3 sources of fuel.

[jansman]

Continuing the '3 sources' theme...

Today I visited my Mother and her husband at their new home. They have purchased a rather palatial Park Home. Not my choice, but nice nonetheless. They have electricity and bottle gas. They have the option of a large tank if they choose or oil.

The guy two clicks down has the same, plus solar electricity/ hot water AND a multi fuel stove. I noticed too, that he had a container veg garden. Nice chap. He openly told me his fuel mix helped him deal with Winter, as those places are not energy efficient.

Fuel is a complex issue. Myself, I have gas cooking and central heating. Electric, solid fuel heating( my primary choice for ten odd years now), and I am messing with solar too. I have a couple of generators, wind up lights and radio, back up battery LED and portable gas cooking. Chuck in Kelly Kettle and my top 'o' the range Weber bbq ( my youngest sells 'em) we have options.

But mainstream we are talking mains leccy, gas and coal/ wood. What about yourselves?

[Brambles]

This is the one area I feel least in control of. I live in rented accommodation so I'm stuck with what the landlord provides. Mains leccy and gas for heating and cooking is the order of the day. I can't afford to have a solid fuel burner fitted, even if I wanted to, so I have other alterntives. Several years ago I got a couple of Aladdin Blueflame heaters and did them up, they are now my alternative heat source, I have a couple of Feurhand Paraffin lanterns some battery operated lanterns for light, a couple of suitcase gas stoves and a couple of Trangia type meths stoves for cooking, oh and a bucket BBQ. I recently built a 20W Solar generator that happily charges a small leisure battery, which in turn runs a 12V light and charges batteries and the small electricals.
The house itself is very easy to heat and holds the heat well but I still feel a bit insecure after all that.

[jansman]

Impressive! The portable gas heaters are good. Economical too. My brother has one in his flat, as like you, he has to use what the landlord provides. Living as we do in the Northern Hemisphere heating is the issue.

[Deeps]

The heating is a funny one for me, even in winter I'm toasty so I don't put the heating on until Her Maj comes home. We're mains lecky/gas and although we've got solar panels (brilliant, highly recommend them) if the grid goes down so do the panels (because they feed into the grid they might give someone a bite who's repairing the line). We're in a new build too so I'm keen to get a wood burner put in although its not urgent. If we have some kind of mains failure then its down to the zombie stores, I've got an array of battery powered lights, a camping gas light which is really bright and as the ultimate back up thousands of hours worth of candles.

For cooking I've got briefcase cookers (with I think between 20 and 30 spare cannisters, a coleman dual fuel with a couple of bottles of the 'proper' fuel and of course the alternative in everybody's drive. A couple of camping gas stoves with (I think 5 or 6 large and a couple of small cannisters, a few hexy burners with about a 100 (maybe a bit less now) tablets, about 5 bags of charcoal for the chiminea and a load (not massive but in the process of getting more in) of wood for the chiminea/fire pit. If I'm reduced to the chiminea or fire pit for cooking then the things would be pretty serious, this is if I'm still in my own gaff of course.

For heating it will be layers and blankets/duvets, as I said its a new build so pretty warm anyway (unless you're a princess ) I've not got any alternatives to mains at the moment and I can't foresee us getting any. I'd love to get a wood burner, we're 'wood adjacent' but it would be hard to justify the expense, our forefathers coped just fine and I'm all right Jack, its just Her Maj that bothers so we're golden.

[Brambles]

It's the other way round here, Deeps. The Brambling feels the cold something awful since his illness and I'm the one stripped down to a T-shirt.

I didn't live with central heating til I was in my twenties so I'm not bothered about whole house heating. I still don't have the heating on in my bedroom. For an emergency I have borrowed Diamond Lil's idea of a hurricane lantern in the bathroom to stop any freezing of pipes and then the Paraffin heaters for the main room (with a passive dehumudifier) I well remember the damp!

[Arzosah]

I didn't live with central heating til I was in my twenties so I'm not bothered about whole house heating. I still don't have the heating on in my bedroom.

Me too! Yay, another kindred spirit Even in deepest winter, I don't put the heating on till I get up, which comes from years of having no timer on the central heating even when I *did* have it I do feel the cold myself, but I live in a smallish 3 bedder with loft insulation and cavity insulation, and mostly new double glazing to boot. With gas c.h. and hob, plus mains leccy, my dual fuel bill is £34 pm though once the surplus dosh sitting with them is used up, it will probably go to about £40.

Fuel is where I'm most vulnerable too. I have a camping stove, with just a few cartridges.

I have a rocket stove, with lots of lengths of twigs and branches - I have a planned set up to use it safely indoors (by an open window that isn't overlooked, basically, on ceramic tile and sitting on the supports of an old gas hob, so it isn't touching the floor.

I have an old, 19th century barbecue - it sits in the chimney area as a feature as its very pretty, and could be used as is.

I already use a sun kettle - I set it up first thing, and it takes a half litre of water about halfway to boiling after a few hours. It would certainly cut down on the fuel I needed to gather in a grid down situation.

Heating in winter heating would be burning wood in the BBQ I think, at the moment. I know its carcinogenic, and I'd have ventilation (a.k.a. open windows)

Hmmm. I've been threatening to do this for years, but since I have no paid work today, I'm finally, **finally** going to figure out what I need to do to get back up leccy up and running. There are loads of threads on here, there's the Bugging In book (which I actually understood when I read it) and Hamradioop has even been kind enough to pm me about my setup. Time to put it into action, I think. I see a lot of hints around me that if the economy falls apart, it's going to do it really quickly

Jansman, thanks for starting this thread.

[dangerman]

Impressive! The portable gas heaters are good. Economical too. My brother has one in his flat, as like you, he has to use what the landlord provides. Living as we do in the Northern Hemisphere heating is the issue.

I have one of those in my garage. I always used to use it when I lived alone - I had a bad experience with my power company so I protested by not using their gas.

I stopped using it though because I've got the kids and I worry about carbon monoxide. Anyone know how I can check if it's safe? How can these fires be safe to use indoors with no dangerous exhaust fumes?

[Brambles]

@Dangerman, if you contact your local Fire Brigade, they will not only help you get smoke and carbon monoxide alarms set up, but can prob put you in touch with a company to get your stuff checked for safety and efficiency.

[Hamradioop]

carbon monoxide alarms are recommended in any home use open flame heating or cooking as far as I recall.

resouces available: gas barbie, twin burner camping stove and grill, 2 x single burners, 1x rocket stove, 3 x hexy cookers and load of fuel, large battery operated lantern and spare batteries, wind up lantern x2, small battery lantern, 8 hand torches plus space batteries, Chiminea, trangia meths stove and fuel. 1 large and 1 small LPG heater.

large lantern and small hand torch loaned to Mother in law last night for on going power cut, cooker turned down. Power went off at 20.00hrs estimated return 23.30hrs local sub station fault according to sse power distribution.

[Deeps]

carbon monoxide alarms are recommended in any home use open flame heating or cooking as far as I recall.

resouces available: gas barbie, twin burner camping stove and grill, 2 x single burners, 1x rocket stove, 3 x hexy cookers and load of fuel, large battery operated lantern and spare batteries, wind up lantern x2, small battery lantern, 8 hand torches plus space batteries, Chiminea, trangia meths stove and fuel. 1 large and 1 small LPG heater.

large lantern and small hand torch loaned to Mother in law last night for on going power cut, cooker turned down. Power went off at 20.00hrs estimated return 23.30hrs local sub station fault according to sse power distribution.

Doh ! Forgot about my Trangia, probably my favourite as well, I've had one for about 30 years.