4 Critical Rules to Survive A Winter Power Outage

the winter storm rages outside and the power grid goes down for an extended period of time the temperature in your house or apartment is dropping and the roads are impassable if the power is down for just a day you'll probably be fine but you will need to know what you can do to survive if days turn into weeks do you have the right things in your prepper supplies to survive an extended period of sub-zero temperatures and doors do you know what you need to do immediately to increase your odds of long-term survival please consider subscribing to our newsletter to give you updates and membership specific content visit www.cityprepping.com forward slash newsletter or click on the link in the description and comment section below to subscribe today enjoy the video if you're an urban dweller when the power goes out your heat probably goes out too thanks to insulation and objects around your apartment retaining heat the temperature won't drop to the outside temperature right away however you need to take precautions against losing your dwellings warm and keeping the cold out if you feel that the outage may go on for some time or after a major disaster happens and you know power won't be back for a while you'll want to move to one room of the home likely near the kitchen in this way if you cook you'll also be generating heat in your environment the room you choose should not have vaulted ceilings and should be sealed off from places that do your home's heat will race to the highest point in your home so you'll want to seal the loss of air at the tops of doors and doorways as well as at the bottom immediately seal windows cracks under doors and doors of hallways and other rooms sealing off the room can be accomplished with blankets or towels a tarp but even plastic sheeting or garbage bags that fix with painters tape can hold back pockets of cold air and stop the flow of warm air any covered windows with direct sunlight you'll want to uncover during full sun hours as a direct sunlight can significantly warm your room likely your windows are already closed but make sure the doors to other rooms are closed as well you want to slow the exchange of warm and cold air the second law of thermodynamics is entropy that is to say that the warm interior of your home will lose heat to the cold exterior until equilibrium is achieved that equilibrium is the outside temperature because mother nature is always more powerful to combat this you want to leverage insulation and stop the points where cold and warm air is exchanging if you're near the kitchen as i advise you'll want to put your faucet on at a drip flowing water even at a slow rate is less likely to freeze if icicles start forming from the droplets you will have a good indicator of how cold it is getting in your home you may also want to consider placing a small candle under the long section of your faucet spout assembly water is precious so make sure it is dripping into a container and let that container be a reminder to stay hydrated layer up and pull out the gear of course pull out the clothes and layer up you want to slow the exchange of heat between your body and exterior air there are three main layers and three special considerations your base layer wicks away moisture and can be as light as silk or as breathable as cotton your mid layer insulates and retains body heat and your outer layer really protects you from the outside elements but indoors it creates another barrier between you and the temperatures outside the three special considerations are your head hands and feet make sure you have gloves on whenever possible double layer your socks wear a hat to help you retain heat you lose around 10 of your body heat through your head so make sure you have your head covered don't wait to feel cold before you layer up you should also plan to move into the room your prepper supplies food stores enough to last at least a week water camping supplies and every blanket you own now might be the time to do your prepping inventory since you have a little else to do in a snowstorm as odd as it may sound you should put your tin in that room tents are designed to retain some heat within them at the very least they further slow the exchange between cold and warm air if you're in your home in your layers in your tin and in your sleeping bag it would have to get well below freezing in your apartment before you became at risk of hypothermia your tent can create a micro climate significantly warmer than the room it is in and tremendously warmer than the outdoors emergency blankets are excellent reflectors of heat so they reflect your body's own heat back at you unfortunately they leak out on the sides and are difficult to wrap tightly around yourself you can use them as great vapor locks on your windows you can also cut a hole in the center and use tape on the sides to create a highly effective poncho for yourself creating warmth if you cannot leave your apartment or home for over a week during and following a winter storm and grid down situation you'll need to prioritize warmth your body is the most efficient heat generator and i will cover that in a moment but you will want to generate heat in your living space to combat the temperatures outside even with the power out you still may have natural gas flowing you'll need to use a match or lighter since electric starters will not be working there are indoor self-propane heaters available even with these though and with all indoor flames of any kind you should have water or a fire extinguisher nearby and you absolutely should have a carbon monoxide detector even the cleanest of fuels can give off some carbon monoxide and co2 can build up as well when cooking or heating with open flames even cracking a window a half inch can bring in the fresh air and vent some of the carbon monoxide take this seriously as many people pass away annually due to carbon monoxide poisoning there are several options for heating and open flames not everyone has a fireplace you may have seen the isopropyl alcohol soaked toilet paper roll and a paint can i would only suggest that if you are truly desperate as the flames can be enrolling and dangerous even with the addition of rocks on top a simpler option is several tea candles in a paint or coffee can i like this method because you can easily store over 100 tea candles in a paint can in your prepper supplies each tea candle will burn for about three hours and you only need about six in the bottom of your paint can to create enough heat with which to cook hurricane or prayer candles can also be grouped to provide you a higher concentration of heat that will last much longer than the tea candles an incredible three to four days inverting a flower pot with foil inside or placing a pot or pan above the flame will create a radiating heat source and increase it candles or tealight's warming effects even a can of crisco or jar of tallow that wick in it will provide you some light and heat enough to warm liquids you may also have cans of sterno or safe heat in your camping and prepping supplies you can quickly pick up a case of 12 of these little cans for around 20 again while these give off significantly fewer harmful chemicals and gases any flame at all is going to give off carbon monoxide gases so you should remain aware of this and take precautions these can also provide up to six hours of heat sufficient enough with which to cook whatever your option or solution is always give special consideration to open flames within your house we often think we need a raging fire or a blasting furnace to raise a room's temperature that's simply not true if your room is well sealed from the exchange of warm and cold air even a few small flames can maintain or even slightly raise a small room's internal temperature time consistency location and spread are critical factors for raising a room's temperature this is how long the heat source is lasting at what constant high temperature is functioning where disposition and how much heat is radiant none of these solutions will create a sauna in your home or make it feel like the tropics but the key here is to lose as little heat as possible compared to the outside and to retain as much of the heat as you can any net gain in temperatures is a plus finally when heating or cooking try to keep these activities to the early part of the day if your resources are limited you will sleep warmly in a tin or sleeping bag through the night but you will feel the cold the most in the early hours food exercise and health think of your heat source as also a source of light in cooking you'll want to always have heated water on hand a hot water bottle will retain and emit heat for hours tea coffee or any hot or warm liquid will warm you enough and less than a degree to which your body has to work to generate its heat heat soup or chili or ramen to warm your home and feed your body's furnace you'll need to make sure you're eating enough to give your best heat generator your own body what it needs to keep you warm if you are on a vanity diet not on a diet for health reasons you'll want to postpone that now providing your body the fuel it needs to regulate body temperature is the most important thing now snacking on candy or carbohydrate-rich chips will have to be okay because these provide your body with easy fuels to burn when it comes your body temperature you want to keep your body neither too hot nor too cold as stable as you can keep your temperature the better if you've ever been so cold that you would say that it was in your bones what likely occurred was your body's internal thermostat was shocked and triggered enough to kick it into high gear to regulate itself again took time no matter how many hot baths you took afterwards your internal temperature regulation is incredibly stable but you need to make sure it doesn't get shocked too far in any direction either cold or hot if you're fortunate enough to have natural gas in the early days of an electrical grid down take advantage of the opportunity to bake cookies and loaves of bread try that homemade jerky recipe that will keep your oven on low for hours cooking will heat your house and provide you a source of carbohydrates don't just cook that one loaf either you should cook two or three at a time you could trade the bread with neighbors or eat it yourself once it is cooled store it in a windowsill and it will keep for an extended period of time as a heating source with your home sealed off pretty well even a stove top can warm a room the oven is a radiant box of consistent heat when you're finished cooking crack the oven's door and let the remaining heat flow into the room you may not have the luxury of natural gas if you live in an urban environment a prolonged period of no electricity may cause the flow of natural gas to stop so cook early and in abundance as soon as the power goes out some light exercise physical gains or anything to elevate your heart rate and body temperature will benefit you greatly 20 minutes of activity will elevate body temperature for up to an hour afterwards light exercise will also clear your mind keep you focused and keep your mood high if the grid down situation lasts more than a week the chances are very high that the water flow will stop municipal sources will struggle with broken pipes and many require electricity for pumping water in apartments your flow of hot water from the boilers in the basement could end as soon as day one flushing a toilet may not be possible but you still need to remove biological waste for health reasons a bucket toilet and trash bags are an excellent method to do this it's worked for moms and children everywhere from parking lots to camp out so that will work for you as well eat drink exercise and remove waste feed your brain with a good book or a game if you live in a family is easier to entertain yourself you may have a trusted neighbor friend you might want to welcome into your warm home for a short period you'll want to benefit from each other's warmth and cheer if you live in a home there are many considerations i don't cover in this video like drain your water heater and toilet tanks i focus on more of the urban dweller because even in the suburbs and excerpts some people have their own propane tanks or solar resources for some electricity though i focus more on the urban dweller expand upon the basics i provide here to do other research to develop an indoor cold weather survival plan on your own once you have developed a plan take a weekend and shut your heat off give it a try run and see what you may have overlooked what worked well for you and what you still need to do to be prepared just as you might chop wood for fires through the winter if you lived in the country the urban dweller needs to prepare for an extended periods of cold invest in plastic sheeting and painters tape purchase and store some tea candles emergency candles and cooking cans even a kelly kettle like what i carry on my website where a teapot and camping cook systems will benefit you greatly get a high quality insulated sleeping bag in emergency blankets and don't be afraid of pitching your tin indoors if the power goes out and the temperature outside keeps dropping you can insulate yourself and survive as long as you have to if you found this video informative and helpful please feel free to like it and share with your friends family and community if you have any comments or anything you'd like to share please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below i read many of the comments and respond to them when i can and that's usually within the first hour of releasing the video remember that there are links in the description section below and you can find more information about the things i discuss in this video if you'd like to be notified when other videos become available please feel free to subscribe to this channel as always stay safe out there [Music] you

Channel: City Prepping

Views: 241,619

Keywords: winter, cold weather survival, power loss winter, survival, prepper, prepping, doomsday prepper

Id: JBgcwzwmkaA

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020