Heating your home when the grid goes down

A person needs his home not only for sleeping there and stocking his stuff. A house is necessary because it protects you from weather conditions, for example, it saves you from dying because of freezing. Hypothermia which is the loss of body heat can kill a person really fast. Heating your home is necessary not only because it feels better but because it is necessary if you don’t want to die from hypothermia.

The huge disadvantage of almost all heating methods is that they can work using electricity only. Besides, electricity sources are necessary not only for creating normal temperature at houses, but also for controlling systems of heating. Thus, if we don’t have electricity anymore, it will be very cold in our homes.

Of course, it is better to stay in a cold house than to be somewhere outside, but still, it isn’t enough for survival. You should think about having some emergency ways of heating your home if the usual ones are down. Besides, don’t forget that you should also stock some fuel to be able to use it for powering your emergency heater.

How to heat your home when SHTF

• Fireplace. Here is one of the most popular methods of heating. It’s even impossible to be 100% sure when the fireplace was invented because it has been used for many centuries. Of course, it may be very difficult to build a fireplace at your house when it’s needed, but many homes have fireplaces from the very beginning because people like how they look.

The main disadvantage of this method of heating your home is that it won’t heat the whole house really well, as the chimney is taking too much of this heat. You can almost solve this problem though if you put a special fireplace insert inside because it will help to send more hit right to the room. Some inserts work by using electricity, but others can work by convection, they simply take cold air from your room, then heat it and bring it back to the room.

It is also necessary to prepare a good woodpile for your fireplace. Of course, it is better to choose more expensive wood because it will burn longer, and you will be able to heat your house for a longer period of time. Such an important advantage makes expensive woodpile definitely worth its cost.

• Log burner. A log burner is a stove that was invented for the purpose of replacing the fireplace. It was made as a more effective heating method. Log burners are usually made of cast iron, that is why these stoves can easily spread the fire inside that will burn the woodpile and provide the warm to the room from all sides. Of course, some heat is taken by the chimney just like in the fireplace situation, but in this case, almost all heat comes into the house.

It is not as hard to install a log burner in your house, as it is if you decide to create a fireplace. The main problem is that you should choose a good place where you will run the chimney. New chimneys have walls that are made of three layers as a result of which the external layer isn’t hot. This is really helpful because that means that you can run the chimney anywhere without being afraid that it may start a fire.

One more advantage of a log burner is that it may be installed for an emergency situation and then be removed easily. Think about a good location for this stove, its surface must be stone, metallic or brick. You can make a route for the chimney by using a window: just remove an upper glass pane for that. If you notice that there is some extra space in this window after making a route for the chimney just use some plywood to fill this space.

• Paraffin heater. These heaters can be lifesaving if you have enough kerosene at home. Paraffin heaters can make a specific smell when they are working but you can be sure that they burn clean. If you are in an emergency situation you won’t be able to buy kerosene, so make sure that you have enough of it if you are planning to use a paraffin heater.

There are paraffin heaters that can produce warm air from all sides which makes the heating process more effective. Big advantage of these heaters is that they don’t need a chimney, so you don’t need any preparation to install it. Although it is necessary for such a heater to be located in the room that has fresh air, so make sure that your paraffin heater is installed in an appropriate room.

• Indoor propane heater. This heater can be very useful but only if you have enough propane. Here is how these heaters work: they take propane through a special jet into a ceramic element and then burn it. This element is located behind a wire grating, so you can be sure that it won’t create a fire.

The big advantage of propane heaters is that they don’t need too much fuel and they will work as long as they have propane. The standard tank can have about 500 gallons of propane, so make sure that your tanks are always almost filled with gas, otherwise, there is a chance that in an emergency you will see that your tank is almost empty.

Keeping your home warm…

All the methods of heating your home that were mentioned above can help you to heat at least one room. Of course, it is almost impossible to heat the whole house if you don’t have a heater in every single room. Make sure that you have enough fuel for your heaters.

If you have any of these heaters at home, it is not enough for an emergency situation. Stock enough fuel for these heaters. Try to calculate how much fuel you may need for every heating method for the approximate time that the emergency may last. When you get the results, you will know how much fuel you should stock at your place.

Of course, it is not very comfortable if not the whole house is warm, but some warm rooms are at least something. Just ask your family members to stay in the rooms that have heaters during the emergency situation. In case if there are no doors in your house just put some blankets in the doorways to hold the warmness in the rooms that are heated.

Of course, if your power is down, your water may be off too, so read here to learn how to survive a water-cut