Heating

If your home’s electrical or heat source fails your family and your home’s temperature matches that of the outdoors what do you do? Well staying warm should boil down to all of the basic fundamentals. Make sure to have the right a tire and bedding handy to coincide with the climate around you. You may not be prepared.

 

A great rule of thumb is to treat your home as if it were an unheated campsite. What would you need to comfortably sleep your family in a wintery abode. Well it all depends on where you live. Heavy comforters, blankets and winter sleeping bags instantly come to mind. It is always wise to prepare for the worst possible scenario. possibly a long term power outage coupled with an extremely cold spell and failure of your primary heat source. No matter the temperature indoors keeping your family warm should not be all that hard in a pinch. Have stash of extra winter sleeping bags handy as well. Your neighbors may not be as prepared as you and it never hurts to lend a helping hand in a time of need.

 

It is safe to assume you wish to do more than make a family nest out of a blanket to stay warm. A secondary source of backup heat will keep your family functioning and more importantly comfortable in a time of need.

 

Safety comes first

If one thing is stressed throughout the pages of this book, it would be that safety trumps everything else. Carbon monoxide poison and fire come to mind as two fatal risks that outweigh the possibility of freezing to death. Understanding and proper use of a backup heat source reduces that risk.

 

First off realize that any fuel burning heat source makes your home or shelter susceptible to fire. If it’s not stone, metal or brick then it’s flammable. Keep your heater away from all flammable materials. The hotter your heater runs the greater your odds of it creating an accidental fire. Your furniture, clothing and even wood flooring are no exception to what may catch fire. Always have a watchful eye fixated on your heat source if it’s not something you would use on a regular basis.

 

Fuel burning heaters such as coal, wood, propane and kerosene release carbon monoxide, a dangerous gas you cannot see or smell. Headache, light headedness, fatigue, nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath are its symptoms. Seek fresh air at once if you experience any of these symptoms while operating a fuel based heater. Carbon monoxide poisoning can quickly become a death sentence. Yearly, roughly 200 people died in the United States in relation to carbon monoxide poisoning. Not only should you leave a carbon monoxide detector near the rear of your fuel burning appliance but proper venting should be in place as well.

 

Heat loss

There are two main ways in which he can be lost. The loss of fuel and the loss of your heating unit. The loss of fuel is when your fuel source is directly interrupted. In most cases this is caused from a home losing its electrical power or the gas supply being shut off. The other is when your home’s heating unit fails to work properly. at any rate you should have a backup plan in place where you can easily support your family’s heating needs for at least 3 weeks.

 

Heat loss: heating unit

Heating systems fail quite frequently, more so when temperatures are frigid and the heater is overworked. During a cold spell this becomes obvious as the number of repair trucks making service stops often rises.

 

Make sure to have a fully functioning backup heat source at the ready, at all times. You have many options and they can be smaller in scale. Electric space heaters, kerosene heaters and one burning stoves to name just a few should help you get by in the event that your primary heating unit fails to operate properly. This temporary fix may only heat a portion of your home, and that is something to be thankful for.

 

Fuel loss

Natural gas, electricity, propane or even fossil fuels. there may be an instance where your heating unit is operating fine however the fuel source is simply unavailable. Instances such as these you need a secondary fuel source at your disposal as well as the ability to use it properly.

 

If your heat source is a kerosene heater, wood/pellet stove or any other localized heat source you may not skip a beat over a large scale disruption of fuel by a power company.  These units often are what users look to when primary fuel sources are disrupted. Electric power may still be required at times to power blowers and augers that these units may require.

 

A large generator can handle an electric heating system as long as it can handle currents both searching and constant. If its natural gas or propane is that your heater burns you will need to tie a back up fuel tank into your heater with a valve that gives you the option to toggle back and forth. Once again a backup electrical source is often needed to power the blower, thermostat and ignition system among others. Generator inverter usually meet these requirements.

 

Safety at all times

Safety first and foremost. What’s the point of keeping your family warm if they are overshadowed by the dangers of in properly using backup heat sources. Fire and carbon monoxide poisoning come to mind.

 

Carbon monoxide is a deadly gas that gives no traces of its presence. you can’t see it, smell it or taste it. But it can kill you just the same. Any style heater that burns fuel outputs carbon monoxide. Propane, kerosene, wood, coal and others need proper ventilation. Shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, headache, fatigue, lightheadedness are some of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. If you are operating a fuel burning heater and experience any of these symptoms, clear your dwelling and get fresh air at once. This deadly killer claims roughly 200 lives annually in the United States and surely poisons many more. Its deadly. to offset this possibility never use appliances that burn fuel indoors without the proper ventilation. Always have a carbon monoxide detector near any fuel burning appliance.

 

When operating a fuel burning heater a directive that needs to be ran outside or at the very least oh well ventilated area with open windows and doors. If I’m sure check your heaters manual to find it ventilation recommendations. When in doubt there is a general rule of thumb to follow in regard to ventilation. For every 10,000 BTUs of heater rating one square inch of window shall be open. So if a heater is rated at 10,000 BTU’s an hour it would require at least 10 square inches of opening, such as a 10 inch wide window being open at least an inch.

 

The next big risk when you use a fuel burning heat source is the possibility of catching your dwelling on fire. Everything in your home is flammable and needs to be kept away from your heater except a handful of materials such as stone, brick and metal. Never leave a bad computer unattended. Even your hardwood floors can go up in flames if your back of heat source is hot enough.

 

Prevent heater related fires

1. Never leave a heater unattended.
2. Keep flammable items away from the heater.
3. Avoid using extension cords if your heater plugs into the wall. heavy duty cords with 14 AWG wire are accepted.
4. Pay close attention to your children around the heater and explain the dangerous to all involved.

 

Supply enough heat

Your climate dictates how much backup heat you actually need to have at the ready. Obviously Wisconsin would require more heat than Texas. With that said most clients will require some type of heat source depending on the time of year.

 

Let’s take a look at your already in place heat source. Is it a gas furnace or electric heater? Does your heat source of burning fuels such as propane or natural gas? Does it employ an electric blower? Do you have the ability and know how to keep your family warm for a prolonged period of time. If your primary fuel supply / heat source is not accessible you need to know what to do. If the line of fuel to your home was broken during an ice storm for 2 weeks could you keep your family warm?

 

Supplying enough heat to your home can be tough under normal circumstances for so many on a budget. He didn’t girls run high for so many people due to poor insulation factors. If you think that this may be a concern now it may even be more pertinent when heating your home with a secondary heating source.

 

The last thing you need is wasted heat. Chances are your home’s heat loss can be improved upon simply by weatherproofing its weak points. If we take into consideration that your home is fully insulated, chances are you still have plenty of gaps in yox zgur home that allow for heat to escape. Examples are around the windows and door frames, flashing vents, siding vents, pipes and even electrical sockets. Insulating windows, sealing gaps and weatherproofing doors should not be overlooked.

 

Picking out th of the heaters you will find on the market are specified by British thermal units per hour, or BTUs / hour. A BTU is determined by the amount of heat necessary to raise one pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.

 

You may require a heater powerful enough to pull handle a pole barn or modest enough handle a 10 by 10 shack. Picking the wrong sized heater could leave you miserable or worse so make sure to size it properly. In order to select the proper heat6\”jinjib in juh 8in nguujuhtt my yv chunk 87b no j I 9 .nix b we must take a few things into consideration.

 

1. Heat loss – how much he will be escaping through gaps and cracks in your structures walls, floor and ceiling.
2. The overall volume of the air you need to eat.
3. On the coldest projected night of the year figure out your minimum allowable temperature difference.

 

If you decide to select a small localized heat source such as a pellet stove or an electric space heater you will need to figure out the minimum requirements needed to properly heat your living space. A few simple measurements will ensure your heater selection can properly heat the space you are looking to keep warm. If you are installing a large heating system such as a furnace, have the retailer inspect your home prior to installation to determine the proper heater size.

 

Selecting the proper heat source may be difficult without studying your home well. Familiarize yourself with your home’s ability to breathe, insulation, element exposure as well as overall airflow. There are many resources online to a new with the size of your heater, but the results vary for the reasons mentioned above. With that being said the results given by many of your online resources will vary as well.

 

There are three methods used that serve as basic guidelines to follow when determining the size of heater needed to keep her family warm.

 

Method 1 least accurate

Simply multiply the square footage to be heated by 25. This number is the number of BTUs per hour needed to stay warm.

 

As an example if you wish to heat a small cottage of 400 square feet your heater would need the ability to output at least 10,000 BTUs an hour.

 

400 x 25 = 10,000

 

Method two: moderately accurate

Another method which is slightly more accurate involves measuring the volume of air needed to be heated while also specifying the minimum desired temperature difference between the outdoors and your home. With this method an equation can be also be used to estimate the proper here size.

 

ΔT x volume x  0.133 =   BTUs needed

ΔT being the change in temperature

 

As mentioned in method 1, our example is going to be a small 400 square foot cottage with 8 foot ceilings. This would require heating 3200 cubic feet of air. Now if the outside temperatures fall as low as negative ten degrees Fahrenheit and you wish to maintain an interior temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit then the temperature difference is 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

To meet these needs the minimum heater size required needs to output 32,000 BTUs.

 

3,200×75×0.133 =31,920.

 

Method 3 (most accurate)

The third method with greater level of accuracy takes into consideration the square footage as well as your home’s insulation factor. This method is not consider your home’s exterior temperature difference. Simply multiply your home’s insulation factor by the overall size of the area you are looking to heat.

 

Insulation factor X Area

 

If we assume the same 400 square foot cottage has an average insulation factor then the heater needed would be required to output:

 

Best case scenario: 400 x 50 = 20’000 BTUs

Worst case scenario: 400 x 70 = 28,000 BTUs

 

Table: insulation factors…

 

Cat/ insulation / factor

Average

Good

 

Summary

Looking back at our small cottage it would take anywhere between 10,000 to 28,000 BTUs an hour to heat it properly. As soon as you gauge your home’s need you can move on to selecting a heater to meet your home’s
You may go to several heaters before u get it right. Still there is no reason to overshoot your needs. If your estimates are accurate, bigger is always better.