Staying Warm Without Central Heat

Here in the Polar Vortex (Manitoba) it gets pretty cold at times. We have taken to reducing our window size on one of large windows (7 x 5 ft) by putting 2" Styrofoam insulation on the bottom. It not only saves heat loss but reduces the frost and condensation damage. We’ve reused it for several years now.
We like it better than plastic film.

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Every fall we bag our leaves in clear plastic bags. When the temp begins dropping below freezing the bags are placed along the foundation to help insulate and keep cold wind away from the walls. Here in the Polar Vortex (Manitoba) the snow rarely melts after freeze up until spring. This affords an opportunity to bury the leaf bags in snow further reducing heat loss. Hey it has worked for Northern indigenous peoples for centuries!
Free insulation and clear bags makes spring clean-up is easy.
 
 

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Just a reminder that they have a shelf life! Check the dates before buying and maybe group buy with friends and family. Make use of them for out door comfort before they degrade!

Remember Y2K? Yup back in 1999 we bought a propane generator to run our nat gas furnace. Didn’t need it thankfully. We’ll I test run it each fall and change oil every couple years. In 2019 we faced an ice storm that took 4-5 days before power was restored. We kept furnace running for emergency heat and freezer plus 2 fridges cold. (And air pump for fish tank :wink: Only used 1- 20lb tank over the several days. The gen only ran periodically with total of 17 hrs run time over that time. We locked it up at night as people were stealing generators!
Gen is sized for about 1 - 15 amp circuit equivalent so relatively easy on propane consumption.
Nat gas lines keep running as many of the pumps run on the gas in the lines.
The propane gen has been easy to service with no stale gasoline issues. We keep 2-3 20lb tanks filled.

I posted our use at #39 above - “Here in the Polar Vortex (Manitoba) it gets pretty cold at times. We have taken to reducing our window size on one of large windows (7 x 5 ft) by putting 2” Styrofoam insulation on the bottom. It not only saves heat loss but reduces the frost and condensation damage. We’ve reused it for several years now.
We like it better than plastic film."
BTW our triple pane are also filled with argon and sure to eek out as much R as possible.
You might be interested our use of leaves - see post #40

Purchase a fireplace insert. The 2020 on inserts re-burn all gases and no emissions .
I purchased wood burning insert for fireplace. Those dead ash trees are keeping the house warm.

Yes water fast solves many problems see Dr Sten Ekberg and Dr. Ed Group.

Perhaps blow in insulation to stop wasting heat.

Buy a CO detector

If you’ve got a cold glass window that sucks the heat out of your house. but don’t have the megga-dollars for double glazing, consider sticking clear bubble wrap to the window. I stuck mine up with water which was moderately successful.
It worked on my container. My neighbours used the idea and recommend it.

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Wow, that is a great idea. I hope things go well. Just one thought to keep in mind. Since you are in a condo, your connecting neighbors will be using heat and that will help warm your place to a small degree. If they were also cold (without power) your place would be a little colder than normal. You need to factor that into your plans and calculations.
Best of luck, I wish we could try that, but in WY our temp is in the negative most of the winter and 10 feet of snow in Jan and Feb. That is not an option for us. being completely sealed up and double insulation is our goal.

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Found more picsBetter yet, if the window faces south turn it into a passive solar heater. Paint the outside of the polystyrene panel matte black. Put holes at the bottom and at the top making sure the sides are sealed with tape. There should be a gap between the window and panel so that air can circulate. Keep the hole cut outs so that you can use them as plugs when the sun isn’t hitting the window.
I did this on a single pane window and got 90° air circulating into my house. It was 30°-40s outside.
I had 2 floor to ceiling windows that faced south all day. Best, cheapest heater I’ve ever had!
This picture is of the thermometer at the top hole cut out.

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If you haven’t heard of rocket mass heaters, you should definitely take time to do some research! It’s a wood burning heater you can build yourself. It only uses 10% of the wood of a regular wood stove to return the same amount of heat. Rocket mass heaters are highly efficient. I keep paper blueprints in a file should SHFT happen. Plans are available online and in books. Try permies.com to start (I have no affiliation). Should you start your search on YouTube, it’s not the same thing as a rocket stove. That’s for cooking. I hope this fills in a missing piece in your preparedness plan.

Door Curtain

Another way to reduce draughts around doors - we hang a curtain over the doorway. Install curtain rail above the door, use a floor length curtain as heavy as the rail will bear or as you can find. For instance - for the door between the hallway and the living room. My daughter has fitted one inside her front door. In warmer weather the curtain is either taken down or held back to one side.

Best Mattress Topper.

I have a Merino wool pile fleece mattress topper - goes between the mattress and the sheet. It gets washed in the bath once a year if there is a really hot summer, and takes 3 days to dry. Quite costly, a cheaper alternative would be a wool blanket in it’s place, or a cheap duvet except the duvet is really hard to place on the mattress. Whichever method you choose the aim is to have an insulating layer underneath you as well as the bedding on top of you.
I have not needed an electric blanket in 30 years, due to the wool pile fleece.

I came to Canada from Mexico and I can’t stop being surprised at how pampered you are, folks. I am going to take experience from Japan and warm myself with air conditioner. They don’t have any central heating at all! I will need to get duct cleaining services https://comfortclean.com/ more often, but I guess it is still better than to make a fire near the trailer. Although I don’t know where you live, of course. I live in Victoria, we don’t have extreme temperatures here.

Reflective Heat Sheet

Sometimes I take it for camping during colder months. You just unwrap it up and setup behind your sleeping place(inside the tent in my case) with campfire directly opposite of it. It’s gonna bounce the heat back at you and you gonna be warm entire night. Second what I’d recommend is good boots that you can sleep in(none of this “you move you get warm” stuff, good old thick boots(mine are from Run United FYI), preferably with a thick insulation layer).