Heating for SHTF and in general.

[poppypiesdad]

Polystyrene tiles on your ceiling is also an idea, )

I could be wrong but I thought they banned them due to the fact that in a fire they would melt feeding the fire more and would rain down molten plastic on your head as well?

j

[handyandy]

It wasn't unknown in some older properties for vents to be fitted next to the fireplace in wooden floors to encourage airflow under the floor . Feeds the fire and the airflow kept the joists dry.

true!in fact just checking my plans for house im building and there is a specific vent/air inlet required with piping to take fresh air right to the base of the fire so im guessing its building regs
(though my floors will be screeded so air vent pipe will be buried in that)

[grenfell]

Nick's mention of curtains reminds me of something else. Pelmets . Ok they may sound like the sort of thing granny had but they help by effectively blocking the " hole" at the top of the curtains and thus preventing thermosyphoning which is where air is drawn in at the top , cools on contact with the glass and comes out at the bottom of the curtain.

[nickdutch]

Nick's mention of curtains reminds me of something else. Pelmets . Ok they may sound like the sort of thing granny had but they help by effectively blocking the " hole" at the top of the curtains and thus preventing thermosyphoning which is where air is drawn in at the top , cools on contact with the glass and comes out at the bottom of the curtain.

Great idea! Two old pairs of trousers horizontal and stuffed in the 'ole might do it

[ForgeCorvus]

Its one of life's mysteries, women generally have a higher fat content than men (not in our case, I'm the chunky) so should in theory not feel the cold as much but for some reason it doesn't seem to be the case.

The reasoning behind this that I read is:
Women have evolved to feel the cold more to encourage them to create a warm living space thereby keeping the kids (who are smaller and therefore more prone to hypothermia) from dying.
Blokes traditionally provided food by hunting and so need to feel the cold less in order to go out and run down a mammoth or WHY in the middle of winter.

Same evolutionary trick as to why women tend to have a better sense of smell (they are better able to detect spoilage so the kids don't get food poisoning and die).


And the higher body fat percentage?
Its shall we say more localised then on a guy


Back OT
Door curtains, not just on the outside doors but on the ones between your main rooms and the rest of the house.

[jansman]

Polystyrene tiles on your ceiling is also an idea, )

I could be wrong but I thought they banned them due to the fact that in a fire they would melt feeding the fire more and would rain down molten plastic on your head as well?

j

You are right. They were banned by building regs years ago. My cousin who is a fireman , says they will not enter a building where they are in place and on fire for the reason you mention.

[MissPrep]

Nick's mention of curtains reminds me of something else. Pelmets . Ok they may sound like the sort of thing granny had but they help by effectively blocking the " hole" at the top of the curtains and thus preventing thermosyphoning which is where air is drawn in at the top , cools on contact with the glass and comes out at the bottom of the curtain.

Another advantage of pelmets being that they also help to block light showing at night - since I fitted pelmets, people keep thinking that there is nobody home.
My curtains (on doors & windows) are to the floor & lined both for blackout & heating reasons.
I've got blackout blinds on the windows too for the same dual reasons.


I'm currently saving for an Esse plus 1 for the kitchen with a back boiler, so if SHTF can just hold off for a couple of years, I'll be all set!

For now I've just got a couple of those gas canister heaters with 15kg butane cylinders in (for a short term solution e.g broken central heating or power cuts), a chimnea outdoors, quite a few bags of charcoal etc.. to burn in it (I pick it up on sale at the end of each summer) a LOT of blankets, about a dozen hotwater bottles & lots of warm clothes.

I'd like to source a small cheap multifuel stove to fit in my front room with the ability to fit a kettle on the top, but they all seem to have the space taken up by the flue.
It will have to be defra compliant for me to have one in the house at present.
(I can see a few thousand trees from my kitchen window & I figure no one will be enforcing defra rules if everything goes that badly wrong so I can just burn a bit of that.)

The one thing nobody seems to have mentioned that I have to do with heating is a room thermometer.
I got them because I would often think I was cold if I'd been inside all day, then look & find the room was 21 degrees +.
Now instead of turning the heating up, I either go outside for a minute & get back in to realise the house is really warm or put on a big thick knitted poncho (you can get them everywhere pretty cheap at the moment as they are 'fashionable') or a dressing gown.

I grew up in a cold draughty house where you could only tell the heating was on if you touched the radiators.
If I was you OP, I'd concentrate on making one room warm first & invest in layers of clothes.
Personally I'd pick the kitchen, because any cooking you do will add to the general warmth of that room.
If your kitchen chairs are wooden/plastic/metal/leather put cushions on them, cloth feels warmer.
If you have wooden/laminate floors, lino or tiles, consider a rug, they also feel warmer underfoot.


If you go to the Calor gas shop online at the moment, they have calor gas heaters on offer from about £112 delivered included a full 15kg bottle of gas if you don't have one
http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/in-the-home ... aters.html
A refill is about £35 once you already have a bottle to swap, a new 15kg bottle full of gas is about £80, so that means you get the heater for about £30 brand new from a reputable source.
Not saying that's the best prices, but it's the best ones I know of at present.

[MissPrep]

Forgot to add this quote from a short article about heating in uk houses.

"Comfort cannot be defined absolutely, but the World Health Organization's standard for warmth says 18C (64F) is suitable for healthy people who are appropriately dressed. For those with respiratory problems or allergies, they recommend a minimum of 16C (60.8C); and for the sick, disabled, very old or very young, a minimum of 20C (68F)."


source http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12606943

[Waterbaby]

We've only had central heating the last few years.
Prior to this we progressed from paraffin heaters,to calor gas,to electric oil filled radiators,to woodburners.
What I said before about an electric blanket and a warm dog,echo the need to know you're not getting into an ice cold bed at night.Its a morale thing really.
We actually taped off spare rooms in the Winter.
Thermal vests are a great investment.
And wheatie microwave warmers.
Obviously in a shtf situation where they may be no gas or electric,ahot water bottle or hot potato may have to suffice.

[preparedsurrey]

If you go to the Calor gas shop online at the moment, they have calor gas heaters on offer from about £112 delivered included a full 15kg bottle of gas if you don't have one
http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/in-the-home ... aters.html
A refill is about £35 once you already have a bottle to swap, a new 15kg bottle full of gas is about £80, so that means you get the heater for about £30 brand new from a reputable source.
Not saying that's the best prices, but it's the best ones I know of at present.

Just a quick heads up the bottled gas prices are to be honest a rip off, unless you are buying 20 or 30 cylinders at a time, 15kg of gas is about 30l so its costing £1 per litre, current LPG autogas pump prices range between 54p and 70p. If you are using bottle gas a lot you can quite quickly start saving money by buying a purpose designed home refillable cylinder which you can fill yourself from the autogas pump at the garage.
Also if its really cold (below zero) the Blue bottles (Butane) are no use, you need the red bottles (propane)