9. Stay active
Exercising is important all year long, but many of use get particularly lethargic during the winter. The net effect is that you don’t take advantage of your body’s natural heating abilities. With just a little light exercise a couple of times each day, you can benefit from your increased metabolism.
Ten to twenty minutes of vigorous exercise can warm you up significantly, not to mention keep you warm for some time after. Plus, a healthy body is more resistant to cold con- ditions, in general.
Play active games. It’s just like exercising, but you can get the whole family involved. Charades is a perfect example. Even board games like Scrabble can get the blood pumping, not to mention create a welcome distraction.
turn ceiling fans on low to circulate warm air down
When you find candles on sale, stock up on them, then if the power goes out, this can help tremendously.
Why are you recommending using electrical appliances if the electricity is out? You can’t use the ceiling fan, cook in the crockpot or use the EdenPure heater if the electrical grid is out.
Corrugated black 3″ tub ($5) attach 2 or 3, coil and place on roof, tape with good duct tape, exhaust fan ($13) at one end attached with duct flex and put through a window, if u want more heat make a container to put it in out of rmax Styrofoam board ($15 2 needed) and leave the top open to cover with clear corrugated roofing ($20 need 2) try to make everything as air tight as possible.
Attach terra cotta pots with a large bolt. Taper down from the largest pot to the smallest, slide each one through the bolt with a washer seperating each then with high heat adhesive attach the water catch basin on top, the fished product should be a large one with many smaller ones evenly spaced, then get the little stand pieces and put a tealite candle under it so the flame is on the bolt.
All blankets and articles of clothing should be made of wool. 100% wool is best. Wool is the only material that maintains it’s insulation properties whether wet or dry.
I USE A WARM-MIST HUMIDIFIER DURING THE WINTER MONTHS IN MY MAIN LIVING AREA TO RAISE THE HUMIDITY THEREBY MAKING THE HEAT IN THE ROOM WETTER AND INCREASING THE HEAT INDEX. FOR LESS THAN $25 YOU CAN PURCHASE A GOOD WET-MIST HUMIDIFIER THAT WILL LOWER YOUR HEATER USE AND LAST 3-5 YEARS. I USE A SMALL DOLLAR-STORE TYPE PLASTIC HUMIDITY GAUGE ($2) PLACED ABOUT SHOULDER LEVEL IN THE ROOM TO MEASURE THE HUMIDITY. ABOVE 60% KEEPS THINGS TOASTY. SAFE ELECTRICITY BY SHUTTING OFF THE HUMIDIFIER WHEN A COMFORTABLE LEVEL HAS BEEN REACHED. A POT OF SIMMERING HOT WATER ON THE STOVE COVERED WITH ALUMINUM FOIL WITH THE MOST ROOMFACING EDGE CURLED UP A BIT WILL DO THE SAME IF YOU HAVE AN OPEN LIVING AREA. ADDING SOME POTPOURI OR VANILLA OR EVEN PINE OIL CAN MAKE THINGS SMELL GREAT.
Ceiling fans have a reversing switch – a small slider switch which reverses the rotation to circulate the heat downward !
Local Walmart has a Folding Sterno Stove for about $6. Get 3 or more. The Christmas Tree Shop has chafing dish fuel for 69 cents a can that burns for 2 hours. Having a propane cook stove will get you a hot meal. Burning any carbon based fuel in an enclosed area can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning SO VENTILATE. Candles can make soot that will stick to your walls and windows. Just a few thoughts
In Antarctica, we wore only wool clothing, including our socks. “Cotton Kills” even when layered. You’ll start out feeling warm wearing cotton, but your body temperature will continually drop and by the time you’re feeling chilled, you had better get inside a warm place because you only have minutes to remain coherent.
get yourself a milwaukke heated hoodie – at low it will keep you warm for 6 hours
recharging takes less than an hour to recharge.I don’t sell them but got myself one
and now will get my family one each for Christmas
I rent an apartment with a 60 year old totally NOT efficient gas fired wall heater in it. I put a 6″ diameter small fan on the paint tray of a step ladder blowing into the heat OUTLET. Heat literally pours out of the other side. Simply by adding the small fan far more heat gets out of the antique heater so the gas does not burn as long as with out the fan.
On line there are one or more electric generators that are powered by the magnetic field of planet earth. This means NO fuel cost. These must be built whether at home or in a workshop.
Candles seem really dangerous to me. The LED flashlights are GREAT and cheap just have a good supply of batteries.Wood or pellet stoves also a good source of heat also to cook with.Generators too
If you have a fireplace, get a fireplace heater (google it to research online) it will draw much more heat out of your fireplace while all the smoke goes up the chimney.
Pardon me, but for the first & last time- this is the 21st century. Candles are the worst option available for light, and the greatest hazard for fire in the home! There is NO reason to risk you and your family, much less all your belonging and shelter for A CANDLE! Start with some form of solar rechargable LED lighting- the solar charger can probably charge your phone and computer, even a radio for information as well- SAFELY
I’m not seeing full thoughts in most of these comments, when the power goes down, what will the mortality rate be?
In a week 20%, a month 50%, longer?
I am new to the Alpharetta, GA area, need info where to get one or two, small wood burning stove?
FD Retired, you are correctthat this is the 21st Century but incase you haven’t noticed, they still do make & sell candles!
There is nothing wrong with the use of candles along as you set them out using caution, set them on/in a candle holder that is at least twice the diameter of the candle. Try not to use stick candles do to the possibility of them tipping over, use the heavier fat candles, these are normally twice the height as they are round and burn & glow very nice. We burn candles regularly in our house, they leave a nice scent also!
Now, if you want to do things right then invest in a whole house generator, just figure out what you all want to run if the power goes out and use that to decide on the size generator you need. If you have no advanced mechanical/electrical experience then I would suggest you locate an experienced electician to install it. I was a maintenance mechanic and installed my own, I chose to step mine up and can run 80% of everything in my home.
There is a lot of electrical wiring and gas line to install and if it isn’t done correctly it could cause a fire or even explosion. Once it is all hooked up and set, it works great, within 10-15 seconds of power lose everything is back to normal, just that you are running on generator.
You actually don’t even notice the outage unless you were watching TV, I have mine so that the oven even works. When the power comes back on it automatically switches back, then the generator idles down and shuts off. There is nothing you need to do except your yearly maintenance on the engine, oil & filter, spark plugs and air filter. You also want to check on occasion to make sure that the housing vents for air are not obstructed, and that’s it.
I can understand your solar FD, sounds like you like solar but for those of us that don’t this is the best way to go! I had solar in my home when I bought it, I didn’t care for it, didn’t care for the panels on my roof and had problems with them. They would have had to have been replaced and I didn’t save that much money with them there. I removed the whole system and replaced it with the generator for about the same cost, and I’m very happy I went that route.
I had water damage in my basement because my sump didn’t kick in and cost me about $14,000. I figure in the last 6 years since I put this in that with the rain storms we had, the generator payed for itself 10 times over if the pump would not have kicked in during those outages.
Buy yourselves a deep cycle battery from Walmart. Get one with 124 amp hours for about $86 . Buy a battery box for about $8, and you can run 12volt lights and other small tools with no danger. Buy an inverter, depending on what 120 volt items you want to run, small tv, radio,etc. Used sparingly it will last all night, then the next day, hook up to your car with jumper cables run your car for 15-20 minutes to recharge and you’re ready for another night. Do this twice and run one all day. Recharge before night for a back-up. I have an 800 watt microwave ( about $50 at Walmart ) and a 1200 watt inverter and it works well.you can set one of these up for around $150-$200 and it will last for years as long as you keep the battery charged.
Meathead, I winterered over in Antartica in 1978 and we didn’t have any clothes that were wool. We wore many pocket pants and parka style jackets. Lucky people like me got snowmobile suits from the civilians. However we loaded up on wool blankets for our beds. No one has ever been in the cold until you spend a year down on the ICE.
Apart from the obvious weather stripping and caulking, drapes, drapes & more drapes. I have heavy drapes over all windows and doors and they make an amazing difference. Bought them all from thrift stores and altered to fit if necessary.
I use Peanut Oil to raise my body temperature and stay comfortable during the winter months. It’s a heavier oil that has no strong odor and I wear sweat pants/shirt and socks to keep any oil from getting on the sheets. You can try other oils like macadamia nut oil or almond oil until you find one that works for you and your family members. One application from the neck down to your toes before bed time and you will be warm all night long. Skin lotions cool the skin but it’s amazing how much natural vegetable oils can warm your body. Try it once and you will be amazed!
Roger that, Wayne. One “Winter Over” in 1964 was all it took to convince me that I didn’t want to do it again. Layer after layer of clothing was the order of the day and absolutely no exposed flesh when venturing outside. Frostbite in seconds, not minutes of hours.
I don’t quite understand this. Did you mean 3 inch tubing? The exhaust fan is to pull the air through it? And the part about storing the heat was too cryptic? Please explain. thanks
What if you are allergic to wool?
About the peanut oil rub on body for heat. I read a long time ago from 2 different books that the Native Americans would use bear grease on their bodies during winter as a way to keep warm in winter while hunting because they didnt want heavy layers of clothing to inhibit movement while chasing game. If this is true or not I don’t know. Also I read that during the Great Depression people would use newspapers to insulate the walls of their abode by tacking layers on the walls and staying to one room or two, usually the kitchen. And they would tie the pants hems closed, then stuff wadded up newspaper down the pants leg for a layering effect to capture body heat. My grama also said when they would get their order of chicks in that the warmer they used was kerosene lamps turned very low and in a box for a heat source. Not heard of using those on here. I have used those in the past for lighting. Keep the wicks trimmed, just enough wick sticking up for good light and clean the chimney glass. They will leave soot.
Hope by now you already got your wood stove, but if not please google Solo Stove. I owned two Solo Stoves & I gave one to my best friend, my fellow survivalist/prepper . I believed its one of best wood burning camp stove. So get one & try it. I bet you will like it especially if you go camping this summer. Currently I owned a Solo Stove & a bigger Solo Stove Titan. Be safe & God bless.
I am a single 63 yr. old woman w/ no family. I am quite concerned about having no one to help if (when?) the grid goes down. Does anyone know anything about Independent Living’s Power Whisperer portable solar generator? I would have to have someone help me hook this up if I do it.( Probably couldn’t afford reg. generator, or know how to maintain one. Besides being noisy and advertising to all that someone who prepares lives there.) It’s supposed to use battery, gasoline, or electrical. I realize it’s only to assist, but one could stay alive by alternating use of appliances?? Here are specs/links:
https://www.survivalproshop.com/powerwhisperer-m-type-mobile-power-supply-system-1091.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4BVCaW7DAw
http://www.independentlivingnews.com/video/pw-video.php
Will someone please advise me on this? Thanks!
It’s going to depend how allergic you actually are. My ex was allergic but the navy considered that no excuse in 1969 at all; eventually he got used to it. What you can always do is layer the wool over something else. Skiers use silk, if you can afford it. Mohair is another solution, called wool but it’s not from sheep. Hope this helped.
Pam, Pellet Stoves require electricity, candles if properly used are better than led flashlights, Eskimos burned wale oil, in very small lamps, look up your history. I wouldn’t use wale oil today, but a lot of you cooking oils are burnable. To me more dangerous than candles. Generators generally need a fuel of some type to run. Ebay has a great wood stove made for tents which you could use in your house, as long as you are willing to cut a hole in the ceiling for the pipe stack. Best price I could Find.
Hi I’v just started learning about preparing for shtf (today). I lived in Fla during Hurricane Andrew and when everyone was out of power and in the dark my family had light we took a turn signal light and the battery out of a car and my ex hooked it up with wires & clamping thing (not the technical term.sorry) on the ends and hooked it to a tripod so i could adjust the light. We had light for the 4 weeks we were out of power.
Please do not let any alcohol get near anything soaked with oil! Static electricity can cause ignition. It happened in a hospital when a child had oil all over her hair and garments and a cleaning woman got close with her alcohol based cleaning gel like stores have now at front for wiping carts. Fire dept could not verify source of static but she had 30% 3rd degree burns. Separate them!
solar yard lights can be bought at dollar stores and BigLots stores for lighting, leave them out during the day to collect sunlight, bring them out when it gets dark, no fumes no flames just light. we have used these for camping to put around our tents to park the path when there is no other light source. my son took one and read by it when he didn’t have a flashlight.
also something i read is to have lots of car batteries instead pf generators. tons of things can be charged and recharged by car batteries and people cant tell you have them like a noisy generator. also to recharge the car battery when it gets low you just put it in an automobile and run it for a short time, no need for fuel aside from just long enough to run your vehicle for a little while.
harbor freight has moving blankets that are good for a lo of tings. we camped on a rainy cold night and i stayed warm because i had a moving blanket on top of my sleeping bag. also good for catching dew and keeping your bedding dry. yu can hang it on a clothesline during the day if needed and not mess with your bedding. also i have found that led lights use far less batteries than a standard flashlights, my batteries stayed good sooo much longer and the lights stayed brighter far longer. one thing i liked is that harbor freight has a lot of good coupons for free stuff. you can get tarps, blankets, head lamps, and the small led lights that you can hang on stuff, good for a tent or a closet, and they have a small magnet on the back for sticking to metal surfaces.
there are resources all around us, we just gotta think outside the box and read posts like these for ideas.
I closed the vent in my storage bedroom,
; cover my AC’s outside and in, put heavy plastic over my curtains; made window awnings and put corrugated plastic inner bottoms on them. I put shelves of things on the outside walls, stuff pillows and towels on the outside walls of my bathroom, taped pink insulation on my bathtub walls, save old carpet and put down extra layers. I stored things under my trailer, and put wood around the inside of the skirting. I store stuff under my deck. I bungied pieces of scrap exterior panels around my deck. I have lots of candles saved up from resale shops. I bought sterno, charcoal briquets, saved an old grill; let trees grow up around my trailer for shade. I save things people throw away. (sheets of foam, carpet, towels, plastic bags and newspapers. I am always thinking in survival mode. I stock up at resale shops, blankets, clothes, soaps, food, whatever I may need in a pinch.
I am allergic to wool and can’t wear it at all. We have a local co-op that sells alpaca socks, in-soles, and gloves. They are soft and have been an excellent alternative.
Guys, for light, use a flashlight that doesn’t need batteries or recharging. I have a few of them. Just shake them and use them. They work great. One model is the, Forever Flashlight lll. Just Google “No battery flashlight” Also many no battery and no charge products.
It alarms me of the number of possibly very dangerous ways listed to heat your home during emergency crisis and power outages. If you encounter a prolonged and complete power outage, proper preparedness must include viable alternatives to surviving without electrical power, running fresh water, home heating, and lighting and food. First and foremost in cold weather, a reliable heat source is tantamount to survival. A wood-stove, fireplace, self sustaining heaters, like a standing kerosene heater, (wick type), or other conventional fueled heaters that do not rely on electrical power to start and operate are the safest way to generate heat to survive. Utilizing other heating sources that are not designed for this type of service are much more dangerous, because you are using this device for a purpose it was not designed for. Prior planning is essential to ensure you have enough of the type of fuel that these heaters require. And, if the heating unit can utilize more than once source of fuel, that is all for the better. Also, having a standby potable water supply is the next step to proper preparedness. Drinking and cooking fresh water is mandatory to short and long term survival. Also, if you can find a way to store larger amounts of water for other than consumption, will be necessary for all the other things that we use water for, like flushing a toilet, hand washing and cleaning clothes, humidification (as noted here). Having large containers that can be stored in the basement, garage (note: cold weather water will quickly freeze) etc., or where ever you can store it will make life easier. Also, a nearby surface water source could be utilized for these non-potable water needs. I actually was able to fill two 5 gallon water jugs to use when I moved from a apartment to my travel trailer (during the winter) with no fresh water connection. I made it last for more than a month or two. I also had water that I used to flush my toilet (it didn’t take much to flush a camping trailer toilet). There are also new technology portable water filtration units (i.e. “lifestraws”), that are inexpensive if you have no other fresh water sources. Luckily, there are many safe (non- AC outlet powered) lighting alternatives. L.E.D.s, (battery powered, solar powered, crank/motion powered), that give off sufficient light, along with lantern’s, (kerosene, lamp oil, L.P., battery, etc.) that provide safe lighting alternatives. The last and probably one of the most important is food. There is allot of good and bad information on stocking and storing food. I would suggest you search the internet, research your local library, talk with your elder family members, for your own solution for obtaining your long term survival food supplies. I personally do not trust some of the survival food stocks that are widely sold everywhere, each of these vendors have their own priorities (mostly to make money), so, buyer beware! That’s just my 2 cents worth. GLM
rADIANT BARRIER IN YOU ATTIC AND CRAW SPACE,,,,U CAN ORDER IT ONLINE FOR ABOUT .15 CENT A SQ FOOT
Put a RADIANT HEAT BARRIER over your attic insulation. The insulation only slows heat transfer, the radiant heat barrier stops it. Don’t buy the ones that are flimsy. I sent for samples from a number of companies and found Attic Foil to be the toughest. This will also keep your house cooler in the summer. My 1,000 square foot roll cost me $150.
I have purchased lots of candles at garage/yard sales for something like ten cents apiece. For safety concerns put the candles in some sort of glass container that will surround or be taller than the candle is.
Is this a gas generator? Because it might be a sol;ar generator which you seem to not like but did not say what kind of generator.
Solar doesn’t work in an area with 300 cloudy days. almost useless. you only know your own area, not everybody’s. I use fat candles to bring the temperature up in the room where I am. I do not take chance, and I LIKE them, just because the flame makes me feel cozy. but over the course of two hours I’ve brought the temperature in a room up 5 to 10 degrees.
If the power goes out indefinitely we will be using one of these ($37) cheap tent stoves in our house by venting it out of the exhaust pipe for our gas water heater. They also have a kit that you can rig up to vent it out of a window.
Good info. My little LED keychain light puts out a bigger and brighter area of light than my hubbies big, heavy traditional flashlight and it has a little focus ring on it. Office Depot periodically sells the smaller handheld LED flashlights for under $5 with the batteries in them. 🙂
VERY CLEVER. I have never heard of doing this anywhere else before. Thanks for the info !