How to stay warm when TSHTF

[Wild Bill]

Argentus  / minus 10 c  outside is normal weather for me ikyn    it's the minus 30 centigrade for months that wears you out and the windchill and old age that are killers , I used to work with guys that would turn up I  Tee shirts in minus 10 and act like it was normal , But that hard knock life was good for the charecter as was walking to school in knee deep snow every winter .

young people these days have no idea how easy they have it now compared to even 50 years ago ,single glazing and no central heating or quilts , ice  thick on the inside windows and if you dared say IT'S cold you were told tuck your shirt over IT then coldly .

I was used to having the electricity go out for days at a time in the winter and having to thaw out the fish tank one year yet these 2 goldfish survived I  a space not much bigger than my closed fist amazingly. 

Being a old boy scout I can pretty much take everything life can throw at me even a 15 mile walk home in minus 55 cent in the late 90s and have everything tucked away to survive a cold snap , what does supise  me is how bad others are  ill prepared even for the electricity going off even overnight .

People are just to pampered now and a real crisis would finish most off quickly

[DBCowboy]

Hey, we don't imagine that we will be in a SHTF situation, but it happens.   It isn't armageddon,  often, it's just life.   You live in a comfortable area, with resources around you.   Your home is well insulated.  There is a fault on the power grid caused by high winds clashing power lines together.   The power system fails.  The outside temperature is 14 F/-10 C.   You are going to freeze to death without an action plan.  

Many people of means would choose to drive to an area with power and hold up.   If you are really lucky, they will take your pets also.  

A variety of situations could cause you to shelter in place.   Okay, so you don't have a fireplace or a Pella stove.   Why would you?  You are urban folk who don't care for the city, but don't embrace the country.  City folk are in even worse peril than you.   So what do you do?

Let's talk about "space blankets".   What are they?   They are mylar-lined very thin aluminum sheets that reflect back heat.   Now, this is important:  They rely upon you being relatively dry.  Why?   Because if you are moist/wet, you will steam yourself, and be subject to the ambient air temps.   You want to be dry.   Space blankets have value.   They can help you conserve heat in dire situations.   They are easy to transport, and cheap in cost.  It's worth having a few around in your survival gear, right next to your first aid kit.

Suggestion #1:   All my adult life, my Darlin' and me have had very good Eddie Bauer goose down sleeping bags.  Some of them (NOT the 'mummy sack series') zip together for couples.   If you can keep them dry and snuggle together, you can survive very dire temperatures, especially if you section off your survival area.  

How to section off your survival area?   The less area you have to heat, the easier it is TO heat.   Take your smallest room, and pitch a small tent, just big enough for you or the two or three or six of you -- whatever is your living dynamic.  

Suggestion #2:  Acquire some closed-cell foam, to be rolled out in dire emergencies, as a ground cover insulation under your tent.  

Suggestion #3:   Acquire a small battery-powered space heater.

All of these things sound extreme, until you need them.    I have friends in the North and Northeast United States.   Hell, I have friends everywhere.   Those in the country/rural areas expect power outages and are well prepared to survive.   

If you are in an area that can have exteme cold and you are part of the power grid, I advise you to have emergency supplies that might just keep you alive in a SHTF situation.  Of course, staying warm enough to survive is no good without an adequate amount of emergency water and food.  

Here's something nobody talks about:    Where do you pee and poop while you're not freezing to death?   Stock at least four 5-gallon buckets with lids.   Cut a six-inch hole in one of the lids, and screw a toilet seat to it from the underside.    Imagine the shame of surviving the cold but having to soil the carpet around your home.  You use the toilet seated bucket, then use another lid to close it off.   When full, set aside.  Begin the second bucket.  

Most of this stuff you will never need.   Still, if you want to ensure that you and your family survive, We're talking about less than $1000 worth of stuff to be stuffed away in a closet.   With the high strangeness of the world, you would be somewhat silly to not at least stock up a month's worth of water and food.   If you choose dehydrated food, obviously you need twice the amount of water, and a source of ignition and fuel for cooking.   

My Darlin' and me have always loved to camp.   We often hiked to camp at a beautiful spot.   There are a plethora of other objects and supplies that might help, such as firearms, plastic sheeting, rope,  etc. etc.  I may or may not touch upon those items.   I might do a thread on bushcraft.   Mostly for right now, I want you all to not freeze to death.  

All best

My boy did a winter survival course in the military recently.  He's going to Antarctica in a few months for a 1 month stay.

If it gets below fifty, I'm a gonner.

  ​​​​​​​

[rickymouse]

We have a kitchen wood cookstove to heat our house, it will heat the whole house to a minimum of sixty two degrees, but the basement will only get about forty degrees.  It has an oven too, and we have enough wood in stock to last about two months, and dead trees in our woods can be cut and split too. 

We have all the pots and pans to cook in and on that stove too.  We also have a kerosun heater if needed and in the basement we have an airtight pretty efficient fireplace that needs filling every eight hours to keep the whole house warm...but circulation problems does leave deadspots that are only fifty five degrees on the second floor of the house.  We don't have a problem with the kitchen woodstove, but it needs to be filled every couple of hours, which means not the best sleep.  But if you get the house up to seventy five, you can go to sleep for five hours at below zero temps and it will be around sixty two when you restart the stove again.

We have reserve water, and we can get water from our well if needed with the generator if I do a little temporary wiring in the fuse box if the power is out for a while.  running it for five minutes allows our pump tank to fill up....it actually only takes a minute to pump the thirteen gallons of water to the bladder tank.  But the whole process would take five minutes to fill it after altering the wiring not included in that time. 

We are low on coffee stores, only have seventeen cans of coffee presently, down from 22 cans after the good sale maybe three  months ago.  We also have kerosine lanterns and kerosine and a white gas stove and a bbq grill too...for summer time when you don't want to heat the woodstove.

I have three generators, the one ten one can keep the deep freezers frozen by running it for a half hour a day for each freezer.  What we don't have much of in stock is powdered milk.   We do have everything else pretty much.  But only have about ten gallons of gas presently in stock...plow truck sucks up a lot of gas.  I should go out and get the other three cans filled up, price of premium is decent right now and I should put some more in the plow truck too, meaning I should dump those ten gallons in and immediately go get all five cans filled...stock would be up to twenty five gallons again that way.

As far as meat, I could let that little buck into the living room when hand feeding it....just kidding, it is so friendly I would rather starve than kill it.

[argentus]

My boy did a winter survival course in the military recently.  He's going to Antarctica in a few months for a 1 month stay.

If it gets below fifty, I'm a gonner.

 

No, you're not.   You are made of rougher bark than that.   I hope your son does well.   I imagine he will, having come from tough genes.  

[argentus]

We have a kitchen wood cookstove to heat our house, it will heat the whole house to a minimum of sixty two degrees, but the basement will only get about forty degrees.  It has an oven too, and we have enough wood in stock to last about two months, and dead trees in our woods can be cut and split too. 

We have all the pots and pans to cook in and on that stove too.  We also have a kerosun heater if needed and in the basement we have an airtight pretty efficient fireplace that needs filling every eight hours to keep the whole house warm...but circulation problems does leave deadspots that are only fifty five degrees on the second floor of the house.  We don't have a problem with the kitchen woodstove, but it needs to be filled every couple of hours, which means not the best sleep.  But if you get the house up to seventy five, you can go to sleep for five hours at below zero temps and it will be around sixty two when you restart the stove again.

We have reserve water, and we can get water from our well if needed with the generator if I do a little temporary wiring in the fuse box if the power is out for a while.  running it for five minutes allows our pump tank to fill up....it actually only takes a minute to pump the thirteen gallons of water to the bladder tank.  But the whole process would take five minutes to fill it after altering the wiring not included in that time. 

We are low on coffee stores, only have seventeen cans of coffee presently, down from 22 cans after the good sale maybe three  months ago.  We also have kerosine lanterns and kerosine and a white gas stove and a bbq grill too...for summer time when you don't want to heat the woodstove.

I have three generators, the one ten one can keep the deep freezers frozen by running it for a half hour a day for each freezer.  What we don't have much of in stock is powdered milk.   We do have everything else pretty much.  But only have about ten gallons of gas presently in stock...plow truck sucks up a lot of gas.  I should go out and get the other three cans filled up, price of premium is decent right now and I should put some more in the plow truck too, meaning I should dump those ten gallons in and immediately go get all five cans filled...stock would be up to twenty five gallons again that way.

As far as meat, I could let that little buck into the living room when hand feeding it....just kidding, it is so friendly I would rather starve than kill it.

Thank you for your view!   This is what I'm talking about -- those in the rural areas know what to do, and aren't afraid of extremes in weather.  You are prepared, because you've been through it many times before.   

There are those that don't know what to do, and depend upon the grid to keep them alive.  Sometimes the grid fails, and people die.  

You will never hurt that little buck and I wouldn't either.   The world would have to become a terribly grim place before you'd harm your little buddy.   I have been there.   We don't have large mammals where I live, but I grew up around them.   We had moose in our yard that easily stepped over our six-foot fence.   Wild birds were the thing when I was a kid:   Mourning Doves, Chukars, Sage Hens, Pheasants, Quail, Ducks, Geese, etc.

[quintessentone]

I ordered hot water bottles and I'm going to order fire bricks to heat up in our fire pit and that should do the trick to keep us alive.

[argentus]

Keeping warm is definitely a tricky subject. ETA: The following post is for short-term blackouts not TSHTF. Although having said that I need to start researching non-porous rocks.

------

I'm thinking of buying the Mr. Heater (Buddy) with 20 pound propane hose and fuel attachment.

Then I'm thinking about buying an inverter to connect to my car battery then to my propane furnace, but I need an electrician to swap out the on/off switch to a female outlet, then I need to start storing gasoline.

Then I'm thinking that we have a firepit in the back so I could heat non-porous rocks then bring them indoors for the nighttime and build a makeshift tent-type enclosure in the middle of the room and line it with mylar sheets and put down lots of cardboard sheets on the ground (which I have a large collection). I need to study which rocks are non-porous to avoid explosions.

Right now, I only have mylar sheets, and thick plastic to cover doors/windows, many blankets, woolens to wear, hot water bottle, lots of cardboard, hot drink containers, candles and clay pots but I don't want to have to be uncomfortably cold and/or sweating under many layers without a way to dry out my clothes. 

That clay pot heater has been debunked by many people, but I guess if there were multiples then it might throw off enough heat. I really don't know as I have not tried it.

If I keep being indecisive we may end up having to sleep in the car while it runs continuously and use up the gasoline in the shed. Hopefully gas stations will still be operational during a brownout or a blackout (?) Are they?

I KNOW you know this, but I just have to make sure:    Don't ever sleep in the car while it runs continuously inside the shed, even with the door open.    The risk of CO buildup is dire.    Again, really sure you know this, but I would have difficulty dealing with it, if we found out you did that and it killed or injured you.

[argentus]

Argentus  / minus 10 c  outside is normal weather for me ikyn    it's the minus 30 centigrade for months that wears you out and the windchill and old age that are killers , I used to work with guys that would turn up I  Tee shirts in minus 10 and act like it was normal , But that hard knock life was good for the charecter as was walking to school in knee deep snow every winter .

young people these days have no idea how easy they have it now compared to even 50 years ago ,single glazing and no central heating or quilts , ice  thick on the inside windows and if you dared say IT'S cold you were told tuck your shirt over IT then coldly .

I was used to having the electricity go out for days at a time in the winter and having to thaw out the fish tank one year yet these 2 goldfish survived I  a space not much bigger than my closed fist amazingly. 

Being a old boy scout I can pretty much take everything life can throw at me even a 15 mile walk home in minus 55 cent in the late 90s and have everything tucked away to survive a cold snap , what does supise  me is how bad others are  ill prepared even for the electricity going off even overnight .

People are just to pampered now and a real crisis would finish most off quickly

I grew up that way and live that way also still, except for the extreme cold.    Where I grew up, -20 for days was common, -40 even.   Clothing layers become the key, as you know, as well as covering every inch of your skin, and your eyes.  

Nerb talked about pets.   As a kid, I slept with two pointers.   Why shorthair dogs in cold weather?  They were hunting dogs, and my Dad liked competing in field trials with them.  My room was furthest from the wood stove in the kitchen, so I got the dogs.  Always had to be careful in the hay barn in dire cold.   Rattlesnakes liked to curl up in the middle.   I would drag out a bale and thump it hard on the floor and back off.   Onlly then cut the baling twine and parse out some for the horses.    We had a little electric floating element for their watering trough, but with extreme cold I still had to bust some ice.   The trough was insulated.  

I don't know if people are pampered so much as technology has replaced rugged living.  That's kind of the purpose of technology, but I think we also lose important skills in the process.  People who didn't grow up with wringer washers and wood stoves and cars with carburetors and stick shifts, who fished and hunted and grew their own vegetables and built or fixed things themselves have an understandable difficulty relating to these things.   They consider those things to be anachronisms, and they are right, until the very rare thing happens.   I think everyone should know how to make a fire without a lighter or ignition source, but that's just me.  And, probably you.

[Wild Bill]

I grew up that way and live that way also still, except for the extreme cold.    Where I grew up, -20 for days was common, -40 even.   Clothing layers become the key, as you know, as well as covering every inch of your skin, and your eyes.  

Nerb talked about pets.   As a kid, I slept with two pointers.   Why shorthair dogs in cold weather?  They were hunting dogs, and my Dad liked competing in field trials with them.  My room was furthest from the wood stove in the kitchen, so I got the dogs.  Always had to be careful in the hay barn in dire cold.   Rattlesnakes liked to curl up in the middle.   I would drag out a bale and thump it hard on the floor and back off.   Onlly then cut the baling twine and parse out some for the horses.    We had a little electric floating element for their watering trough, but with extreme cold I still had to bust some ice.   The trough was insulated.  

I don't know if people are pampered so much as technology has replaced rugged living.  That's kind of the purpose of technology, but I think we also lose important skills in the process.  People who didn't grow up with wringer washers and wood stoves and cars with carburetors and stick shifts, who fished and hunted and grew their own vegetables and built or fixed things themselves have an understandable difficulty relating to these things.   They consider those things to be anachronisms, and they are right, until the very rare thing happens.   I think everyone should know how to make a fire without a lighter or ignition source, but that's just me.  And, probably you.

I also grew up in a farming community raised a hard knock life by my grandparents, the itchy WW2 army blankets came out when the snow appeared but worse the paraffin heater appeared which I hated with a vengeance as I always got a sore throat with and the refrigerator was a brick hole in the ground with a stone lid , life was a lot more basic in the UK than in America back then , very few people had a home  telephone or even a car , the streets are almost empty when you look back at the 60s and 70s photos.

I do not miss cleaning out a coal fire or making one now especially with the price of a bag of coal here $ 55 for a bag , I enjoy just pushing a button on my gas central heating now , I was watching a video earlier about how expensive heating your home in America is now $ 1 to 2 k a month some were paying wow , I can heat my small pensioners home for about 20 bucks a week here on gas and that is me a soft old man who feels the cold bad now due to my blood thinners.

I had to bury my old hound / water bottle just before Xmas so for the first time in my life I am dog less , but our weather is so mild at the moment American seems to be getting our normal weather for this time of year but if I am still living come the autumn time I definitely will be warming my old bones somewhere warm rather than spend another winter in the Highlands of Scotland




https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uClBoFz--e...ABo7VqN5tD

[quintessentone]

@argentus - I do know not to run a car in an enclosed space and I am always aware of CO2 buildup, I meant I store gas in the shed not that the car was stored in the shed.

I am just learning how to start a fire using an ordinary water bottle filled with water which can act as a lens but I haven't tried it yet outdoors in minus double digit temps on a sunny day. I am also learning how to keep/transport fire in a large can with tinder (still have yet to try). I guess because I have lots of fire starting gear, I am not in a rush right now.

"For fire-starting purposes, a fully filled bottle with a smooth, rounded base is more reliable because it creates a consistent lens shape.  A partially filled bottle may shift or distort the focal point as the water moves, making it less predictable. 
Key Tips:

• Use still, clear water and a smooth bottle surface. 
  
• Keep the bottle steady and adjust the angle until light converges into a bright, small dot.
  
• Aim for direct, strong sunlight—overcast conditions reduce effectiveness.| (LLM)