Heating Your Home Safely When the Power Is Out

Of all the things I think about when the power goes out, heat is the one that worries me most. Food can wait a day. Light can be a candle. But if it's cold outside and your house is losing heat by the hour, you've got a real problem, and it gets worse every night.

Heat is also the thing that eats up your fuel the fastest. I've said this before about propane. A typical 20-pound bottle might last you a week, or it might last you a month. It all depends on what you're using it for. Cooking takes a little. Heating takes a lot. If you have to keep a heater running all night, that bottle is going to go much faster than you expect.

Indoor-Rated Propane Heaters

The heaters I recommend are the catalytic propane heaters that are designed and rated for indoor use. They burn cleanly, with very little in the way of fumes, and they're made to be used inside a home. I would highly recommend getting one.

Now, I want to be careful here, because this is about your family's safety. Designed for indoor use doesn't mean you can stop paying attention. Crack a window to let in some fresh air. Read the manual and follow it exactly. And keep a working carbon monoxide detector in the room where you're running it. Carbon monoxide doesn't have a smell, and you won't know it's there until it's too late. A detector costs very little compared to what it protects.

The other thing to know about these heaters is how quickly they use propane. One of those little one-pound cylinders can be gone overnight, depending on how cold it is. One night. So if you're counting on one of these heaters to get you through a week of winter, count your cylinders. Plan accordingly.

Why Propane Alone Isn't Enough

Propane is the easiest fuel to use and to store, and it lasts the longest. It has the fewest problems of anything I've stored. But every container only holds so much.

If we're ever in a big, drawn-out problem, with fuel shortages and trucks not running, propane will only last so long. You can't store enough of it to keep a family warm indefinitely. So you have to think about other ways. You can read more about how the different fuels compare in my emergency fuel comparison.

Wood Stoves and Tent Stoves

That brings us to wood. Wood is about as old as heat gets, and in a long emergency it may be what you end up relying on.

There are smaller wood stoves made for camping, and they can work quite well. Some of them are made specifically for tents. Set up properly in the right kind of tent, they make what's called a hot tent, and that can be a very good way to keep warm. But a camp wood stove is not something you just set down in your living room.

If you bring a wood stove into your home, it has to be piped outside, through a proper chimney or flue. And now you're talking about open flame inside your house. With a stove that isn't properly built in, the risk of a fire goes up enormously. You have to be very careful.

If you're going to heat with wood indoors, here's what I'd want in place:

• A proper chimney or flue that carries the smoke and gases outside
• Plenty of clearance between the stove and anything that can burn, including walls, furniture, curtains, and stored supplies
• A fire extinguisher within reach
• Working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors
• A check of your local building and fire codes before you install anything

Some people have a patio they can enclose a little better and run a chimney out from there. That gives the family at least one place to stay warm without putting a stove in the middle of the house. Whatever you do, do it right, and do it before you need it. A cold night with the power out is the wrong time to be figuring out how to run stovepipe.

Butane and Other Options

There are other fuels too. Butane works on small stoves and some small heaters. Those can be handy, but like a lot of camping gear, many of them are meant for outdoor use only. Read the label and the manual on anything that burns fuel. If it doesn't say it's rated for indoor use, treat it as an outdoor tool.

Always Have at Least Two

My whole point here is simple. Think of more than one way to heat. Don't depend on one. But at least have one. Having nothing is the worst place to be.

If you've got an indoor-rated propane heater, think about what you'd do when the propane runs out. If you've got a wood stove, think about what you'd do if it's raining and your wood is wet, or if you need heat in a room the stove can't reach. Two or more sources of heat, using more than one kind of fuel, will carry you a lot further than one.

I have some of these indoor heaters here on the website. I always recommend the ones I own first, because I've tried them and used them, and you'll find those listed on this site.

If you want help figuring out how much fuel your family would need for heat, cooking, and light, the free Family Planner on this site will walk you through it. It's free, there's no sign-up, and nothing you enter is ever saved.

A Thought to Carry With You

There's something about a warm room on a cold night that brings a family together. Everyone pulls in close. The noise of the world fades a little. I think hard times can do that for us spiritually too, if we let them. The same God who asks us to prepare our homes also offers warmth of a different kind, the kind that settles a frightened heart. Keep your heaters ready and your fuel stored. And keep that other fire burning too, so that when the cold comes, your family has both.