Heat

Staying Warm: Heat, Insulation and Fire Safety

When the grid goes down in winter, the doctrine is simple: stop heating the house and start heating one room. The room is chosen, sealed and stocked before the storm, not during it.

These guides cover the whole system: air sealing and window insulation that keep heat in, sleep systems for a cold night, pipe freeze protection, wood stoves and outdoor cooking fires used safely, and the carbon monoxide and smoke alarm grid that has to be in place before any flame is lit.

All heat guides

A small room at night lit by a camping lantern on a stool, with a quilt hung across the doorway, a rug on the floor, a sleeping pad and sleeping bag along the wall and an alarm on the wall by the door

Heat How to stay warm without power: heat one room, not the whole house When the furnace quits in an ice storm, the households that stay comfortable are the ones that stop trying to heat the whole house.

A basement with gray foam sleeves on the water pipes, a yellow tag hanging from the brass main shutoff valve, a work light on an orange cord and a thin stream dripping from a utility sink faucet

Heat How to keep pipes from freezing when the power is out A burst pipe turns a power outage into a flood in the same week. Most of the protection costs about $30 and an afternoon in the fall.

A round smoke alarm on a textured hallway ceiling and a rectangular carbon monoxide alarm mounted on the wall beside a wooden door frame

Heat Carbon monoxide detector placement: where CO and smoke alarms go, and why battery backup matters The alarm grid is the cheapest life-saving project in the house, and it has to work exactly when the grid doesn't.

A dry-stacked red brick rocket stove on a backyard patio with a steaming saucepan on top, flames under the pot, a bundle of thin sticks in the round feed opening, work gloves and a metal bucket nearby

Heat DIY rocket stove: how to build one from bricks in an afternoon A pot of water boiling on a double handful of sticks, from a stove you can stack in an afternoon. It is an outdoor appliance, every time.

A black wood stove with a fire behind its glass door on a stone hearth pad in front of a brick wall, with a thermometer on the stovepipe, a rack of split logs and a moisture meter resting on a log

Heat Wood stove safety: dry firewood, a clean chimney and the 3-foot rule A code-installed wood stove is the gold standard for heat without the grid. The stove itself is safe; the shortcuts around it are not.

A red ABC fire extinguisher on a wall bracket beside a kitchen window, next to a fabric pouch labeled Fire Blanket hanging under the range hood above an electric stove

Heat The best fire extinguisher for home use, and where to put it Outages pile up flames, fuel, cords and distraction all at once. A mounted extinguisher and a rehearsed plan beat any improvisation.

A snowy backyard seen through a window covered in clear shrink film, framed by heavy lined curtains, with a fabric draft snake along the sill

Heat How to insulate windows for winter: shrink film, thermal curtains and a draft snake Three removable layers turn a cold pane of glass into a pocket of still air, and none of them needs a landlord's permission.

Gloved hands pressing a foil-faced foam board into place in an attic opening, beside a hatch panel backed with mineral wool, lit by a work light

Heat Attic hatch insulation: the afternoon fix for the worst square feet in your ceiling A thin panel resting loosely in the ceiling leaks warm air all winter. Two layers of foam and a latch turn it into some of the best-insulated ceiling in the house.

Weathered hands holding a caulk gun to a window sill while a thin trail of incense smoke drifts at the frame

Heat How to find air leaks in your house with a stick of incense Heated air escaping through gaps is the largest invisible loss in most houses. Finding it takes a windy afternoon and a little smoke.

A black wooden box with a glass cover tilted against the bottom of a basement window, with a snowy yard outside and a workbench beside it

Heat DIY solar air heater: a window box that warms a room with no fuel and no fan A shallow glazed box hung in a south window pumps warm air into the room on any sunny winter day, and it is the one room heater in the book that cannot poison anyone.

A blue sleeping bag on a foam pad in a dim bedroom, with folded wool blankets, knit caps and wool socks staged beside it under a lamp

Heat How to sleep warm in a cold house, with no heat burning overnight People rarely get into trouble in a cold house in the afternoon. The dangerous hours are the small hours, and a proper sleep system covers them with zero fuel.

Pre-cut plywood panels labeled Kitchen and Living Room Window leaning on a porch wall beside a window already covered with a plywood board

Heat How to board up windows for a hurricane, done in July instead of the night before Plywood costs the same in July as it does two days before a named storm. Only one of those weeks still has any on the shelf.

The book behind the Journal

The Off-Grid Handbook

Every guide in the Journal is built on one project from a single printed book: 75 projects across water, power, food, heat and readiness, each one built, tested and photographed by hand by Garrett Dalton, former U.S. Navy SEAL, before it earned a page.

Cost, time and difficulty at the top of every project. A photograph for every step.

See the Handbook

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