How to keep warm in winter If power goes out for days and you're snowed in?

[JEDI]

Power's out for the area and roads are blocked with 12"+ of snow.

My house has gas heat so turn on the oven with over door open and sleep in kitchen.

I was also thinking 2 portable 300Watt power stations ($200 each with coupon code https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0899GZ3WR) + electric blanket.
When the 1st one is depleted, use solar panel to recharge.
But how big of a solar panel do i need?

 

[dullard]

Some electric blankets use up to 400 W, which would exceed the 300W limits of that Anker Powerhouse 400. Even if you got a 200 W electric blanket, it would only be able to run for just under 2 hours. The 388 Whr battery is just too small on that unit. (By the way, I'm seeing $400 each not $200). In that case, you'd need at least a 200 W solar panel. But on snowy winter days you'll get less power and when the sun isn't angled right you'd get less power. So, realistically, I'd want a minimum of 300 W solar panel for a 200 W electric blanket.

I think you should start at a minimum of 3000 Whr. That has enough capacity to run a 200 W electric blanket for 15 hours. Or the blanket for the night plus enough to run a coffee pot, your wifi router, and charge your phone. Something much more like this at a bare minimum:

BLUETTI AC300 + B300 | Home Battery Backup

BLUETTI AC300+B300 is a modular solar power system with a 3,072 Wh capacity. Shop expandable 3000-watt generator to expand your power at will.

www.bluettipower.com

or this:

https://www.amazon.com/EF-ECOFLOW-Generator-High-Power-Appliances/dp/B0B1TCMZHZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3USO6DV4QYDGU&keywords=ecoflow&qid=1672806699&sprefix=ecoflow%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.17f26c18-b61b-4ce9-8a28-de351f41cffb&th=1

But even then, I think it is far more expensive than what you first thought. You can look into gas powered backups as they are a lot cheaper. But you have a motor to maintain and oil regularly and have to keep fresh gas on hand.

Also, for those people in the US, you get a 30% tax credit if you get at least 3000 Whr capacity. That tax credit started 2 days ago.

 

[dullard]

From my backpacking experience, I can vouch that half your heat goes through the ground. Even with the best electric blanket, you lose half your heat that way if you sleep on the kitchen floor. To keep warm, you need as much insulation below you as you have above you. Have a good thick mattress or at least something insulated to sleep on.

 

[JEDI]

But even then, I think it is far more expensive than what you first thought. You can look into gas powered backups as they are a lot cheaper. But you have a motor to maintain and oil regularly and have to keep fresh gas on hand.

The problem with gas generators is ventilation and the ventilation need can lead to theft.
The only place i can keep a gas generator is the garage with the door open for ventilation.
Someone can steal it, especially when power is out and people are freezing.

 

[JEDI]

From my backpacking experience, I can vouch that half your heat goes through the ground. Even with the best electric blanket, you lose half your heat that way if you sleep on the kitchen floor. To keep warm, you need as much insulation below you as you have above you. Have a good thick mattress or at least something insulated to sleep on.

How does your body heat go though the ground?
heat rises, no?

Sleep on top of a fleece blanket?

 

[dullard]

How does your body heat go though the ground?
heat rises, no?

Sleep on top of a fleece blanket?

Heat rises via convection. But, heat also conducts. Heat conducts in all directions. Step barefoot on a cold cement floor and come back to this thread.

The fleece blanket would be flattened underneath you. That flattening eliminates the air gaps that fleece uses to keep you warm. Suddenly the fleece beneath you does next to nothing to keep you warm. Backpacking / camping pads are sold based on their R-value (their resistance to heat loss to the ground). An R-value of 5 or more and you can basically sleep right on snow and be toasty.

You want multiple layers of clothing--especially a hat (thin wool beanies work well for sleeping). Then you want good insulation under you. Now, with good insulation padding below you, your heat loss is mostly to the air above you. You want a fairly body-fitting blanket. Large air bubbles under the blanket means lots of air you have to heat up and more surface area from which to lose heat to the air.

I camp regularly at about the freezing point. A lot of hard-core campers go much colder. No electricity needed.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

A pretty great invention to make car camping air mattresses without R value much warmer for lower temps.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B6RZ8BG

Original Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1042590505/twilight-thermal-mattress-topper

 

[quikah]

My house has gas heat so turn on the oven with over door open and sleep in kitchen.

Gas ovens are not meant to heat your house. You need to vent the carbon monoxide outside. Unless you have a really old oven with a pilot light it most likely has electric starters, so you won't even be able to use it.

 

[sdifox]

How is amazon going to deliver if roads are blocked?

I have a gas fire place, but that is going to only heat the room.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

' My house has gas heat so .... '

... you don't need electric. Or am I missing something?

 

[gorobei]

' My house has gas heat so .... '

... you don't need electric. Or am I missing something?

gas furnaces/central air still need electricity to power the fans to move the hot air to the registers/vents. also most thermostats are digital so they need power too.


as to the OP question.
after the big freeze in texas '21 and hearing about the survival measures they were advising, i started wondering about how to safely DIY heat a space for an emergency. about the only thing i could think of that didnt risk carbon monoxide buildup were the heating packs in MREs. they use magnesium and water for a redox reaction that produces heat and hydrogen gas. but that is a problem if you are using candles at night.

the newer MRE use a heater that only reacts air so no H2. but i dont know what chemistry they are using.



otherwise just get some cold weather camping gear and just set it up inside with as much insulation as possible as others have advised.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Not all gas units require power.

Powering a blower fan and t-stat doesn't require anywhere near as much as a radiant space heater.

 

[BoomerD]

Not all gas units require power.

Powering a blower fan and t-stat doesn't require anywhere near as much as a radiant space heater.

Nope...but depending on how they're wired, getting the power to them can be a PITA.

IMO, much better to find a way to secure a gas generator and use that to power the necessities.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^ Before I went whole-house, I wired my gas furnace with a cord and plug. Unplug it from the normal outlet, plug it in to a extension cord to a gen-set. Five minutes or less. Thing is, you can power a furnace blower motor with a smaller generator than you might need for portable radiant heaters.

There are also portable kerosene heaters that will sweat you out. Some give off a slight odor if not adjusted right, but most are pretty good. That only works out well if you can plan ahead and have enough kerosene on hand.

 

[Braznor]

Just burn down your neighbor's house for warmth.

 

[sandorski]

A Power Wall or similar would be useful. Some Arctic rated sleeping bags/clothes will work with no Power/Heat situations. You could put an exhaust vent in a garage specifically for your generator.

 

[Iron Woode]

We had a wood burning fireplace. Our power rarely went out for more than an hour.

 

[lxskllr]

Kerosene heater. Either that, or a bunch of cats. Cats are warm and fuzzy.

 

[snoopy7548]

Make some soup.

 

[deadlyapp]

Power's out for the area and roads are blocked with 12"+ of snow.

My house has gas heat so turn on the oven with over door open and sleep in kitchen.

I was also thinking 2 portable 300Watt power stations ($200 each with coupon code https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0899GZ3WR) + electric blanket.
When the 1st one is depleted, use solar panel to recharge.
But how big of a solar panel do i need?

Get a handful of batteries, find out what your furnace blower current is, and buy an inverter. You can wire up a simple bypass to run the blower with an extension cord then just shut off the breaker and run it off the battery bank + inverter. Keep the batteries charged with a tender when you do have power and if you really want to keep it charged, get a solar panel or two.

 

[rstrohkirch]

The problem with gas generators is ventilation and the ventilation need can lead to theft.
The only place i can keep a gas generator is the garage with the door open for ventilation.
Someone can steal it, especially when power is out and people are freezing.

You live in an area where you're snowed in with a foot + of snow and if you put a generator outside of our garage....you're worried someone is going to come up, steal it by dragging it through said foot + of snow to their vehicle? Time to move I would say.

But seriously, a portal generator is obviously the correct answer. A $500 model will power all the major needed items in your house. Gas mixed with fuel stabilizer will last well over a year. So every 1 to 1.5 years you can just cycle it into yard equipment or your vehicles.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Small inverter generator to run the furnace would do. Just need power to run the electronics, draft inducer motor and blower motor. Never actually measured how much power it uses but my guess is like 800w or so. I could be off.

I have a small backup solar system with power coming to the house, I just leave the inverter off because I don't produce enough power due to lack of daylight here but the battery is kept fully charged just sitting there with no load so I got a couple kwh worth of storage if power was to go out. I need to rewire my furnace so I can easily transfer power but in a pinch I'd just do it manually. Same with servers I just run an extension cord to the UPS and plug it into solar. Typically I will let it run on UPS for a couple hours before I do that.

I eventually want to get a small generator too, and set it up so I can just top up the solar battery with it. I recently bought a generator inlet and a 27v power supply which can do current limiting, so going to set that up at some point. We don't get power outages here very often so not a big priority but still good to be prepared.

If you get a generator you do want a way to tie it down though, it WILL get stolen. Thieves don't care about the weather. They are out there rain or shine and in fact are more likely to be out if there is a big blackout. The only way to stop thieves is law changes but that's another topic.

 

[BoomerD]

Small inverter generator to run the furnace would do. Just need power to run the electronics, draft inducer motor and blower motor. Never actually measured how much power it uses but my guess is like 800w or so. I could be off.

I have a small backup solar system with power coming to the house, I just leave the inverter off because I don't produce enough power due to lack of daylight here but the battery is kept fully charged just sitting there with no load so I got a couple kwh worth of storage if power was to go out. I need to rewire my furnace so I can easily transfer power but in a pinch I'd just do it manually. Same with servers I just run an extension cord to the UPS and plug it into solar. Typically I will let it run on UPS for a couple hours before I do that.

I eventually want to get a small generator too, and set it up so I can just top up the solar battery with it. I recently bought a generator inlet and a 27v power supply which can do current limiting, so going to set that up at some point. We don't get power outages here very often so not a big priority but still good to be prepared.

If you get a generator you do want a way to tie it down though, it WILL get stolen. Thieves don't care about the weather. They are out there rain or shine and in fact are more likely to be out if there is a big blackout. The only way to stop thieves is law changes but that's another topic.

You mean like how making murder illegal has stopped people from killing each other?

 

[Red Squirrel]

You mean like how making murder illegal has stopped people from killing each other?

I was thinking more along the lines of laws to protect the victim by allowing them to defend their property without getting in trouble. Right now if you try to stop a thief you get in more trouble than they do. At least depending on where you live, some places are better than others for that. But that's another topic.

 

[sandorski]

I was thinking more along the lines of laws to protect the victim by allowing them to defend their property without getting in trouble. Right now if you try to stop a thief you get in more trouble than they do. At least depending on where you live, some places are better than others for that. But that's another topic.

If you mean Shoot them, no.