COOKING/HEAT/LIGHT - Does your furnace have electric ignition? Electric fans, pumps, etc? Won9t work if power is out. Not sure? Turn off the power to the furnace and see. - Don9t plan on natural gas lines having pressure. (Some Western states have natural low pressure.) - For cooking, pick up a two-burner propane or Coleman camp stove at Wal-Mart, etc. now. And get fuel. If you heat with propane now, your kitchen stove will still work if you light it. Ask your dealer now for an extra propane tank. We told our dealer we are getting more propane appliances, and they are bringing us an additional 1000-gal. tank. - 20 lb. propane tanks refillable, small ones throwaway. (Dangerous to attempt to refill. Don9t.) 30 lbs. of propane will cook for a month, using 4 burners. Or Coleman. A two-burner propane campstove used 4 hrs. a day, 27 lbs. a month. Coleman two-burner 2 hrs. per 2-pint tank. One-burner stove holds a liter (1l1 pt) burns 1.75 hrs. on high. - Sterno (gelled ethanol) 2 hrs. Pick up fondu sets at yard sales. - Eco-Fuel 8 hrs. Comes with fold-up stove. Dual cap system that controls heat level. Can be stored safely anywhere. No alcohol. Never evaporates. Odorless. Some carbon monoxide. 1-414-962-1700 (Whitefish Bay, WI) - another canned heat product: http://alco-brite.com - Propane and Coleman fuel are safe inside unless something is wrong with your unit. When flame is blue, burning completely, no carbon monoxide. Should not burn yellow. - All fires use up some oxygen. In a very small or air-tight space, crack open a window. - Never burn charcoal in the house, even in a fireplace. Carbon monoxide. - Volcano cooker uses charcoal and dutch oven. Outside! - Have battery-operated carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, smoke monitors. - ABC-type fire extinguishers, for all types of fires. - Do not burn wood in a gas log fireplace! Extreme fire hazard. Not built for much heat, plus the gas connection is there. - A fireplace is not very heat-efficient. 15-20% Fireplace insert is 60-70% efficient, and you can cook on it. Wood stove, 70% or more. Great for cooking. Vent-free heaters 99.9% as no heat escapes. - Vent-free kerosene or propane heaters the answer for space heating for many people. See articles on handout. - New very safe design propane heaters okayed in 47 states. Legal in Wisconsin in homes built before 1980. Newer houses more airtight. (Then again, if it9s the only system that will work for you as emergency heat, who will be checking? Can keep window cracked for air. But no worry with the propane units, as they shut off automatically if oxygen low. See Resources.) -A portable kerosene heater will heat 950 sq. feet for 12-16 hrs. on 2 gallons of kerosene and can be used to cook also. You9d need about 42 gallons of kerosene to last two weeks at 18 hrs. a day. Be sure to get grade that is meant to be burned indoors and is less smelly. - Kerosene is stored in blue containers, as opposed to gasoline, which is stored in red. Never mistake the two! Gasoline extremely explosive! - Kero stores indefinitely if kept clean and free of moisture. (Some say 6 mos.) Can be stored in 55 gal. drums, for which you will need a pump. Or in 5 gal. plastic or metal containers. - The higher the grade, the heavier the fuel and the higher (hotter) the flashpoint. Takes more heat to ignite. Gasoline is lighter and has a lower flashpoint than kerosene or Coleman fuel. - Some people mix 10% #1 with 90% #2 kero in the winter to keep it liquid when cold. - Coleman fuel does not age and varnish up, and it9s best to use only this in your Coleman lanterns and stoves. They will burn, but eventually clog up, using unleaded or white gas. (White gas has no anti-knock additives, unleaded has additives. - When storing fuels, check local ordinances. Best to store in shed away from house. - Plan ahead. Test your chosen heating system in cold weather to see how it works, if any changes are needed. - If your heat source won9t heat your entire present living space, have plastic sheeting, duct tape, etc. on hand to close off some rooms to save heat. - Have extra, heavy, plastic sheeting in case a window is broken. - If you can only heat one room, plan to have all the things you need in that room in place before 1/1/2000. - Remember that in a emergency people can stay warmer the smaller the space they are in. Even if there is no heat at all, one can stay warm by building an 3insulated play house2 under a large table. There should be as many couch cushions, blankets, etc. around this as possible. And something soft and warm to lie on and wrap up in. Come out just to take care of bodily needs. - Coleman makes a propane lantern you can attach to a pipe/pole that puts it up at head height, to light a room or large area. Avail. at Wal-Mart, etc. The pipe also has an outlet to attach a cookstove to the same tank of propane. - Coleman lanterns need mantles, little fabric bags that hold the fire in for incandescence. After the first use, the mantles are crisped and break easily if touched. So be sure to have extra, as the lamp cannot be used without them. Lamps now have a spark ignition lighter that uses a flint. Can retrofit old lanterns with these lighters. Then you aren9t poking around with a match. One- and two-mantle lanterns. Extremely bright. =300 watts - A two-mantle lamp used for light 6 hrs. a night will use a pint (2 cups) of Coleman fuel a day, a gallon a week. - Buy extra glass globes for any lanterns. Extra wicks, etc. - Petromax makes lanterns that can burn almost any any liquid fuel, including diesel oil and gasoline. (Do not ever try this with any other lantern! It will explode. Molotov cocktail.) Also can heat a 20 sq. foot room. Current generation is called Britelyt. An adapter being made to convert it to cook. See resources handout. = 100 to 400 watts! - Aladdin lamps are also a good heat source. In fact, they are so hot that they must be kept a yard away from anything inflammable, like your walls or furniture. I have not included sources for them on resource page as it my understanding that they are sold out. They are also expensive, and getting parts can be a problem. = 60 to 90 watts These lamps are pressurized and use twice as much fuel as other lamps, and go through mantles quickly, too. -Dietz lanterns are good. Available. We have bought all the same model, Little Wizard, so that the spare globes and burners fit all. = 7 watts - Beeswax candle about 1.5 watts. You won9t be a happy camper if all you have for light is candles. They don9t last long, and put out about enough light to keep you from stepping on the cat. - Whatever you plan to use for light, try it now. You may well decide you need to upgrade. Having light when it is dark out and the world is unsettled is very important. - It may be a good idea to cover your windows with lightproof curtains (black garbage bags?) at night, to avoid attention you don9t want. Especially if you have any light of conspicuous brightness that would tell others you prepared and have food, etc. - Oil or kerosene lamps burn much cleaner on pure paraffin. Available at Wal-Mart. Burns absolutely clean. Colored, scented lamp oils do not. Five lamps burned 5 hrs. a night will use about a gallon a month. - Wal-Mart and True Value Hardware have glass oil/kerosene lamps and paraffin. - You can make an emergency lamp easily if you have cooking or salad oil, Crisco, etc. You just need some kind of wick to make the oil available to the lamp fire. Twisted cotton from a pill bottle, an old shoelace, or a strip off your undershirt will work. Pour a bit of oil in a clear, short glass. Place one end of your wick in the oil and create something to hold the other end up, to be lit. A tube of aluminum foil will work. Or a piece of wire run crosswise though the wick, each end of the wire then hung over the sides of a glass. One survival school makes lamps from cored potatoes. These will burn fine till the oil is used up and then the wick will catch on fire. So don9t go away and leave it burning. Don9t leave any open flame burning unattended. - If you plan to cook on a wood stove, pick up some cast iron or brass trivets. Too hot to cook directly on the stove. - In a pinch, if fuel is in very short supply, a small meal can be cooked by bringing water/grains/veggies/noodles or whatever to a boil, then pouring it all into a wide-mouthed stainless steel vacuum bottle, and letting it sit for some time. -Similarly, a larger volume of food will finish cooking in a casserole dish wrapped in layers of blankets and placed in a cardboard box. Preheat the casserole dish so it doesn9t steal heat from the food. - Plan ahead if you9ll be heating with wood. Read up on it if you are new at it. And get your wood now. Burn only seasoned wood, that has been cut and drying for at least half a year. Otherwise you will get creosote in your chimney, and this is a fire hazard. Hardwoods burn longer than softwoods. - When cleaning ashes out of stove, always put them into a metal container no matter how cool they seem. One tiny coal in a cardboard box, etc. has burned down many homes. - The hot ashes from your stove, in a covered metal container, will radiate heat for many hours. This could be placed in a room that could use the heat. Or used to heat a small coldframe with spring greens or seedlings. - If you plan to use a generator, read the generator section of Y2K And Y-O-U. Lots to know!----Remember that generators use about a gallon of gas per hour. More efficient use of the gas to use the generator to charge a bank of deep cycle batteries, then run off the batteries, just using the generator time to recharge the battery bank. - Incandescent electric lights are real energy hogs. Switch to fluorescents. - Solar not the best bet in Wisconsin in the winter, with only 5.5 hrs. of good sunlight -on the days when we have sunlight. - Solar battery rechargers, however, a good idea. See Resources page. - You can get a gizmo from Radio Shack that will allow you to run 12-volt appliances off your car battery. If you have gas, you can run the car to recharge the battery. Don9t drain the battery! - Possible we will have 3rolling blackouts.2 These are timed blackouts that give an area power for a few hours, then another area, when there is not enough power to power a whole grid at once. Plan ahead to refill water containers, use electric battery rechargers and other appliances during your 3on2 times. Resources: - Roleigh Martin9s May 24th article on kerosene heater, shed to store kerosene www.y2ktimebomb.com - Good, inexpensive woodstoves ($200 - $500) website: www.vogelzang.com or www.vogelzang.com/dealer_info.htm for dealer list. Phone: 1-888-229-6905 - Northern Tool & Equipment Discount prices. Crank radios, solar panels and equipment, solar ovens, solar rechargers, solar path lights/floodlights/flashlights etc. Generators. Propane cookstoves. Lots of other stuff. Phone: 1-800-533-5545 website: www.northern-online.com - Kerosene heat and cooking Charts of heat output, burn times, sq. ft. heated, etc. for a number of quality kero units. www.msiwix.com or www.kerosun.com - woodstove how to and safety www.csia.org Soon, also see: www.chimney.com - nstructions for burning kerosene/oil lamps http://forums.cosmoaccess.net/forum/survival/prep/kerolamp.html Petromax/Britelyt lanterns & stoves www.info@britelyt.com

-- Shivani Arjuna (S Arjuna@aol.com), July 07, 1999