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Woo, county-wide power outage right before Christmas, with no bad weather associated with it like usual (just a single digit freeze). If it's someone's resistance op I wish him the best of luck: this is a great target.
Seems like a good time to break out the laptop, curl up by the wood stove, and finish the culture war side of "why forcing everyone to only have electric heat with no form of backup allowed by law may be a bad policy choice."
Not that anyone with any power cares what the consequences are.
Edit: Christmas Eve, and power's out again for at least half the day. Only a day between outages.
Hoping things go a little smoother in Texas this year. Not terribly optimistic given the government's response last time around.
Got any tips for stocking up accordingly? I don't think my apartment will tolerate an actual wood-burner.
A lot of people I know are using portable propane. It's like burning money and has a carbon monoxide risk if it's not burning fully, but it stores well and you can use it for your cook stove and generator too. Definitely worth having a CO alarm for, and maybe an HRV to vent some of the moisture.
I couldn't live without a wood stove. Can't beat free heat just from cleaning up fallen trees, and somehow it feels cozier than anything else.
Been meaning to talk to people here about battery backups. Fiber modem keeps working during an outage, but it's like 20+ watts vs just tethering a phone for 1-3 watts; requires a big jump from a 90watt-hr UPS to a proper power system. There's lots of little convenience loads batteries can help with, like 15w house lights.
I ran out of time to build a battery system this fall that's sized right for running basic lights+electronics loads with intermittent generator charging. So I'm stuck with Ryobi battery lights this time, which are admittedly awesome.
Ideally I'd want to run the genny only once a day to keep the batteries and freezers topped up, recharge any electric tool batteries, and maybe pump some well water if the storage is low.
Vent moisture? Here where I am, the temperature is below freezing now, which is rather unusual, and my heat pump struggles a bit to keep up. Thus, I’m running a boiling pot of water non stop on big burner on my gas range, to both add extra heat with cheap gas, but also to add extra moisture, in 50% relative humidity range. Without it, and without my big air humidifier, it’s like 20%, which makes everyone in my family cough a lot and get skin issues.
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It definitely is cozier. If you burn wood, you also basically ventilate the whole house in matter of minutes including all the vapors out of your chimney. You then create the area of lower pressure in your house, so instead of your warm high pressure and moist air going against your roof/walls (creating mold), you have the opposite effect when the air is going the opposite way from the outside to the inside through various mircrospaces. Plus good wood stove heats also via infrared waves, which is much more comfortable. You have cooler air around your body but you absorb heat from infrared - similar to how some sunny autumn days feel comfortable if you are outside even if the air temperature is low.
I have to say that wood stove is the most comfortable source of heat, not only directly but also creating this good microclimate in the house.
I only started appreciating this after switching to the heat pump. Airing out the house daily is now mandatory, and it really needs a ventilator fan.
And yeah, I wonder about what it'll do to the wall lifespan. I don't want to have to buy plywood at these prices!
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