dbd33

In Melancthon a fairly large but well insulated house heated solely by wood used 2 cords or so a year. Now we use 1 and change, we have a furnace but wood is the main source of heat. A cord is 4'x4'x8' so you'll need to think about where to put a couple of them and also what size pieces you need, 12" and 16" are the standard sizes for indoor wood stoves; you want the size that fits! The attached picture is three cords of wood as delivered, a large tarp is needed if you can't pick it all up and stack it tidily in one go.

Ideally one should have an attached garage and another place for cars; that way the wood can go in the garage and be easily accessible without actually being in the house. If you put it in the basement be aware that it'll make the house humid as it dries. If you put it in a shed that happens to be on the property be aware that the shed may be completely buried by drifting snow causing you to have to dig every time you want a log.

dbd33

Generators are rated in watts, starting and running, my entire knowledge of watts is that the towers of that name in LA are worth going to see and that 7000 running/8500 starting is enough to run our house (fridge, freezer, pumps, hair dryer, aquarium, lights, furnace controls, computers, no stove). It's about the usual size for a domestic generator, I think we went looking for a cheap one of 6000 watts or better.

Our generator, and I think this is typical of non-automated house sized ones, runs on petrol and has an electric start. It has a tank of about five gallons and will run for about 24 hours on that. We keep cans of petrol for that and for the mower though usually in a power cut petrol stations can still run their pumps. Concerns with the generator are that it's heavy to haul out to start it up and that it's noisy when running.

Is this the suvivalist nutter thread yet? Wanna hear about our fall out shelter?

Howefamily

We primarily heat with wood in a 2500 sq foot home and go through between 2-3 cords per winter, closer to 3.
Our family room isnt affected by the wood insert due to where it is so we have a heat pump in that room which is useful as its AC in the summer.
We also have baseboards in each room but never turn them on.

Consider the flow of your home if you plan to heat with wood as the heat has to be able to move around easily. It doesnt seem to work well in a cape cod house due to the layout but a 4 level side split which is what we have seems to accomodate it well.

Decisive moment

Hahaha (laughs hysterically)

And again, thanks for taking the time to advise (and scare)

Decisive moment

Thanks for this. The house is essentially a bungalow with a full basement. The fireplace is in the centre of a very open planned living space and is double sided opening into the kitchen and living room. Hopefully that means that the heat has a fairly good flow through the main level of the house. There is also a brand new furnace so we will be using a combination of hot air and the fire.

Failing this I will be investing in lots of thermals

Tirytory

One of our friends who lives more rurally than us (who incidentally got hit by lightening last week trying to stop his vegetables getting washed away) is fully equipped for any zombie apocalypse. We're heading to his should the worst happen😉

Decisive moment

I think we will be facing the digging option. The garage is huge but most definitely not attached.

dbd33

We use the basement. The shed was a bit of a disaster.

Decisive moment

Oh Christ it's fully carpeted down there

There is a weird walk in cupboard thing which was probably used as some kind of cold storage. Wonder if this would do for emergency wood rations. Does it need much airflow?

not2old

also to add to post#47, the following is likely overkill,

Generac | 16,000-Watt Air Cooled Automatic Standby Generator with 100-Amp 16 Circuit Pre-wired Transfer Switch | Home Depot Canada

Just to relate, yet our son that lives in in an apartment building in Toronto lost power twice once for 10 days then again for 3 days in the previous winters. The whole area within 5 sq km was out.

Two blocks over from us in suburbia lost power for 5 days

Power outs can happen anywhere [summer or winter] and not just in suburbia, rural or in the boonies.

.

not2old

my in laws lived in innisfil on the 8th line/25th side road from 1974 - 1986 in a small 900 sq'ft bungalow, wood fireplace, electric heating (no propane or natural gas), no internet or cell phone, ladder always against the gutter. Many a outage, no back up generator, they would turn off the water if the outage lasted more than a couple of hours till the power came back on. Filled bottles with water stoked the fire & had a portable butane camper stove.

Two of them would shovel themselves out, no tractor or snowplow

Warm as toast, never any complaints or worries. They grew all their own veggies in the back 40 they had.

In his 50's at the time they moved there, he would drive his 4cyl rear wheel drive Datsun 510 over to hwy 400 to work at Keele/Hwy 7 every single day, never missed a beat. Mind you he started out at 5 am just in case.

A few years after he retired they moved to Sutton Ontario near the lake, still considered the boonies. They lived the same way as they'd done in innisfil.

Folks worry too much & I guess they need to take the necessary precautionary steps.

.

Shirtback

Yes.

Decisive moment

Lovely to read this. Thanks

Piff Poff

All Doomsday preppers need one of these....

dbd33

We don't have an armoured car but, disturbingly, I know of two locally.

What we do have is a truly amazing accumulation of stuff one wouldn't need in the city. I think there's a decisive moment (dyswidt?), perhaps after the first winter, when one must decide whether or not to embrace living out there. Once you surrender to the location then the garage starts to look small because it's full of such items as tractor, auger, mower, chain saw, generator, strimmer, tiller, gun, axe, splitter, spade, shovel, fork, wheelbarrow, snow blower, tack, feeders and waterers. None of which you grew up expecting to have and all of which needed buying, storing and maintaining. Next thing you know, you're building another garage.

It would not be unreasonable to think a nice terraced house near work with a bit of a deck instead of lawn and a couple of foreign holidays a year is a viable alternative.