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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   15598 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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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.

Just one comment, many heating systems that use other fuel such as gas or wooden pellets also rely on electro-mechanical components. So do not be surprised when your heat pump becomes useless during blackout - of course it does when there is no electricity for water/air circulation.

I do have a tiled wood stove with an oven where I can heat food/water and that also serves as additional heating element (when open) in case of extreme cold. I did install it for monetary but also house microclimate reasons. But lately I am more fond of how robust this old piece of technology is to various shocks and SHTF scenarios. I have no regrets for sure.

Btw, I would love to see a pic of your stove model. I've been frustrated by my new one being unusable for anything more than warming pots of water, because the top is basically an aluminum duct for hot air flow.

You could cook a steak on my old one if it wasn't so disgustingly coated in soot lol.

For personal warmth, I've been leaning on a vintage Jon-E giant hand warmer. I know Zippo makes similar and so do other Chinese manufacturers. This category of hand warmer is new to me and I am loving it. It runs on naphtha (Zippo fluid, V&PM Naptha at the hardware store, or camping "White Gas") and has a platinum catalyst that, once heated, catalyzes the naphtha fumes to produce substantial heat for 8+ hours per fill. There's no flame, and you can restrict its oxygen substantially, so it's quite happy in a pocket or under the blankets. There's something almost magical about the amount of energy in liquid fuel.

"Chinese import wearable zippo heater" sounds like the setup to a morbid joke about why they call that guy "Johnny No-hands"

Yeah, even this basic wood stove has an electric fan for better heat transfer (although it's obnoxious enough that I never use it). A lot of people get surprised when their gas furnaces and such also go out in a power cut, and don't learn to use any manual backups the equipment has.

Simple options really are the best, at least as a fallback.

A friend of mine who had a wood stove had a fan that was powered by the warmth of the stove (it sat on top). The fan would blow as the stove warmed up, and stop when it cooled. Pretty cool, and might be a good addition to your setup for days without power.

These are Stirling engine fans, and they don’t do much more compare to regular convection (they simply don’t have a lot of power to move substantial amount of air). They’re really cool, though, I love Stirling engines.

Yeah, I remember seeing a thermodynamic analysis of them and being devastated that such a cool idea didn't really work.

I have classical Tirol tiled woodstove that does not rely on any electricity or other sensitive components. I even asked for automatic doors for management of air toward the fire, but I was discouraged from it in the end. The argument used was simple: there are wood stoves hundreds of years old that work just fine even today. A motor that opens/closes the door maybe lasts 5 or 10 years if I am lucky and it will give me just additional headaches when it inevitably breaks. The guy gave me guarantee of free inspection with the promise that the stove will definitely outlast my house. I was sold immediately :D

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