Category: HVAC

What is Old is New Again – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Keeping warm will be another area where we revert back to old ways. I see lots of prepper articles and YouTube videos about sawing wood for heat. Back in the bygone days, one of the daily chores of children was picking up “sticks”. Many of us may remember the old nursery rhythm with the line “five, six pick up sticks”. These sticks were used for cooking. Heat from the daily food preparation was just an added bonus in the colder months. We may want to lower our expectations of post-TEOTWAWKI comfort. Trying …


Surviving the Heat – Part 2, by N.C.

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.) Ingest Cold Food and Drink Your body has to warm everything that you ingest up to 97 degrees Fahrenheit and that uses up some of the heat in your body. Going to the store and getting ice for your cooler for a heat snap is wise preparation. It’ll keep your freezer closed and cold but give you access to chilled food and beverages for the day. Which will cool you and you will also wind up with cold water which you can use to cool yourself directly. When we think cold food …


Surviving the Heat – Part 1, by N.C.

Every heat wave kills people. For most of us, it’s a minor inconvenience and hurts our wallets more than anything else. Here in the US, air conditioning is now almost ubiquitous and everything is fine. But what about when grid power is not available? This article is aimed at people living in cities and suburbs who find themselves without power during a heat wave. For whatever reason there is no power for some time, what do you do? It also applies to people who just can’t afford air conditioning which is where I learned a lot of these things. As …


Learning From My Amish Neighbor, by 3AD Scout

In February of this year, our neighbor sold his two houses and business. One of those houses was sold to our new neighbors. They are Old Order Amish who still do not use any electric lights on their buggies but rather use Kerosene lamps. It has been an interesting few months watching them transform their new-to-them home to their off-grid Amish lifestyle. I was wondering how the new owners would heat the large old farmhouse and get their water since the old neighbor used electricity for such things. The previous neighbor had an outside wood furnace that supplied both heat …


How to Install a Woodstove in an RV or Small Cabin, by Tunnel Rabbit

As the collapse occurs, slowly or suddenly, friends and family will need to be provided housing at a retreat location. Most retreats are not large enough to adequately house all the family and close friends that you’ll want to help with security and food production. They can park their recreational vehicle (RV) on your property, or perhaps locate a large storage shed that is converted into a small cabin. In either case, in all but the southeastern United States, these shelters will need a wood stove installed. This discussion focuses on installing a wood stove in an RV as that …


Lessons Learned from the Alabama Ice Storm, by H.J.

Some Recent History In June 2022, we sold our house and moved to a 38-foot long 5th wheel camper. After the Christmas 2022 cold snap, my wife gave me the riot act. We had to be out of the camper by December 2023. We found a house; we liked and bought it. It is not the ideal prepping spot, but it is a town to live in. In September 2023, we started moving into the house. We were surprised how much stuff we had in the camper. For reference, we also had three storage units full of stuff. To date, …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.) 5. Meals and Menus for Day One and First Week This may seem like a silly priority item but read on. There term “menu” is being used very loosely. My DOM Action List 1. Keep freeze-dried foods in plain sight on the table. 2. Check cabinets for other easily-prepared foods and put on the table. First and foremost: Do NOT open the fridge/freezer to get food for meals! During my 10-day preps test I lost 6 lbs (and I’m not overweight to begin with) mostly because I was so busy and didn’t want to have to …


12 Basic Actions To Make It Through the First 12 Weeks of TEOTWAWKI – Part 2, by Michael X.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Heat We have a super-efficient wood stove in our basement that can heat our entire cabin. We can vent heat into various parts of the house. We have two propane fireplaces that do not use any electricity. I put all these in when we built the cabin as our electricity as always spotty and my belief is that electricity is going to be a problem in almost every society fail scenario. I have a wood lot and prepare enough wood to stay warm all winter. I have several chain saws and can …


Solar-Battery Home Power – Part 1, by Jeff M.

So to begin with I must say that my move to a solar/battery system was rather supernatural. I had been pondering for a long time as to installing a generator for our home, or use the large portable I already own and can connect manually, or do nothing. I was constantly worrying about two things:  1. Where will I get fuel in a long term, serious societal event? 2. All generators make noise, most of them a lot, including mine. I was trapped in a vicious circle of worry, especially with events of the past six years. I truly believe …


Kerosene Lanterns, by Pat Cascio

It is no easy task, to find products to write about. I know a lot of our readers, would like me to simply cover firearms, some knives, and other survival gear. While I really enjoy writing about new firearms, to be honest, there’s not a lot of actual “new” firearms to write about – the gun makers do their best to come out with a new firearm, that no one else has out there on the market. Many new firearms are just cosmetically slightly different than another similar gun. When it comes to knives, it is extremely difficult to find …


How to Quickly Kindle a Fire, by St. Funogas

Comments on SurvivalBlog last winter about some folks having issues starting their morning fire in the woodstove got me to thinking about how crucial fire-building skills should be in our skill-set preps, as well as an important every-day skill for those of us who heat with wood or build fires on a regular basis. If TEOTWAWKI becomes a reality and a wood fire becomes common for heating and cooking, this knowledge will be essential. Much has been written on the many aspects of building a fire, mostly geared towards wilderness emergencies, but they typically only address how to ignite tinder, …


A DIY Solar Water Heater – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) BUILDING THE BOX Again, if money isn’t a big concern, I’d recommend using a full sheet of plywood and corrugated polycarbonate greenhouse panels. This will not only give you a larger water heater, but be lighter and easier to move as well. I constructed a double-coiled version using a free recycled, double-paned sliding patio door which, on sunny days, supplies more hot water than I can use. The construction method will be the same regardless of which size you choose to make. For the full-sheet-of-plywood version, use two treated 2 x 4 …


A DIY Solar Water Heater – Part 1, by St. Funogas

If you had to list ten things that would be most missed in a post-TEOTWAWKI world, opening a tap and having free-flowing hot water whenever you want it would have to be near the top of the list for a lot of us. In this article I’ll present an inexpensive solar water heater (SWH) which has gotta be the most efficient for the cost. I use this on my homestead almost six months of the year and in a non-freeze situation such as a greenhouse, this could be used year-round. Even with minimal skills and hand tools, you can build …


Lessons Learned From Going Rural – Part 1, by Animal House

When conservatives won the 2016 election many people breathed a sign of relief and decided America was safe for a few years. They decided to keep their city jobs, they slowed down their emergency preparations, and pushed back that decision to move to the country. As the unrest increases in cities, I know many families who have brought the country move back to the front burner and are actively putting together their wish lists for a homestead property. I’ve been through this, so I thought I’d share some of the things that are important in purchasing a rural property. Analyze …


Lessons Learned from the Texas Deep Freeze, by B.B.

Texans had two weeks warning about the artic cold set to hit the state last month. Yet most Texans were not prepared. It is estimated that 80 people died from the cold and lack of power. Some froze to death from lack of heat while others died from carbon monoxide poisoning trying to stay warm in foolish ways. It started Sunday night with rolling blackouts in my area, but complete power outages in some areas. For my family, rolling blackouts continued through Wednesday night, ending in the early hours of Thursday morning. During this time, many lost water service, either …