The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yeah problems are like ducks, they like company sorry to hear about that, sudden emergencies are hard on the mind and body.

How much electricity do you use per day? (for non heating purposes - so maybe a large charge station would help, 2.5 kWh ones are common now), and can you get a wood furnace? We're mostly burning ash firewood this winter and it's glorious.

I would love to install a wood-stove in the living room and another one on the patio, but cannot due to the insurance policy that i have to keep until i paid off the mortgage…
I have a Mr. Heater Diesel Heater for the garage, but that thing requires electricity for the fuel pump.
When electricity and gas is out, the car is the only heat source we have…

 

[Canadian Wind]

I would love to install a wood-stove in the living room and another one on the patio, but cannot due to the insurance policy that i have to keep until i paid off the mortgage…
I have a Mr. Heater Diesel Heater for the garage, but that thing requires electricity for the fuel pump.
When electricity and gas is out, the car is the only heat source we have…

I'm in the same boat trying to find a better heat source for the trailer. I found some though that work with propane tanks and require no electricity at all. Funny enough, they are also the Mr. Heater brand!

 

[Supercow]

I would love to install a wood-stove in the living room and another one on the patio, but cannot due to the insurance policy that i have to keep until i paid off the mortgage…
I have a Mr. Heater Diesel Heater for the garage, but that thing requires electricity for the fuel pump.
When electricity and gas is out, the car is the only heat source we have…

Look into the portable charge stations, they are really popping up everywhere now; you can charge them from various sources: the electricity grid, solar, car etc. - for example: https://us.fossibot.com/collections/portable-power-station

They are basically a big battery + charge controller + inverter packaged as an all-in-one consumer product. Yes, you overpay some vs. putting the components together individually. But they are practical and easy to use.

In our country there has lately been a surplus of political imagination about how energy policy and infrastructure should be run so a natural defense response is to make households less dependant on the grid.

We're fiddling with a charge station to even out the daily price fluctuations and talking to electricians to install switches so the house can be run fully independently with no worries about destabilizing the grid with our local production. The target is to comfortably run AC in the summer without worrying about what will have happened to the grid's reliability by that time.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I would love to install a wood-stove in the living room and another one on the patio, but cannot due to the insurance policy that i have to keep until i paid off the mortgage…
I have a Mr. Heater Diesel Heater for the garage, but that thing requires electricity for the fuel pump.
When electricity and gas is out, the car is the only heat source we have…

We have a propane Mr. Heater that works well if we have no power Frank. It takes the round tanks that you can get filled at TSC and many other places. I really like it and it does not require any electric to start it. I hope you can get one of those in the future, it would be better than the car at least.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I'm in the same boat trying to find a better heat source for the trailer. I found some though that work with propane tanks and require no electricity at all. Funny enough, they are also the Mr. Heater brand!

I have heart from a neighbor who has a propane tank that the lines from the tank to the house can freeze during cold winter days…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Look into the portable charge stations, they are really popping up everywhere now; you can charge them from various sources: the electricity grid, solar, car etc. - for example: https://us.fossibot.com/collections/portable-power-station

They are basically a big battery + charge controller + inverter packaged as an all-in-one consumer product. Yes, you overpay some vs. putting the components together individually. But they are practical and easy to use.

In our country there has lately been a surplus of political imagination about how energy policy and infrastructure should be run so a natural defense response is to make households less dependant on the grid.

We're fiddling with a charge station to even out the daily price fluctuations and talking to electricians to install switches so the house can be run fully independently with no worries about destabilizing the grid with our local production. The target is to comfortably run AC in the summer without worrying about what will have happened to the grid's reliability by that time.

That is an excellent idea! - My 18V battery tool system offers multiple types of inverters, starting at just $39 for a 150W module. The diesel heater uses just 30 Watts, so even with one of my smaller batteries i could run it for hours!
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/46396026750

 

[Canadian Wind]

I have heart from a neighbor who has a propane tank that the lines from the tank to the house can freeze during cold winter days…

Where's his tank, a mile away?

Before my furnace died, I had absolutely no issues with freezing lines from the propane tank. And you know how cold it gets here!

 

[Supercow]

I have heart from a neighbor who has a propane tank that the lines from the tank to the house can freeze during cold winter days…

Maybe not the lines themselves (unless it's super cold I guess?) but we've had the regulator valve on the tank (which releases the gas into the pipe) freeze up. Some kind of moisture buildup probably. It was lots of fun going out in the night to pour hot water on it.

 

[Supercow]

That is an excellent idea! - My 18V battery tool system offers multiple types of inverters, starting at just $39 for a 150W module. The diesel heater uses just 30 Watts, so even with one of my smaller batteries i could run it for hours!
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/46396026750

"Keep a laptop charged all day or even run a 32” TV for up to 2 hours with a single 18V ONE+ 4Ah battery."

18 V x 4 Ah = 72 Wh, so yes it should work out fine for your heater for 2-3 hrs, or more if you have more than a single battery to plug into it.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Where's his tank, a mile away?

Before my furnace died, I had absolutely no issues with freezing lines from the propane tank. And you know how cold it gets here!

Maybe not the lines themselves (unless it's super cold I guess?) but we've had the regulator valve on the tank (which releases the gas into the pipe) freeze up. Some kind of moisture buildup probably. It was lots of fun going out in the night to pour hot water on it.

I assume you are using propane bottles?
The neighbor to whom i spoke has a large residential propane tank at the bottom of the property and runs a copper line uphill to the house. Their driveway is too steep for the propane delivery tank, so that line is easy a ¼ mile long.
Copper? - Why Copper? The whole installation was installed before least two eons and copper pipe was the material of choice then…
As @Supercow assumed, it is not the line that freezes, it is the equipment - regulator, surge-protection valve, gauge - that tends to freeze during really cold temperatures.
The tank itself is under very high pressure, up to 200PSI here, but as the appliances operate at a much lower pressure, so a regulator valve is needed to reduce the pressure and that valve must be mounted close to the tank by law. - You don't want to run ¼ mile long copper pipe that is pressurized at 200PSI…
Now when gasses expand their temperature will drop. That's how heat-pumps work and how dry-ice is produced.
Conclusion: If you own some overgrown propert, a wood stove is the most reliable and cheapest solution for emergencies. If you are willing to chop your own firewood…