We are back on the grid after a few days out. The power came on for a two hour period yesterday but thankfully I didn't fully trust it would stay on so we rushed around refilling the bathtub and washing dishes and taking showers.

We broke out the kerosene heater...that was still in the box after two years (cough cough - hand slap) Regardless after reading the instruction manual and putting it together it worked perfectly. There was a little stink but with a window cracked it was ok and it created really nice heat.

It does make you so thankful for daily conveniences!! Water coming out of a tap is quite something!!

Part of my prepping is that I collect oil lamps. I have about 20 of all shapes and sizes.So, all I did was light 8 of them in the basement. Do you know how much heat one of those throws?
It wasn't toasty warm but, it was comfortable. Now that I have electricity back I can sit down and look at what worked and what didn't. Perhaps that is a good topic for discussion, what worked,what didn't and lessons learned.
I know many are still without power but, full restoration should only be another 36 hours at the most.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.

We were lucky and did not lose power, we heat by woodstove anyway so would have been fine. Hubby made me open my present early - a beautiful Aladin lamp, he didn't realize it takes a different wick than a oil lamp. Thought was there and I love it, can order parts for it thankfully.

One of our lessons learned is to keep some road salt and sand on hand, wood ash only goes so far.

Hey everyone!

I haven't had the power gone out once, I guess living in downtown Toronto, they don't like to screw with the power, as chaos is more likely to develop in a heavy downtown core. Unfortunately, I've been heading to work the last two days, there are many people from all over the GTA who seem to be without power.

I'm already reading up on people starting to lose it in confrontation, public transportation, gas stations, etc.

It was a good drill or rather a good scare I'm going to run some wires for the generator and adding a battery maintainer to make sure the battery is going to be charged when I need it.

I'd like to rig up a generator to a stationary bike just for quick use like topping off the water tanks and such so I don't have to start the diesel generator so often

Nothing really happened here but it gave me a nice kick in the butt to get my wood stove relined sooner rather then later.

Relined? you mean with firebrick?
I forget where I saw it but someone said you can order firebrick by the box (12 or 24pcs) from Home Hardware at a great price.

Relined? you mean with firebrick?
I forget where I saw it but someone said you can order firebrick by the box (12 or 24pcs) from Home Hardware at a great price.

Thank you. I thought I would have to go to Brampton to Fire Brick BBQ

I have been lucky these past days and not lost power.

While I do have a standby generator , I discovered monday 16th before the ice storm weekend,
that my generator ( all of 4 months old ) would not start in the cold weather. The generator
was attempting it's weekly testing , and would not start. So I called and
they came next day and said it needed a new propane regulator and they would be back. They have still not been
back to fix that part, however they did come on sunday and while it was warmer did get it to
start manually and it is in AUTO. When the 1st repair man left, he had disconnected everything
and the owner was not amused, as he said it would probably come on when warmer.
Within 1/2 hour after he had been hear, I started to get brownouts and dimmed lights.

So even with a generator , you still need alternate plans. I felt like a sitting duck waiting
for the power to go off. I filled loads of pails of water, and I did all the laundry , and
cleaned up all the dishes etc, and pulled out the candles, batteries, and the emergency radio.
I have a peak 1 stove, coleman 2 burner stove, ecozoom stove, and sterno stove and fuel
But I made my tea in a big thermos so if it went out I already had a head start on warm liquid.

I am weak on alternate heating .

I do have a fireplace, but it is very bad, it smokes out the house. So I don't use it.
I was wondering about a multifuel fireplace insert ? Any comments on this. ?

What is that rule of " 3 " for a prepper ? is it 3 = 1 , while 1 or 2 = none.

I need more heating options .

All these people without power in this incredible cold and at xmas is not good. I hope
many of them will start prepping after this.

I do have a fireplace, but it is very bad, it smokes out the house. So I don't use it.
I was wondering about a multifuel fireplace insert ? Any comments on this. ?

I'm rather curious why it would smoke like that. Fireplaces won't burn well till the chimney heats up, or it isn't high enough above the roofline, or the trees have grown too high around it. All these things will promote a downdraft.
Or maybe it's just one of those "for show" fireplaces.
Inserts are a lot of money for something if you rarely use it. An insert will probably need a steel chimney inside the brick one. This heats up fast and gives a good draw, brick chimneys take a while to warm and need to stay warm to give a good draft and keep creosote from forming on the cold surface. Short "evening" fires are a bad thing - you'll need to clean it regularly. Long fires (of adequate heat) of many days with dry hardwood and you'll never need a cleaning.

Is there a lot of cold air flowing down the chimney? When things settle down some can you try to blow warm room air up the chimney for a few hours before trying a fire? Check if it isn't blocked with leaves or other debris? When the chimney is cold we always burned a few sheets of crumpled newspaper first to "warm the chimney" and start an updraft before lighting the fire itself. Then a small hot fire with small sized wood to get a draft started and keep it going. Cedar or pine is good, lots of resins that burn hot. Once the chimney has warmed some it should create it's own draft upwards and you can get larger, slower burning wood started.

My chimney has a big bend . I was getting it cleaned every fall. But the last time he cleaned
it I just stopped using it. Yes you have to light paper and hold it up high and warm the chimney
up , but hours later, you still can not just have a low burning log, you have to have a
BIG bonfire going on in the fireplace to prevent smoke coming in the room and smoking out the house.
I also was told by the chimney cleaner, to make the fire near the rear of the fireplace and not up the front.

As soon as big flames go down , smoke comes in the house. And my eyes get blurry and blood shot
I have not used it in some years now, so converting it to something makes more sense.
Something that will burn corn ,and other pellets ( in case corn not available or supply
ran out that year )

Perhaps they will have something at a home show in the spring. I would need to check with the
insurance company but I would think a fireplace insert would be safer than burning logs in a
regular fireplace. Some inserts I understand will allow some heat to enter the room in the
event of hydro failure when the fan blower will not work.

info on corn fireplace inserts
http://www.alternative-heating.com/corn-burning-fireplace-insert.html

This one also burns CORN, grain, not just pellets.
http://friendlyfires.ca/products/enviro-m55-multi-fuel/

Same company with other regular pellet fireplace inserts
http://friendlyfires.ca/product-category/hearthproducts/pellet-stoves-fireplaces-inserts/pellet-inserts-fireplaces/

Another company, This one is just pellets
http://www.canadianbiofuel.ca/residential/fireplace-inserts/

This idea might not work, as the auger feeding the corn or pellets requires hydro 🙁

While no expert it sounds like the flue is too large to maintain velocity. Poor design.
An insert would probably require a steel pipe inside the existing chimney, most likely solving the problem. Certainly a sealed insert would prevent the backdraft problems you're having.
I'm not a fan of biomass burners, corn or pellet. None have the independence of a wood burner but that all depends on your supply of wood. If you're paying someone to cut, split and deliver you're hardly independent.

Natural gas heaters that will run with no electricity will probably be your cheapest, most reliable answer assuming you have gas available. Most will have a fan that you can run, but some you can use without the fan running.

I don't have natural gas, only propane which I was hoping to reserve that just for the standby generator.
As eventually that will run out . Yes you can phone for more propane, but who knows if they will be able
to deliver or how fast depending on the situation.

As for wood, I used to get the smallest amount and I paid for someone else as you
said, to cut, split and deliver . I used so little of it, that it would last awhile, too long,
that it would get full of mice droppings / nests and the last batch had alot of ants , so gave it
all away . I kept mine in the garage. It was a headache and the fact that the chimney smokes
did not make it enjoyable. I have no supply of wood to cut down on my lot. I only have
access to twigs / branches for the rocket stove.

And yes the idea would be to have a steel pipe inside the chimney attached to the insert.

We got a mix of snow and ice but never lost power. Definitely grateful for that.

It was great to be in a position to not worry if we lost power for a week or so - we have the wood stove for heat, a propane cooking stove, candles, flashlights, generators and zip lock bags!

Something some folks have not mentioned, but it is a very simple thing and probably most if not all on this site already know this, is keep your freezer full - full freezers stay frozen longer than partially full freezers - and zip lock bags are great for collecting snow, or hunks of ice, to help keep fridges and freezers cold (although you have to check and change them periodically).

Now the husband is really pushing for a generator - not that I disagree with the need for a generator - but the concern over keeping the Christmas tree lights lit 😉

What we heard was a couple of things - some gas stations running out of gas in Ottawa, and grocery stores facing shortages because their warehouses in Toronto were without power and can't move product. Lesson we noted - just because your area may not be in the direct line of disaster, if you supply chain is impacted you need to be prepared and aware.

PS - Belated Merry Christmas folks.