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During my mountain man days, for the winter, with no power, running water, gas, etc.... I bought a kero-sun(tm) heater and ran it very little. CO detector is a requirement. My shack was 8ft x 12ft, and had good insulation, so even at -18F, it rarely got below 20F inside at night. Sleeping bags cover the night shift. (NO fire for heat while you sleep, if you want to wake up)

Long johns, good socks, boots, and coats, along with a bit of heat to get the indoor temp to about 40F or so were good enough for during the day.

I did great with it.

Back here in semi-suburbia, with no natural gas, and not willing to pay for electric heat, I use propane heat in one room, and live there most of the winter. Same routine with lots of comfortors on the bed and no heat overnight. It rarely drops past the 20s here, so it's much easier to stay warm.

That has been my real-world experience. I still live in a rather rustic manner, so YMMV.

/johnny

“NO fire for heat while you sleep, if you want to wake up”

That is BRILLIANT advice. Hopefully all reading this understand just what it means.

Thank you.

I totally concur with Johnny. I was raised in a home with nothing but a small (non-vented) butane heater. It was drafty so CO wasn't the issue it is today. A CO detector is a life safer in today's tight homes that use propane or NG for heat or hot water.

Move to a single room, use sleeping bags and bundle up. My preferred method of heating and cooling is my portable Weber grill adapted to use 5 gallon propane bottles. CO detector and/or ventilation required.

If you have running water and a gas hot water heater, you can fill the master bed room bath tub with hot water for heat. I used that trick once in a cheap motel with no heat in freezing weather.

A Coleman stove also works if you have adequate ventilation as does a sun filled room during the day.

Back here in semi-suburbia, with no natural gas, and not willing to pay for electric heat, I use propane heat in one room, and live there most of the winter. Same routine with lots of comfortors on the bed and no heat overnight. It rarely drops past the 20s here, so it's much easier to stay warm.

I do a lot of things similar to you. Primarily live in one large bedroom through the winter months. Heat from the TV, stereo, and computer throw a fair amount of heat in here. One thing I DON'T do anymore though, is rely solely on comforters to keep me warm at night. Just seemed to take too much of my body heat to heat things up enough for comfort. An electric blanket only uses 100 watts per hour at its HIGHEST setting. I find that if I turn the electric blanket on a medium setting for fifteen minutes when I'm getting ready for bed, it heats everything in the bed up. Then I can turn the blanket down to its lowest setting and still stay comfy warm all night with just summer pajamas on. I'll bet I use less than a nickel's worth of electricity per night operating the electric blanket. The comfort is worth more to me than the candy bar I could buy with the money I spend per month running the blanket.

Your post reminds me of one of my favorite movies - Alone in the Wilderness - Dick Proeneke. I’ve watched it more than a dozen times.