it is cold! and getting colder... what are you doing to prepare?

[Mannlicher]

all I do is cover the small citrus trees, and put foam covers on the outside hose bibs. It was down to 23F here recently, supposed to be 28F in the morning.

[PerryJeff]

Thanks Rmpl for the video and the thermal mass stoves very cool...

[610Alpha]

If I were to build a house from scratch, or gut one for a remodel, I would build a "Tulikivi Soapstone" Fireplace... Those things are amazingly efficient and warm the entire house with radiant heat...


It would have to be PAW for my wife to allow me to build a stove with rocks and a steel barrel in "her" livingroom... Just say'in... I pick my battles wisely...

Rmpl

I can only wonder what the cost difference would be to build that vs RMH? I can imagine that the RMH could be camouflaged so that it would be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, you may not have the view of the fire per se.

Thanks for the pic, I had not heard of these.

[Rmplstlskn]

You might look into Rocket Mass Heaters they use very little wood and the thermal mass retains the heat for hours.

If I were to build a house from scratch, or gut one for a remodel, I would build a "Tulikivi Soapstone" Fireplace... Those things are amazingly efficient and warm the entire house with radiant heat...


It would have to be PAW for my wife to allow me to build a stove with rocks and a steel barrel in "her" livingroom... Just say'in... I pick my battles wisely...

Rmpl

[610Alpha]

I was a Florida boy for over three decades, been in VA since 2005, so I am relatively new to all this winter heat, wood stove, fireplace stuff... I installed a blessed find of a Buderus oil-fired boiler at the local Habitat Store after several winters of breakdown hell with an old POS and installed that several years ago. It purrs like a kitten and burns clean, but it still uses EXPENSIVE #2 heating oil (diesel).
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2296[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]2298[/ATTACH]

But the survivalist in me wanted a wood stove.... So was again blessed at the same Habitat store and found a nice, glass front, heavy sheet steel wood stove insert and installed it this fall. Has two blowers that blow air around the burn chamber and vent out the front top. Uses every BTU of heat...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2297[/ATTACH]

But here are some things I am learning...

Wood stoves put out a lot of heat for not much wood, but need to be tended more than I would like, especially if I am busy doing something else, like outside... Also, unless you get up a few times through the night (yeah, as if I would naturally do that), the fire dies down and is burned to ashes by morning and the inside temp then triggers the oil heat to kick on. Which means re-starting it in the morning if it is the weekend...

My pre-sleeptime video from Monday night with just wood heat...

So I am really seeing why a PELLET stove is so popular... As long as you have some low-watt power, they just feed, and feed, and feed until you run out of pellets or your turn it off... Also, much easier to regulate the temp you want by just adjusting the feed rate. I think I may add a small one some day and use my other flue that is not in use now and once used to be for a wood stove on the other side of the centrally-placed fireplace. That way I can have a smooth-running pellet stove near the bedrooms and hall and then have the romantic brass and glass front wood stove insert for non-sleeping times and for PAW. Leaving the oil heat for times when no one is home yet we still need heat...

Just things I am picking up real fast this winter...

Rmpl

You might look into Rocket Mass Heaters they use very little wood and the thermal mass retains the heat for hours.

http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

[Benn Gleck]

Protus, have you considered a kerosene heater or is kero too expensive in the bikini state?

I keep two here at my house for emergencies like a winter power outage and I have one at my BOL that we use to save on propane.

The one at the trailer is a Kerosun that I bought in 1980 and that thing is great. its 10,000 BTUs and I built a cart for it so we can move it to whatever room we are in.

K 1 Kerosene can be bought at many gas stations here for around $4.10 a gallon.

I see tons of kreo heaters on Craigslist for $40-$50.

[Rmplstlskn]

I was a Florida boy for over three decades, been in VA since 2005, so I am relatively new to all this winter heat, wood stove, fireplace stuff... I installed a blessed find of a Buderus oil-fired boiler at the local Habitat Store after several winters of breakdown hell with an old POS and installed that several years ago. It purrs like a kitten and burns clean, but it still uses EXPENSIVE #2 heating oil (diesel).


But the survivalist in me wanted a wood stove.... So was again blessed at the same Habitat store and found a nice, glass front, heavy sheet steel wood stove insert and installed it this fall. Has two blowers that blow air around the burn chamber and vent out the front top. Uses every BTU of heat...


But here are some things I am learning...

Wood stoves put out a lot of heat for not much wood, but need to be tended more than I would like, especially if I am busy doing something else, like outside... Also, unless you get up a few times through the night (yeah, as if I would naturally do that), the fire dies down and is burned to ashes by morning and the inside temp then triggers the oil heat to kick on. Which means re-starting it in the morning if it is the weekend...

My pre-sleeptime video from Monday night with just wood heat...

So I am really seeing why a PELLET stove is so popular... As long as you have some low-watt power, they just feed, and feed, and feed until you run out of pellets or your turn it off... Also, much easier to regulate the temp you want by just adjusting the feed rate. I think I may add a small one some day and use my other flue that is not in use now and once used to be for a wood stove on the other side of the centrally-placed fireplace. That way I can have a smooth-running pellet stove near the bedrooms and hall and then have the romantic brass and glass front wood stove insert for non-sleeping times and for PAW. Leaving the oil heat for times when no one is home yet we still need heat...

Just things I am picking up real fast this winter...

Rmpl

[PerryJeff]

rr sorry to hear about frozen pipes that is no fun at all... Protus sorry to here you lost your taters but sounds like you are taking care of business with keeping warm... Tech with you "unusual temps" for you that cold I think you are going to lose a lot of plants back to the ground if not totally. And that will suck for years...

[protus]

My sweet taters got burnt......and my face wind burnt...Ans the protus house all slept in one room with the heater...even with our heater going...rest of the house was mid 60 f..if I didn't run it we would have had indoor temps into the high 40' s . It was 53 f when momma p got in last night before I got home....its 65 now inside and I'm cold.LOL must be getting older LOL

[tech]

Already was prepped for the cold. We managed to get down to 14 and 17 the last two nights and Monday briefly made it above freezing. Not a big deal up north, but this is unusual around here. Just plugged a couple of reflector lights into the inverter to heat a couple of exposed els and put an extra log in the wood stove. No problems.

[rockriver]

yep a big deal! lol.
some faucets were wrapped and valve froze but no cracks first night... worked when heat applied.
I added plastic buckets to the formula... checked them just now (freezing in teens longer than the night before!)
and valves worked without heating them...
yea for plastic buckets!
rr

[PerryJeff]

When temp gets to 10 or below the cars gas tank never gets under half a tank. I also like to add a gas treatment/ cleaner ounce or two every fill up.
All vehicles before winter get radiator flushed and filled with new anti-freeze and test to -40 for my area. Also don't forget about windshield washer fluid drain the blue out of all vehicles and put orange Antifreeze in fluid. Everything gets oil change in sept oct and I like the 5- 30 weight oil for everything and all get 5-6 ounces of Polytet... oil additive I like Duralube best has twice the Polyt than slick 50 and 5 bucks cheaper. All vehicles had full qt added at first oil change I did with them. All batteries are checked and the tractor batteries pulled and put in the basement make sure all cables are cleaned and bolts are good. All vehicles not daily driver are treated with Stabil.
The pickup and car get a set of jumper cables, socket set 1/2 in with 3 foot breaker bar socket, and straight wrenches, two sleeping bags and two insulated coveralls, snow boots, stocking hats and gloves. Also a 2 ton jack and 20 ft. log chain.
My normal kit has set of fuses, head light and led lantern, 3/8 in socket set, 3 adjustable wrenches, 2 channel locks. Sterno kit plus a 72 hour kit.

[jimmycthemd]

I'm gettin tired of hearing the news people/weathermen blubber about windchill though, jeez you'd think it never got cold and the wind blew before!

Remember, there are some idjits out there that don't know what wind chill is.
I may be down south now....but grew up 100 miles or so from Canada.

[Benn Gleck]

What am I doing to prepare?

I put on a coat AND a hat!

It was 12 below last night but to me thats no big deal its just winter. You guys down south though I'm sure it is a big deal.

I'm gettin tired of hearing the news people/weathermen blubber about windchill though, jeez you'd think it never got cold and the wind blew before!

[rockriver]

I have living space in a barn... well insulated. about 500 s.f. the dehumidifier or one small 60 $ electric heater can keep it 60 degrees. (edited to correct... thermometer keeps up with current and coldest for last 24 hours... it read 52 not 60. when I checked it.. 14 degreees outside dehu held temp at 52 60 was the prior low)
I put the same heater in a glass sunroom, it is having trouble keeping temp at 51 degrees!! with double pane glass on 3 sides and house on one side.
out side temp 21 degrees right now. insulation is the key!!

thanks for the comments.
ld3, rmpl, wise, thanks for the wood stove comments... I sure need to do that... the fireplace has a huge appetite!