Category: Fuel Storage & Distilling

Two Letters Re: Generator Experiences During a Recent Nor’easter

Jim: The letter about Generators today inspired me to write this email. I have owned generators for around 20 years for emergency backup and portable power uses. I use my generator primarily for powering sound equipment in the field. As a result I looked for a quiet generator. The very quiet generators all run at 1,800 RPM, but it is expensive to make a generator that runs slow and quiet, and the affordable portable generators all seem to run at 3,600 RPM. When I purchased my current generator 10 years ago, Coleman had just started using the Briggs and Stratton …


“Cross-wire” Your Home Heating and Save Money, by Ted B.

This article explains one way that you can configure a hybrid heating system for your house in a Schumeresque environment, but it is also potentially a way to cut your heating bills before TSHTF, depending on the prices of various heating fuels in your area. We live in North Idaho, in a house that would be better suited in Hawaii.  It’s watertight but mostly a heat sieve.  Each of the last few years as the propane prices jumped each winter, we ended up getting hit with astronomical bills to keep the inside of our rather large home livable in outdoor …


Letter Re: Some Advise of Starting Wood and Charcoal Fires

Hello Mr. Rawles; Recently I have seen lists recommending the storage of charcoal lighter fluid. I would like to suggest the use of a charcoal starter chimney. You will not need to use and store the lighter fluid and worry about running out of it. With the chimney all you need to store is a supply of newspaper. It takes just a sheet or two of newspaper wadded up to start the charcoal and in short order your charcoal will be ready to use. You can find the chimneys on eBay or go to the Internet and find instructions for …


Letter Re: Survival Notes from the Dominican Republic

Jim, I’ve recently read several of your books and found them both interesting and educational. I would like to offer some personal insights based on my experiences from living in a small rural town one of the larger Caribbean islands. Most of my notes are cheap solutions used by people in developing nations all over the world. There may be better ways, but these work and cost next to nothing. Water: There is something especially disturbing about opening the faucet and hearing a sucking air sound. Not being able to shower, flush, or wash dishes is the worst. One or …


Letter Re: Wood Stove Selection, Operation, and Safety

James, You’ve had two good letters on woodstoves recently. I’d like to add a few thoughts based of heating and cooking with wood for a couple of decades in the Colorado mountains. I have never been more contented than when there’s a blizzard raging outside and I’m inside next to a nice warm woodstove. That being said, woodstoves and chainsaws account for the vast majority of domestic emergencies in many rural areas and a constant source of amusement for EMTs. As has been written, the importance of a properly installed chimney cannot overemphasized. Do get a quote for a good …


Lessons Learned from Hurricanes Ike, Rita, and Katrina, by TiredTubes

In September, 2008, Hurricane Ike–a Category 4 hurricane–pounded the Gulf Coast of the southern US. Some coastal communities like Crystal Beach no longer really exist. Inland, life was severely disrupted. For those of us on the South Coast hurricanes are a frequent reality. We were quite well prepared, but used the disruptions and dislocations as a test and opportunity to tune up our preparations. 1. Be ready to help others and to accept help We didn’t need much during Ike, but the power went out before a neighbor finished boarding up his house. My 1 KW inverter, hooked up to …


Letter Re: Wood Stove Selection, Operation, and Safety

James Wesley, We have heated our current home with a wood stove and a pellet stove for ten years now. I disagree with one aspect of the recent article on your web site. Our wood stove in the basement is set up to burn coal as well as wood. Where we live in Colorado there are a large number of dead trees — from pine beetles — that we can and do burn for free. However, with pine wood even the best stove will not hold the coals overnight. Hence the ability to use coal is a godsend. When the …


Wood Stove Selection, Operation, and Safety, by Kevin K.

Heating with wood has been a “necessary” tradition for thousands of years, but with the advent of the industrial revolution, and the advancement in methods of heating homes and buildings, heating with wood became less and less popular.  During the 1970s Energy Crises, there was interest in seeking “alternative” energy sources, and people started to rediscover the benefits of heating with wood. In the early 1990s, gas stoves and inserts took the place of traditional wood burning.  People were just too busy to deal with the time and energy required with wood.  In the last few years however, wood has …


Letter Re: Storing Food in Commercial Storage Spaces?

Hi Jim, What do you think of storing food at commercial storage sites until you can get the your retreat? Do you think these sites will be targeted and vandalized when TSHTF? We will be moving north as soon as our house sells. I was wondering if we should move preps to a storage site closer to where we will be moving? I hope you and your family are able to find comfort in your memories of the Memsahib. Thanks, – Kimberly JWR Replies: In most of North America, commercial “U-Stor” storage spaces with roll-up doors are not a good …


Three Letters Re: Perspectives on Roughing It and Covert Car Camping

Hi Jim, That was a great letter from Jolly but I’d like to add a couple of things. Jolly says ‘never, ever’ sleep at an highway rest stop. I guess that depends on where you are. In the last few years Texas has built some absolutely beautiful rest stops with clean bathrooms, vending machines, etc. that are manned 24 hours a day. They encourage sleeping there (better that than fatigued drivers on the road). I asked the people at one if it would be okay to sleep in my car – they replied that yes, it would be perfectly okay …


Perspectives on Roughing It and Covert Car Camping, by Jolly

I was a Boy Scout, and later did a fair amount of camping when I toured the US by motorcycle in the late 1980s. My tents started floorless and without mosquito netting; progressed to canvas umbrella tent with both. Later still, I was able to go to ripstop nylon “pup” style tents. Advancing, finally, to modern shock-corded aluminum poles and nylon. After a long gap of 20+ years, my son is now a scout, and I’m on the “no-other-parent-can-go-and-we’ll-have-to-cancel-if-you-don’t-volunteer” rotation for his troop. I just completed my second camp-out, and have noticed a few things that both dismay and encourage …


Letter Re: Devotional Candles as an Emergency Source of Light and Heat

Mr. Rawles, I am enjoying your “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” book, which I purchased on Friday and have read most of it by now. I have something to offer to you by way of experience regarding votive candles as good emergency candles. We are practicing Roman Catholics and, as such, have lots of experience with the 10″ candles that you recommend for emergencies or even small-scale food heating. While they cannot be beaten for long-term service ( a week to 10 days per candle), the amount of light and heat you obtain …


Letter Re: Notes on Fuel Transfer Pumps and Fuel Filters

Jim, Your info on using electric fuel pumps from junked cars (also included in your new book) was great. Here’s a twist you may not have considered: Use the pumps from GM vehicles. They are essentially submersible gasoline pumps. Rig one with wires and connector and discharge hose. The pumps are about the size of 2 D-cell batteries–so they can fit fit down barrel bungs, underground tank fillers, holes in most 5 gallon buckets. They are designed to operate the fuel system around 30 PSI on most gm cars (pressure limited by relief valve in injection system) so they can …


Three Letters Re: Heating With Wood

James Wesley, That was a good informative article by SGT B., however there was one glaring omission in the safety section : “Which brings me to the always wear appropriate safety gear rule. Always do. Period. Long sleeves and pants, boots, gloves, helmet with a face-guard or safety glasses, hearing protection.” He didn’t mention Kevlar chainsaw safety chaps, which jam a chain in milliseconds are now considered required for wood cutting, one moment of inattentiveness and your thigh, shin, etc, can be hamburger. The least expensive, yet best ones out there are from Labonville. Remember chainsaws don’t just cut flesh …


Heating With Wood, by SGT B.

I don’t know that you would call my father a prepper. He was more just in love with the idea of economic independence and living in the woods. When I was nine (after the woods behind us were clear cut for an apartment complex), we sold our house in the suburbs, bought ten acres far enough out that he figured the developers would never find us, and built a home in the woods. We heated this house with wood, and as any of you who grew up with a wood stove can already guess, that meant I spent a good …