by Cody Lundin
South-facing Rooms: Looking for Naturally Warm Places in the House
My entire home is heated by the common sense of passive solar design. As I write this, regardless of current freezing outdoor temperatures and snow on the ground, sunlight is streaming through south-facing windows and is being absorbed into my stone floor for an inside temperature of 70 degrees F (21 degrees C), with no need for other heating methods. While you might not live in a home that was designed to be heated by the sun, you can certainly modify rooms in your home to take advantage of this free energy source after a grid meltdown.
When it's cold but sunny outside, all south-facing rooms with windows will be warmer than most others. The latitude and seasonality of your location will influence how far south the sun will appear before and after the zenith of the winter solstice. Simply put, the sun will be lower in the southern sky at noon for the winter season. The lowest it will appear is on the winter solstice in late December. After this, the sun will appear slightly higher until it peaks out at its highest point on the summer solstice in June. Along with the proximity of your neighbor's house or garage, trees and vegetation, and other obstructions, the width of the overhangs of your home's roof will determine if winter sunshine enters the windows. In ancient Rome there was a "sun law." It protected everyone from jerks who would have otherwise built a structure blocking sunlight from reaching a residence.
The Romans built their famed bathhouses facing solar south for a reason. Find out which direction your house is oriented. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. South-facing rooms with windows will heat up during winter months from sunlight entering the window(s). This shortwave radiation from the sun turns to long-wave radiation when it enters the room. Since the wavelength of the radiation has been increased, it has a problem exiting the window, thus much of the heat is trapped within the room. Individuals unknowingly experiment with this phenomenon during summer temperatures and kill their pet or child by leaving them in the car in direct sunlight with the windows rolled up.
South-facing windows should remain closed but free from drapes or anything else that will impede sunlight from entering the room, including dirty windows. If the sunlight can shine upon an object that has great thermal mass, such as a concrete, stone, tile, or brick floor, so much the better. Thermal-mass resources are typically high-density materials that are slow to absorb and release heat. When thermal mass is heated up by sunshine or any heat source, it will store the heat and re-radiate it back into the room during colder nighttime temperatures. Periodically watch the sunlight track across the room during the day and move obstructions such as area rugs, chairs, or tables that prevent the sun from directly striking thermal mass areas. When it gets dark, cover your windows by drawing the drapes to help hold in the stored heat. Extra window insulation can be improvised with towels or bedding hung in successive layers, if desired, for greater dead air space. Remember to uncover the windows the next day to allow spent thermal mass areas to again recharge with solar radiation from the sun.
Marvelous Microclimates: Creating a Home within Your House
When it's god-awful cold inside your home and you lack conventional methods of heating, you will naturally retreat to the warmest room or rooms in the house. In this case, bigger is not better. Smaller rooms with good solar gain and insulation are much easier to heat than larger rooms. Rooms with high ceilings will cause the spiders to be comfortable while you freeze your butt off below. When it's cold, think like a squirrel and create a small, cozy microhabitat that effectively thermoregulates core body temperature. The squirrel doesn't care about impressing the Joneses with space and flash. In cold temperatures it builds a nest that allows it to get inside with just enough room to wrap its fluffy tail around its body for added insulation. There is no wet bar, Jacuzzi, or back porch. In cold weather your McMansion is a detriment, not an asset, when it's pulled, kicking and screaming, from the grid and no other power source is available to heat its tremendous volume.
Block off a "warm room" from the rest of the colder house. Close doors or hang blankets in door openings to seal in as much of the warmer air as possible. If you do have an alternate heating source within the room, don't seal it up so tight that you all wake up dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Make sure that the room has adequate ventilation. Spaces under doors can be chinked with extra clothing or towels to prevent cold air from seeping into the room.
Covering Windows with Space Blankets and Plastic
Long- and shortwave radiation penetrates through objects. If drapes and extra blankets are used for insulation on windows when the sun goes down, space blankets can still be taped on the inside of windows to reflect heat back into the room to help retain warmer inside temperatures.
Don't forget that dead air space (insulation) and reflected radiation are two different things. You can also achieve dead air space by taping clear plastic over the outside of your windows, sort of an improvised storm window. Clear roll plastic comes in a variety of thicknesses, "mils" or millimeters. The thicker you go, the tougher the plastic, but it will also be more opaque. This opacity will cut down on solar gain entering the house from south-facing windows. When I teach students how to make solar stills to gather water in the desert, there is a difference in the amount of radiation that reaches the still (thus creating water) if we use six-mil plastic as opposed to using four-mil plastic. You might consider using six-mil plastic for its durability on windows and openings that don't have any solar gain value and use the thinner-mil plastic on south-facing windows or don't cover them with plastic at all.
Playing House with Sofa Cushions, Blankets, and More
Remember when you were six years old and tore apart the living room furniture to make forts? The concept of many outdoor survival shelters improvised from limbs and leaves is to make a small shelter that can be heated by the survivor's body heat alone. Sofa cushions, extra blankets, sleeping bags, linen, or clothing can be used instead to create sleeping cocoons or smaller shelters within your warm room to help regulate body temperature. After you're done laughing, re-read the section explaining how the body loses and gains heat by conduction, convection, and radiation. With these basic concepts in mind, coupled with your predicament and the resources you have on hand, improve your situation, like the squirrel, by decreasing the surface area and volume of your room. This super-small and insulated fort might only be appropriate for sleeping, but it will be warmer when filled with your family than the room itself. Camping tents can also be set up in homes to serve a similar purpose.
Getting High and Snuggling
The average human body generates 300 BTUs of heat each hour. Mittens, where the fingers are touching and enjoying the radiant heat from each other, are much warmer than gloves, where each finger is forced to heat itself. Get the entire family to sleep next to each other if necessary, and invite the dog and the cat as well. By doing so, you will create a "creature" that has a much larger volume-to-surface area ratio, excellent for staying warm in the cold. Many times on my outdoor courses, modest students freeze their asses off the first night, only to pig pile the second night. Your family can be modest or it can be warm; the choice is yours.
Cold air sinks. Sleeping up higher will put you closer to warmer air, yet use common sense so that you don't fall out of bed and break your neck. Although a floor can be insulated from colder conductive ground temperatures, it's still on the floor where the majority of cooler air pools. After a day's worth of solar gain, if you have a two-story house, see if upper rooms are warmer than the downstairs. Lofts in homes are notorious for becoming blazing hot while the rest of the house stays at room temperature.
Alternative "Fuel Burning" Heating Options
Fireplaces
Many newer homes have faux fireplaces, some with "electric" or gas logs, designed only for looks and ease of operation. Since they are slaves to the grid, these types of fireplaces function only when you have an external energy source. Fireplaces are horrible at retaining heat in
the first place, as most of the heat value goes up the chimney, but they certainly beat freezing your butt off. Luckily, the long-wave radiation created by the fire strays far from the source and radiates out into the room, regardless of its inefficiency. The megapolis of Phoenix, Arizona, often has air quality alerts during the winter season, which blissfully isn't much of a season, in which all wood-burning efforts at heating a home are banned. It's doubtful that this law would be enforced in a catastrophe, yet the ability to breathe trumps keeping warm.
If your home has a real fireplace, get it ready for action even if it's not normally used. DO NOT fire up the hearth after years of nonuse or neglect and expect your safety to be intact. Chimney fires caused from creosote buildup, bird nests, squirrel homes, and other odd things can and will burn your house to the ground. Don't risk becoming homeless and further stretch already tapped rescue teams. I'm pleading with you here: if you are even remotely thinking about using your fireplace as an emergency heat source, have it inspected by a chimney sweep at least once per year! If you're feeling especially cheap at the thought of hiring this out, consider the pricelessness of your family's comfort and safety during a very scary time. Once your chimney is clean from soot and debris, inspected for leaks to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and cracks that can let sparks escape into the attic and burn down your home, make sure you have fuelwood on hand to meet your needs and the necessary fire-starting devices to keep the situation lit and burning.
Woodstoves
I adore woodstoves, even the older inefficient models. There is something very satisfying about not being beholden to the grid during cold weather when needing to obtain a comfortable indoor temperature. Some newer models use surprisingly little wood to achieve long-lasting indoor comfort. I have used many woodstoves in a variety of living situations. They are much more efficient than fireplaces, as the metal of the stove itself has more heated surface area for allowing the long-wave radiation produced from the burning fuel to saturate the room. Oxygen levels can be strictly controlled, especially in newer woodstoves, thereby making fuel last longer and burn more completely. Models with electric-powered blowers to increase efficiency should not be counted upon for obvious reasons. Many homes have pellet stoves, which burn prepackaged, combustible pellets instead of regular firewood. Some pellet stoves will not allow their owner to burn anything else if the pellets run out. Find out which boat you're sitting in and have an ample supply of pellet fuel on hand if this is your only option for obtaining heat. Conventional woodstoves have the adaptability to be able to burn anything, from lumber scraps and brokenup chairs and tables to dead tree limbs, a serious asset in a survival situation.
Homeowners who choose to install a fireplace or woodstove after the fact are looking at paying a considerable amount of money. Of the two, it's usually cheaper to install a woodstove, as woodstove pipe goes together quickly as soon as a safe route is created for it to vent to the outside. If your home does not currently have a fireplace or woodstove, and you would like to add one, check around and consult a professional before doing so. If your fireplace or woodstove is not professionally installed, you risk burning down your house. Your local woodstove dealer should be able to answer any questions you have about models, installation, accessing firewood, and local regulations regarding the installation and use of your stove or fireplace.
Buying Firewood. . .or Improvising It
All species of wood have different BTU counts (British Thermal Units). A British Thermal Unit is the amount of heat required to raise one pint (or pound) of water up one degree F (.556 degrees C) or the energy it takes to completely burn one large strike-anywhere kitchen match. In my part of the country, juniper (Juniperus osteosperma and others) and several species of oak (Quercus species) are routinely harvested and sold as firewood. Although both make great firewood, oak contains a higher BTU count (approximately 35 million BTUs per cord) and thus contains an energy value greater than the same amount of juniper wood (approximately 25 million BTUs per cord). Because of this energy difference, oak is more expensive. Although our surrounding forests are filled with giveaway dead or dying ponderosa pine trees from bark beetle infestations and drought, it's not a sought-after fuelwood as the BTU count is only 17 million per cord, and the resinous, low-heat conifer creates more creosote than the other woods. When push comes to shove, don't get hung up on these details. For your intentions, all of them will work to heat your house.
Most firewood is purchased in a measurement called a cord. A standard cord of firewood is a pile measuring eight feet long by four feet wide by four feet high for a total of 128 cubic feet of fuel, give or take due to the air spaces caused by the size and straightness of the pieces, how they're split, and how the wood is stacked. These differences can cause the total wood volume in a cord to fluctuate by seventy or eighty cubic feet or more.
Several factors will determine how much a cord of wood will cost (if it's available in your area at all). Forest closures due to drought, the species of wood, whether it's split and/or delivered, whether it's "green" or "seasoned" and ready to burn, and the current demand for the product influence the price. If you're buying firewood for a "just in case" emergency, saving money by buying green wood that has been recently cut might pay off. If Murphy's Law hands you a series of minus 20 degree F (minus 5 degree C) temperatures in your living room days after your purchase, you can still get the wet wood to burn by splitting it into much smaller pieces and adding them intermittently to a strong heat base of burning fuel, although it's a hassle. Burning green wood is not optimal; it is harder to start and maintain and it burns with less heat than dry wood, which causes more creosote to build up in the chimney. If you want to gather your own firewood, obtain the necessary permits to access public lands, get your equipment (axes, saws, chainsaws, splitting mauls, etc.) in good working order, and be ready for hard work.
"Seasoning" is a slang term for drying wood until it's ready to burn. Wood is deemed seasoned when its moisture content reaches equilibrium with the moisture in the surrounding air. The requirements for seasoning wood are the same as those needed to dry sliced fruit—good air circulation, sunshine, and dryness. Green wood can be stacked outdoors in a suitable location for about six months in most climates and it should be ready to go. In dry hot climates, it will probably be ready to go in half the time depending on how big the pieces are. Proper stacking, in which as much surface area as possible is exposed to dry, warm air currents will cut down on the drying time. Wood that is seasoned will be comparatively lightweight and have ends with deep "checks" or cracks.
All wood products in the natural world are, in essence, stored energy from solar radiation and photosynthesis. Wood loses this stored energy in one or both of two ways—it can burn or it can rot. If you purchase partially rotten or "punky" wood, you're getting ripped off, as the wood has already lost some of its energy or BTU content to the environment through decay.
Before building your woodpile, set an expendable lumber base (such as an old sheet of plywood) on some elevated material like concrete blocks that will keep your wood off the ground and limit the infestation of termites and other critters. Stacking wood off the ground also prevents the wood from drawing ground moisture, allows air to circulate freely around it, and cuts down on the amount of dirt that sticks to it. Woodpiles stacked against the home, while looking cute and cozy in a country calendar, should be avoided for obvious fire danger. Buy a cheap tarp instead to cover your wood or store it in a strategic, sheltered location that allows you to easily obtain the fuel but doesn't pose a fire risk. Use stakes or end braces built to measure a standard cord to keep the woodpile from collapsing.
Woodpiles are magnets for rodents. Even though the little buggers can transmit diseases and destroy vital equipment, your survival mind-set should be licking your chops at the prospect of raising your own "beef" with little or no effort. Baited mouse and rat traps in proximity of the pile will easily catch the occupants of your rodent ranch. For the scoop on cookin
g your critters, see Chapter 18. Enjoy!
Fun with Fake Found Firewood
For families without access to natural firewood, check the front and backyard for loose limbs on trees, lumber scraps, old pallets, or a number of odds and ends that are combustible when enough heat is used. Almost any wood product can be burned in a pinch. Avoid burning pressure-treated lumber (it usually has a faint greenish color), as it's filled with toxic chemicals such as arsenic that will off-gas when burned. Avoid burning railroad ties. Particleboard and plywood will smell funky due to the glues that hold them together, and I would refrain from cooking my hot dog over the coals if given a choice, but it will work for general heating needs within the home if that's all you can scrounge. The older the plywood or particleboard the better, as time will have had a chance to mellow out the bonding glues.
If things get super tough, how many chairs do you really need? A few cheap, white-man houses built on some Indian reservations in Arizona were used as fuel, little by little, by inventive occupants who, piece by piece, slowly burned every chair, cabinet, door, wall stud, and porch railing for heat until the home was so uninhabitable that they moved on. Old hunter-gatherer instincts die hard, I guess.
Even fuels that at first glance would seem a waste of time for your fireplace can be modified for longer burn times. In the American West, experiments have been done to create "logs" by tightly binding tumbleweeds (Russian thistle) together. Fuels that would normally combust in seconds last for several minutes after modification. You don't have to ride the range to create your own faux fuel. You can make your own improvised firewood logs by tightly rolling up old newspapers and tying them securely. The tighter you roll the logs, the less oxygen they will receive and thus the slower they will burn when added to an established heat base. Potential family fun for all: the winner with the slowest-burning log gets an extra serving of canned beans.