 3 days ago. However, in a few days the temps. will be back up to 85 F. We got some rain too, only a inch.

 

I'd love to live back in the climate of SoAz - nice and dry, temps in winter rarely hit freezing. A bit warm in the summer, but you can get accustomed to that - over time.

Sadly, SoAz will never be, too many people (and not enough water0 , too much left-leaning politics.

Locally, haring a back up to the back up is necessary - the weather can quickly become lethal....

 

I've thought about how to seal off a heated area also. About 55 years ago we had an ice-storm and my parents had to block an open doorway with a mattress to keep in the heat from the fireplace. We slept on a mattress in front of the fireplace, while my Father spent most of the night searching for something to burn. The fireplace is still there, and there is also a door now, but now it would be my job to bring in the firewood. We also have a woodstove in the barn and dry firewood. We have propane and heaters. I also have a pop-up tent and air-mattress that I could set up in the house, or just build a blanket fort for us to sleep in.
PS After that ice/snow storm 55 years ago we went outside to play in the snow. We visited the neighbors, both relatives, who heated with coal stoves. I still remember how warm their houses were.