Looking for tips on emergency indoor cooking during power outages

[Haertig]

I'd be interested to hear how people are set up for indoor cooking in a "no electrical power" situation. I am not talking about long term setups, I am interested in the short term scenarios like "You have an electric stove, your power is out for several days, you would like to do some small scale emergency cooking indoors."

I am setup for outdoor cooking in a short term emergency:

• Propane grill (with spare propane tanks)
• Wood pellet grill (although it needs a small amount of power for the pellet auger and fan - we have a portable generator that could be used - but we'd probably just skip that and burn the pellets in some other container if we had to)
• Coleman two burner propane camping stove (with 1lb canisters, and also an adapter regulator hose to hook it up to larger tanks from the grill)
• A couple of older white gas backpacking stoves (and about a gallon of old white gas, which appears to work in the stoves just fine in my testing, despite it's age)
• Small portable camping/backpacking wood burning stoves ( https://fireboxstove.com - you can burn backyard sticks and scrap in these)
• Trangia burners and Heet (methanol)
• Cinder blocks to build a Rocket Stove (also burns backyard waste, and in a pinch - fence pickets)
• A covered porch that I would cook under in inclement weather

The above is all well and good, but I can envision times when cooking inside during the power failure would be greatly preferable - say, 20 degrees below zero and howling blizzard. My current plan is simply to eat foods that don't require cooking during such an event. A can of tuna fish, dry cereal, a cold can of beans, etc. Not an enticing sounding meal, but it would work for short term power outages.

It seems at least potentially feasible to do some minimal cooking/ food-warming inside using, say the Trangia alcohol burner (probably with a different kind of alcohol than the methanol I currently have). Maybe even the Coleman propane camping stove. Carbon Monoxide would be the main concern. I could open a window for ventilation (letting the 20 below zero blizzard inside). We do have an outside venting hood over our electric cooktop. The fan obviously wouldn't work without power. I would assume the vent tube goes straight up to the roof, but I've never investigated that. It could potentially make a few twists and turns away from pure vertical. Unfortunately it goes through inaccessible attic space (can you call it an "attic" if it is inaccessible?) And also unfortunately, it is one of the cheap contractor grade vent hoods that came with the house when it was built. I can see the duct work for it running through the cabinets above the hood, and it's only a 6" or 8" round duct.

I do not know if simply setting the alcohol or propane burners I have on top of the electric cooktop, under the hood, would be adequate ventilation in the absence of power to the hoods fan.

Anyway, I guess I don't have a specific question to ask. Other than maybe what type of alcohol you would use if your plan includes an alcohol burner. Heet? Denatured? Everclear? Isopropal? More so I just wanted to hear what others are planning for this type of event. Do you have an "inside cooking with no power" plan for short term outages (measured in days, not years). I am not looking for a long-term off-grid solution like a wood burning fireplace with a cooking surface on top and several cords of wood out back. I agree that would be the better solution, but it's not what I'm looking for right now.

 

[Jen]

I haven't tried this so I cannot verify if it works, but I read that if you put votive candles into the cups of a muffin pan, you can heat soup in a small pan over those candles. I bought some votive candles to have on hand just in case.

Have any of you heard of this or tried it?

 

[Caribou]

I have a propane BBQ grill with a side burner if the weather allows cooking outside. I have a propane Coleman and a Coleman fuel Coleman that I can use inside for short periods. I have a handful of propane radiant heaters. Some of these can be pointed up for a cooking surface. If it is -20℉, a real possibility, I have an EarthStove that has a flat surface that I could cook on. Most importantly I can boil water for my coffee.

CO poisoning is a very real concern. My wood stove is a vented appliance so there is little worry there. Every open flame produces a small amount of CO. Long term, poorly ventilated, and small areas are the main concern. Complete combustion produces primarily CO2. As the O2 is used up you start getting incomplete combustion and CO is produced in larger and larger quantities. Were I to do any major cooking I’d fire up a Coleman in the attached garage where the vehicle entry door has a less than perfect seal. As long as the O2 is adequate the CO production should be low. A battery powered CO detector would be a prudent purchase.

 

[lonewolf]

remember to crack open a window to let the fumes out or you could gas yourself.

 

[sonya123]

I have a wood cookstove in the kitchen , but yeah, it's permanent. But in summer I use my propane stove on the porch
don't you have a porch or someplace you can put a propane stove?

I have one of these too

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ba...hgXIQKVp36UjDc90p6VJnGC8_fKGqa-QaAgc5EALw_wcB

 

[Tommyice]

For cooking inside, I have one of those butane burners. I also have an assortment of low wattage appliances. These are for use with a battery bank (solar generator) and solar panels.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have several cooking methods for indoors:
A small 2 burner propane stove, that I could use (with an open window) on our stove top. (I have small tanks and a long hose adapter to use with larger propane bottles - they can stay outdoors while cooking at the open window).
We have a wood stove in the living room that has a flat top and can be used to heat a kettle of something.
I have a low wattage (<1000 watts) appliances (electric skillet, hotplate, toaster oven, slow cooker, and microwave) that I can use with my battery bank/inverter.

Like so many others have posted: I have outdoor camping type of gear and a propane grill with a single burner.

 

[Amish Heart]

My normal everyday stove is a propane stove.
Also could cook on the woodburner if I have it burning.
Toaster oven with the inverter and battery

 

[Sourdough]

"Boots in the Field" report here. 20# propane bottle lasts me (11) ELEVEN Months. Using a cheap two burner propane camp stove. Generally, only need or use one burner (But this is cooking for (1) ONE person).

NOTE: The byproduct of Propane is water. I've spent most (way more) then most of the last 54 years living in 12' X 20' plywood shacks. The downside is that at 28 or 36 below zero, that moisture from spent propane, produces water on inside of double pane windows.

Those cheap two burner propane stoves last about (5) five years on average. So, I keep new spare stoves, and save old one for emergency parts should TSHTF.

 

[Morgan101]

We use a butane stove, and we can put it right on top of our existing stove. Takes up very little room. Very easy to use. We also have a sunstantial amount of fuel, which can also be used in butane lighters if need be. Go to Amazon, and enter butane stove.

https://www.amazon.com/Chef-Master-...-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1


We have other methods to cook outside, not in the sub zero blizzard Haertig, describes, but even in inclement weather, we have a patio, a barbecue pit, and a fire pit with a tripod.

 

[Tirediron]

I have a wood heating stove that has a nice big cook top, but I also have a coleman propane stove/ griddle. as sour dough said moisture issues are probable with propane. I also have a butane 2 burner stove, so that would be a better choice for indoors.
I like this type thread, because it gets people thinking.

 

[backlash]

I have a 2 burner propane stove, a Coleman propane grab and go stove, 2 propane BBQ grills, and a camp trailer that we can live in if the power is out for an extended time.
I would not worry about using a propane stove in the house.
People have been using propane cookstoves inside for years with no problems.

 

[backwoodsman]

I haven't tried this so I cannot verify if it works, but I read that if you put votive candles into the cups of a muffin pan, you can heat soup in a small pan over those candles. I bought some votive candles to have on hand just in case.

Have any of you heard of this or tried it?

If you look up the BTU output of candles, and figure that maybe half of it will make it into the pan, you'll see that if you need to melt butter during a power outage, you're all set. For actual cooking, or even heating soup, not so much. And you'll probably destroy the non-stick surface on the muffin pan.

A bit more practical: A propane camp stove is as safe to use indoors as a gas kitchen stove. And a white gas (Coleman fuel) stove will run fine (if slightly cooler) on alcohol, which puts out only water vapor as a combustion product.

 

[zoomzoom]

Speaking of alcohol, I have a couple small cookers.
Get an empty tuna can, poke a few holes near the top if/as needed for air flow.
Set it in an old small cake pan or similar (this is just so the tuna can doesn't overheat your base surface) and set the tuna can inside.
Pour about 3-4 ounces of alcohol in the tuna can and light it up.
Set whatever you want heated over the tuna can (making sure the tuna can has air so it stays burning).
Those few ounces will boil a couple cups of water or similar.

 

[Haertig]

I do have CO detectors mounted in the house. They are all battery powered, not hard wired. I also have the portable 2xAA battery powered one linked below. I got it specifically for traveling - to check out hotels and Airbnbs. It has a display that shows the actual detected CO level in PPM. So you can see a potential problem well before the alarm in it goes off (I think you have to get into the 100's of PPM of CO before the alarm sounds). This detector will latch onto the highest level detected over time and let you display that (and you can reset that function).

But this portable CO detector could also be carried into the kitchen (or wherever I end up doing emergency indoor cooking) to check for increased CO levels.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Y6V5CI

 

[Amish Heart]

I have a bunch of "buddy heaters" that I made from tuna cans, cardboard, and wax, and they work pretty well. Put them on a trivet, put a small rack over it, like a baking rack, pot or pan goes on top. I have a Coleman portable propane oven for baking.

 

[OldSchool]

I haven't tried this so I cannot verify if it works, but I read that if you put votive candles into the cups of a muffin pan, you can heat soup in a small pan over those candles. I bought some votive candles to have on hand just in case.

Have any of you heard of this or tried it?

My logistical mind says that will work.

Candles are a good heat source. I keep a few on hand, and a tent... if **** hits the fan I'll pitch the tent in my living room and be warm in a December blizzard in Michigan with no power.

 

[Haertig]

I have this portable wood burning stove (for outdoor use only - except maybe indoor if you use an alcohol Trangia burner or butane burner with it):

https://fireboxstove.com/product/original-firebox/


I also have the smaller backpacking friendly version (same caveats for outdoor/indoor)

https://fireboxstove.com/product/3-inch-folding-firebox-nano/

And I am thinking about buying this third version as well: (ditto caveats)

https://fireboxstove.com/product/firebox-scout-2/

This guy seems to think that these stoves could be used safely indoors (not with wood, certainly, but with other fuels):



This last guy doing his review of the Scout stove is what got me thinking about indoor emergency cooking and how to do that safely.

 

[OldSchool]

Cooking is serious business during a power outage or whenever you're without the modern necessities (?)

That's why I have an old folding Coleman stove. There's some old school in my blood and this thing is cool:

 

[backwoodsman]

My logistical mind says that will work.

OK, let's think through it. Candles are around 80 BTU, so around 320 BTU for 4 of them. A lot of that will be lost because it'll go with the airflow around the pot and maybe half will go into the pot, so 160 BTU. The smaller burners on an electric stove are typically 1200-1500 watts, so around 4000 BTU on the low end. You can get enough heat to cook at maybe 1/4 power if you're patient, so around 1000 BTU, or about 6x what 4 candles will get you. If your food is already cooked and you just want to get it a little above room temperature, the candles will work.

 

[OldSchool]

OK, let's think through it. Candles are around 80 BTU, so around 320 BTU for 4 of them. A lot of that will be lost because it'll go with the airflow around the pot and maybe half will go into the pot, so 160 BTU. The smaller burners on an electric stove are typically 1200-1500 watts, so around 4000 BTU on the low end. You can get enough heat to cook at maybe 1/4 power if you're patient, so around 1000 BTU, or about 6x what 4 candles will get you. If your food is already cooked and you just want to get it a little above room temperature, the candles will work.

You are right. Basically just good for warming up a can of soup.

 

[UrbanHunter]

How to make a C-Ration Stove​

The small cans included in the meal were ideal for making a stove. Using a “John Wayne” (a P-38) pierce a series of closely spaced holes around the top and bottom rims of the can. This stove was satisfactory, but did not allow enough oxygen to enter which caused incomplete burning of the blue Trioxin heat tablet, causing fumes which irritated the eyes and respiratory tract. A whole heat tab had to be used.
A better stove was created by simply using the can opener end of a “church key” (a flat metal device designed to open soft drink and beer containers with a bottle opener on one end and can opener on the other commonly used before the invention of the pull tab and screw-off bottle top) to puncture triangular holes around the top and bottom rims of the can which resulted in a hotter fire and much less fumes. With this type of stove only half a Trioxin heat tab was needed to heat the meal and then the other half could be used to heat water for coffee or cocoa. A small chunk of C-4 explosive could also be substituted for the Trioxin tablet for faster heating. It would burn hotter and was much better for heating water.

A stove was usually carried in the back pack or cargo pocket and used repeatedly until the metal began to fail.

Back in the day I even used something like this folding tablet stove:
https://www.firesupplydepot.com/coghlans-emergency-stove-9560.html

 

[Haertig]

This camp stove (mine is a slightly earlier version, but 95% the same) and my propane BBQ grill would be my GoTo's for emergency cooking outdoors. I have other methods, but a campstove like this is quite convenient and easy to adjust heat output so your cooking is more or less like on your normal indoor cook top. I probably wouldn't use my good cookware. Nothing wrong with using good cookware on gas stoves, but I don't know about the cleanliness of this fuel or the cleanliness/efficiency of these cheap campstove burners. They could be sooty potentially.



The most likely time to need emergency cooking is during a power failure. Those don't usually happen when it's nice out. Around here all our power lines are underground, so when power does go out it's generally during the nastiest of nasty weather. Precisely when you don't want to be outside cooking.

My son's place is in a little bit older neighborhood that still has overhead power lines. His power outages are more frequently, and longer lasting during the nasty storms. He was without power for 30 hours during this last storm we had two days ago. He has plenty of supplies to get through that short inconvenience. But still, his situation is another reason I am investigating emergency indoor cooking. He might someday need it more than we would. His house did get a little cool inside. We bought one of those "Mr. Heater" propane things that are supposedly safe inside for him. First time we ever used one of these was during this recent storm. It actually was pretty impressive when you were somewhat close to it. Being paranoid, we had two CO detectors basically crawling up the things butt (one of them was my digital readout of PPM one linked above). We never detected any amount of CO, not even one PPM. So either these Mr Heaters are really good, or my CO detector doesn't work very well (I doubt a $25 Kidde CO detector is going to be THAT sensitive, so it may not even start registering until PPM is above 25 or 50 - who knows?) Anyway, I would give a thumbs up to Mr Heater for emergency heating based on our brief first time experience with this one. My sons place has large rooms, and it's not going to heat up an entire big room, at least not quickly (only 9000 BYU's) but it worked very well as a spot heater sitting a few feet in front of you. Plus, it made you "feel" like the whole place was warmer (no doubt just a mental illusion). The thing was only $77 at our local Home Depot (we bought it on the drive down to my son's powerless place, while we were still in an area that had power). 1lb propace canisters were two for $10 at that same Home Depot. Per documentation, the thing will supposedly run for 5 hours on low on a single canister or 2.5 hours on high. I'm not sure why you'd ever want to run it on low - if your house is cold enough to need one of these in the first place, you're probably going to want it on high. I guess people using them in campers and such on a regular basis might want that low setting available.



You can't cook on one of these heaters, but at least you can get yourself a little warmer while dreaming about cooking. It is quite a good little spot heater. A worthwhile purchase IMHO.

 

[jazzy]

i have a couple things ive used over the years and like.

a decent solar oven is worth it.
ive set this on my deck even in winter for an all day slow cooker thing and does well.

non electric thermal cooker
there are a couple differetn kinds
i love mine and have used it for years--even cooking a chicken
just put your stuff in it--bring to boil for 10 min then take off stove put pot inside holder, cover and forget. let sit all day for dinner
uses little fuel that way as opposed to trying to cook a meal on stove top can also set it on top of wood stove all day using inside pot and lid
here is one i got https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Cook...refix=non+electric+slow+cooker,aps,190&sr=8-2

ive got some other items, fuel cans, camp stove etc but these i really like and use often

 

[Sourdough]

Funny how millions and millions cook with Natural Gas stoves in their kitchens an entire lifetime. Yet mention cooking with a propane camp stove indoors "TOTALLY" freaks people with fear and need to open all the door and windows in the dwelling to avoid certain death.

The prepping community is "FULL" of bogus information.

 

[Amish Heart]

Mine was a natural gas stove but a propane conversion kit was put in it. No electricity at all to it. And it's brand new. Love it.

 

[dademoss]

So many things that can be used, all depends on what fuel is available. I can burn Denatured alcohol, white gas, kerosene, propane, sticks and twigs. Many years of backpacking, then camping, then being a packrat

If it becomes needed, the shed turns into a "kitchen", the big double doors will lock open, or just windows and top vents as required.

Might have to look at a solar oven, the new place has ZERO trees around to shade the oven.

 

[Jen]

My logistical mind says that will work.

Candles are a good heat source. I keep a few on hand, and a tent... if **** hits the fan I'll pitch the tent in my living room and be warm in a December blizzard in Michigan with no power.

We heard that if you put 3 big candles in glass jars together with a terracotta pot up side down on top it will keep a room warm. During our ice storm a couple of years ago, we lost power for several days. Our house is an open style living/dining/kitchen and that heating method didn't work at all. We have a gas log fireplace and that puts heat out about a foot.

We live in Oklahoma and were wishing for the wood stove we had in Washington.

 

[Jen]

If you look up the BTU output of candles, and figure that maybe half of it will make it into the pan, you'll see that if you need to melt butter during a power outage, you're all set. For actual cooking, or even heating soup, not so much. And you'll probably destroy the non-stick surface on the muffin pan.

A bit more practical: A propane camp stove is as safe to use indoors as a gas kitchen stove. And a white gas (Coleman fuel) stove will run fine (if slightly cooler) on alcohol, which puts out only water vapor as a combustion product.

That's kind of what I thought. I figured it would take a long time to heat soup. I have a muffin pan that's just metal so at least there's that. Luckily it's just us empty nesters here now. If things go bad......we will figure it out and laugh about it while it's going on.

When we lived in Washington we had a wood stove. My husband made us spaghetti in that wood stove and I think he also did mac and cheese.

 

[Caribou]

We have cooked many a holiday meal on natural gas or propane with no ill effects. The only time I have had any issues is when I tried to heat my home with our gas range. I had a low level CO detector that would read as low as 5PPM and would start alarming at 15PPM. Normal CO detectors won’t go off untill there is a level of 70PPM for two hours.

All all gas and liquid fuels give off 85% water, up to 14.? CO2, and traces of CO and other misc. gases. Wood and coal are a bit different. Wood can have a high water content. As the water converts to steam it cools the fire and the steam displaces the oxygen bearing air. A BTU is the amount of energy it takes to raise one pound of water 1℉. To convert 1# of 212℉ water to 212℉ steam requires 960 BTU’s, this cools the flame. With the flame cooled and the O2 displaced you wind up with a less efficient fire, including more CO from incomplete combustion.

I can’t fully explain combustion theory in a post, and I shouldn’t try to write a book here. To simplify, propane and natural gas burn cleanly with less effort than gasoline and diesel which burn cleanly, with less effort, than wood or coal. All are made of the same elements with some odd impurities.