Another Bad Winter Forecast for the NE

[CapeCMom]

Ahhhh those of in the Northeast have already heard it from Farmer's Almanac-now another forecast model calls for a frigid snowy winter-wonderful.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amm7GJfWypJE

Oh well at least people will be able to make money plowing.

[NCLee]

Last I heard our area is supposed to be colder and wetter than normal. That usually means ice storms for us. (sigh)

Been trying to get a gas pack heating system installed for a week, today. Didn't trust our 25 yr old total electric system to last another winter. Unit is installed. The 500 gal tank is sitting in the mud in our side yard. Tried to deliver & setup yesterday. Rescheduled for Wed so the land can dry out. Rained again last night.

The way night time temps are dropping, I suspect we'll have frost before our average date of Oct 21st. Blanket felt good last night, since we don't have any heat until they can set that tank.

Lee

[CapeCMom]

Ew Lee-you get a lot of ice storms? Do they cause a lot of damage? Glad to hear you have a new system going in. I would worry about you being cold. :).
We get our first frost around the same date-even though we are well North of you, we are pretty much the same zone. 6b-7 depending on the winter. It's gotten down to about 43 here so far this Sept.
Hope you get everything straightened out with that tank soon-It's nice to have everything done before the really cool weather sets in.

[NCLee]

Zone 7 +/- a&b, just depends on the year. Temps in the upper 40's the next few nights.

Yes, we get a lot of ice storms some winters. It varies from year to year. The last 2-3 years have been very mild in terms of a few light snows and no severe low temps. We're due a nasty winter. Lowest temp here has been -5. We've had up to 2' of snow and 6" of sleet. But the worst, by far are those forecasts for freezing rain. Remember one year when we had 3 separate ice storms in 3 weeks. Remember it because I'd signed up for a night class. Took 4 weeks to get to the first class.

Lee

[Mom_of_Four]

We're in the southern part of NC, and it's dry as a bone here. I've been nagging hubby for two years to let me get a woodstove installed. We have endless wood on our land, but an all electric house. If we get an ice storm we're in trouble. A kerosene heater can only do so much....

[Anon001]

An all electric house? If you lose power for a week or two, it's sorta hard to cook on a kerosene heater, isn't it?

Paul

[NCLee]

Mom, at a minimum put in a gas stove that can be lit when the power is out. My home started out as totally electric. But it does have a fireplace, so that helps out some. Years ago I put in a used gas stove received on a barter. Worked well. Upgraded the stove when I started remodeling my kitchen. The old stove went into my workshop.

With a gas stove, at least you can cook and help warm up the kitchen. Plus, you can get a wall mounted non-vented gas heater that'll be more efficient than a kerosene heater. Perhaps you can put in in a hallway. Only use it as a backup heat source. These are relatively inexpensive and don't give off the fumes that a kero heater does.

I've gotten to the point that even a good running kero heater will give me a bad headache after a few hours. I have one in storage and will only use it as the very last resort to keep the pipes from freezing.

A wood stove would be the best, since you have plenty of wood. However, propane will give you a good backup for the electric.

Lee

[Mom_of_Four]

An all electric house? If you lose power for a week or two, it's sorta hard to cook on a kerosene heater, isn't it?

Paul

We have camp stoves and a big gas grill to use outside, or even the campfire ring in the back yard for cooking if the weather allows. But heating the house enough to continue living here without electric is my main concern. We can drain the water pipes to avoid freezing them, but we wouldn't want to have to leave because it's too cold to stay. Believe me, I hate an all electric house, but we haven't had the money to remodel.

NCLee, We've got a really old fake fireplace (ventless, propane) that came with the house, but the previous owners told us up front that it doesn't work right. I'm afraid of it exploding or gassing us to death, and I wasn't even sure it would be that good for heating. Definitely not set up for any type of cooking. I might get a repairman out here to take a look since we don't have a wood stove yet. The "fireplace" would be better than nothing.

[NCLee]

Hopefully it's something minor with the fireplace. Sometimes spiders love to build nests that stop up the orifices. If a technician can't get it to work, I'd suggest replacing it with a new ventless model. Believe I saw some of those last year at Lowes for $125-$150. Since you already have a gas line in place, it should be fairly simple to hook it up. Suspect the fake mantel will be fairly simple to remove without much damage to your walls. Just take your time and gently pry it apart. If you're not comfortable working with hooking up propane, it should only take a few minutes for your technician to unhook the old unit and hook up the new one.

Keeping fingers crosse for you that all you have to deal with are some pesky spiders.

Lee

[Mad_Professor]

Get a nice old Glenwood for the kitchen that is 1/2 gas and 1/2 wood, some big propane tanks. And another stove to take care of the rest of the house and possibly generate hot water too, or at least stove top hot water.

I filled my backup oil furnace tank last week, backup is when I'm not home.......41 gallons in two years : )

[Genevieve]

We're in the southern part of NC, and it's dry as a bone here. I've been nagging hubby for two years to let me get a woodstove installed. We have endless wood on our land, but an all electric house. If we get an ice storm we're in trouble. A kerosene heater can only do so much....

This is exactly what led me to stockpiling and using wood heat, and getting a generator hooked up to the house some years back.

[marnee]

But heating the house enough to continue living here without electric is my main concern. The "fireplace" would be better than nothing.

We have a pretty big house too, with an open floor plan from the back door into the kitchen, office, living room, and front door. If we lose power for any amount of time this winter, we'll have to find creative ways to block off most of the house and just live in the kitchen, living room, and small bathroom right off the living room. There'd be no way we could heat any more of the house, especially since the windows and doors aren't insulated well.

What can you do to block off some of the house? We're getting sheets of 3 or 4 mm (most readily available and priced the best here) to block off doorways and walkways. We've already covered our back door since it isn't hung properly and drafts. Pretty much the plastic covers from around the door frame right down the the floor where it's ductaped to the tile. It's not pretty, but it seals off that door. We'll have enough plastic that we can cover entry ways to parts of the house and just seal it off. If we needed back there for some reason, we could still get there, but we'd be helping to keep the heat contained just in the two rooms we'd be using. I'm also picking up some cheap tension rods (under $5 a piece at big box stores) so that I can hang quilts up against that plastic. It won't be like a wall or anything, but it should make it more manageable to focus on the rooms we're using.

Then you might have some luck with a couple of propane and kerosene heaters.

[Bones]

This is what I have although mine is an older one that runs on the 20Lb cylinders.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_102150____SearchResults

[CapeCMom]

Marnee your house sounds kind of like mine-last year when we lost power in the winter we hung cotton blankets with big thumb tacks from the door jams. It took two blankets because of the wide size of the doorways (with no doors). It worked pretty well but It didn't seal anything off completely. We were afraid of our pipes freezing so we let some air through I also used my gas stove and lit all four burners-I then placed pans of water on the units that I let steam for hours. The steam helped to warm the kitchen area a lot and helped bring some humidity to the downstairs.

[Mom_of_Four]

Good news! I got our propane fireplace started this last week and it works great. I vacuumed out a bunch of dead bugs and webs, and tightened up the hose from the tank. It warmed our living room up in 20 minutes, which would do the trick in an ice storm or other power outage. I could easily hang blankets over the two archways into the living room, to seal it off. We could drain the water heater (into buckets to use for wash water) and empty the pipes, move the house plants into the living room, and camp out there.

[firegirl969]

Congrats Mom of Four on getting the fireplace going. That will give you piece of mind in the event you lose power. Glad you got it fixed yourself and can save the technician cost for something else that you need.

[Thyme]

Dont forget to change the batteries in the carbon monoxide detecter that is in the room with the wood & gas fireplaces.

[NCLee]

Mom, glad that it turned out to be OK.

If you haven't done a leak test, you may want to go ahead and do so just to be sure that all is Ok. Just drizzle a little soapy water over the fittings. You'll see bubbles forming where you hav a gas leak. You can buy a leakl detector where gas line fittings and supplies are sold. It has a mop like a shoe polish applicator that makes it easy to apply. And, it's supposed to be better for the metal than soapy water.

Lee

[Anon001]

Another suggestion is the leak test provided by your propane company. With the safety laws and insurance requirements these days, propane distributors are required to conduct leak tests. Many will do it at no cost when they are there to refill the bulk tank..... this is if you have bulk propane.

Paul

[NCLee]

They did one last week when they filled our new bulk tank and hooked up the gas stove and furnace to it. Will be back Monday for a second test. No additional charge. The only thing we had to purchase was the propane, gas line & fittings needed to hook up to their tank.

Lee

[NCLee]

Snow in the forecast for the mountains of NC this weekend. Local low temp for Sunday night is 36. Plants on the porches will have to come inside today and tomorrow. Where we're located, we're subject to a heavy frost when the forecast is that low. Supposed to warm back up by mid-week, but it's too much work to haul them back outside again for a couple more weeks.

Heard the long range forecast is that the jet stream will settle in to bring storms in from Texas to NC. That's where, traditionally, our worst winter weather originates. Looks like it's going to be a rough one, folks.

Lee

[pcrowder]

We had 8" of snow this week (which has now melted), plus alot of rain. We lost everything in the garden and everything is a huge mud hole now. I'm really concerned how cold and snowy it will be (extreme N.E. Colorado). The forecast for this winter has been higher than normal moisture and lower than normal temps. Trying to get ready, but it's hard with the mud being almost knee deep in places!

[CapeCMom]

There was snow here too-about 60 miles NW of us. We have a Nor' Easter blowin right now-it is miserable rainy and cold. I still have turnips in the ground that need to come out-everything else is done and out. Another weekend inside-wonderful. Oh well the four F's will keep us company, Family, Fireplace, Football and Food.
Pat, I was watching the weather out there and thinking of you-the mud sounds awful!