With the cold weather approaching, I thought about my heat sources. I have a heat pump, but I don't want to burn generator fuel running it should we lose power. Then I have a Big Buddy with 6 20# tanks in reserve. Now I'm considering building an outdoor woodstove for heat and hot water, but I can promise you after growing up filling the woodbox every day, there is no one here that hates dealing with firewood any worse than I do. For fun, imagine your primary heat source inoperable, either no electricity, no wood, no propane, or whatever it uses. What is your back up plan?
Storm Lamps is what we use, we can section off parts of the house here, so a couple of lamps will heat a few rooms pretty easy!
Have a 23K BTU kero heater, with a pair of 9K BTU units as back up. Have about 25 Gallons of kero / ULS diesel for burning. Wife just picked up a Buddy heater -I guess she wanted a backup to the backup to the backup. It's all good, we have most the kids living in town, they might need a loaner.
I could run a couple lamps for heat. It worked before with a frozen heat pump and teens to twenties for temps for about three days. That's an extreme case here at the beach. I have a fan on today because it's too hot. I'm looking at outfitting my fireplace and pot belly stove with waste oil burners. I have an abundant supply of waste oil, and testing in the fireplace with an oil fire sure beat dragging wood in. Growing up with wood heat in Michigan is a big part of why we settled here.
Heat pump, running off of solar. Wood stove, kerosene heater, propane heater, and if it's really cold a Rochester store lamp, maybe a couple of Rayo lamps For most cooler days here, opening the drapes provides sufficient heat.
Of all my heaters, this Perfection 1710 is my favorite. No fiddling like an Aladdin Blue Flame, no preheat like a Tilley, and no one direction heat like most gas and propane heaters. Just run the wick up til it stops, sit back and enjoy the glow. Makes a wonderful pattern of light on the ceiling as well.
There's always junk mail heat. That's how this one started. Long tall andirons let me burn just about anything and build a deep bed of embers to cook on. Plenty of air flow and the heat blasts out the front with the elevated flame. Maybe folks knew a thing or two back in the old days.
Ive had to go several days with no heat, teens and 20s at night 30s in the day. 75lb lab and a good sleeping bag are nice. Dang pellet stove auger broke.
LOVE IT! I got 2 myself, I occasionally use them to take the edge off in spring and fall because I enjoy the atmosphere they create. -JW
Full disclosure: I am a fire bug, a stovie, lamp loon, and huge fan of sideways fire. Anything that involves fire and pressurized fuel (gasoline/kerosene/propane, etc) or unpressurized fuel like kerosene and wood gas fascinates me. Best thing about the Perfection and other wick lamps and heaters, besides their beauty and simplicity is that they aren't sensitive to kerosene age like pressure lamps. Old kerosene becomes useless for lighting in mantle lamps after a few years and black spots the mantles to uselessness. In pressure lamps there's a fix, (the Amish mix, 20/80 white gas/kerosene) but NEVER for non-pressure mantle lamps. This is why variety, and actually working with your heaters and lamps is essential. Practice now or sit around in the cold and dark later. Burn stuff, learn what works and what doesn't. You are not going to be monitoring a Carbon Monoxide meter to see if your family has safe air to breath when you're trying to keep them from freezing. Yesterday was the time to do that. If you've done it you can relax and start working on Plan C, if not you're playing catch-up on something that can actually be a fun activity while you're warm, fed, and safe or deadly. Too late to Google a solution after the power is out and you wake up warm and groggy and can't wake your family. Yes, it's THAT serious. It used to be "train like you fight.". Now it's "Train like you plan to survive." The dreaded black spot.
Buddy heaters are good, but one must run them for a while before the warranty expires. I had 2 fail and now on #3 but it's doing well after a year. With that get a heat generated fan and make a shelf for it to sit on top of the buddy heater.
I have a ventless propane heater in the kitchen, gas-logs in the fireplace and 100 gals of propane in the tank, and the other fireplace burns wood. I have a portable propane heater that mounds on a #20 or 40 propane tank. I have a cast-iron wood stove in the barn, and the makings for 2-barrel stoves. Firewood is in the barn, dry and seasoned. Also, have chainsaws, bowsaw, 1 and 2-man crosscut saws, axes, mauls, etc.! As I keep telling y'all, I got plans for this!
I have a gas fireplace, indoor safe propane heaters, and a case (24) of 110 hr liquid candles. Also have kerosene lamps in a couple of places, but probably wouldn't use them due to soot. I also buy a case of hand/foot warmers every fall so if all else failed would have those to fall back on.
I'm on electric heat pump plus 3 space heaters. If that fails I have a couple of Mr. Buddy heaters and half dozen propane tanks. I have two cases of those long burning gel candles. I have several kerosene lamps. There is everything I need to install a wood stove in the barn with 3/4 cord of wood I use for BBQ. Then it's down to camping gear and body heat.
