Dying From The Cold.

I dod remember stories though, as a kid, of elderly people that had died in their homes of cold. I see, to remember it being linked to the fear of the cost of the heating. I don't think the story is anything new, us humans are probably less acclimatised to colder temperatures now though.

How we would cope post SHTF is a quite different question. In urban areas there could well be fuel shortages and most modern houses do not have chimneys, so whatever can be found can't be burnt.

 

We have no central heating in our cottage.Two multi fuel stoves,and electric radiators in each room - for when it gets proper cold! Our young neighbours have their heating belching out 24/7.Right now the windows are open to get fresh air in,and the back door open so the dogs can come and go ,and we just put a sweater on. We’ll light the stoves later this afternoon. We are UK btw.

Obviously,if you are elderly,frail or ill , then you need to stay warm. Also, whatever your circumstances,you need at least one heat source,even if just in one room.If you genuinely cannot afford to put heat on ,then that is a tough situation. Rising fuel prices are causing folks to whine about ‘not affording to heat the house’. Walking around a house half naked in December is different to no heat at all. That’s how soft we have become- as a society.

 

We have central heat but seldom use it. We have a heater in our living room that does a pretty good job. Take right now for example. here it is between Christmas and New Years and we have our AC running. It is damp and sultry outside, not hot but unpleasant so AC ON. A White Christmas has NEVER been a thing in South East Texas. I've gone swimming and waade fishing in the first week of the year several times. So far we have had NO winter this year.

PS: IF we get a cold winter y'all can all laugh at me whining about it. I don't like COLD!!!

 

We certainly were not rich, but we were blessed by the Lord God on high by living in coal country.

The Lord knows how many coal fires I've started. I don't.

Some kids had to walk the railroad tracks to gather spilt chunks of coal for to heat their homes. I never had to do that, praise God. Hook or crook, the men of my family came up with the money for tons of coal to heat my grandparents' home -- i.e. the gathering center of our klan. Plus, my paternal grandmother could sew quilts, coats, whatever. Hallelujah! And, my parents could afford to buy me new shoes, God bless them in the next world. Other kids weren't so lucky.

Any time I got cold, I had the kindling and the coal to start a fire in the fireplace, or I could go down and stoke the coal furnace to heat up the house. My dad was born in an iron-mining camp. He and his brothers rose above that world ... by any means necessary. After the war (WWII), they were NOT going to return to poverty. Cross them and see what that would buy you.
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All three houses on our survival grounds have at least back up wood heat capabilities . Actually wood is the main heat source that I have used so for this year . We have been saving our oak trees for when things get really bad and have several never used two man cross cut saws in the stash if gasoline for a chain saw is not available . For $50 .00 a rick I simply had rather buy wood already cut and split than use up my own trees . ---- My tribe got together and finally poured that slab for a 4 th. house a week ago . Also there is the little guest cabin and several campers on the property .

 

I've always lived in homes and apartment's that have central heat and air.but don't use either when I don't need them. It's muggy outside.but warm,in which the front door and kitchen window is open.but yet.this last February taught me that I'm I'll prepared for subzero temp's and power outage.in which I used candles 24/7 to keep the apartment warm enough.only time I used my gas stove top.is to make coffee in the morning,and for a little bit of extra heat when needed.
What I can't understand,is a woman down the street from me won't take the needed step's to stay warm at times like that. It's a wonder that she didn't freeze to death.

 

my place up north has a beautiful wood stove, but i also have electric baseboard heaters. The present stove is a slow burn but the firts one was huge but no control so you would light a fire in it before bed but then it would run out and you would freeze, so i install heater to click on in the middle of the night . now the slow burn will still be warm in the morning .

 

Central heating is just the norm these days, all housing association properties have it, private landlords are actively encouraged to fit it which they should. Heating a whole house via central heating is often not much more expensive than heating just one room so it makes no sense just having one or two heat sources in a home, your actually wasting heat that way.

I'm fitting underfloor heating and radiators upstairs at the new home Spain which I'll initially run off a wood stove and when I can afford it geo thermal; no excuse for a cold home these days.

 

We once had a HUGE wood stove; weighed like 400-ish pounds. Took 4 of us guys to get it into place. It was lined with fire brick and had an upper chamber for further burning of soot/carbon. The thing would get hotter than seven devils. On the front of the thing were two air vents that one could adjust to regulate air intake and thus burn-rate of logs.

Our house was small and I cut two holes in the floor and put adjustable floor vents in each. The vent directly above the stove would permit heat up into our house and the other vent would allow cold air to fall into the basement to be heated.



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France could get chilly after mid-January 2022:

"France Faces Power Blackouts In Next Cold Snap, Grid Operator Warns"

https://www.zerohedge.com/commoditi...-blackouts-next-cold-snap-grid-operator-warns

"France's electricity grid is coming under strain, and the next cold snap could be devastating for the country as energy-intensive manufacturers would experience reduced power, according to a new report published by French power grid operator Reseau de Transport d'Electricite (RTE).

"RTE said due to the lack of wind and nuclear power generation. The next cold snap would force it to cut electricity to energy-intensive companies to stabilize the grid. There's even the possibility widespread rolling blackouts could be implemented for two hours to mitigate grid collapse during peak energy demand.

"The good news is that weather forecasting models provided by Bloomberg don't show an imminent cold blast for the first half of January."

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With global energy supplies heading the way they are - scarcer and more expensive- gas central heating may well be consigned to the history books. Environmental rules will be prohibiting New builds from having gas boilers within ten years here in the UK.

 

The unfortunate thing about a democracy is that leadership is all about popularity with absolutely no emphasis on competence or on awareness. Even understanding of what makes things like real governments work has no part in our system.

Imagine a business that worked on that sort of criteria for who to hire or promote to the executive supervisory levels. You won’t ever find a business like that though because they won’t stay in business for long and then be GONE. Democracy is going down the tubes now. Two or three hundred years really isn’t a very long time for a government system to last.

 

The UK needs nuclear power, the new stations are extremely safe and they work, wind turbines, tidal power etc don't work half the time but mention nuclear power and some people go into meltdown. We have plenty of hills and valleys for hydro but you can't do that, it would displace some birds and hedgehogs or whatever.

There is a group of people making a lot of money selling the idea of 'alternative clean' energy to Mr and Mrs Average.

 

The problem with nuclear power is not the system. The problem is that most people don't have a clue about how it works and base their believes on things that they have seen in disaster movies and TV shows rather than any actual knowledge.

Can they be potentially dangerus, YES...BUT understand any of the major hydroelectric dams offer an equally dangerous possibility if they fail catastrophicly. Understand people don't really create power. All we do is convert one kind of power to another. Gravity, wind, fire, nuclear reactions are powers that we use to make electricity. Electricity is made by a by or is the product of real natural forces.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesc...gic-nuclear-waste-repository/?sh=31e977db6103

" ... the United States does not yet have a permanent storage plan.

"Finland does. In early May the Finnish waste management company Posiva Oy, announced the start of excavation on their deep geologic nuclear waste repository for their spent nuclear fuel (SNF) at ONKALO.

"The repository will be the first in the world to start final disposal of spent nuclear fuel.

"The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland has certified the process. Operation of the repository is expected to begin in 2023. The total cost estimate is about €2.6 billion ($3.4 billion)."
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Tested-out my new high-top insulated boots out in the snow and sub-freezing temperatures. I am delighted.

Had to also walk on concrete floors and the padded heals allowed my feet pain-free operation. The lace-ups held my ankles in place. The water-proofing allowed not one drop of melted snow into my boots. Wasn't wearing my Merino wool socks (too hot sometimes), but didn't have to.

My new boots are from Caterpillar. Luv'em. I guess I'm doing a commercial for Caterpillar Boots right now. They're made in Bangladesh, not China. Once had a friend from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

CAT boots:

https://www.catfootwear.com/US/en/w...e1bf1837db151fad51c079ef7b4cf658&gclsrc=3p.ds
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Love it, my nephew had one like this, could heat his whole house with it . You have to be careful now there are regulations coming out about how many particles per cubic foot .
so check with your municipally https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/pages/are-
wood-burning-stoves-to-be-banned

Of course they are not getting my stove pollutes yes but heats like a bastard.

 

https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/pages/are-wood-burning-stoves-to-be-banned

May the Gaia-worshiping communists never see the face of God!

My family is going to stay warm.

Burning coal during a temperature inversion event is a specific / unique situation in which all decent citizens must be informed and expected to regard the health of others. This situation is just like civil defense. A temperature inversion is a form of emergency, a war, if you will. Trees breathe CO2, by the by.

There is an "environmental wacko" side of me and that is that I believe in the sanctity of "old-growth forests" and "rain forests". One must not violate them. Most forests can grow back; no problem. Where I live, if one were to heavily cut forests, then humans disappeared off the face of the Earth, within 20 years, you'd not be able to tell if humans had EVER existed. Such is NOT true of old-growth and rain forests. Japan cuts old growth and rain forests. Japan uses seine nets. Japan kills whales. Communist China follows ZERO rules except the "rule of getting richer". Japan would de-forest Africa and the Northwest of America. So would communist China. These two nations
are godless scum.
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Well, we're not dying here, but man oh man has it sure gotten cold. Plus, the wind has been gusty.

Woke up to a winter wonderland. The snow has clung to everything. An hour ago, the power almost went out -- power lines heavy with snow/ice, the cause. Right now, the wind is pushing and pulling on the window beside my desk. Sure no day to head up into the mountains!

Tonight it is supposed to get down to 15 F / -10 C. But, the wind is supposed to get much more calm. That's good.

https://weather.com/safety/winter/n...-quinlan-south-midwest-northeast-bomb-cyclone

I looked at the weather conditions for England and Europe and didn't see any temperatures below freezing (up in the mountains, who ever knows, things get strange up in the mountains). For winter, Europe isn't particularly cold at all.

Right now our cars are covered in snow, but I'm not planning on going anywhere. Can't afford any recreational driving due to gas prices heading up. Good thing we got that little rice-rocket when we did. But if winter really sets-in, then like it or not, I'll have to use the SUV.

Due to the current weather, there's only one very decent road/highway across the mountains for a hundred miles north/south. Smaller roads may (?) be cleared, but one could easily hit a patch of ice. And these winds, they could drop a tree right in front of your car's path -- now, you are roadkill.

Road crews have cleared roads of the thousands of trees that the last storm brought down; however, they just cut the trees that were across the roads. As one drives through the forests (numerous miles for me every work day), you see approximately a half dozen to a dozen trees per mile that had to be cut back. You look to the side and see trees fallen and the limbs & trunks are cut but resting on guard rails.



All of these trees that have been killed by the weather are going to set-up the probability of massive forest fires at the end of summer -- especially if drought conditions show up.
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