Yesterday the cold wave came through New York State. Friday I was out in the
truck, and managed to get stuck up to my axles in mud. And then Saturday the
weather went from 50's to 20's. What a change a day makes.

As many of you will remember, I posted a similar question last year about
this time. I can think of a couple situations where heating a house needs
done, and the usual furnace is not available. The situations include:

1) Furnace broken. I am thinking of a couple people I used to know, in
Buffalo, NY. They came home one day and found the house about 45F indoors.
The furnace was not doing its thing. They called several places, and finally
found a place that would take a check. In this situation, everything else in
the house was working, and the electric and gas were both on.

2) Power cut. Western NYS does power cuts about once a year, more often in
some places. The natural gas continues to work, and usually the telephone is
functioning. Many furnace won't work unless the electic opens the gas valve,
and powers the blower. Without electrical power, the plug in space heaters
are not functioning.

3) Both utilities off. This is incredibly rare, I've only heard of once in
NYS, and that from an elderly lady. She said there was one time when the
electric and the natural gas were both off, at the same time.

And so my questions a

a) What are the heat sources, or comfort sources that an average home owner
is likely to have to make life more comfortable?

b) for survivalists, what can we do to prepare ourselves before the
emergency heat need? What to buy, and what to have at home?

c) What are some of the creative ways of providing heat or warmth which
aren't obvious to the casual observation?

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..