# Stay Warm During a Long-Term SHTF



## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

A pretty good read with good suggestions.

Selco: How to Stay Warm During a Long-Term SHTF Situation


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Not a huge issue when you live in Mississippi but we do have the occasional cold spell like we have had this week. We have plenty of trees and both fireplaces are the real deal and burn wood. Would hate to deal with this way up north.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

I've got it covered. Living in WI with -10 to -20 temps the last 3 weeks. Only heard the furnace kick on a dozen times at most. The ole barrel stove is doing great.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

1. Gas fired boiler
2. Gas fireplace
3. Electric space heaters
4. Wood burning fireplace
5. LPG fired space heater
6. Wood stove in storage
7. 25 gallons of gas and a chainsaw. There goes the garage!


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Staying dry would be big. Wool will hold insulating properties when wet. Most other stuff will not. Staying out of thee wind is a big help. Small rooms are easier to heat and take less energy. Sleeping in a tent in your living room even helps when you do not have heat. I have a fireplace and wood but it’s not as efficient as a wood stove.


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## Brettny (Apr 26, 2017)

Wood stove. We use it for primary heat and secondary cooking in the winter. -10* outside and a balmy 73* inside. I could make it warmer but it would be to hot. No power needed, no gas lines no propane tanks. 
Currently people are having a hard time getting fuel deliveries just due to not enough trucks to move it. Its not broken 20* here with -10* at night, been like that for 8 days with 3 more to come. Today the winds are 30mph.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Living in southern AZ, a bad cold snap is pretty short lived. My problem is that if it were a 
SHTF cold, like the mini ice age scientists are talking about now, I'd probably have to worry 
about some relatives wanting to move in with me from IL or MN.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Reading an article like that makes one realize we have no idea how good we have it. Cold is not a huge issue here but I have taken steps to keep warm long term. Long john underwear, heavy jackets, heavy gloves, socks etc. Plus I have all my hunting gear which is very warm. Plenty of firewood cut, Working fireplace, a couple of rocket stoves, gas heater, etc. next is a drum stove to put in storage along with the venting pipe.


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## StratMaster (Dec 26, 2017)

Prepared One said:


> Reading an article like that makes one realize we have no idea how good we have it. Cold is not a huge issue here but I have taken steps to keep warm long term. Long john underwear, heavy jackets, heavy gloves, socks etc. Plus I have all my hunting gear which is very warm. Plenty of firewood cut, Working fireplace, a couple of rocket stoves, gas heater, etc. next is a drum stove to put in storage along with the venting pipe.


Good stuff!
I also bought a bunch of insulated overalls/coveralls when they were being seasonally closed out by WalMart... not the expensive stuff from Carhartt but I believe they were Wall brand. Sometimes you can pick these up for as low as $27, which is a steal... AND talk about a super good outer layer. Got one for every family member.


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Be careful and wary of an Ice Melter ...........


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## TG (Jul 28, 2014)

When most people feel cold, they tense-up and start shivering. You can live with much colder temperatures if you practice to stay totally calm and don’t tense-up when feeling cold, you will develop a very high tolerance for low temperatures fairly quickly, it’s all in your mind.

It’s the same with physical pain, you tense-up and feel more pain. Same idea as above.


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

TG said:


> When most people feel cold, they tense-up and start shivering. You can live with much colder temperatures if you practice to stay totally calm and don't tense-up when feeling cold, you will develop a very high tolerance for low temperatures fairly quickly, it's all in your mind.
> 
> It's the same with physical pain, you tense-up and feel more pain. Same idea as above.


Excellent advice.


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

True up to a point, you can become acclimated to cold temps, but shivering is your brain involuntarily constricting and relaxing your muscles to produce heat to keep your core temp at a certain level.


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## TG (Jul 28, 2014)

1skrewsloose said:


> True up to a point, you can become acclimated to cold temps, but shivering is your brain involuntarily constricting and relaxing your muscles to produce heat to keep your core temp at a certain level.


You can learn to control that


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Prepared One said:


> Reading an article like that makes one realize we have no idea how good we have it. Cold is not a huge issue here but I have taken steps to keep warm long term. Long john underwear, heavy jackets, heavy gloves, socks etc. Plus I have all my hunting gear which is very warm. Plenty of firewood cut, Working fireplace, a couple of rocket stoves, gas heater, etc. next is a drum stove to put in storage along with the venting pipe.


Thanks for the post, Prepared One. Made me start thinking about a SHTF change in weather that was really long term and affected us down here. Did some searching of the boxes of still packed stuff from up north. I found I still have my camo hunting parka and a few other cold weather items. But might have to do a bit shopping.


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## youngridge (Dec 28, 2017)

Cold is a big issue. Good insulation in a house can go along ways, including the attic. Above an beyond I make sure I have plastic on hand to be able to seal off rooms that would not be needed in a SHTF scenario. It is amazing how much a candle will heat a small room. Lots of blankets around. I know it would be miserable in -30 weather that we experience quite often through the winter but little things like that go a long way. As of right now I really do not have a good heat source if the power goes out in town except a Honda generator, and they were not made to run non stop for weeks on end. Thinking outside the box with candles, kerosene lanterns, good insulation, lots of blankets and quilts, ability to seal off rooms and long johns. If I lived in a more southern region it would probably be suffice.


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## Ayn Rand (Dec 31, 2017)

Not in the coldest part of the US but we get below 10 degrees (rare to get below 0) and I don't think we've been above 35 the last week. The outdoor dog water bowl ice chunks are all still frozen where I dumped them in the yard last week.

Added extra insulation and better doors/windows to the house the last few years.

Solar powered heat pump supplemented by wood stoves. The wood stoves are more than enough to heat but the heat pump is more convenient. Problem is that if we get a few cloudy days the heat pump uses too much energy for the batteries to fully recharge so we use a little of both.

We all spend a lot of time outside so good long underwear, socks, and boots.


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## bornprepper (Dec 27, 2017)

Good read, cheers  A mini stove is my prep for this, also good for camping haha.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Not only warm dress but warm sleeping gear. Flannel sheets are good but if you want warm Good quality Fleece will keep you a lot warmer when it gets Cold. The cheap Fleece is not really worth messing with.


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## TGus (Sep 18, 2017)

RedLion said:


> A pretty good read with good suggestions.
> 
> Selco: How to Stay Warm During a Long-Term SHTF Situation


Strange, I was just reading that article earlier today.

The temperature here has been around 5 F degrees for the past 3+ weeks. The furnace heating the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th floors of my house gave out 3 weeks ago, and we've had to heat those floors with space heaters since then, -until next Tuesday hopefully. It hasn't been fun, but thankfully no pipe damage so far. It _has _helped me appreciate how difficult it is to comfortably heat a house without a furnace, even if it's well insulated.

Though they're illegal in Massachusetts, I _do _have an emergency wood stove and a chimney vent I can use during SHTF to heat one floor if necessary. (I have a fireplace on another floor.) Come to think of it, I have a lot of stuff that's illegal to install/use, that I'm saving for SHTF.


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

TGus said:


> Strange, I was just reading that article earlier today.
> 
> The temperature here has been around 5 F degrees for the past 3+ weeks. The furnace heating the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th floors of my house gave out 3 weeks ago, and we've had to heat those floors with space heaters since then, -until next Tuesday hopefully. It hasn't been fun, but thankfully no pipe damage so far. It _has _helped me appreciate how difficult it is to comfortably heat a house without a furnace, even if it's well insulated.
> 
> Though they're illegal in Massachusetts, I _do _have an emergency wood stove and a chimney vent I can use during SHTF to heat one floor if necessary. (I have a fireplace on another floor.) Come to think of it, I have a lot of stuff that's illegal to install/use, that I'm saving for SHTF.


I wish you luck in getting your furnace back up and running asap. Outside of a 3 day stretch of warmer days, we have been mostly sub-zero temps in MN for weeks. I am thankful to have a woodstove in my basement that heats my house very well. I also have another smaller wood stove that I can set-up and use by a window to contain heat to a smaller area.


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## LordOpie (Jan 12, 2018)

*hot water bottles*

if you can't have a big fire in your house, use a camp stove inside (limited use with carbon monoxide detector) or make a fire outside to heat up water. There are the cheap $5 hot water bottles on amazon that work great. Don't put boiling water in them or they'll melt. Have at least two for each member of the family if you have no other heating source. Inside jackets and under blankets will work great.


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## CountryGuy (Nov 22, 2017)

youngridge said:


> Thinking outside the box with candles, kerosene lanterns, good insulation, lots of blankets and quilts, ability to seal off rooms...


Don't forget the tried and true kerosene space heater, those round trash can looking 25,000 btu ones are great for heat. I have 2 of those with 15gal of kerosene, plus one of those Mr Big Buddy propane heaters that will take (1) or (2) 1 lb propane cylinders or with the option bulk hose you can hook it up to a std grill tank or larger. I like that it has 4 D size batteries that power a small fan plus, an O2 safety sensor that will cut it off if oxygen gets to low, a tip over shut off safety and electric piezo start. Can buy an AC adapter to run it off an outlet if your power is still on.

In place or addition to your plastic sheet which blocks but doesn't insulate from the cold, buy those cheap fleece blankets or similar at Wallyworld or used ones at Goodwill store or similar or harbor freight often sell moving blankets for like $4 which are thick and block cold. hang those over entry ways, glass sliding doors, windows etc to help block out draft and cold and help keep from loosing heat too. These are also great to wrap your freezer with when the power goes out anytime of year to help increase insulation and keep the cold in.


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## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

Building a house- think about keeping the water lines in the middle of the house. Many people put a bathroom on an exterior wall - just make sure to keep the water lines away from outside walls. The other one is the kitchen sink think about putting the sink and dishwasher on an interior wall not exterior. 

Put closets and store rooms on the north keep them closed when it is cold . Most windows need to be on the south to capture sunlight and heat do not put many if any on the north. 

Have at least one mudroom entrance- Some in town houses have a people door into a garage then a door into the house which works well. but some way to get in a little out of the cold/snow/rain then close exterior door before opening interior door so the heat does not all escape. 


Thick insulated walls best doors and windows you can get / afford. In Switzerland and Germany I saw a lot of older buildings built with very thick walls over 2 inches thick. The windows were double pane windows then they had a space and anther window on the inside. This space between windows worked well for keeping beer cold in winter. You can put up plastic every year but this allowed for a clear view and no hassle putting up and taking down. 

Hotel I stayed at in Switzerland had a double door to the room. From the lobby they had a door into the unheated hallway . They opened a thick insulated door then it had a normal door inside that . They only seemed to turn on the heat or at least turn up the heat when you rented a room. Those windows were as I described but they also had a insulated roll down outside cover over the window they asked that if you were not looking out the window to keep this closed. Heavy insulated curtains over the window as well . 

Bathrooms - heated by in floor and in wall radiant heat with a heat lamp as well . You do not heat up the whole house you heat the bathroom up - build it big enough to change in but do not make it a palace either. Heat up the bathroom shower/ change then cut the heat . 

Keep the home only about 50 degrees and wear some clothes - don't get me started on folks complaining of being cold while sitting in shorts and a t-shirt. 

Heat tape on water pipes and insulate the pipes inside the home - use modern pex as it is a little more forgiving of freezing, it will still burst but seems to withstand some expansion then contraction than copper. Cheap enough to replace if needed. Use lots of valves and plan how to shut off and drain some lines in parts of the structure if you are not going to heat the whole structure. Sit up the house so you can drain everything upstairs even on the first floor - you can still get water in the basement. Put a bathroom and sink downstairs for the fall out shelter and in a prolong cold - a last ditch living area. 

Most US homes are heated more than


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

We installed a good wood/coal burn as a back if need years ago. At the same time installed a insulated double walled SS exhaust that will last a few life times. We use it from time to time just to make sure it all good to go if needed. It has come in handy a few times.


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