Staying warm during power outages
Do you have a strategy for
keeping warm if the electricity goes out
during a winter snowstorm? Electric heaters clearly won't work,
and gas furnaces require electricity to operate. Even wood heat
might not be reliable if you depend on an electric fan to blow warm air
where you want it.
An energy efficient wood
stove in a central location within your home
is the best choice for warmth (and cooking) during power outages, but
the time and money required to install a wood stove is beyond the
Weekend Homesteader level. This week's lunchtime series helps you
find
other options to stay warm if snow knocks down the power lines.
I
hope you enjoy this excerpt from Weekend
Homesteader: December.
The 99 cent ebook walks you through the basics of planting your first
fruit trees,
staying warm without electricity, understanding the uses of essential
tools, and turning trash into treasures. If you're interested in
other aspects of basic emergency preparedness, Weekend
Homesteader: November gives tips on storing drinking water and the
upcoming Weekend Homesteader: January will cover backup lighting
options.
 This post is part of our Emergency Warmth lunchtime series.
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Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Shannon --- Yep, that's the one downside of a tiny stove. On the other hand, if I put any more wood in, the stove is so efficient that it would turn into a sauna in here!
Marco --- I've gone back and forth on whether we should have got our ultra efficient wood stoves sooner. On the one hand, we would have had to dip into our emergency buffer. On the other hand, the heating costs would have paid that back in just a few years! I'm so glad you took the plunge and enjoy it!