Posted on 02/17/2021 2:13:42 PM PST by amorphous
These are my tips for people in TX and other places where they don’t normally have power outages in extremely cold weather and no experience with that and may not know what to do.
These tips are based on my growing up in New England and also having lived in Maine and Utah, and having experienced multiple days of power outages in extreme cold. A number of houses I lived in either were poorly insulated and, in some cases, not all parts of the house had heat.
1. Check to see if any of your doors have a space at the bottom where cold air is coming in. If so, take a towel and roll it up lengthwise and put it on the floor pushing it against the door.
2. Check to see if you get drafts from any of your windows. If so, take some old papers (newspaper, junk mail, etc.) fold them up and stuff the cracks with paper. If you have no paper but have rags that will work also.
3. If you have a generator be sure to read and follow all requirements for ventilation – you can get killed otherwise. Do NOT use anything like a grill indoors. Go outside if you must and use it out there in a sheltered area for cooking.
4. Let all your faucets drip a bit to try to avoid having your pipes burst. If you have any hay bails you can also put these around the bottom of your house.
5. Consider closing up part of your house and only use a few rooms (preferably interior rooms or those with the fewest windows, since you lose a lot of heat from the windows).
6. Sometimes if you have natural gas you can still get hot water and your stove and oven may work even when the power is out. If that is the case do the following:
a. Take a hot bath daily, before bundling up for bed. This will keep your core warmer. (Notice that she says IF you have natural gas. I don’t.) b. Make hot meals like soup and drink hot drinks. (Hard to do without natural gas.) c. Avoid alcohol if at all possible as that may make you feel like you are warmer but actually makes your core colder. d. Washing your dishes by hand is good to warm up your hands. e. Consider making something like Boston baked beans from scratch at night. They need to cook in the oven at low heat (250-300 degrees) for 8 hours and not only taste good… they warm up the house a bit and smell heavenly! ((Again, hard to do without natural gas.)
7. Get out all your winter clothing items and layer up. Wear a hat and shoes or boots even if you normally go barefoot as you lose a lot of heat from your head and extremities. Wear multiple pairs of socks to bed and multiple pairs of sleepwear. You can wear a winter coat indoors during the day or spread it out on your bed for extra warmth at night.
8. If you have any sleeping bags crawl into one at night in your bed, covered by your other bedding.
9. Cover your head at night (best if you leave a bit of a breathing hole but you’ll still keep warmer than keeping your whole head out).
10. If anyone in your household sews, check their fabric stash for large pieces of polartec/fleece (the absolute best at keeping your warm), wool, or unused quilt inserts to use as extra blankets.
11. If you have multiple people in your family…. skip the social distance idea (unless someone actually is sick), and consider bundling up together at night. Warning: don’t do that with a baby though as some people have accidentally rolled over on their baby and suffocated them. Babies do well however in a sleeping bag by themselves or something similar (I had my son sleeping in an old fur coat I got at a thrift store when we were living in a tent.)
12. Got a dog? Let him/her come sleep with you in your bed… even if you don’t normally.
13. If you have young kids, try to make a game out of it… pretend you are camping indoors, or are pioneers, cowboys, or Indians. If you know your local history it may give you other ideas how to keep warm. Remember people lived without central heat for generations and most did not freeze to death in their house. For example, I once visited Plymouth Plantations (in MA) on a very cold raw day – noticed that the Pilgrims houses were all cold and uncomfortable despite having large fireplaces. Outside the walled town there was a reproduction Massasoit Indian village complete with long house… and they were having story telling there. It was toasty, comfortable and warm. They only had a small hole in the roof for opening for smoke from the fire and one door with a deerskin flap they closed. Multiple families lived together that way and slept on wood platforms with furs, so they were off the floor. It was a LOT more comfortable that the housing the Pilgrims lived in!
More on hot water use, for those who have gas hot water heaters that still function. I've filled up a tub with hot water and slept in the bathroom for at least 2 hours at a time for warmth, once while traveling in the winter and having to stay at a location with no power.
Drag out the sleeping bags! Many are designed to keep you warm in low temps. And they're not just for sleeping. Use them to cover up with during the day too.
Some LED flashlights you can buy now have the ability to charge a cell phone, operating as a powerbank.
Harbor freight, and other stores sell 60 watt portable solar panels with the items needed to charge or power small electronics, including cell phones.
Two element ceramic and carbon element portable electric heaters which only use about 750 watts on low and 1500 watts on high, will heat a small room and can be powered by small generators.
Air fryers are great for cooking or heating many kinds of food and can also be powered using a small generator.
Please add your tips below! They may prove helpful to those without power in cold, dark corners of the US.
Marry a big woman.
Dogs are like living heaters. They throw off massive amounts of heat.
Lol, even a medium size one!
Fat candles throw off enough heat to take the chill off.
So do cats.
Especially lots and lots of cats.
My best cold weather tip is when you need to be outdoors. To keep your feet warm, use 2 pair of socks with a layer of either a large baggie or cellophane between the 2 layers of socks (not tight, just cover the whole foot and as far up your calf as your socks go). I was able to shovel snow for a couple of hours at a time in northern Ohio in only sneakers with that sock trick.
Three dogs.
lot of 3 dog nights in Texas these days.
Yeah but nothing beats a 140 lb Anatolian. Lots of Anatolians in Texas
Eli’s coming
He sleeps with me every night and sometimes even during the day. ;)
lot of 3 dog nights in Texas these days.
That’s where the band got its name.
Mama Told Me Not to Come.
Wear sweaters or sweatshirts all day and go to bed early with your sweetheart under two or three blankets, you will stay warm.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-facing-humanitarian-crisis
Keep the air in a room circulating so the warmer air isn’t all up by the ceiling. A fabric tube hung vertically with an incandescent light bulb inside it at the bottom works well, but be very careful setting it up to avoid a fire hazard. A small fan at low speed is also good if you set it to blow upward in a corner of the room, and safer.
My son’s family were caught in one of those “rolling blackouts” that did not roll off his house for almost 24 hours. The house was at 50 by the time they left when they came over to warm up over night.
caww had a good idea for insulating windows with bubblewrap.
Perhaps caww could post it again here.
Pinging a few other FReepers who are known for being resourceful.
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