10 Ways You Can Stay Warm When The Power Goes Out

today's video is made possible by our friends at simplisafe welcome back friends to the shop this morning i was going over comments that i'd received from yesterday's video and one of you really took me to task on something that i have kind of overlooked now kind of being the self-described preparedness guy i have not said anything or even commented upon the tragedy it was going on in texas with folks they're freezing to death down there now to be honest i wasn't even aware of the extent of this um uh of this incident until he brought this to my attention i've almost completely like cut myself off from media so i went on there and looked and i had no idea to the extent what to what extent it was that people were dying down there people were trying to stay warm in their clothes it was just or in their cars it was just heartbreaking so i want to share with you the top 10 things that a person can do to keep yourself and your family warm in that environment in a home that doesn't have any electricity now i can speak to this because we live in an area that loses we lose electricity all the time and when we moved into our off or our last place our last homestead i think that first week we were there we were nine days without power or electricity or heat so it's not something that is alien to me so i want to cover it we're going to cover some things that you can do in the future for problems and some things you can do right now with what you have in the house so let's start with number one i made some notes here on my phone so i'm going to reference that just so i stay on task here but we're going to talk about propane heaters now your propane heaters be careful with those there's two types there's propane heaters that are catalytic that are designed that to use inside of a house that are safe and those that are not not all propane heaters are safe but something like this a little heat buddy is a really great asset to have these are pretty affordable they are safe to run inside an rv or a house and they take the little green bottles on the side now you're going to want to get the adapter kit they're not expensive it's an adapter hose you're going to want to adapt this to a large tank now i know this might not be helpful to you right now and i've been told that propane is is pretty scarce and not even available this is something that you might want to be able to think about getting in the future you should have three of these you probably already have two for your gas grill just get an extra one three of these will run that heater on medium for the better part of a week propane is really nice for this type of a thing because it does two things it heats and it cooks so you can put your gas grill your camping thing on there and the storage is is pretty much indefinite it's not going to go bad on you and you can buy it set it aside and it's going to be there when you need it one other thing that's real handy that we've made use of when we'd lost power for a long time were these small butane stoves now these are a lot of people use these for camping you know you can't get that thing to lock until you right here but these little guys are great and they're cheap i've seen these things for as cheap as like twenty dollars there's lots of different brands are essentially all the same thing but you should have a couple of these things and these are the fuel bottles that they run on and these will store indefinitely so not only will this cook but it will heat as well it's not going to have as long it's not going to last as long because of the small bottles but at least you can hook up or heat up some beans or some stew with that it's a really great combination to have also please please please get yourself a carbon monoxide alarm there's it's i i couldn't believe there are families entire families that have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning for lack of a 20 dollar alarm that you can you can plug in and um or have battery operated it's just such a shame this is going to detect that and what's sad is and i saw this with the fire department as a first responder what's really common with folks is even if they have a generator the power will go out and i've seen them run the generator outside the garage being responsible understanding that carbon monoxide is deadly and going to bed and not realizing that the cold air intake for the furnace system was in the garage and it sucked all that carbon monoxide in the house and they went to sleep and never woke up it's tragedy it's a 20 alarm would have made all the difference in the world so the propane is a really good way to go number two is the co2 sensor number three um can bring everyone together and try to make your stand in the smallest part of your house as possible probably somewhere around the kitchen and the living room take towels and roll them up and put them underneath all of the doors if you have a two-story house and you have a staircase going upstairs all of the heat that you're able to save or produce is going to rush right up those stairs and go away so take some sheets or some painters plastic or tarps or anything you have and close all of that off make sure that you you you get yourself in the smallest living area as possible there's a reason why folks before we had power families lived in small houses all living in the same room it's because it takes a lot of energy to heat these big mansions these big houses that we have and you don't want that close off those unwanted rooms close the doors just don't go into them and bring your family together into a smaller area number that are also storm windows now up here up north it's common to have storm windows we have double and even triple pane glass what that is that creates an air space that is really easy to heat now you folks that live down south some of you in the older houses are going to have single pane windows you you there's a massive energy transfer between a single pane window when it's cold outside and it's warm outside so you want to build some sort of a storm window you can do this all by yourself with just some painters plastic and some duct tape my granddaddy remember he made his own storm windows and out of plexiglass and every fall he would pull them out of the garage and take them outside and put the storm windows up because they make a huge difference you can essentially do the same thing with stuff you have if you have some clear plastic what you do is you cut it about the size of the window and you get some duct tape and you tape it to the wall pull it tight as you can and that's what that's going to create is a barrier and air space and heat has a hard time transferring between that it's amazing the difference it will make you will it will stop that coldness is coming through in your house one little pro tip when you have painters plastic like this you can thank jariah for this he taught me this little trick you take your painters plastic and if you twist it real tight like this then take your knife out and cut it you can cut it all at one time rather than trying to run along and cut a 12 foot piece and you get a nice straight cut that way so painters plastic is really really good for that with some duct tape okay so uh number four car rv lifeboat uh sit in the garage folks if you have to you can of course get in your car use that as a lifeboat you can get in there and run the heater or if you have an rv my parents are currently have had their power out for about a week now and they're using their rv as a power plant for the house they've got a generator in there they're running the cords in and hooked up to the refrigerators and those vital circuits that they need also don't forget a lot of your new newer cars and trucks are going to have a power inverter meaning they're going to have the ability to convert that 12 volt power to 110 and you can utilize that in the house by running extension cords in there you can run space heaters you can be charging phones you can run electric blankets you might even be able to keep your refrigerator running if it's not too big it just kind of depends on the vehicle but don't overlook that as a resource as kind of a remote power supply and for goodness sakes if you are going to go and take refuge in your car pull it outside pull it out of the garage because that carbon monoxide will build up and it will poison you the exhaust pipe is pumping that out non-stop just be careful be careful with that stuff okay car's a lifeboat uh also you know another thing using those inverters electric blankets uh i checked on amazon and they're still available an electric blanket is a really good way to keep warm and they don't take a tremendous amount of power but having an electric blanket in your house that's gonna that's gonna cover you really good and keep you warm so your family can sleep well oh goodness burn candles to generate heat now if you're in a small area and if you get your get your uh you know everything sealed off and you have candles in the house burn those candles okay those candles are a flame and they can create quite a bit of heat i've been a long fan of these uco candle lanterns because they do produce a lot of heat there actually enough heat will come off of these that you could heat a small car or even a tent and it will make a big difference with the room it gives you light and heat and i like these little lanterns because you have a small cooktop on the top that you could heat up a can of beans or or some dinty more stew and you don't have to eat cold food if you have an electric range these are very versatile and really a handy thing to have number six set up a tent inside sleeping bags and candles if you have a camping gear if you have a tent or pup tents and your house is cold go ahead and set those up up inside of your house get your sleeping bags out now you're talking about an area that's much easier to heat than the entire house right if you took a two-man or a four-man tent and you had a candle and be careful with the candles you know don't be going in there with open flames and going to sleep that's just a recipe for disaster you want to be sure you have something that is going to be able to be contained that's really important but by throwing a blanket over that tent it's amazing just your own body heat will produce a tremendous amount of heat so just think about that you set up your tents inside with your sleeping bags and sleep inside of those guys number seven thermal mass i heard a lot of folks uh that you're having rolling blackouts in power and if you have an oven of course you know it makes sense you would open up the door or turn the burners on that produces a lot of heat and that's going to be able to heat your your apartment or your house up until the power goes off so if you're experiencing that don't be afraid to go out into your yard and dig up whatever you have to do but fill that oven full of rocks bricks what we're trying to go for is a thermal mass if you have water tanks cans like this five gallon cans which you should have about six of these every house get those in there get get everything heating up because when that power goes out that all of that that heat that's built up and those bricks and those rocks and that water and that thermal mass is going to time release slowly over a period of time it was common back in the day in greenhouses guys would take 55 gallon drums of water put them in the greenhouses and as the sun came through and you had that greenhouse effect warming up the greenhouse it also brought the water up to that temperature so it might be you know 90 100 degrees in there and then when the sun goes down at night and cools down those that thermal mass and that water slowly time releases heat off and keeps the plants from freezing and the same thing can happen here so have that water or in there and as much as much thermal mass as you could get i mean good grief if you had to get five gallon buckets full of gravel you know even that's better than nothing in a small area that can extend your heat for quite a quite a period of time simply safe is an incredibly effective reliable home security system that you can install yourself simply save on home if you've been worried about safety but have been putting it off don't wait a moment longer you can order online or you can call on the phone it will be delivered right to your door in most cases you can install it yourself in under an hour and you'll get to enjoy 24-hour monitoring and they'll call the police or the fire department if you have any problems simply safe offers all kinds of sensors that you can integrate to your home from free sensors to water sensors to smoke detectors glass breaking and even hd cameras that you can monitor what's going on in your home remotely from your iphone or android our friends at simplisafe have asked me to share a personal story of why i like the system one of the features that we've really enjoyed is having a panic button installed in the master bedroom as you guys know jack and i have been heading out for some snow bike adventures from time to time and that leaves mrs w a home alone she really takes a lot of confidence and and feels a lot more secure knowing that with the push of up button she can have emergency services coming and that all of the doors and windows and everything are monitored i know that it means a lot to her and that's something that she's enjoyed immensely if you're interested in securing your home with 24 hour monitoring i invite you to go to simplysafe.com forward slash wranglerstar and order your very own system now we've got water bottles hot coal yeah also go to bed with hot water bottles if you have the ability to have those as well i mean it was very common back before the days of power electricity families would go to bed with with hot water bottles you don't see that too much anymore but it was cold and they would put the hot water bottles in you can even find old bed pans that they used to put to coals from the fire end into kind of a canister and they would slide those under the sheet sheets and that would help warm up the bed and keep them warm so those things are still relevant and you can still do that today let's see also when it comes to water storage you know water could be a problem as well if your pipes are freezing this is kind of common knowledge for folks that live up north but if you don't not used to it one way you can keep your house pipes from freezing is keep them running when it gets really really cold up here we'll go through all of the house all of the bathrooms and the sinks and all that and turn them on just so they're just trickling a little bit just so that water's moving because moving water is a doesn't tend to freeze like static water water that's not moving also open up all of your cabinets underneath so if you open those up so that the pipes and the drains and everything can get a little bit of extra heat in there and some circulation makes a big difference seems like it's a little bit wasteful but it's it's it's a lot better than having your whole house freeze up and all your pipes split that's a huge problem and also regarding water if you're on a well or if maybe the ice storm is so bad that the municipal water is no longer delivering water to you remember you've got 55 gallons of water in your in your water heater and you want to get that out of there your water heater is most likely going to be in the garage or in an area that may be unheated or you you just can't heat and when that's going to freeze and there's a good chance that that's going to break and destroy your hot water heater all those are going to have a drain on the bottom so drain that out and get that capture that into your cans if you don't have cans get any receptacle that you can and line your bathtub with plastic if you have it and put that water in there and save it because you might need it it's going to give you a little thermal mass if you have a bathroom that you're heating and it's going to give you in a pinch of the ability to have something to drink because if you can't get out if you're out of gas and the whole city shut down that's critical because you can only survive about three days without water so make sure you use that resource and collect that water as well we have number nine generators gas solar don't forget the cords now uh generator of course that's self-explanatory uh it's nice to really really nice thing to have you can charge your phone you can run electric blankets space heaters you can run your refrigerator so you're not losing your food that's not an option for a lot of people if you live in a a condominium or you live in an apartment i mean where do you go where are you how are you going to get a gas generator going or what if you're uh a shut-in and or someone that older that can't deal with that well there is a good solution these solar generators are becoming very affordable now and there's a lot of companies making really good ones and all it really is is it's a large capacity lithium battery with a small inverter in it so you'll have a series of plugs on the front of them where you can plug in a 110 you can plug in usb usbc you can charge your phones you can charge your flashlights you can even run an electric blanket off of this and it's very very handy i love solar generators i probably use this thing two or three times a week i'm constantly packing it around and plugging things in it's just a portable power station if you really want to make it functional a couple this with a portable solar generator or a solar panel like this these are very affordable now this solar panel if you put it in direct sun and if you're in texas you have lots of sun and all the snow is even more reflective will charge that battery up in a daylight cycle so that you can put this out be charging everything up and you can charge directly from these for small things like your phones or even run a led light bulb and then at night you're going to have a fully charged solar generator that you might be able to run your electric blanket or small things that might make life a little bit better for you don't underestimate the cords as well even if you do have a generator i before i made this video i called my dad and asked him because he's been without power for a week now you know what were the top five things that that really made a difference in this power outage and he said extension cords and i couldn't agree more i have had always had generators and always lived in places where the power went out a lot when you live in the pacific northwest with all these trees and power lines are not buried they're overhead and we get ice storms of course power's out for a long period of time you can't have too many extension cords and have splitters because this gives you the ability to run out have your generator outside run cords in feed circuits feed your refrigerator feed your space heater whatever and have the splitters on the ends you use i've i remember times where i've had three four extension cords running in under the front door going around and powering everything also your neighbor may have a generator and maybe he's not using all of it he you might talk him into letting you come over and plug in for a few hours today to to power up a few things and having enough cord to go over there and to connect to your neighbor's house is really handy you just can't have enough of these and don't get those little flimsy ones make sure you get the big ones the contractor ones with the grounds on them so that you can run some some real power but that's uh something that you really really want also don't over overlook alternate ways where you can get power if you have these booster a lot of us have these uh booster jump packs in our trucks for our shop for cars most of these are going to have a usb port on there now these are not extended for long run time or designed for long run times but they do really well at charging phones and flashlights and things so that if you completely out of power and you really desperate don't overlook that you can bring that in and you might be able to uh to charge with that as well in addition to that a guy should have if you don't already an inverter an inverter just is the same thing that's in that solar generator but this is a standalone version these are very affordable and if you have a vehicle with a car battery you can take these out and snap them onto the battery run the car and that gives you a 110 circuit so you could essentially run an extension cord to this into your house and power those things heaters space blankets and such very very nice and you don't have to sleep out in the car they come in all different sizes this is a 1000 you can get smaller ones 300 400 it just depends on what you need but a power inverter like this is super super handy oh goodness what else we have here that was uh number nine and number ten uh the final thing if the power is out uh you may and it's cold outside you may kind of overlook or not think about your refrigerators and your freezers now those are very sealed and they're cold just because it's cold outside doesn't mean that it's going to stay cold in there it's actually going to be over time it's going to be warmer than it is outside so eat that food first make sure you get it before it spoils and then save your dry goods your foods your beans and your rice but if it's cold it's freezing outside take as many pots and pans and different things that you can put them outside and let let the cold turn the water into ice and then at night bring that in and put it inside the refrigerator put it inside the freezer and that will carry you through that will extend that food and keep that insulated box cooler it might pick you up a day or two and it could make a big difference so those are just some tips and i'll just also just a little extra one make sure you you go and make contact with your neighbors to the right and to the left of you you they may have resources that you don't they may have a generator that runs on propane that they're all out of propane and you may have five gallons in your gas grill or you might be able to combine resources and help one another out maybe they'll let you run an extension cord over there but the real concerning thing is folks that are not able to to care for themselves if you've got a widow or a shut-in just make sure that she's okay and and if need be bring her into your house and uh have them come in and look after her and care for them if everyone does that in a community if you know the status of your person to your left and to your right then everyone will be looked after and no one's going to fall through the cracks and and and and be left um alone and abandon so just be aware of that pool your resources communities back in the day always gathered together pooled resources because that's what it took to survive and we in our comfortable western civilization and our current technology have created a world where we can live independently from the help of one another but when we come into situations like that uh it really gets back uh to the way things used to be and it's important to rely upon each other and to be there for one another and to know just be your brother's keeper just make sure you know how everyone's doing and that they have what they need and don't lose hope just remember that this is a temporary thing it's not going to last forever and the sunshine will be back so just hunker down do the best you can use your head use the resources you have at your disposal and learn from this when you come out the other side realize what how you were in want what was really a difficulty what was really a hardship for you and make sure that when things come back into stock heaters and propane and electric blankets and that sort of thing that you you get that in your house so that when this happens again you can weather the storm a little bit better and you're not going to be in such dire straits that was a big wake-up call for me when we moved into our old place and we had that seven eight nine days without power and a leaky roof and no heat i vowed to myself never again will i put my family through this uh this horrible experience and we made sure that we had things in place so that the next time that happened we were well much better prepared so i hope this helps thanks for watching we are you guys are constantly in our prayers and may god bless all of you please keep my family in your prayers as well and we'll see you all on the next video

Channel: Wranglerstar

Views: 429,459

Rating: 4.9158821 out of 5

Keywords: power out, texas, texas freeze, texas snow, ice storm

Id: oVkRaiTXX3U

Length: 24min 21sec (1461 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Luciel-Choi707]

Thank you! I'm in the area affected by the crisis, hopefully this helps out!

[u/PartyLikeIts69BC]

I strip naked, douse myself in gasoline, then hold a match to my dick

In all seriousness though, I keep my room so cold normally my hands go numb if I sit in there for an hour. Pretty funny all this freaking out 👍

[u/NyxuanTheGnomling]

Breath singing is a timeless classic...I mean, as long all participants are COVID free, that is.

Example: Throat singing demonstration.

[u/AsparagusQueen]

May help to warm up your cold ass hearts too