Nebraska Preppers Network: March 2009

For those of us preppers in cold weather climates a good supply of cold weather clothing is an absolutely a necessity. My dad was born in 1910 and he told me they never had any special winter clothing, just more layers of what they had. Very bulky and very uncomfortable and not very warm. Well now days it is a lot different. Very good quality lightweight clothing is available. Now we can have excellent extreme weather clothing like thermal underwear, insulated coveralls and parkas, gloves, accessories and so on. Heck I have pac boots that will keep my feet warm for hours when the temperature is below zero. If you live in a cold weather climate or might be going to one in a emergency I hope you have this kind of gear on hand and ready to go. Around here Cabelas outfitters is a great source for extreme weather gear. If you watch they have some good sales and all their brick and mortar stores have a bargain bin with cheap prices on goods. They also have customer reviews on their wares to let you know how a particular item fares with real life users.

Now back in the early 1970’s “The Mother Earth News” had an article about cutting your heating bill by 75%. Their suggestion was to invest in the above type of clothing and turn your house thermostat down to 35 degrees, just enough to keep the plumbing from freezing.

Well my suggestion is to save the cold weather gear for when you are forced to use it and use energy conservation techniques and strategies on your house to save your energy dollars. It is beyond the scope of this post to detail all that you can do to stop the heat from escaping from your house but a few suggestions might help you get started. Being in the residential construction business I noticed that many customers spend a lot of money on cosmetic changes to make their houses look nicer. Well the smart customers do things to make their house perform better.

Here in Nebraska we need attic insulation at a minimum of an R-38 and R-13 in the walls. One of the biggest problem areas is air leakage. I have read that up to 30% of heat loss in a house is the space at the rim joists where the floor of the house sits on the foundation wall. Many of the houses I have worked on had no insulation in this location. That left a inch and one half of wood between the house and the outside temperature. A huge energy looser. Most framed walls have wires and plumbing that runs in the walls and thru the plates leaving gaps that allow air movement which can let cold air in or hot air out. A couple of good books could pay you back 1000 fold if you apply their energy saving advice. The “Mother Earth News” has many for purchase. I recommend “The Home Energy Diet” by Paul Scheckel. The public library is a good source for more energy saving books. There are a lot of things that don’t cost much if you do them yourself they will make your house warmer and save you money in energy costs.

Yeah you can save enough money by plugging the leaks in your building envelope to go out and buy some survival winter clothing.

Hey when I am out and about in my vehicle during frigid weather I feel a lot better knowing I got a duffle bag of winter survival gear with me. You can to. Keep on prepping