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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: They do produce a lot of fumes, though, so like kerosene heaters, I'm worried about the birds Interesting, I've not noticed that, but I burn paraffin lamp oil: https://www.vermontlanterns.com/content/ultra-pure-clear-lamp-oil-24oz. What fumes are you worried about? |
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Originally Posted By djfromtx: Interesting, I've not noticed that, but I burn paraffin lamp oil: https://www.vermontlanterns.com/content/ultra-pure-clear-lamp-oil-24oz. What fumes are you worried about? Well, the old folks burned kerosene in them, and a couple of the antique lamps still have that in them--at least a dilute version of it. The newer lamps have lamp oil in them, but it's cheap lamp oil from (probably) walmart or some such. Kerosene smells foul when burned in a lamp, and that tells me there are also fumes. I can also smell the lamp oil when it burns, but my nose is pretty sensitive. the lamp oil may be just fine. I have to find out. But birds are extremely sensitive to any kind of fumes, and it's an easy way to kill them accidentally. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @grambosc what heater do you have? Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By grambosc: I learned that you should let the kerosene heater burn down to the dry wick at least occasionally, or the carbon / tar buildup will make it generate lots of soot and tall yellow flames but little heat. I also learned the fix is to pump all the fuel back out, disassemble it to the bare wick surface outside, light it and let it burn out, then scrape any remaining carbon from the wick gently with a flat blade screwdriver. Good as new, but a tough lesson to have to learn out in 10F weather on Christmas Day. After the next tank was burned all the way dry, the fiberglass wick tip was a beautiful clean white with no tar or carbon at all. They will self clean but you have to set them up for success. @grambosc what heater do you have? @Kitties-with-Sigs I have this old Kero-Sun Radiant 10, which my parents bought the year I was born, during the cold blast that contributed to the Air Florida Flight 90 crash into the Potomac in 1982. SC got a hard freeze from that system then that was similar to the one we got this Christmas, but of course I have no memory of it. Attached File Unfortunately new units of these are no longer sold in the US, but the OEM Toyosun does still supply wicks and parts for them through a distributor. They were very well made, and this one went through many wicks before my parents handed it down to me. |
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I was very lucky in that I never lost power. My electric provider is a co-op that kills anything higher than grass (or a veggie garden) that grows in their power right of way. Trees very rarely fall on the lines so our power is very reliable. Nothing built by man is perfect, but my power is reliable. My water supply is a well. I have heat tape on the lines outside. I found my weak point, in that the heat tape does not wrap around the brass stub going to the pressure switch. So that froze up, and I had to thaw it with a heat gun. I will be undoing all of the insulation and heat tape and reworking it so that brass stub is wrapped in heat tape. Nothing broken, no issues. I was spared any real problems completely. If the power had gone out we would have shut down the the power at the breaker and left for my dad's beach property to wait it out. |
Living vicariously through myself.
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Holy crap. -25 was your ambient temp, right? Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By phurba: We’re 100% off grid so no worries about utilities going down. We had two days of -25° and a few feet of snow. It was overcast so the solar array didn’t do a lot. I brought up 80 gallons of diesel for the generator, which ran about 5 hours a day. Instead of dropping the furnace to 60° at night I left it set at 70°, which kept the house around 61° most of the time. I opened sink cabinets at night but otherwise didn’t do anything differently. I had backup heat ready for the house and the battery room since lifepo batteries don’t like temperatures below 32°. The coldest I saw the battery room get was 34° and there were no issues. No problems with the well pump or septic. The diesel truck complained loudly about the temperature but it was fine once it warmed up. Never lost starlink, power, heat, or water (since we maintain all of those) but we have contingencies for all of them. Before the cold arrived we got a single grocery bag worth of food to supplement what we keep on hand. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/204273/11CEF30D-AF85-46CB-8AA4-A520503D295D-2644528.jpg Holy crap. -25 was your ambient temp, right? Yes, that’s from a wireless temperature probe outside. Wind chill was somewhere around -55°. I walked around outside for a bit at the coldest just to experience a 100° temperature swing from outside to inside  we did get some ice build up on internal door handles on exterior doors but it wasn’t a problem.
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If you see something, say nothing and drink to forget.
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Lack of respect, wrong attitude, failure to obey authority.
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Lack of respect, wrong attitude, failure to obey authority.
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @SigOwner_P229 So your buddy heaters....how do you supply those? Are you using a 20 lb tank for each? And you have extras that you refill? Or what? This is a loaded question, haha. Yes, using 20 lb tanks, except for when I use 30 lb or 100 lb (because I have those too). Extras? Oh, do I ever have extras... You know my background but others don't so a brief one here. I grew up a poor farm boy, fabricating & fixing things out of necessity because my dad couldn't afford newer equipment. I got a college education in engineering, ran a business, and run a farm and a fab & machine shop in addition to my day job. All that to say I am ALWAYS on the lookout for useful items being discarded as trash or sold cheap because of a perceived low value by the seller. 20 lb, 30 lb, 40 lb, and 100 lb LP tanks seem to be an indispensable prep item so I am always looking for them. I have around fifteen 20 lb tanks, the most expensive of which was $5 but that one came with a hose for the buddy heaters already on it. Most of the 20 lb tanks were free "because nobody will fill them old ones no more" (I traded them at an exchange place). My 30 lb tanks were $2 at an auction. My mom works for an auction company and one day they had an auction with terrible turnout, she bought every LP tank they sold for $2 each, there were 7 tanks total, some 20s & some 30s. My 100 lb tank was free from a friend that runs a restaurant and catering place. The power tripping health department lady wrote him up for something related to his LP tank on his kitchen trailer not being new enough or something so he just went and bought a new one. I noticed it in his scrap pile and asked if I could have it. As far as refill goes, I have it easy. My dad buys LP wholesale (he has storage capacity for over 30,000 gallons). I refill them all off of his bulk tanks. He never charges me, but that's likely because his costs are so low. Prior to the Biden oil/gas price hikes he was getting LP for around $0.50/gal, or a paltry $2.30 per refill on a 20 lb tank. It's closer to $1/gal now, but that's still under $5 per refill. As far as storage goes I have an abandoned house on my property that is in bad shape but good enough for storage. I keep my fuel stores on the open limestone porch of that house. It faces east and is well shaded from morning sun. It has shown to be an excellent fuel "depot". I usually keep a few 20 lb tanks in the attached garage ready for immediate use and the rest at the old house. |
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Bought new portable generator a few days before storm. Unboxed and checked it out. Good thing as it had no oil in it. Filled with oil and gas and ran it a few times before the bad weather started. Moved it inside to keep it above freezing. Made a pigtail connector for the furnace to route outside the basement if needed. Thankfully we didn’t lose power. The big lift started 18 months ago when we had natural gas ran to our house and swapped out our electric furnace to gas. We live in an all electric neighborhood and had one power event several years ago where we lost power in the winter. It was not as cold as this bout, but it started this planning. Next up is a larger natural gas generator and manual transfer switch for more circuits. Maybe a gas fireplace for backup heat. Five years we are moving to Florida. |
Death before dishonor, Drugs before lunch - Aspen Gun and Drug club.
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Kitties, regarding your door, could you use a heavy canvas tarp to block the wind? Depending on how the house is built, you could use screws thru the grommets, or mounts similar to these for hurricanes. You could attach heavy quilts to the inside of the canvas for added insulation. https://www.hurricanefabric.com/ |
| For the first time I tried making an impromptu greenhouse with greenhouse cloth from Amazon. I draped it over a chicken tractor I was growing lettuce and wild tomatoes in. 2 layers of the cloth. It worked, the lettuce was fine. The tomato vines died but are now growing back from the roots, and seedling tomatoes survived fine. Zone 8b, with several mornings getting down into the high teens. |
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Originally Posted By Skinnywater: Kitties, regarding your door, could you use a heavy canvas tarp to block the wind? Depending on how the house is built, you could use screws thru the grommets, or mounts similar to these for hurricanes. You could attach heavy quilts to the inside of the canvas for added insulation. https://www.hurricanefabric.com/ That's a really interesting idea. I didn't want to cover the whole door because I wanted the light, but there might come a time when covering the whole door is necessary. There is always the "I don't wanna make holes in that 180 year old trim moulding that was hand cut by Shakers," going on, but in a really, truly, bad situation, that priority will fall way down the list. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By SwampFrog: For the first time I tried making an impromptu greenhouse with greenhouse cloth from Amazon. I draped it over a chicken tractor I was growing lettuce and wild tomatoes in. 2 layers of the cloth. It worked, the lettuce was fine. The tomato vines died but are now growing back from the roots, and seedling tomatoes survived fine. Zone 8b, with several mornings getting down into the high teens. @SwampFrog what is y'all's normal low for winter? |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @SwampFrog what is y'all's normal low for winter? It is normal to have several freezes into the low 20Fs, and we’ll dip down into the teens every other winter. What’s more unusual is for the freezes to last most that a few hours before daylight. It is common to have a freeze at daylight and then highs in the 60s or 70s during the day, making it practical to cover sensitive plants with little effort. This Christmas freeze kept us below freezing most of the day for a couple of days. |
| We had a 33hr outage during the time we were seeing single digit temps. The standby whole house generator did it's thing and made it a non-event. Two 500 gal. LP tanks 70% full provided for the gen & furnace when temps were too low for the heat pump. Hosted a family dinner and gift exchange for kids & grandkids during the outage |
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Originally Posted By nikdfish: We had a 33hr outage during the time we were seeing single digit temps. The standby whole house generator did it's thing and made it a non-event. Two 500 gal. LP tanks 70% full provided for the gen & furnace when temps were too low for the heat pump. Hosted a family dinner and gift exchange for kids & grandkids during the outage That's the system we would all love to have I think! What does your normal pre-season, and pre-storm maintenance, checks, spare parts, "emergency for the emergency" look like? |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Topping off propane before hurricane season & any time tank average is < 50%. Oil & filters for 3 changes on the standby gen. Annual service on generator, seasonal maintenance on heat pump & furnace help avoid surprises. Defence in depth includes regular maintenance & running under load for the 7kw & 2kw portable generators. If necessary, the 7k can handle well & furnace. Also maintaining spare fuel for portables (7 jugs of propane for the 7 kw, the 2k burns gas), diesel for tractors, gas & mix oil for saws, as a normal thing. We had a couple of pines come down but nothing that needed handling before the weather improved. Pallet forks that fit both the 1025R & 3038E are handy for that sort of thing. We generally try to keep the pantry & freezer stocked well enough cover our needs for a few weeks (month+?) & meds for 30 - 90 days |
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Did my preps work? Yes and no. Things worked out because I was prepared, not because of something I bought and put away for an emergency. It wasn't a gadget or supply that helped when my furnace started acting up on the coldest day of the year. It was my ability to figure out what was wrong and fix it. Ok, some tools came in handy and they worked fine and are sort of prep items. But I saved myself a few hundred dollars by fixing it myself. Our house has a couple of gas fireplaces and I could have broken out the electric or kero. heaters. Only the fireplaces were necessary though, we spent a night with the temp in the house around 60 degrees and I had the furnace running within 24 hours. A pipe burst in one of my apartments and I was out of reception range, fixing fences on my farm, the day after Christmas when it happened. My wife and I were hauling stuff back to the barn when she got the text from our property manager. Having a good maintenance guy that was on the ball helped us out. By the time we pulled in he was working on the last leak (broke in 3 places). I've since replaced the section of broken pipe with new copper, replaced the ceiling, finished the drywall and painted the ceiling(one coat so far). I'll be installing flooring by this weekend. Being able to do these things myself and having the work ethic to do it is the only reason the apartments make us any money. My wife and I had deer tags and were going to try to get a good buck after fixing fences. The weather was perfect, 20 degrees with a 15-20mph west wind and a few inches of snow. Unfortunately, leaking pipes intervened and we never got that buck. |
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Originally Posted By Lapidary: Did my preps work? Yes and no. Things worked out because I was prepared, not because of something I bought and put away for an emergency. It wasn't a gadget or supply that helped when my furnace started acting up on the coldest day of the year. It was my ability to figure out what was wrong and fix it. Ok, some tools came in handy and they worked fine and are sort of prep items. But I saved myself a few hundred dollars by fixing it myself. Our house has a couple of gas fireplaces and I could have broken out the electric or kero. heaters. Only the fireplaces were necessary though, we spent a night with the temp in the house around 60 degrees and I had the furnace running within 24 hours. A pipe burst in one of my apartments and I was out of reception range, fixing fences on my farm, the day after Christmas when it happened. My wife and I were hauling stuff back to the barn when she got the text from our property manager. Having a good maintenance guy that was on the ball helped us out. By the time we pulled in he was working on the last leak (broke in 3 places). I've since replaced the section of broken pipe with new copper, replaced the ceiling, finished the drywall and painted the ceiling(one coat so far). I'll be installing flooring by this weekend. Being able to do these things myself and having the work ethic to do it is the only reason the apartments make us any money. My wife and I had deer tags and were going to try to get a good buck after fixing fences. The weather was perfect, 20 degrees with a 15-20mph west wind and a few inches of snow. Unfortunately, leaking pipes intervened and we never got that buck. So.....what about your preps did not work? You said, "yes and no" but it looks like your preps worked perfectly. Or were not needed. What was the "no"? |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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We gave the generators some exercise (just ran them with some space heaters plugged in), but otherwise this winter has been a giant non-event for us. Of course, we are used to the cold and wind and snow up here, and we've yet to lose power. I have the "big" generator pre-positioned at the power pole by the transfer switch and covered by a tarp, ready to go, but it hasn't been needed yet this winter. We are on a well, propane heat, so as long as we have power, we are biz as normal. We had a couple good snow storms move through the last few weeks, giving us about 2' snow pack (more fell, but it has compacted down now). The blower on the 316 (new Honda engine was a GOOOOOOD call there) and my little skid steer did their jobs, and did them pretty well. All the equipment got new tire chains this year, and I went with HD 2 link ladder chains on both the skiddy and 316. Other than losing some work days to snow cleanup, no biggie up here. I'm going to buy another generator this spring as we now have 2 locations that may need it with the cabin, plus my big Champion is approaching 1000 hours. |
Strong men create good times. Good times breed weak men. Weak men create hard times. (You are here) Hard times breed strong men.
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Originally Posted By Rat_Patrol: We gave the generators some exercise (just ran them with some space heaters plugged in), but otherwise this winter has been a giant non-event for us. Of course, we are used to the cold and wind and snow up here, and we've yet to lose power. I have the "big" generator pre-positioned at the power pole by the transfer switch and covered by a tarp, ready to go, but it hasn't been needed yet this winter. We are on a well, propane heat, so as long as we have power, we are biz as normal. We had a couple good snow storms move through the last few weeks, giving us about 2' snow pack (more fell, but it has compacted down now). The blower on the 316 (new Honda engine was a GOOOOOOD call there) and my little skid steer did their jobs, and did them pretty well. All the equipment got new tire chains this year, and I went with HD 2 link ladder chains on both the skiddy and 316. Other than losing some work days to snow cleanup, no biggie up here. I'm going to buy another generator this spring as we now have 2 locations that may need it with the cabin, plus my big Champion is approaching 1000 hours. When I was growing up, we always had chains for the vehicles for bad storms. Now I wouldn't even know where to buy them. I remember there was a huge snow/ice storm while I was dating uxb more than 30 years ago. Uxb's brother had gone down a huge hill to do some hiking, had chains in his trunk, but had to call for help because he didn't know how to put them on. We drove out there and I showed him how. It bothers me that so many skills I once had, are going away with time. 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @trvln Do you store those in a freeze-proof place? Interested in how you were handling it, and what you are considering for future. Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By trvln: yep. I store 40 gals of filtered water but with the water out for a week I realize I need a back up water source. @trvln Do you store those in a freeze-proof place? Interested in how you were handling it, and what you are considering for future. |
| Changed the oil in the generator and topped off with fresh gas today since it was nice out. I have been getting into the habit of running the generator when I am out back cutting grass. It takes me about 25 min to cut the backyard. Hopefully will not need the generator this winter but glad to have it. |
Death before dishonor, Drugs before lunch - Aspen Gun and Drug club.
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Originally Posted By Slingblade2006: Changed the oil in the generator and topped off with fresh gas today since it was nice out. I have been getting into the habit of running the generator when I am out back cutting grass. It takes me about 25 min to cut the backyard. Hopefully will not need the generator this winter but glad to have it. I need to get mine out and set up. Still in the box from last year. Life has happened this year. So not prepared.  
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: I need to get mine out and set up. Still in the box from last year. Life has happened this year. So not prepared. Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By Slingblade2006: Changed the oil in the generator and topped off with fresh gas today since it was nice out. I have been getting into the habit of running the generator when I am out back cutting grass. It takes me about 25 min to cut the backyard. Hopefully will not need the generator this winter but glad to have it. I need to get mine out and set up. Still in the box from last year. Life has happened this year. So not prepared. At the minimum, take it out of the box and see if you need to add oil. Mine came dry. Also if you get gas use some fuel stabilizer. I have got in the habit of just adding it to the lawn mower gas now. |
Death before dishonor, Drugs before lunch - Aspen Gun and Drug club.
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Old thread but prepped a bit more for the coming winter. Always need more! Portable tri fuel genny (or 2 in my case) should help w/well, home essentials, have 240/120 inverters, not smoke and noise. Propane tank tapped w/wet line in case 20# bottles are needed (backup is good to have along w/non-corn gas, YMMV). Well House/shop/home setup w/at least manual transfer switches, turn on only what you need, when you need. Past water, fridges/freezers and some heat, one should be able to outrun the bear for a few weeks. Be sure you have any potential freeing pipes etc (tankless water heaters need power, don't want those things to freeze and break) GTG. W/out water, nothing lives. Wait, TX doesn't freeze! |