Staying Warm

The repairman finally came and I have heat again. Such a luxury!

I heard a great fix today for temporary emergency heat from a guy that used this method in the RV park. His furnace wouldn't come on and his electric heater just couldn't keep up with the severe cold. Many 30 amp RV's can only handle one 1500 watt heater and not two.

We recently had temps in the 20's and 30's (Fahrenheit). He used this emergency method when he was awake to monitor it.

A propane stove or oven is not recommended for heating an RV and can be extremely dangerous because it depletes oxygen rapidly. Even when cooking on a propane stove indoors you need to use the exhaust fan over the stove. If it's not working then open a window. If you've read your propane stove manual then you're familiar with all this.

 However this is what he told me about his emergency heat:

In a SEVERE emergency use a clay flowerpot soaked in water, then placed upside down over s propane stove top burner.

Light the burner then turn the burner down to the lowest setting possible. The upside down flowerpot will radiate heat.

Turn on the overhead stove fan or open a window near the stove.

The good news is even after the stove is off, the clay pot continues to radiate heat.

I also stumbled across people writing about using tea lights (short fat candles) in a metal pie place with an inverted clay pot over the pie plate to make their own room heater as a supplemental source.

Excerpt from survival punk:
I put my own version of this in my living room last winter, using only one flower pot, 4 tea lights, and a tin pie pan with holes punched in the side to allow airflow (without the holes, the candles go out). The flower pot sits just inside the lip of the pie pan, so I wasn’t worried about balancing the flower pot across the top of a loaf pan. I set it on a plant stand in an area that a draft from the front door often cooled the room to a point where it’s uncomfortable in the winter. Not only did it make the room warmer and more comfortable, but it reduced my heating bill by about $50 per month. It definitely worked for me. BTW, I also placed scented wax in the center of the tea lights, and as it melted it made a nice scent in the room. I told a friend about it; he made one for his living room and had similar results.
Maybe you’re looking at this as replacing other heat sources, however, I used it as an additional heat source. It maintained a constant 72 degrees in the room without having the furnace kick in. I used 4 candles, twice each day, and didn’t use it during the night when sleeping in a cooler room is comfortable. You definitely know it’s working when the candles burn out without you noticing it, and before long you’ll feel a drop in the room temperature.

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Thankfully I survived the crazy cold snap. I started out realizing my electric and propane heater were both on the fritz. I read manuals and tried a variety of things to get something going. A friend loaned me their portable ceramic heater they claimed not to need. I called for help with an RV repairman I had never used before. He was so overworked it took him until past the cold snap to show up and get things running again. I also had a nasty plumbing leak, so he was one busy dude. I had given up on him because he kept promising dates and times and then not showing up. I was trying to reach other repair people and getting no where with that either.

I realized my wardrobe is lacking when it comes to severe cold. I kept piling on clothes but it was so hard to move around and get anything done by the time I had enough layers on to stay warm. So funny. I just wanted to crawl under the covers and hibernate until spring like a bear, but that wasn't an option. Too much to do!

But it's all good. I woke up alive and today the temps were a bit more agreeable.

I hope where ever you are you are staying warm too.

Thank you for thinking of me!