Heating in Winter

If you are only looking for a few days, generator electric heat, kerosene carefull of carbon monoxide, propane to run a good heater attachment which I have,
Also ensure you have drained your water lines in that event last thing yu want is busted pipes leaking into your house
If its only a few days no hydro or gas. I will section off 1 room on main floor pitch tent try and use sunlight to heat room in daytime. I have 3 full propane tanks at all times, about 30 gallons of gas to run generator that runs at 1 gallon every 4-6 hours depending on draw, 10 gallons of kerosene plus 10 mini bottles of propane to run minin camping heater.
Solar for electric heat
Oil furnace COSTLY
Wood /coal pellet burning stove
Hope that helps a bit , if its longer try and make it to BOL for me

Great question. I have a wood stove in my kitchen being used as a counter top ATM. No way or place for me to install until my kichten is gutted. I have a kerosene stove in my living room which needs some attention before it can be used. This week I will be picking up an old coal(think thats what it is) from being stored at mom's.
Most of my house is so drafty that co2 levels would or should not effect me if using any of these methods for short periods.

Love the tent idea, and thanks forgot about the water pipes. I would me moving most of my critters that are in tanks to the warmest room on my second floor. Not sure about me yet. Just hope that if I use the wood stove the neighbors don't show up.

I use wood as a primary heat source for my entire house with the exception of the crawlspace that has my well pump and plumbing which is kept at about 10 C by electric baseboard heaters. I have a fairly small stove that is rated for up to 1000 sq.ft. but heats my 1200 sq.ft. home well. Wood costs me $80.00 per cord, but can run up to $110.00 for ultra dry seasoned 2 years, stored indoors only. When buying firewood, a cord is NOT 4' x 4' x 8' but actually a third of that, which in my book is actually called a run. I use about 10 of these cords per season. So about $800.00 to heat per year, plus a couple hundred for the crawlspace...all in all about $1000.00 per heating season.
As a backup for the crawlspace, I have an old Coleman propane heater that runs about 8 hours on low for a 1lb cylinder. Of course, I have the adapter to hook it up to a 25 lb tank, which would last a little over a week if kept on low, which is ok just to keep the pipes from freezing. As a backup to that, I have an old naptha heater, but I use this only as a last resort, as I don't like liquid fuels for indoor use.
Remember that without electricity, you are heating with some sort of open flame, so have a good fire extinguisher and smoke/carbon monoxide detectors.
A small wood stove like mine would cost about $700.00. Of course there is also the cost of stove pipe and chimney to consider, which I can't really estimate because I don't know your planned setup.
My advise...this is NOT a diy project. Call someone who does this for a living and has insurance.
Also be aware that many pellet stoves need electricity to run the automatic reloading feature.

Can not answer all your questions but Tell you how I do it.I buy my wood stoves at auction sales for few $.Not all of them are supper efficient but I have 100 acr. of bush so wood is free.If properly located any half decent stove will heat appr. 1000 sq. ft.If you put wood stove in the lowest level of the house , bring fresh air from outside close to the stove , put registers in the floor for heat to rise up to the upper floor. you survive any cold winter.I know few people in Muskoka that heat hoses for years just with wood stoves.You can easily install it yourself and just have it inspected for safety.It all logic.When I said I buy them at auctions because when I see good wood stove going for $ 50 can not resist to buy it.so I have two of them sitting in a garage and just gave one to my son.Good think about wood stove that even if it is not fancy cook stove you still can prepper basic food on it.We have also cook wood wood stove but breakfast is always made just on the heating stove.
Henry

My primary heat is propane, a high efficiency furnace and a propane fireplace on a separate system. I used to have an oil furnace but that was very expensive. I have backup electrical systems to power the furnace fan should there be a long term power outage. I also have a wood fireplace and at the other end of the house I have installed a decent wood stove. Altogether I have about a two year supply of seasoned wood. Although wood supply is not a problem here. The advantage of the wood stove is that you can cook on it if need be. Your heating requirements are dependent upon the size of your house. My house is over 3000 sq ft not including the basement which poses some problems for alternate backup heating systems, hence the duplication.

Cost is always a factor. Depending on size wood stoves can cost anywhere between $1000 and $2000 although small ones may be picked up for just under $1000. Again it depends on the size of the house you are heating. As far as the chimney is concerned again it will depend on the height of your roof. I have had two chimneys installed over the last 15 years at different properties and both of them were over $1500. You also have the cost of installation of the stove and chimney and the cost of the inspection. If you do not get it inspected you will void your house insurance. Installing a wood fireplace definitely is not a DIY project. Also if you do install one be sure to REGULARLY clean and inspect the chimney. Chimney fires are by far the most common causes of fire in our area. In our small town we were called out to three chimney fires last year.

Another alternative to a wood stove is a pellet stove. Not requiring a chimney installation overall costs can be less. Pellet stoves are in the $1500 to $2000 dollar range. Pellets can be purchased at many outlets such as Canadian Tire and Walmart for just under $5 per bag. Some stoves can also burn other bio fuels. You will need some sort of electrical backup system to operate a pellet stove which is a drawback. Personally for a long term or permanent solution use I do consider pellet stoves a viable option because of the possible disruption in the supply chain for the pellets.

Back to the safety aspect for a moment. We all have to have smoke detectors in your homes. That was an example of a good law that has definitely saved lives. No matter what source of heat you have in your home please install carbon monoxide detectors. It might well be the best $20 you ever invest. You should definitely install one in each sleeping area. If you heat your house with any kind of flame powered system carbon monoxide detectors are an absolute necessity. In Canada carbon monoxide is the number one cause of unintentional poisoning. There are close to 1000 poisonings per year of which 250 result in death. It is a common and real danger but it so easily preventable.

For most of us, this is the most likely disaster we're going to face and you should give it the most attention. A wood stove is the ideal answer even if you have an insert in a window to run the stove pipe through on a temporary basis.

An alternative is a large inverter you attach to your car battery to run your furnace fan. Yes you'll have to idle your car while the furnace is running but it's an alternative to a generator. You'll still need to have some wiring done to your furnace to supply remote power and you'll probably have to have some extra fuel stored but it's something.

http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episode-940-steven-harris-on-dealing-with-a-large-scale-blackout-part-2

I told my parents to convert their furnace control unit from 110 volts to DC with a plug in. That way they could still have the furnace run in winter using a car battery.

Look into RMH - Rocket Mass Heaters (no not rocket stoves, but you need one of them too) Rocket mass heaters are very efficient and easy and cheap to make.

i use a tank top heater
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/1/HeatingAirConditioning/PortableBaseboardHeaters/PRDOVR~0762130P/Remington+16%2C000+BTU+Single+Tank+Top+Heater.jsp?locale=en

for small needs
and

for another option

http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=41&id=116

I've heated my home (1,000 sq.ft each level) for over 30 years with wood. I have a wood cookstove in the main area and a pellet stove (with a back-up small wood stove) in the lower level. I also have a Selkirk wood stove in the garage. I LOVE heating with wood. I buy my firewood @ $85 a facecord and presently use 5-6 cords/year. I use about one and a half tons of hardwood pellets (Cubex brand). If pellets don't say 'hardwood' then they are softwood like pine and burn faster with a lower BTU (heat). Home Hardware and others carry Cubex @ 5.69/40 lb. bag. I only burn hardwood like maple in my wood stoves. You should get it inspected by a WETT certified inspector (for your insurance company) or your house insurance will likely get cancelled. Your wood burning unit must also be CSA (EPA) approved (some 'auction finds' may not be). I figured it would be almost double $$ to heat with the oil furnace, not to mention the 'carbon footprint'. I agree that a woodstove/chimney installation these days is not a DIY project - a reliable stove store that's been in business for over ten years is your best bet.
ICRCC is absolutely correct: you MUST have smoke detectors in every bedroom as well as a Carbon Monoxide detector on each floor, no matter how you heat your house.
Heating with wood is more work - you just don't flick a switch and are magically warm. There's cutting, splitting, stacking, storing, hauling it inside, bits of wood everywhere........but I wouldn't trade it for anything - and I do it all myself (except cutting down the trees). I KNOW I'll be warm no matter what happens. 😉

i use a tank top heater
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/1/HeatingAirConditioning/PortableBaseboardHeaters/PRDOVR~0762130P/Remington+16%2C000+BTU+Single+Tank+Top+Heater.jsp?locale=en

for small needs
and

for another option

http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=41&id=116

Do you know of anyone that has used the buddy heater? I was just told they sell them at Princess Auto. I need something for my second floor and depending on the cost this seems like the best way for me to go.

The Remington heater will reportedly run for about 36 hours on low and about 27 hours on high. Thats a lot of propane tanks. If you have a situation where you have to heat your house I would suggest that you block off a small space to heat and let the remainder go cold. Know where to shut your water off and how to drain your plumbing. That way if your heat is off for an extended period you won't freeze and blow your pipes. Also remember to empty your toilet tank and lines as well.

Thanks once again. I didn't even think about emptying the toilet tank or about the pipes freezing. The idea for the buddy heater was so I wouldn't have to move my bearded dragons 😳

I got one of the Remington's yesterday. The product info. says it will heat at low for 45 hours an approx. area of 400 square feet with a typical 20lb propane (bbq) tank. In a bind, say in a major storm where loss of power and heat supply may be for a week or so this is not the best option, but we have the propane for this and it's better than nothing. However for any long range prepping, I agree way to much propane, and not a renewable source like wood!

Started looking into Wood stoves. wow. Why the heck didn't i look into these earlier? They will pay them selves off in 3-4 winters if my rough calc.'s are right!

ICRCC. Thanks for the info. on fire safety. The stats are staggering on CO poisoning. Basic fire safety should be a must, and I'm surprised at for the little bit of work to keep yourself safe how few people do it. We have 4 CO detectors, (one from monitoring co., two plug in, one battery operated), 3 Smoke Alarms (hardwired), 2 Smoke detectors (on monitoring service), and 6 Fire Extinguishers. One thing I was told by a local F.P.O. that I was guilty of, so will pass on the tip. when you check your smoke detectors, pressing the button just ensures the battery is operating. It does not mean the smoke detector is working. You have to physically light a match blow it out, and let the smoke activate it. For years I just pressed the lil button!

i use a tank top heater
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/1/HeatingAirConditioning/PortableBaseboardHeaters/PRDOVR~0762130P/Remington+16%2C000+BTU+Single+Tank+Top+Heater.jsp?locale=en

for small needs
and

for another option

http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=41&id=116

Do you know of anyone that has used the buddy heater? I was just told they sell them at Princess Auto. I need something for my second floor and depending on the cost this seems like the best way for me to go.

OLDSCHOOL.... do you remember how I heat my place???
Yes I use the Big Buddy most of the winter
use the smaller Coleman sportcat type heater right now with a bio mass over it to help radiate and store heat, much more efficient now and less propane moisture in the air by a good 3/4 measure!

I bought mine at Princess Auto,
right now In kijiji.ca there are some Buddy heaters there, offered in box, not used close to your location, or rather not so far away from you.

You buy the extenda hose or have one made, this can be run by a 100 lb tank with no other valve the pressure is the same in the 1 pint bottles to the 100 lb tank. This info direct from a fellow who has been selling and making up Propane products for over 30 yrs, no googling or youtube info, straight from the propane specialists mouth.

Price for 20 lb tank is about $17 price to fill 100 lb tank is about $70, so big savings there and a lot more volume. The tank always runs out in the middle of the night, so have a smaller 20 lb tank handy till you get the other one filled, you have 3-4 days only! (running 24x7)

Propane is expensive and running up in price. The Big Buddy heater will not go a full week on a 20 lb tank, so it is only for short emergencies.
That is why I am switching to wood, building a rocket mass heater in my camper/home, and have secondary portable lightweight camping wood stoves.