How to heat your home without power, safely

Most homes are heated by systems that depend on electricity: gas boilers need it for the pump and ignition, district heating needs it for its pumps, heat pumps and electric heaters run on it entirely. When the power goes in winter, the house starts to cool, and improvised solutions can be more dangerous than the cold.

Step 1: Keep the heat you have

The best heat source is the heat you don’t lose.

• Choose one room for the whole family: the smallest, with the fewest windows, on the side away from the wind. Close the doors to the rest of the house.
• Insulate the windows: close the curtains and cover the glass with blankets, foil blankets or even bubble wrap, taped in place.
• Stop drafts: a rolled towel along the bottom of the door.
• Get off the floor: rugs, mattresses, cardboard.
• A tent indoors: a camping tent pitched in the room, or a blanket “fort” over the bed, holds body heat much better.

Step 2: Warm people, not the room

• Layers: thermal base layer, a wool or fleece layer, then a jacket. A hat indoors isn’t overdoing it.
• Sleep together, in sleeping bags or under several blankets.
• Hot food and hot drinks. The body produces heat as it digests.
• Gentle movement from time to time.
• Hot water bottles in bed (if you have a safe way to heat water).

Step 3: Heat sources, safest first

A gas boiler on a power station

Many wall-mounted boilers draw only 80 to 150 W while running. A portable power station of 1,000 to 2,000 Wh with pure sine wave output can keep one going for several hours, enough to warm the home in the evening and morning. Check the boiler manual or ask a qualified engineer how to connect it correctly.

A wood stove or fireplace

If you have a stove or fireplace with a working chimney, it’s the best heat source independent of electricity. Conditions: chimney swept within the last year, dry wood, a carbon monoxide alarm in the room, and never close the damper while there are still embers or flames.

Indoor gas heaters

There are portable gas heaters designed for indoor use, with an oxygen depletion sensor that shuts them off automatically. Use only these, follow the manual, keep a window slightly open for ventilation and don’t sleep with them on. Rules differ by country; check what’s permitted where you live.

What you never use indoors

The stove or oven to heat the room, a charcoal grill, a camping stove, a kerosene stove, a generator, patio heaters or any fuel-burning appliance not designed for indoor use. They all produce carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless gas that kills people every winter who only wanted to stay warm.

Signs of carbon monoxide poisoning

Headache, dizziness, nausea, weakness, drowsiness, confusion, sometimes flu-like symptoms. If several people in the home have the same symptoms and feel better outside, suspect carbon monoxide.

What to do: open the windows immediately, switch off the source, get into fresh air and call the emergency number.

Winter checklist

• I’ve chosen the room we’ll gather in during an outage
• I have thick blankets, sleeping bags and foil blankets
• There are thermal layers and hats for the whole family
• I have a carbon monoxide alarm
• I’ve checked whether the boiler can run from a portable power station
• The chimney has been swept (if I have a stove or fireplace)
• I have a room thermometer