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In these days of tight budgets and arctic blasts, staying warm without spending several hundred dollars a month on utilities is a major point of concern. Luckily, there are all sorts of low-tech ways to stay warm using less heat.
Not many people can afford an astronomical heat bill and the prices of utilities are only going up from here. We’ll need to use other methods for staying warm aside from cranking up the thermostat if we want to stay cozy without going broke.
I’ve lived in all sorts of houses and worked with different types of heat.
Back when I lived in an inexpensive cabin with wood heat and a million dollar view I learned exactly how drafty and chilly our little house was! The breeze off the lake also increased the nip in the air. With an older wood stove as our only source of heat, the rooms more distant from the stove moved from chilly to downright COLD.
Currently, I live in an old house with radiators. It’s usually cozy in our moderate climate, but on days when the mercury doesn’t rise to double digits, it’s pretty darned nippy in here. I’ve gotten up on mornings when the heat is set at 64 to find the main floor stubbornly resisting warmth and staying at a brisk 57 degrees.
There are different heating solutions for more extreme situations.
When you rent, it isn’t feasible to insulate or replace the windows and wood stove with more efficient models. In that situation, you have to work with what you’ve got. So low-tech methods that don’t change the house are ideal.
From a prepping point of view, using less heat allows you to extend your fuel supply. You don’t want to use up all your propane or wood during the early stages of a power outage. Low-tech methods will let you ration your fuel while still remaining comfortable.
More extreme situations will call for more extreme measures. Here’s an article that talks about how to stay warm during a winter power outage and here is an article by Selco that explains how people stayed warm during a long-term SHTF event.
Low Tech Ways to Stay Warm
So, in the interest of low-tech solutions, here are a few ways that we keep warmer without plugging in the electric space heaters. These ideas can be used when the grid is working and most can be used to supplement your winter power outage plan so that you use up fewer resources.
- Keep your wrists and ankles covered. Wear shirts with sleeves long enough to keep your wrists covered and long socks that keep your ankles covered. You lose a great deal of heat from those two areas.
- Wear fingerless gloves. You’ll look very 80s, but if you wear cozy knit fingerless gloves, you’ll be able to still use your hands for the computer or for needlework while staying much warmer. You can splurge on nice ones like these or you can grab those inexpensive $1 stretchy ones and cut off the fingertips.
- Get some long-johns. Wearing long underwear beneath your jeans or PJ’s will work like insulation to keep your body heat in. I like the silky kind sold by discount stores like Wal-mart for indoor use, rather than the sturdier outdoor type sold by ski shops. The more you layer, the warmer you’ll be.
- Wear slippers. You want to select house shoes with a solid bottom rather than the slipper sock type. This forms a barrier between your feet and the cold floor. We keep a basket of inexpensive slippers in varying sizes by the door for visitors because it makes such a big difference. Going around in your stocking feet on a cold floor is a certain way to be chilled right through.
- Get up and get moving. It goes without saying that physical activity will increase your body temperature. If you’re cold, get up and clean something, dance with your kids, play tug-of-war with the dog, or do a chore. I often bring in a few loads of wood to get my blood flowing and get warmed up.
- Pile on the blankets. If you’re going to be sitting down, have some layered blankets available. Our reading area has polar fleece blankets which we top with fluffy comforters for a cozy place to relax.
- Use a hot water bottle. If you’re just sitting around try placing a hot water bottle (carefully wrapped to avoid burns) under the blankets with you.
- Use rice bags. If you don’t have the ready-made ones, you can simply place dry rice in a clean sock. Heat this in the microwave, if you use one, for about a minute, or place in a 100-degree oven, watching carefully, for about 10 minutes. If you have a woodstove or fireplace, keep some rice bags in a large ceramic crock beside the unit so they are constantly warm. You can put your feet on them or tuck them under the blankets on your lap.
- Insulate using items you have. Line the interior walls with bookcases or hanging decorative quilts and blankets on the walls to add an extra layer of insulation. It definitely makes a difference because it keeps heat in and cold air out. If you look at pictures of old castles you will see lovely tapestry wall-hangings – this was to help insulate the stone walls, which absorbed the cold and released it into the space.
- Layer your windows. Our cabin had large lovely picture windows for enjoying the view. However, they’re single pane and it’s hard to enjoy the view if your teeth are chattering. We took the rather drastic step of basically closing off all the windows but one in each room for the winter. We insulated by placing draft blockers at the bottom in the window sill (I just used rolled up polar fleece – I’m not much of a sewer.) This was topped by a heavy blanket, taking care to overlap the wall and window edges with it. Over that, we hung thermal curtains that remain closed. Another option is to pick up that plastic that you apply to your windows using a hairdryer. (In a pinch, you can spray the window with water and apply bubble wrap if you don’t have another way to layer it.
- Wear a hat. A lot of heat escapes out the top of your head, so keep it cozy with a knitted hat. (We used to call them stocking caps but I think the kids call them beanies now.)
- Get a rug. If you have hardwood, tile, or laminate flooring, an area rug is a must. Like the blankets on the walls, this is another layer of insulation between you and the great outdoors. If you have no basement, your floor will be particularly chilly. A rug in the living room protects your feet from the chill.
- Wear a scarf. No, not like a big heavy wool scarf that you’d wear outdoors – just a small, lightweight one that won’t get in your way and annoy you. This serves two purposes. First, it covers a bit more exposed skin. Secondly, it keeps body heat from escaping out the neck of your shirt.
- Drink hot beverages. A warm beverage like coffee, tea, or cocoa will help warm you up from the inside out. Be sure to invest in some travel mugs with lids to keep your drink warm for longer.
- Burn candles. Especially in a smaller space, a burning candle can raise the temperature a couple of degrees.
- Cuddle. Share your body heat under the blankets when you’re watching movies or reading a book.
- Close off one room. What is the warmest room in your house? Maybe it’s the one with the heat source or maybe it’s tucked into a more protected area of the home. Close it off using curtains and tension rods in the doorways for a toasty-warm retreat.
- Hang out together. Even if you aren’t cuddling under blankets, if everyone is in the same (closed off) room, your combined body heat will raise the temperature a few degrees.
- Bake something. If your power is working (or you have a gas oven that doesn’t require electricity to run, bake a dessert or roast a chicken to add some heat to your home. (Bonus – you get a delicious hot meal out of the deal.)
- Get everyone an electric blanket. This is less low-tech and will only work if the power is on, but an electric blanket uses far less power than turning up the heat for your entire house. We keep our thermostat set quite low and use electric blankets instead. Newer ones have an automatic shut-off for less risk of fire or burns and they’re very energy efficient.
How do you keep your house warm without turning up the heat?
What do you do to stay warmer at your house during the winter? Share your cozy ideas in the comments section!
We also layer clothing–don’t forget your hat!, use a hot water bottle, pile up the blankets, and use draft dodgers. In addition, we drink warm drinks and of course homemade soup!. Upon occasion, we may keep a pot of hot water on the stove; it adds to the warmth. We have a clear plastic strip barrier at the archway leading into the area of back door. This prevents the cold air from coming into the rest of the house when the back door must be used. It works very well.
Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I forgot to include hot beverages! We even got travel mugs to keep them hot in! 🙂
Great list!
~ D
the house we live in has very loose windows. we cant afford to replace them. I went to our local thrift and found heavy mattress pads and hung them over the windows then thermal blankets. they really block the in and out going air
hats are invaluable in the cold because 35% of your body heat escapes from your head.
Jason, that is an old myth perpetrated by the US Army using bunk science from the 50s.
I hate to tell you but mythbusters busted that one and proved 35% of body heat is lost through your head. Hats do keep the heat in!
We use hats at night at camp especially in the spring and fall even for this specific reason.
We also have older windows you can feel the wind blow thru them ( Been wanting to replace but something more important always comes along)I cover ours with plastic then that way during the day we still can let in a little light. I dont use the expensive sheets for windows I just go buy a roll of clear/white plastic and duck tape works great.
A clear shower curtain would be heavier, less likely to sag.
I don’t have any idea how I came across this blog last night (probably something to do with preparedness), but I just wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed reading of your adventures 🙂
Keep up the good work!
Jer N Gen
Thank you very much for the kind words!
~ D
I would be careful when using candles in an enclosed area. Check to see if they have Zinc or even lead cores if they are decades old. Zn is supposedly safe but even without it the high concentration of unburned hydrocarbons from candles make this an emergency only practice. Perhaps use a Kero lamp?
Don’t forget to use (and check annually) a UL listed smoke detector. A carbon monoxide detector in the rooms that have kerosene, oil or coal burning appliances is a MUST. Candles have been known to set either one of these detectors off; so, don’t just turn them off. Fix the air source that caused the problem. If you burn wood in your stove or fireplace, NEVER use treated or painted wood or pressed or layered wood of any kind. A Michigan family burning plywood scraps as their fuel began losing all their hair, and it took several years for experts to relate the health issues with the fuel source.
When I was a kid, growing up in an old drafty house in Northern Indiana, our upstairs bedrooms were unheated but Mom always gave everyone a hot water bottle at bedtime. We slept under wool filled comforters too. Today we use rice socks …. helps to drape one over arthritic hips and elbows too.
Growing up in northern Indiana as well, we just used a load of blankets to keep warm when sleeping up stairs. Sometimes it seemed almost too heavy but when the body eventually got nice and warm, ohhhhh snug as a bug in a rug. I remember sticking my head out from under the covers and seeing my breath at times while nice and toasty underneath. Almost hated to get out of bed.
I have an old house with drafty windows, and a lot of them, especially the patio doors. i don’t use those cheap, flimsy plastic window kits … instead, get the heavier “mil” plastic rolls in the painting section … 2-3 mil is good, 5 mil is too heavy and may fall off. FIRST, put them on the outside of the house. Putting the plastic on the outside provides much better insulation … if you only put indoors, when the wind blows, the plastic “puffs out” into house, full of cold air. When doing outdoors, make sure to use outdoor doublesided tape, and then staple around plastic too, to keep it up in windy weather. After the outside, you can also put plastic up indoors for a double layer. It has cut my heating bill down by almost half. It doesn’t look the best from the outdoor view, but think of it this way … nobody will think you’re rich and target your house for burglary, lol, because they can see you don’t have $$’s for new windows 🙂
Years ago when I was living in Wyoming, there were a few windows that did not have storm windows. So I had to make my own. Using some scrap wood and a router, they looked almost like they belonged there. The most expensive part was the plexiglass in making the windows. Before the windows would ice up almost to the middle. After, no ice at all and those rooms actually felt much warmer than before and were much cheaper than buying replacement double pane windows.
i had the same inspiration…but have you seen the price of plexi-glass now?! Glass is now cheaper
So this is where I got the idea! I did the same with plexiglass I got off craigslist. Only I installed them inside. This way I can remove a ‘storm window’ to open my regular drafty double hung wood ones.
Love this blog! I too have a wood stove as well as a jet pump for auxiliary water if needed. I only heat the core of the house, and leave my bedroom icy cold in the winter. What makes the difference is an electric mattress pad I turn on before bedtime, and then lower the temp when I go to bed under layers of micro fleece blankets. The room air is then a much healthier cold temp to breath than overheated room air.
When it’s really cold, I hang out in a full length robe and snuggle in it. Pure coziness. Also, I buy insulated booties at K Mart on sale to keep my feet warm enough to be comfortable. I’ve noticed Russians that often wear gloves with the fingers cut out inside their apts. Makes sense.
I like a lot of the tips on here, such as rice filled socks! I fell in the yard yesterday and my neck and shoulders are aching and hurting like crazy. I’m gonna make one or two of these today!
Great tips, Scarlett! Thank you very much for the kind words, too!
Daisy
http://deepresource.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/electric-clothing/
I put an electric blanket on the sofa seat and then cover the entire sofa with a large bedspread – even keeping the blanket on the lowest setting provides enough heat to keep you comfortable. Also – the obvious thing – a couple of layers of clothing make a huge different – I wear jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and wear a sweatshirt over that. Covering up the windows is a terrible idea – blocking out sunlight is a huge contributor to depression which is already a problem in the wintertime.
I live in a log cabin in rural Wyoming, almost at the Montana border. I use most of these methods to help keep warm, except the plastic or blankets at the windows. I’m fortunate to have double pane windows, but discovered that I lost a great deal of heat overnight anyway. I got some furniture boxes and cut panels of cardboard to fit the windows. On cold nights, those panels are placed against the glass, then the thermal drapes are closed. Makes a tremendous difference, but the cardboard is easily removed and stored behind the couch for the day time so the sunlight gets in.
I have also gone looking for air leaks, especially around doors, electric switches and outlets, and behind the cabinets. The careful use of foam insulation, duct tape and so forth has plugged most of them, but it is still possible to find serious frost around the doorjam on the windward side in a real storm.
My wood stove is a very good “airtight” type that draws the air down the pipe from outside for the fire. That was an incredible improvement over the old stove and I use less than half as much wood now – with less than half the ash to haul, of course!
Do keep a pot or kettle of water on the stove all the time. Wood heat is extremely drying. One of the reasons folks get sick with “colds” in the winter is due to chronic dehydration and low humidity that irritates the mucous membranes (nose and lungs) and makes them vulnerable to infection. Keep inside humidity at least 40% if at all possible, no matter how you heat your home.
And one last suggestion is NOT to use an “electric blanket” on the couch. If you sit on a fold for long, the wires will break. The electric mattress pad would be a much better idea because they are much more sturdy and less apt to fold.
I make felted slipper clogs. They are very warm and very easy to make and slip on and off easily. Most mistakes disappear during felting! My favorite pattern is http://www.fibertrends.com/product/149443/AC33/_/AC33_Felt_Clogs__%28new_version%29. there is also a childrens version.
Those are lovely! I have to learn to knit! I can crochet, but it seems like knitting is so much more versatile and cozy.
I like the cuddling idea. I have a wood furnace.It is great. I have an 8’pattio door. When the sun is shining it acts as a furnace and keeps the house warm in the daytime even when it is minus 20 celcius.
Great article. Don’t forget a sherpa fleece lined vest, a feather bed and sleeping bags.
Hi. Thanks for sharing your methods. Our family uses only fireplace and stove for heat and though Oklahoma winters rarely drop to zero, we regularly have freezing winter temps. Our house is enormous and not well constructed for maintaining heat. With freezing temps we can keep the interior at 50ish. However for the wife and small children this is still uncomfortable. We opted several years ago to buy coveralls for everyone. We are never cold now whether indoors or outside feeding livestock at 6am. The boys can easily spend an hour walking the goats in 30 degree weather with these. My mil surplus coveralls can be regularly found at gun shows for $25. Wife and children wear carhart knockoffs from Walmart which run about 35 and go on clearance after winter. My solution works indoors and out and is easily packed for travel. We also invest in cheap beanies which are worn 24/7. Enormous amounts of heat are lost at the crown
Although I built our little house and insulated it reasonably well, the wood stove is our only source of heat and like many of you, the place can get mighty chilly by morning. Because it’s a tiny building, I went with a smaller stove and that means it has a small firebox. If I know it will be a particularly cold night, I have resigned myself to sleeping on a mattress about 6′ from the wood stove. This encourages me to get up periodically to restoke it as I’m far more apt to do so because it is only a few feet away. The other upside to this idea is that because the mattress is on the floor, I tend to have a cat or dog join me…..you may run out of room on the bed, but they definitely help keep you warm.
I made a curtain for my bedroom doorway,I have 4 cats so they will scratch at my bedroom door.This way,the cats can come and go,without me having to get up and let them in and.out.Also, a electric blanket,electric space heater keeps the one room I stay in nice and warm.I also put up bright curtains on my windows to keep depression at bay.
Great info. I needed this because I live in Nebraska and we have only a wood stove for heat. I am definitely going to rethink how I handle the windows this coming winter. Oh, and get those detectors put in. Thanks
I have used plastic wrap to block any draughts through our single pane windows. It has really done the job and our rooms are much warmer. Here is a video showing how to do it http://youtu.be/sycJwM-w27I
here is another video showing how to use bubble wrap to insulate windows http://youtu.be/JqD5fdEj8t8
A while back I ordered some surplus ‘kidney warmers’ from Sportsmans guide of Cheaper than dirt. Basically it was a piece of soft felt-like fabric with strings that tied in the front.
Doing some research I learned that you lose most of your body heat from the top of your head and secondly through your kidneys. Anyone who has lived in a colder climate [I’m from Chicago] knows that after you relieve yourself you get get quite a bit colder right away.
These worked amazing, and you could improvise by tying a scarf around your midsection under your clothes. Wearing a hat and a kidney warmer has kept me very toasty even when I’m not bundled up all the way.
Check out http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/heat-your-room-1-candle-plu-flowerpots-nuts-and-washers
You will find an ingenious way to heat a room with one candle and some flower pots.
I have an old ‘shotgun’ farmhouse with single layer, multi-pane glass windows (6 panes in each upper & lower window). They have separate screens on the outside. I use heavy mil clear plastic, clear taped onto the screens which holds the plastic in place. On the inside I have some radiant barrier material which I have cut to fit the window and which my mini-blinds hold into place .. (“reflectix”, like bubble wrap with foil on both sides..reflects 97% of radiated heat)..they can be put in and taken out depending on the side of the house they’re on and whether you want the the light/sun coming in. I also use them during the summer to keep the heat out. I’ve also added a 10″ tubular skylight to the kitchen, bath & office so in the daytime I don’t have to take the radiant barriers out of the windows or turn on lights in those rooms where I spend most of my time when home.
In the day time attach some black trash bags on the curtain rods, in the windows that face the sun. The sun will heat the black plastic, and the air will rise and circulate in the room, even on cold days it will cut your heating bills a lot. just be sure to bundle them back up when not in direct sunlight.
I just steal electricity above the meter to operate 2 space heaters and at 5am every morning I disconnect it. Air conditioner too.
My family and grandparents lived thru the Depression. I learned a ton of simple, sound lessons and advice from them! You all have found great solutions to keeping warm! Kudu’s to you all, with the exception to stealing.
Today’s economy, or lack there of, has forced many to frugalize their preparedness; self included…..to a point. When it comes to the life saving basics, I go for long term INVESTMENT. I can’t afford to keep replacing cheaply made items.
For me, THE absolute best way to be and stay warm, year after year, after year was to invest in WOOL! Before your mind starts thinking back to the old scratchie stuff, look into today’s MERINO WOO; especially at the end of the season, or right before the final holidays…..they’re looking to unload their inventory by year end.
One wool blanket will do the work of a bunch of synthetic blankets. Do the money math. Same goes for sweaters, pants, coats, hats and gloves. Sportsmanship Guide always has a good deal on europen military wool pants. Thrift stores ALWAYS have donors foolish enough to give away wool items. I buy every wool item I can, for both sexes, all all sizes (children to adults). The day may soon approach when the foolish or less fortunate aren’t prepare and will need some ‘wool seeds’ sown their way.
I can sit, comfortably, in a fifty degree room, wearing a pair of SmartWool socks, and a $2.00 thrift store or an $80 L.L.Bean sweater. Wool is wool. eBay sells long johns from the military that are 50% wool and 50% cotton. Cost? About $15 for a two piece set. One good wool coat, whether new or old is worth all the synthetic layering you would bundle up in. And let’s not forget what wool contains……lanolin. Synthetics and cotton absorb moisture, which wicks away your body heat. Snow, ice, rain, will bead upon contact with wool. Of course, at some point it, too will get saturated, but you are far more likely to be wet and cold a lot sooner with the other materials I’ve mentioned.
Don’t take my word for it. Do the research. Get a wool item from the thrift store and try it for yourself. There is nothing to keep you warm and toasty, as some of you have described, like good old (or new) wool! 🙂
Stay warm! 🙂
You are so right about WOOL for warmth, and staying dryer! Year before last, I found a long 70% wool (content) coat at my local Goodwill store. The $10 price was well worth the investment. Getting through this past Winter was easy, when we were hit with several Polar Vortexes! I even experimented going out for a 30-min walk, after layering up, and wearing the long wool coat. Truly, I stayed “toasty” warm!
Remember this saying: “Cotton kills!” Wearing wool keeps the body warmer, and dryer.
Another good thing about wool, if you are using candles and burning wood for heat is that it doesn’t catch fire easily. I remember reading that one of the top causes of death in the old days was from clothing catching on fire (they were talking about linen, primarily).
I haven’t read all the comments above, so forgive me if I repeat an idea.
We live in an old farm house (built in the late 1940’s), since we haven’t finished remodeling, we have a lot of cold areas in the house, especially where we still have single pane double hung windows. For these areas, we’ve bought foam board with the foil covering (Polyisocyanurate Rigid Foam Insulation Board). Sheets have been cut to fit the old windows and between the screen door and the old (thin) wood door. Where I want light, I put up bubble wrap and then use the plastic sheet kit over the whole window. I also collect the pallet-size sheets of cardboard from Sam’s Club to put up at the sliding glass door. It sounds tacky, but its on the back side of the house.
In open doorways & hallways, I put up a spring tension rod and hang anything—a sheet, blanket, spare drape to contain the heat and keep the cold from moving thru the house.
We have a thermal carafe to keep hot drinks in to cut back on trips back and forth to the kitchen and microwave.
Doesn’t hurt to let a couple of our small dogs sleep on the bed in the winter—everyone snuggles and keeps warm!
Walmart has those small lap blankets (4×5′ ?) for about $5 for different occasions, especially Christmas. I wait til after the holiday and buy several at half price. I also keep some in the car.
1.A canopy bed with curtains!
2.In this old apartment, the fuse burns out if we use two heaters at one time. So on cold night’s we either all sleep in one room with the heater, or we close the hallway and bathroom doors and place the heater between the rooms.
3.We roll towels and place them under the doors.
4. After watching Jericho (great show), I told myself that if I ever lived where it snows and the power was out, I would have all my neighbors over for a huge sleepover.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned setting up a tent in the house and sleeping in it. It’s amazing how warm you can keep in it.
Bags of Styrofoam popcorn – light and easy to snuggle under. Many warehouses just throw the stuff away.
Farmers on the prairie used to use square bales of straw against the outside walls. You want to be very careful about fire with this one.
When you are cold in bed, put a pillow over the top of your head. It amazingly keeps your feet warm!
Sew yourself a real nightcap. Everyone wore them in the Victorian period. Polar Fleece is easy to sew and would make a great one. Or a child’s wool sweater. It would look funny but you would be warm.
Make sure you eat enough! On of my friends says that a chocolate bar is worth 10 degrees.
I recommend sleeping bags instead of electric blankets. The electro-magnetic frequencies given off by an electric blanket have occasionally caused permanent physical damage to the users, whereas sleeping bags are totally safe. They come in different weights for various degrees of cold, and can be made even warmer by adding a fleece liner.There are also bags that can be zipped together to make a dual bag for two people. An open bag can also be used as an extremely warm comforter. Plus, a sleeping bag should be standard prepper equipment.
Fleece sheets are WONDERFULLY warm, but they’re expensive and sometimes shed like crazy. My recent solution was to buy an inexpensive fleece blanket (not throw) from an outlet store and use it as a bottom sheet. It didn’t even have to be completely tucked in because it clings fairly well to whatever it’s laid over. Even over my cold air mattress (air mattresses are like ice cubes in cold weather), I still retain lots of heat. Very cozy!
My favorite insulator for leaky windows is More-tite. It’s a flexible strip that’s easy to apply and completely blocks air leaks. It’s easy to remove and leaves no marks.
Use blankets on walls and floors using rods and hooks add insulation can be removed and cheap in thrift shop
While bubble wrap is ok it’s not durable, find a green house rigid plastic supplier, ask to buy the crops for pennies on dollars, both for garden boxes and windows, use play doh or plasticine to mount so no marks
Get a pot that you can lift full of water without spilling, put on Woodstove and move it when warm to area needing heat.
In summer change old Woodstove to a rocket thermal mass heater you can make, look on you tube for possibilities, making them out of concrete or fired clay brick than steel. More heat less fuel and cheap to make.
Something I do when cutting firewood on cold days is to take a cayenne capsule or 2 before I go out. Don’t try it on an empty stomach though.
A very simple change is to rearrange bedroom furniture so that the bed is away from exterior walls. Place it near or on an interior bedroom wall if at all possible.Put dressers or other furniture against the exterior walls to help block cold. Keep closet doors closed if the closet is exterior walls. Hang thermal curtains on a zpring loaded rod at the closet entrance if the closet doors are metal.
We keep it between 75 and 80.
Consider ‘Rigid Insulation Board with silver-foiled backing’ for window inlays with flanges to adjacent walls. While they are not cheap, they can be taken down when not needed and to air-out the house. One air change per hour is needed for health reasons. It’s like a George Carlin joke. After a plane crash, hugging a floatation device in the ocean for three days, you would like to meet the person who thought a seat cushion would make a nice floatation device (especially considering all the beer f**ts.).
Corrugated cardboard carries insects and breeds mildew from the moist cold/hot air.
Plus, later in a SHTF situation the insulation board can block-out light. It ‘ll give you practice making plywood inserts. (Note: something like two three-quarter of an inch plywood layers with one quarter inch round gravel fill, behind an eight-inch concrete masonry block wall, possibly with sand infill, and a four-inch brick veneer wall might slow down a flying ballistic projectile below the 556 calibers. At least it might reduce the masonry splatter spreading into the room.)
In addition, the foiled backed board might dampen 5G waves. Just kidding.
Warm the body core drinking warm broths.
Wear socks, light gloves and bavaclavas while in bed.
Bavaclava head gear is multi-functional in the various ways it can be worn to keep you warm. Protecting the neck from the cold and wind is critical. Rule of thumb, for every one mile-an-hour of speed, whelter from wind or riding a motorcycle, figure a temperature of a minus one degree drop or less. Going forty mph, take forty degrees or more from the ambient air temperature. Amusingly, last century biker magazines suggested wearing panty hose for wind chill since the mesh trapped insulated air in its pockets. Stocking up on panty hose would also be a trading item along with lipstick and alcohol. And Dr. Oetker’s vanilla sugar packets in case you meet a Gunter Glass fan during the SHTF.
Vitamin D is the Sunshine vitamin.
Franklin fireplaces have tubes that preheat the hot air currents that shoot into the room.
Read Selco’s article.
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/stay-warm-during-a-long-term-shtf-situation/#comments
Some German houses have the heating water tubes build into the concrete floors similar in concept to the Romans. This way your feet stay warm while the heat rose thoughout the house. Perhaps lying an electric blanket, while protecting its wiring, on the floor under your feet would mimic the above.
Plus, Europeans have summer and winter areas of the house.
Don’t forget Passive Building Design for your indigenous area.
Note to Daisy.
The dating on these posts are off?
Perhaps the most recent post gets posted at the top or would that would be confusing as readers would repeat ideas that have already been written below since they didn’t read them … but that sometimes happens anyway.
Thanks for the relevant article.
One idea that I tried was to put an inverted clay flower pot over a gas stove burner. It seemed to give off much more heat than just the bare flame. This was in an older apartment that wasn’t that air tight with a gas range.
I suspect the reason it worked is that the heat from the gas burner tends to go straight up and is lost, while the heated clay pot radiated heat in all directions.
Another time we rented a house with a back porch that faced south. We enclosed it with plastic sheeting. During the day we opened the door to the porch and let the heat come into the house. At night we closed the door.
I have 100% polyester pajama pants i wear during the winter.i find them warm and comfortable during the winter. and a long john shirt i’ll wear if need be.i do need new winter socks and a pair of houseshoes thoe.oil lamps helps out.
Great article, Daisy. Spot on. Here are some additional thoughts. (I was brought up during WWII. Wood heat. Cold upstairs bedrooms. Mama tucked you in at night with a glass of water on the nightstand. In the morning it would be frozen. Ah, the good old days.)
Kids. Put 2 kids in bed together for body heat. Don’t forget flannel bedsheets. Kids need to wear 2 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of jeans. When playing outside, a scarf can be pulled up to preheat the air they inhale. Mittens are warmer than gloves. I never liked ear muffs but I loved “bomber hats” with ear flaps that tied under my chin. There is no warmer footwear than snowmobile boots. They’re actually 2 separate pairs of boots; a felt boot inside with rubber galoshes outside. Indoors, the felt liner can be worn alone
Candles. Candles produce heat but they also consume oxygen and produce CO (carbon monoxide). ALL petroleum-based fuels (from automobile gas to birthday candles) produce carbon monoxide. Paraffin wax is a petroleum product.
Alcohol is not petroleum based and alcohol mantle lamps produce virtually zero CO. “Primus” and “Titus Tito-Landi” are expensive European antiques, sometimes on eBay, that burn alcohol. We Americans, living in the shadow of Standard Oil, never learned about alcohol. A 1925 Coleman Quick-Lite can be converted to alcohol. Google for “converting a mantle lamp to alcohol.”
Humidity. Humidity makes the house warmer. In a dry house, the moisture on your skin evaporates and cools you. Hang some wet Turkish towels on a rack near the stove (a teakettle on the stove is not enough). When frost starts to build up on the windows, you’ve reached the appropriate humidity level.
Keep the doors closed! No matter how cold it is, your friends and relatives will say long, lingering goodbyes with the door open and their hand on the doorknob letting in the cold. Duh.
I love the rice bags section! Also, I have an electric blanket for my bed that I turn on when it’s reeeally frigid, but it keeps me warm even when it’s not on! I swear it insulates better than most of my other blankets!
Pile snow against the walls of your house; it insulates.
Silicone caulk and a caulking gun. I like the kind that fries clear. Not only have I caulked around the windows, I have also caulked the wooden frames where they meet the walls. Also the top and bottom of the baseboards. Okay, it is an old house, but it is paid off 🙂
On really cold dry days/nights, a large pot of water on a really low burner is great. Some sliced lemons or mint leaves also make things smell nice. I learned this one from my mom who grew up in Chicago during the depression. If you have people with colds, a glob of Mentho-Run is great.
Flannel sheets also help. There are also hand and feet warmers (reusable) that provide temporary warmth, when you move to a new spot & are warming up under a throw or blanket. My down filled comforter keeps me toasty warm. My pooch also tunnels under the bed covers and sleeps at my feet for added warmth. I use a number of other methods mentioned. Also, use a rolled up large towel at the bottom of entry doors to reduce cold air leaking into the house. Space heaters in rooms that are occupied provide a more comfortable setting rather than crank up the heat throughout the entire house.
So many ideas I can’t add much. I put some rocks on the furnace (boiler) and when my hands were cold just put my hands around them in my pockets. Some police wear a head piece that has copper over the mouth or nose so you can breathe warm air while out in below zero temperatures. You can google and find it online. I bought one- it works.
If you live in an older house that uses water heaters, place a mirror or even a large strip of aluminum foil (or an emergency blanket) against the wall behind it to create a heat reflector.
Sportsmans Guide was mentioned above. One of their most invaluable goodies is an Uggs boot knockoff that’s a lot less costly, but lasts well. Another knockoff brand I tried fell apart the first year I tried it. In a house with cold floors (warmer air tends to rise — way above your feet), the wool-lined Sportsmans Guide boots plus thick wool socks (especially Cabelas) are worth gold for you and your heating bill.
When I was a growing grade schooler in blizzard country, my mom always piled a couple of layers of feather comforters on me in bed inside a sandwich of thick flannel sheets. I quickly learned that my own breath underneath would keep me warm, even if the inch and a half diameter painted turtle I brought home from the state fair (before that was outlawed) and kept in a tilted coffee can on my bedroom floor (with a little water in it) was frozen in ice in the morning. Today, the synthetic hollow-fil insulation in comforters is vastly superior (for both ease of cleaning and especially the safety of use when wet) to the goose down method, but the principle still applies, whether at home or out camping. Funny how that little turtle long ago gave its life for my memory of what works in sub-freezing weather — when the coal-fired stove in our living room couldn’t do much for bedroom heat.
–Lewis
I remember moving my bare feet across the bed under the covers as fast as I could as a kid to create friction and warm the foot of the bed. Also learned to read a thermometer early because my parents would let me outside when the temp made it to 40. Those were good days.
Not sure if anyone said this, but RUN THE DRYER! If you have to do laundry, you can disconnect your dryer vent, and put a heat exchange vent on it. Look them up on Amazon, there are numerous styles out there. If you have power, then you can heat your home by doing what you normally do anyway. I also hang an old comforter over the utility room door that we rarely use, and another over the door that is open for the dog. During the bitterest weather, we make her ask to go out, but if it is not miserable we can leave the inner door cracked and allow her access to the dog door in the outer door. We are gone for 12 hours a day, and it is cruel to expect her to not toilet as needed. I often bake/can/cook in the evenings. If you wait until after 7:00 PM, utilities are often less expensive, so put in a load of clothes at bedtime.
I forgot to mention that Alpaca wool is far superior to traditional sheep wool for insulation, as the hairs are hollow, and it is much less itchy! Get sweaters and socks from your local spinner if you can.
We have a few windows and doors that seem to draft quite a bit at times. For those windows, we place the plastic sheets over them. For the external doors, we place a rug or rolled up towel along the bottom. I increase oven use during the winter and once I’m done I leave the oven door open. I work from home and my office is in the basement so it’s always much colder. I have a hoodie footie (basically an adult onesie) that’s insanely warm. It can be a hassle when you have to use the restroom but so worth it! Our coffe/tea intake definitely goes up during winter also.
We keep a portable electric baseboard heater in the living/dining room/kitchen where our turtles are and where the thermostat for the HVAC system is located. That keeps this large room warm without running the forced air hydronic central heating system. Baseboard heaters use convection, and there are no fans or pumps, so the energy goes 100% into heating. We also use draft stoppers under all doors to keep the heat in.
There are multiple ways to protect your outside water faucets from freeze damage (and the monster plumbing bill that’s possible if you don’t protect them). One way is to use a heat generating incandescent light bulb inside a mechanic’s electric trouble light. Tie that to the side of your outside water faucet and enclose both in a plastic bag to keep the heat concentrated. Remember to turn it on when the weather forecast warns you of a coming freeze — and turn it off once the freeze is over. LED bulbs don’t throw off enough heat for this. Unfortunately in the US the dysfunctional outgoing president Biden outlawed the sale of incandescents after August 1, 2023 … so if you didn’t have some incandescents stocked up … there’s another strategy worth knowing … which works even if you lose electric power. Look up the Freeze Miser on Amazon. It mechanically senses when the temperature begins dropping and turns on a steady drip as the temperature approaches freezing. Once the freeze is over and the temperature rises above freezing … the device automatically turns off — even during a power outage. I suggest ordering as many as you have outside water faucets. Also I suggest using a few wraps of teflon tape over the faucet threads so you’ll have a good seal where you screw the Freeze Miser on.
Regarding sleeping bags: when buying them make sure the temperature rating can handle the coldest temperatures where you live. Also their zippers are notorious for sticking … so keep some Chapstick handy to rub on such zippers to prevent sticking, or to unstick them. Yes there are other waxy products that work as well.
Also, sleeping bags are a lot more comfortable, warmer, and less noisy if you make a flannel bag to sleep in … inside that sleeping bag.
–Lewis
I use insulboard to cover the windows because it is easy to take down when the sun is coming in. It can be cut with a razor to fit inside the window frame. It is the foil covered foam board they put under vinyl siding. Just slide it under the bed or couch when you take it down.
Electric blankets are a game changer. Strongly recommended.
I work outdoors in the northeast so I will wear Refridgiwear coveralls when I want to sit outside and drink all night.
Insulated curtains are also a must.
If you need to cut electric costs you can shut off your electric water heater if you’re not using it for a few days. Just give it an hour or two to heat back up before taking a shower. Of all the appliances to not have an on/off switch, hot water heaters waste more energy than anything. Just don’t turn it back on empty. Make sure the water is flowing into it before hitting the breaker back on.
I upgraded to a tankless water heater. It paid for itself the first year.
I’m amazed that no one has mentioned a ceiling fan..
Hot air rises.
Forcing it down and around room utilizes the warmth you have already created.
I use a large stiff piece of closed cell foam aboard boat to move air around.
Kind of like the old “Punka Wallahas”
Actually more efficient than fans for moving large volume of air.
The exercise helps ..
we’re seniors so we probably get chilly when others dont. if you have power: cook some foods, run the oven then leave door open a bit til cool, get electric mattress pads – they are better than blankets ’cause you’re laying on them – heat rises so your covers will retain heat – wont have heavy blankets on ya…also use some portable oil heaters – they dont cost much to run as opposed to our heat pump – AND remember if it gets bitter cold – heat pumps only go to a certain temp unless running on the “emergency strip” which is costly! friend older than I used to hang a heavy velvet piece of material on the hallway door therefore keeping heat from the kitchen and family room in there…upstairs was chilly but they piled blankets on – she was a “frugal old school senior, lol” loved her dearly, taught me many things from older times.
Something warehouse workers use: Little Hotties Hand warmers. They work by a chemical/oxygen reaction heating up to 135 degrees for 10 hours. Get them warm and place in sweatshirt or pants pocket or in waistbands for your back. They work very nicely. You can also seal them tightly (if only needing for a couple hours) in a ziploc and they can be preserved to be used for another few hours. I have done this. I hate to waste a heat source if I do not need to do so.
Dogs. Dog on my toes. Dog on my lap. Dogs in the bed sandwiching me. Dog on my barn jacket, gloves and watch cap pre-warming them before chores. Dogs on the good chair, sofa and bed comforter.
I never used to allow any of these behaviors, then I moved to Alaska for a period. That move to Willow Ak, and working in the bush changed my views on the pack/alpha dynamics.
I now own a large pack of working dogs. All have a job ranging from a herder (border collie), a guard (Karakachan), LGD’s (great Pyrenees), and an old retired GSD. All work. And all excel at keeping us warm. Sometimes excessively so.
The last 6 or 8 years, the temperature in our area has fallen down a few times to nearly 10degrees below zero, North wind blows 30 to 40 miles an hour. We heat our old house which has 11′ 3″ high ceilings with one fireplace, and one small and one medium Dearborn natural gas heaters. It still has the transom windows above each room’s entry door. The fireplace was built large enough to take an 8″diameter x 32″ long log, as a back log, and we build the fire in front of that. It does put out a lot of heat, which we keep circulating with reversed ceiling fans on low speed. The fire box is inside a large heat-a-lator, but my wife hates the roar of the fan. We burn only Mesquite wood, so it burns hot enough to keep the chimney clear. We don’t heat our bedroom, and sometimes in the winter, if you leave some water in a glass by the bed it will be frozen in the morning. 🙂 We do have some large candles made with criscoe, and we have a little table heater with a fan that uses those fondue alcohol canned heat things. Our old house was built in 1887, the first house in our part of town, so it’s a mite drafty. Sometimes we burn up to three cords of wood in a winter, but most years only a little over two. Most summers we have a few young chimney swifts that make it past the damper and into our house, which drives our two cats insane.
We’re old, but we get by. My wife has been a prolific quilter for the last almost 45 years, so we never run out of quilts to keep warm with.
Y’all stay warm, and alert.
Stay strong, and keep praying,
Blessings,
OD
Line your curtains and draperies with reflexive fabric. No need to take them down in summer.
Purchase an eHeat brand wall heater. Thermostat control, 475-500 watts, 110volt outlet, easily heats a 10′ x 14′ room. We use one in the master bedroom, leave the bedroom door open, and this one unit keeps half the 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment adequately heated to 68-69 degrees F. We completely turn off the baseboard heating units. http://www.eheat.com
I use an electric mattress pad. It warms the mattress and as the heat rises you can trap it with your choice of blankets. You utilize both sides of the heat source, with a blanket you lose the heat from the top side some.
Who says you can’t insulate your rental? Big box stores have sheets of insulation the same size as a sheet of plywood. I like the kind with foil on one side. You can even paint it. I recommend you use this on the north wall because cold air normally blows from the north. Cut a hole in the insulation for any outlets. Your choice if you want to cut out for a window. You can tack this stuff up at the ceiling and the floor. Tape joints.
If you have a south facing window, you can make a solar heater. Cut a piece of the foam insulation to fit in the window on the sides and about 4 inches less up and down. Paint one side black. Tape the sides to the window trim so you have an opening at both the bottom and the top of the insulation. On a sunny day, cold room air will enter from the bottom, heat up as the sun heats the air between the window and the insulation. Hot air rises. It will exit your heater at the top of the window back into the room. Look up solar window heater for the plans for a better one.
Boil water. Humid air feels warmer.
Use switch and outlet pads under the electric plates, and when not in use, pop in those plastic protectors that are used to keep children from putting something in the socket that could create a dangerous electrical conduit. You can also cover the socket with a small piece of tape. You’d be amazed how much cold air you can feel come out of an outlet otherwise
I was always a victim of cold feet, inside and outside, regardless of warm socks and insulated boots, even when a young person. When I started wearing long hospital-type anti-embolism firm support hose on one leg for an injury, I noticed my foot on that side didn’t get cold nearly as easily. These were upper thigh-length hose. Then I realized my cold feet probably were caused by the difficulty of getting sufficient blood flow up my legs to keep enough warm blood flowing down into my feet. The embolism hose didn’t stay up very well on an active person, as they would on a bedridden surgery patient, however. I tried some sort of homemade garter system, which was not comfortable, but finally settled on the heavy-support opaque exercise hose, the kind with the seam down the back and heavy on the spandex. These are tights, two-legged, and stay up as they have an elastic waist. No more cold feet as of last Winter, and I work outside a lot in central Ohio winters. No more cold feet in the house, either, even when the temperature is 60F inside. Get the fully-opaque, spandex-type tights with the seams. Forget “support hose” pantyhose – not the same at all.
Hee haw roast a chicken 🐔, we don’t eat bird meat here, tug O war with a K9 , I’ve rubbed a 🐕 dogs belly til it laughs like a big ole cackle 🐦 bird, but yes try Cocoa 🔥🔥🔥
Where we live, we have wood heat so keeping warm in our tiny trailer here in the Ozarks isn’t a problem. Figuring long term solutions like this may be your best option in the long run. Insulation and sealing around doors and windows may cost a little up front, but they will save energy costs in the long run.
I do a lot of baking at night, after dinner. Also slow cooking ribs in a braiser or shallow pan for 2.5 or 3 hours can help heat the kitchen area and that warmth can spread to the closest rooms nearby.
Surprised no one has mentioned this but wearing a shirt comprised of warm material like Polyester Fleece, Flannel, or Chamois helps a bunch.
Wearing Sweats or Flannel Pajamas also helps.
Someone also mentioned Down. A Down Vest helps a bunch plus it is lightweight and leaves your arms free to move.
No one mentioned a Sweater!!! Thrift Stores have them for about 10% of what they cost Retail.
If it is available in your area, burn Hedge/Osage Orange Firewood in your Stove. It burns hotter and longer. Do not burn it in a Fireplace because it throws off sparks.
If it available in your area, burn Hickory Firewood in your Wood Stove or Fireplace. It puts out more heat than Oak, Locust, Hackberry, etc..
Have not heard of using a Electric Mattress Pad. Did not know something like that existed. Will have to look into that.
electric heating pad for the bed is better. heat rises. do not use with electric blanket