Heating, Cooking & Lighting
(Page 3 of 4)
February/March 2004
By the Mother Earth News editors
Always place portable heaters on a level, hard, nonflammable surface—not on carpets or rugs. Keep them away from children and pets as well as drapes and other flammable items. And don't forget the No. 1 rule of home fire prevention: Keep a fire extinguisher in a convenient location and be sure all family members know how to use it.
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Cooking
With a wood- or gas-powered cookstove, you'll still be able to cook when the grid goes down. But if you have an electric stove, it requires so much power that many backup generators won't be able to run it. In this case, you'll probably want to include a portable stove in your emergency kit. You could get by on peanut butter and other cold foods for a day or so, but it won't take long before mere snacks will fail to satisfy and you'll want to cook, especially if your furnace is off in the wintertime.
Numerous portable cookstoves are available for outdoor use, but most of them are not safe for indoor use. Just as with portable space heaters, always check the instructions before you use any stove indoors.
The $100 BriteLyt lantern with cooking attachment (shown together on Page 34) is a good option for emergency indoor cooking if you use clean-burning isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol as fuel. A low-cost option is the $7 Flat-Fold Stove (see Page 34). You can place canned fuel or the NUWICK triple-wick candle (see Page 36) in this stove and boil water or heat a pot of canned stew.
Resist any notion to move your charcoal or gas-fired grill indoors. They are not safe for indoor use because of fire and carbon monoxide hazards, but you can use them away from flammable structures. This certainly won't be ideal during cold weather, but if you bundle up, grilling in the cold may be worth it for a hot meal.
- Barbara Pleasant
Lighting
If you plan to rely on flashlights or electric lanterns for emergency lighting, be sure to keep plenty of fresh batteries on hand. Or you can avoid the expense and trouble of replacing batteries if you use a flashlight that can be recharged by cranking or shaking. Of all the products we reviewed for this sto ry, our favorites were the sturdy Coleman Sentinel flashlight and the Crank'n'Go Solar/Dynamo Radio/Flashlight (both shown on Page 36). You can recharge the Coleman Sentinel in any household outlet, or when the power is out, just crank the handle. Coleman also makes a battery-powered lantern that can be recharged by plugging it into your car battery (or any household outlet). The Crank'n'Go Solar/Dynamo is a flashlight, radio and emergency-flasher. To recharge, crank it or set it in the sunlight.
Kerosene lamps are a traditional nonelectric light source, and Aladdin mantle lamps will provide more light than simple wick-type lanterns. If you like durable, high-quality products, consider the versatile BriteLyt. This nickel-plated, solid-brass mantel lantern operates on a variety of fuels, including kerosene. diesel or biodiesel, lamp oil, alcohol or even charcoal starter fluid. It also can be fitted with a flat burner top to serve as a cookstove. This lantern/stove burns cleanly enough when fueled with isopropyl alcohol to be safe for indoor use. With 1 quart of fuel, the BriteLyt will produce as much light as 500 candles plus 8,000 Btu of heat, for eight to 10 hours.
