O.K. I have only been prepping for a short time but I have a question I have not seen addressed. My wife and I live in upstate New York where it can get very cold in winter. We have natural gas heat for our furnace. If SHTF happens, any ideas on an alternative heat source. Thanks.
Heat for the home (in cold palces)
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Both my home and bug out locations have a wood burning stove and a fireplace. Wood burning stoves are fairly cheap and easy to install. My wood burning stove can heat a decent size home if the doors are left open.
Depending on circumstances, wood stoves make smoke, its a dead give away in a pinch.
Too many senerios to answer competently. Its one of those things that has many answers.
Most right for one situation, and most wrong for another.
We have wood stoves, we have ventless propane heaters, we have loads of blankets and winter clothes.
if its safe to use wood we would, if not propane, but it could be less renewable than the wood, but no smoke signal lol, we also have kerosene heaters, last choice but a choice is simply dressing for it, even if indoors if we had to.
Anything that uses fire uses oxygen, its that simple, keep it in mind.
Too many senerios to answer competently. Its one of those things that has many answers.
Most right for one situation, and most wrong for another.
We have wood stoves, we have ventless propane heaters, we have loads of blankets and winter clothes.
if its safe to use wood we would, if not propane, but it could be less renewable than the wood, but no smoke signal lol, we also have kerosene heaters, last choice but a choice is simply dressing for it, even if indoors if we had to.
Anything that uses fire uses oxygen, its that simple, keep it in mind.
Like hades has mentioned, smoke would def be a big major give away. But if all must come down to it, there can be a way to make a smal/ small medium flame for temp use heat in case of any situation world scenario, use a old foldgers with 2 to 5 holes in it, coffe can and boom u got ur self a home made wood heating coffe can heater/stove. But if you had to stay concealed without burning and giving your position away, having your own personal cold weather gear on, jackets, wool blankets and NEWSPAPER ! crunch and stuff into your jacket or inner linner jacket and boom, there u go more warmth added to yourself. PS if any kind of a firefight broke out newspaper would still work wonders in inner jacket linner while running, laying down or in a hide lol:ar15:.
I have to advise you to look at a book. WIlderness Survival by Tom Brown, Jr. It goes DEEP in depth about what to use to stay warm. You can insulate your clothes with leaves and pine needles, even. Is it comfy? No. WIll you live? Yes. He has built PRIMITIVE SHELTERS in the pine barrens in NJ that have stood for over 15years. They have kept him warm in sub-zero weather and would have you sweating inside it's so well done. If he can insulate a shelter like that in the wide open in the middle of winter, you can definitely make it work for you and yours. Research is good. I would imagine in upstate NY you might not have the big issue of bandits in the winter time, but one never knows. I would rather burn wood and be prepared than freeze to death and have bandits get all my stuff anyways.
I believe Coleman camping equipment has made heaters for tents that my help heat small areas perhaps a bedroom.
I agree that a fireplace or wood burning stove would give you away either by the smoke or smell! Space heaters run on battery packs may work as well.
Pros, cons, alterial motives.
Im bugging out, and hauling a wood burning stove isnt in my cards.
But when i set up camp at my location, when i feel its safe enough to set up permanite living, imma go lo'school and use river rock and mud/weeds to build a fireplace.
Yes the smoke might give away location, if you're on flat land. light a fire in the forest (controlled) and go a mile away and see if you can see it, can you or would you be able to see it at night?
More often than not, if you have a small personal fire, like in a fire pit, itll disapate in the air before it gets to high. ppl can see fire places but thats cuse its sent 10-20ft into the air before its aloud to mix with the outside air.
A small fire wont make too much smoke, a large fire will make more smoke (duh right lol).
Yet youd be able to light a large, very smoky fire that may draw ppl in on purpose......
Also, realize what you're putting into the fire that may make the smoke darker or lighter.
Im bugging out, and hauling a wood burning stove isnt in my cards.
But when i set up camp at my location, when i feel its safe enough to set up permanite living, imma go lo'school and use river rock and mud/weeds to build a fireplace.
Yes the smoke might give away location, if you're on flat land. light a fire in the forest (controlled) and go a mile away and see if you can see it, can you or would you be able to see it at night?
More often than not, if you have a small personal fire, like in a fire pit, itll disapate in the air before it gets to high. ppl can see fire places but thats cuse its sent 10-20ft into the air before its aloud to mix with the outside air.
A small fire wont make too much smoke, a large fire will make more smoke (duh right lol).
Yet youd be able to light a large, very smoky fire that may draw ppl in on purpose......
Also, realize what you're putting into the fire that may make the smoke darker or lighter.
Being in upstate NY myself, I think a wood stove is mandatory. We heat the entire house from ours in the winter. Smoke is controlled by what you burn and you only have to worry about excessive smoke as you're bringing it up to temp or from moisture. After that the smoke thins out.
I was thinking about this post this morning because the smoke thing was bothering me. I found this elsewhere on the internet. It's a small tutorial about firepits, stealth, and materials:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=66440
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=66440
At our location we have both wood, gas and electric heat. But the key is to work on an energy efficient home. Check out cordwood or haybale structures. We have to supply heat to replace the heat loss from our home, so the first thing to do is try to prevent the loss.
So propane and kerosene is safe to burn in a closed home?
Of course not! Why would you think it was. We have a propane furnace and HWT. Have different means of heat and utilities is the way to keep going.
If I'm remembering this right the smoke shouldn't be too much of an issue once the fire gets hot enough. Initially, yes, it will be like a huge give away, but once the fire gets hot enough the smoke dies out and dissapates rather quickly. I know this is probally a no brainer, but you need to use dried and seasoned wood, not anything green. The green stuff will smoke like there is no tommorrow. For something other than wood, if your bugging out, or if you have a location set up already that is prepped, there are generators that would work for heating and electrical devices. Here is a link for where I got ahold of some soundless solar powered generators. http://www.myfoodstorage.com/other-products-1/power-fuel.html They also have little emergency stoves that can be used for heat and cooking, but I haven't used them and I'm not sure how good they work.
Nice tip! Now I have to go research solar powered generators. I feel a new article coming on my website!
Not sure how warm they get, but I have seen these around a bit http://www.heatstick.com/. I know you can make them on your own as well. Pretty cool idea and it's free heat.
Friend of mine told me about what people in Haiti (or possibly cuba) do for heat. Since they are so poor they take plant matter and put it into 50 gallon barrels and let the sun cook pretty much everything out of them. They they take what left and place it into these little moulds and hit it with a hammer. When they open the mould they have a little charcoal brique that burns just as well and just as long as anything you can but in the store. If your interested I can ask him for the link and post it.
Hell, if push comes to shove us humans are heat producing machines!!! When you deficate, keep it and let it dry in the sun. Gives you plenty of fuel and you NEVER run out. Smells like crap though. (pun intended lol)
Hell, if push comes to shove us humans are heat producing machines!!! When you deficate, keep it and let it dry in the sun. Gives you plenty of fuel and you NEVER run out. Smells like crap though. (pun intended lol)
I, unfortunately had to deal with this issue one winter while I was in college. I was renting a room and the whole house lost heat and power. The gal across the hall from me came over and we created a 'nest' by moving furniture around and draping blankets over everything to act as a tent. Put my mattress under that and we piled in there with other blankets and warm clothes. If you are careful, you can set a candle in a tin can to burn for light and heat. It was a very small space to warm up, so with combined body heat and the occasional candle and we were warm enough to be comfortable. Granted this only lasted 4 days, but it is doable.
I'm sorry you lost me at the point I realized there were two women under a blanket together! 
Goober. Yep two geeky chicks.
Hey, two geeky chicks are the best way for a guy to stay warm!!! Every prepper needs to have two geeky chicks tagging along in their prepping plans!!
Somehow, I just can't feature this geeky chick just 'following along' LOL
I didn't say 'following' I said 'tagging' There is a difference ya know!!! :rocket:
Uh-huh ya goober.
lmao!
well if you in a outdoor situation I have found that the Dakota fire pit is a great little fire, ten hundred examples on youtube. but thats just my 2 cents work
First thing I did this year was buy a small wood stove to tap into my old chimney.
I live in town but still am able to collect a lot of dead stuff in my yard and neighbors
are happy to get rid of there stuff as well. The place I work at doesn't recycle so
ive been taking it home for back up fuel if needed. I will burn some of it to prevent
hoarding lol. Also my garage is very old and made of wood and should burn nicely
assume raiders don't steal it!
I live in town but still am able to collect a lot of dead stuff in my yard and neighbors
are happy to get rid of there stuff as well. The place I work at doesn't recycle so
ive been taking it home for back up fuel if needed. I will burn some of it to prevent
hoarding lol. Also my garage is very old and made of wood and should burn nicely
assume raiders don't steal it!
Coleman makes a catalytic heater that runs about 7 hours on the small propane bottles, (16 oz). It is considered flameless and puts out about 3,000 btu's of radient heat. It is, of course, a temporary solution, to undetected heat and depending on how insulated the space, it can heat a three man tent to a tolerable level. They have been around awhile as I used them on bivouac's in the Boy Scouts growing up. They run under $100 and would help as a heat souce in covert situations. They are easily portable and very quiet also. In an overnite survival situation, a very compact space blanket wrapped around your sleeping bag will keep you warm enough to sleep in a sheltered location. Yes, you do sweat some, but you can sleep. Lol Used one to earn my Polar Bear Merit Badge! As for a permanent heat source, I think we limited to a good location and a combutable materials. However there are many methods to reduce smoke, light and smell. All useable heat is radiant in nature, so it is important to surround your fire with items that will heat up and continue to radiat heat even when your fire is down. Heavy rocks, metal and even a pit will all help your fire to be more effective. A fairly light cover of dirt, about 6 to 12 inches, over a good bed of coals will provide hours of heat if you set up over or close enough to benefit from the warm ground. Just some suggestions from my past experiences. You can even put some of the hot rocks around your bedding and cover them to provide heat through the night.
