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Insulated shutters for windows, too?
Or multipane glazing only?
Multipane glazing, I like to see the little light we get in the winter, and it's just a little more firewood, it's not like I'm processing a great deal more for the lack of shutters, and I'm not going to run out of wood this century.
Multipane glazing, I like to see the little light we get in the winter, and it's just a little more firewood, it's not like I'm processing a great deal more for the lack of shutters, and I'm not going to run out of wood this century.
Well, if the windows are R2 - R3, and your wall is R40, they are the major heat transfer point. However, your superinsulation is good and wood consumption shows it.
Was just curious if you had them, for nighttime or extreme days... just to "plug" the hole...
Well, if the windows are R2 - R3, and your wall is R40, they are the major heat transfer point. However, your superinsulation is good and wood consumption shows it.
Was just curious if you had them, for nighttime or extreme days... just to "plug" the hole...
Nah, windows are R7.7 (claimed my calcs are estimated at R5.5), suspended film, xenon fill with low E coating. We did look at the do have a point, however, I'm sure we can re-use the 2.5 " R-Tech (R 12.5 for 75 degree differential) we had up in the tent to stuff into the window cavity, that should raise it to about R20 or so if we need to for temps, or because of any condensation problems, not that there should be many with our Relative humidity being under 15%, but if the window internal surface is at 0F, and the room ambient is 75, then that could lead to frost/condensation.
Something important was noted in many areas throughout this thread pertaining to basic survival skills. In these modern times, a vast majority of people are used to having "all the amenities". They are used to having power, fuel, climate control, supplies, food, water, etc. all packaged up neatly for them in the most convenient manner possible and have never had to live any other way! Many people are simply not used to "roughing it" and outside of their urban enclave and conveniences would be in real trouble.
Cities would obviously be a bad place to be without the infrastructures that support them but these people would not fare well attempting to employ the same survival techniques that our ancestors did a few hundred years ago. They are "soft and frail", not acclimated to dealing with climate conditions and you take your typical effeminate metrosexual New York City stockbroker and put him in the woods someplace... well... I guess he's gonna DIE! hahahaha It comes down to any large city that has lost it's infrastructure due to this SHTF factor as NOT being the place you want to be. This makes the 5 worst quite obvious! New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc., etc.
A truly big issue is water. A lack of water will render urban environments/large cities completely unlivable in a very short period of time and more quickly than any other factor. A little creative ingenuity in ensuring a water supply will be required depending on location but a little knowledge is the key. Crude methods of purification and desalinization can be employed to come up with water but most people have never even given thought to such things.
Your typical modern person will fall apart at the seams just being without electricity, let alone water! They take it for granted and are used to these things being readily available to them and have never even considered having to come up with them on their own.
We live in Alaska. Urban Alaska. BTW, Alaska, as Gungnir has pointed out is not a great or easy locale for living off the land due to 6 months of winter and the boatload of skills and infrastructure needed to do that but it can be done by the very hardy. Having said this, I'd much rather be here with our long winters than be within a couple of gas tank's or a day's drive reach of a super metropolis or worse yet, several of them in a societal meltdown scenario.
We have plans for sheltering in place for 6 months or more in the event of short term problems and as a last resort bugging out in a very old tradition way should a TSHTF event turn into something that would make living here too hard in the long term. Necessarily I don't want to share exact plans with the millions that theoretically have access to this board.
Thinking of the long evolved and widely used biological tactics adapted for survival might be useful. Fight, flight, gathering for mutual defense, diversionary tactics or camouflage. Many of our armchair philosophers concentrate on the first and second of these tactics when ultimately the last three offer as much or more, allowing varied and nuanced options rather than simply fighting it out with an arsenal in your house or taking the minivan or SUV loaded with mom, kids, Rover and gear (much of it useless) and a half baked plan out into the countryside to who knows what awaits there.
As others have intimated, a bunch of strangers, especially clueless, unskilled, unprepared refugees would not be welcome in most places where people will instinctively gather in the event of a crisis and would be moved along post haste or would overrun a more welcoming community's ability to absorb them creating crisis there. Think Hurricane Katrina writ large and systemically and adjust any plans for something like that magnitude.
As others have said, unless there are plans to live in a refuge or bug out locale at least part time well prior to a triggering event and to create ties in that community for welcoming and support, or alternatively as a lone wolf with ready skills to live for extended periods off the grid with a plan to keep moving, (as opposed to the predators and like Mac_Muz pointed out, there will be plenty of those) bug out locations really only work in theory.
And if there exists that summer cabin or the like, will it be occupied by squatters or looted when folks get there? A highly likely scenario in a TSHTF event. What would be the plans to roust unwelcome homesteaders (who may possibly be relatives or former friends) who believe that possession is nine tenths the law, bunkered in as they probably would be, in the event of a systemic failure? Things to consider.
The commentary about coffee shops and salons had me laughing and shows how ill prepared most modern urban/suburbanites will be should things really turn for the worse. Probably myself included, even though we've given a great deal of thought to it and are more prepared than the average bear for adverse conditions. I'm not looking for bad things to happen because if things do go catastrophically wrong, it will be a day for many tears. Still, we have left multiple platforms for various events in place in case it does.
I agree with those that contend that it will be the mind and skill set of the individual that will separate the wheat from the chaff in a doomsday scenario, not a good bug out locale.
They are "soft and frail", not acclimated to dealing with climate conditions and you take your typical effeminate metrosexual New York City stockbroker and put him in the woods someplace... well... I guess he's gonna DIE! hahahaha.
Imagining your revenge against those you resent must be sweet! First, there's nothing inherently effeminate about a NYC stockbroker. Some of them could be ex-Scouts used to backpacking and living off what they carry in a backpack. Some of them could be ex-Marines or Army Special Forces who were inserted deep into enemy territory and could teach you a thing or two. And of course some of them probably fit your simplistic stereotype. Second, what kind of loser rejoices so much at the thought of lots of people dying in misery? Hahahaha!
From PA to GA, it was a shock. But I acclimated - to a point. Learned why folks move and talk slower - cuts down on heat generated.
While visiting New Orleans in May, a midday stroll was like swimming upright.
I bet, but that life isn't for me. Summer in NH has some days I just don't deal with, and go swimming instead.
I like -10 to -40 just fine. Too cold to snow, too cold to get sweaty with in reason if you wear the right cloths and work hard cool.
I see novice dead winter hikers in the wrong stuff doing the wrong things.
One group will strip to a tea shirt and soak that, plus their socks inside boots, from working out too hard. Bad idea in minus temp figures.
The other group moves slower but won't vent the sweat, so they get wet too.
Getting wet is a sin.
Much below -10 with any wind at all, anything wet is a sin, At these temps there isn't anything you can do with bare hands and get mittens back on. Gloves are just another sin.
It's real hard to find store bought mittens that you can do anything detailed in , and in fact I never did find any good enough, and so made up mine for some store bought parts and then my old wool socks.
IMO the only company worth a lick is OR brand for mitten shells, that are non-insulated, and thin. These go to the elbow almost and seal.
Thin glove liners are good too, and then the old worn out wool socks.
There is a method to just get dressed.
There is a method to sleep too, so gear you wear isn't frozen solid.
I am not sure I can detail that here, and even if I do anyone will care.
The fact remains I can load a roll of 35 mm film in a old Minolta 101 and take pics in dead winter all I want with out taking my mitts off. I can open a screw driver blade on a swiss knife to adjust over boots and other screw tighten gear too.
There are places in the cold where a out of place over boot can threaten life. If that can't be fixed because your hands can't work to do simple chores with mittens on, well chances to live another day are at risk.
Things like a house warmed to 65 is just a luxury, people think this is normal now, but this has only been so less than 100 years.
I have worked on many older houses, that if they have any insulation at all, it just news papers stuffed in the walls at some point during construction.
And hard cold isn't the worst killer any way, any cold that can cause hypothermia is all it takes. That can happen in the south on a raw cold wet day if people don't have the right gear to wear.
Gun you can make up foam blocks glued to a bit of canvass or some shower curtain material which are both water resistant, and have these for stuffing windows after dark.
I know folks here in NH that do that. I never saw one with this added idea, but there is aluminim bubble wrap insulation which could be added on the inside and reflect light you have what ever that is.
Most any home supplies places like Lowes carry that bubble wrap. I use that to insulate my 3/4 ton Dodge van. Mine is inside all doors, under the dash, added to what is under the engine consol, and under the carpet, all out of sight.
I have no idea how many windows you got but my guess is not more than 4. The nice thing is you can put them in at night, and pop them out in morning and see the pretty frost on the glass man
That frost is wicked cool to see IMO. No 2 patterns are ever the same. I think of it as chrystal ferns, ever changing.
(You are in the cabin now?)
Oh the idea is to wrap foam insulation like a gift, so it doesn't get to break up and make a mess every single day.
Then the backing is glued to that to cover the window frame to plug gap.
Of course any warm air laden with breath or other humidity will freeze in any joints that move air and these plugs can get stuck partly frozen in, so build any you do with that in mind.
Gun you can make up foam blocks glued to a bit of canvass or some shower curtain material which are both water resistant, and have these for stuffing windows after dark.
We have 15 or so boards of this that is used to insulate our tent
Rigid insulation, it's in 4X8 sheets and is easy to cut to size.
We're not entirely in the Cabin yet, need a bunch of finish work before that happens, we're through the worst of the winter, and as long as we get in before break up we'll be good. Once we hit break up we can finish the roof, roofing membranes don't work so well at below zero...
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Survival skills
