imple Vegetarian | Emergency plan 2.0: Our new ventless gas heater

Last October, as you may recall, I was feeling quite correct about how properly our household changed into prepared for emergencies. In addition to a range that would characteristic with out strength, a nicely-stocked pantry, and a deliver of saved water, we had simply received a battery-powered LED lantern, an emergency radio that might be powered via hand crank, and a jumbo subject of chemical hand heaters. These materials, I figured, might be enough to get us via weeks or more of being caught at home with out power, summer time or wintry weather.

By February, but, I come to be no longer feeling so sanguine. At that factor, we knew what a prolonged wintertime power outage changed into clearly like, and it grew to become out that the chemical warm temperature packs were not sincerely lots genuine for keeping warmness. They can maintain a specific a part of you warm, assuming you have got a few way to constant the warmth percent to the right element, however they aren't an lousy lot right at warming your whole frame. We attempted to shop for and set up a chunk fuel heater as a backup warmth supply, but it grew to turn out to be out that installing this type of became without a doubt a task for a professional. So we needed to shelve that plan, and fortunately, we made it through the rest of the wintry climate with out incident.

I made up my mind, however, that it modified into going to be the very last iciness we would go through with out some form of emergency backup heating. So I commenced doing studies into emergency fuel warmers. I located that unvented fuel heaters, just like the one which we first of all attempted to install ourselves and ended up having to go back, are through manner of a long way the most inexpensive and handiest to install, but there may be a bit of controversy about how secure they may be. Carbon monoxide poisoning is not a intense danger, as the ones warmers produce most effective a tiny quantity of CO, and it must now not increase to volatile tiers as long as there's enough air glide in the room. (This internet web page from a distributor of heating domestic system says that during most homes, really the herbal

1. "Even when working perfectly, they put a lot of water vapor into the house." Manufacturers counter this claim with a study showing that moisture buildup is typically a problem only when these heaters are used in northern climates and in confined spaces—and even then, the problem can be solved by choosing a heater that isn't too powerful for the space. I didn't think it would be a problem for us, since the heater would be installed in a big, open space and would only be used for emergencies anyway.
2. "Drafts, fans, candles, and tight houses can mess up the combustion process." Our 1970s house is neither especially tight nor especially drafty, so those concerns didn't seem to apply for us. We obviously wouldn't be using a fan during a power outage, and with our new battery-powered lantern as an alternative, we wouldn't be likely to use candles either. And if something did manage to go wrong somehow, there would be a CO detector just a few feet away.
3. "Many homeowners don't understand how to operate or maintain them." Since I always read the manual, I didn't expect this to be a problem in our case either.

So, having weighed the pros and cons, I decided that a ventless heater was probably the best choice for us and asked the contractors who came to give us quotes on ournew boiler what they would charge to install one. We got a variety of reactions to the question: one contractor said, "We don't do those," citing the concerns I mentioned above, while another said, "Oh, those are great—I have a friend who uses his all winter long." The contractor we ended up going with said that if we hired him to do the boiler, he'd throw in the heater hookup for $100, so long as we provided the heater. However, due to a minor screw-up on my part (the heater I ordered from Amazon was a propane model, rather than the identical-looking natural gas version, and had to be returned), we didn't have the heater yet at the time the guys came to do the boiler. So they just put in a valve hookup for it and said to call them back when we got the actual heater.

So, after returning the propane heater, I ended up finding a reconditioned gas model on a site calledFactory Buys Direct for only $80 ($105 including shipping). Of course, I'd also taken a $41 hit for returning the first one (ouch). But on the plus side, even with the extra $41, I still paid less altogether than I would have if I'd bought the correct Mr. Heater model from Amazon in the first place, and the one we ended up with is both more powerful and, in my opinion, nicer looking. Here it is, mounted to the wall in the room I've finally decided to start referring to as the rec room.

With the addition of this backup gas heater, our emergency plan is truly complete. We can now be snowed in for a week without power and still keep warm (in the rec room), cook meals (on the stove, with the food stored in the pantry), entertain ourselves (with books and games, a battery-powered radio that we can recharge with a hand crank, and an LED lantern as a light source in the evenings), make necessary phone calls (with our cell phone, which we can recharge via the radio), and even take showers (since the water and the water heater still work). We'll still have to do without e-mail, Internet, and TV, but it'll be more like a vacation in the country than a sojourn in the wilderness.

Of course, I'd rather not actually be snowed in for a week without power in the first place. But if we are, I'll be a lot happier being snowed in with this thing than without it.