pseudo SHTF at my house tonight

[g.mccormick]

temps in the house above 55 degrees (60+ even better).
55 ambient and above is the temp needed to keep pipes from freezing in a home.

I sure hope this isn't true. My normal furnace setting is 58 (you gotta wear sweatpants and shirt around my house in the winter), when I go out of town for work, I usually turn the furnace down to about 46. Never had pipe problems yet. I do live on a slab, so perhaps a crawl space house would be different.

 

[Astrocreep]

Um, I hope this doesn't need to be said, but don't run a fuel-burning heater of any kind indoors without a serious ventilation setup.
Don't want to mess around and risk CO poisoning!
CO doesn't have an odor and the first symptom of poisoning is usually felling sleepy, so that's why people seem to die from it every year when it gets cold and they can't afford to pay the gas bill.

Just crack all your indoor faucets and bundle up in a smaller room with lots of blankets.
Make sure you close your A/C vents (registers) in the walls, especially in the room you will be sleeping in.
Don't want all your warm air going up into the ducts of your non-functioning furnace.

 

[Bill B]

...Make sure you close your A/C vents (registers) in the walls, especially in the room you will be sleeping in.
Don't want all your warm air going up into the ducts of your non-functioning furnace.

I would have never thought of that.

 

[Manan]

I see a baby comin on in about 9 months.

 

[Zoub]

I've been meaning to get one of those Mr Heater's for a propane tank for awhile.

Then get your *** ready now. I never pay more than half price for any heater I have. Propane, Kero or elecric. WHY? I buy them in February when HD and Lowes mark them way down. If you have a $10 coupon and a Coleman sportcat is half off, say $20 instead of $40, you just got a heater for $10 BTDT.

A kero tower with 20 gallons stored is killer in a basement, central room in the house or garage. A bullet heater for the garage in kero or propane. Then Mr heater buddies with low O2 shut off for bedroom 1lb and 20lb with connections. Smaller coleman catalytic heaters for bathrooms. all of it can be used for camping, garages and sheds too.

Infrared electric heaters give a lot of comfort, best of electric heaters.

small propane lanterns set on low give good light and some extra heat when electric is out. Run a long time on 1lb can.

 

[Soundslikejosh]

The electrically heated oil-filled radiator heaters work GREAT. They take a little time to get hot but will keep you toasty warm. Close the doors to the room you are in, put a blanket at the door threshold, and turn the heater to medium. You'll be snug as a bug in a rug.

You should be able to find them for $30-40
Pelonis® Oil-Fill Radiator Heater (HO-0221) - Oil-Filled Heaters - Ace Hardware

 

[darinb]

The same thing happened to us a couple years ago. Everything is electric is our house except the furnace. I forgot to pay the gas so it got shut off. I went without heat for almost a week due to the high deposit fee which I could not afford. It was in December and very cold. We started out using the two space heaters we had but one broke and the other could not do enough to help much. We ended up taking the heater in the kitchen along with a mattress off our bed then we shut the doors to our kitchen and turned the oven on for an hour and it heated the kitchen area enough to where we could sleep comfortably.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I just want to make three safety notes, since when the S has already HTF is the last time you need additional problems:

1. If you run inside vented combustion sources (kerosene heaters, propane heaters, etc) make damn sure you have at least one, preferrably 2 carbon monoxide detectors. The ones that actually have ppm readouts are best. Put one in your sleeping area at the same level as your bed. My backup heater to my woodstoves are propane and kerosene and I would NOT run them without a CO detector. I have had one kero heater with a bad wick run up the CO to the point where the alarm went off.

2. A bulk propane tank is a bad idea inside. While it is rare to have it happen, they have an overpressure valve and can vent completely. 4 gallons of propane venting inside a house and detonating can demolish the house in a nice fuel-air explosion. Not saying no one should never do it, but if one is going to do it one should be aware of the danger.

3. Too many electric spaceheaters plugged into the same circuits can overload older wiring without tripping breakers or blowing a fuse. It's a good idea to make sure each one is on a seperate circuit.

 

[IndyMonkey]

So, can we get a range report?

 

[tyler34]

So, can we get a range report?

I'm still alive if you don't own a legit goose down comforter go buy one. those things are almost too warm as I had to turn on a fan last night, the temp only dipped to about 50 so thats not horrible. and if a part goes on your furnace hope its not the cicuit board as I have found out they are quite the pricey item.

 

[hunter_47443]

I just want to make three safety notes, since when the S has already HTF is the last time you need additional problems:


2. A bulk propane tank is a bad idea inside. While it is rare to have it happen, they have an overpressure valve and can vent completely. 4 gallons of propane venting inside a house and detonating can demolish the house in a nice fuel-air explosion. Not saying no one should never do it, but if one is going to do it one should be aware of the danger.

FYI....,Not only a bad idea, it is illegal to have an LP tank inside a building, worse in a home.
Something happens, you're out of luck with your insurance company.
Not to mention the probability of lose of life.