How am I supposed to cook inside!?

[Riverrat]

For me it is second nature, I have a covered deck with our BBQ on it. We use it year around in all types of weather. I also have two colomen stoves and a backpacker stove. It is nice to have a varity of ways to cook. I can even go to the neghibours and cook on the wood stove in the garage. Gotta love living in the country.

[Ole WV Coot]

For me it is second nature, I have a covered deck with our BBQ on it. We use it year around in all types of weather. I also have two colomen stoves and a backpacker stove. It is nice to have a varity of ways to cook. I can even go to the neghibours and cook on the wood stove in the garage. Gotta love living in the country.

Covered and screened deck, BBQ and the last 16' glassed in. A few folks over and winter or summer it ain't bad. Crank up the generator if we go inside for the AC, furnace or whatever. You really don't have to spend a fortune for a generator to run a microwave, fridge or blower on a wood stove, you won't pull that much and blower, microwave & lights make things nice, not to mention burst pipes in cold weather. You can lose more food if you live out in the country like I do than a few bucks spent on a generator.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

Thats good avice, I dont have a generator but i think it would be nice to have one . what Brand is a good kind to get?

[crashdive123]

There are so many brands on the market. I've got an 1800 watt Coleman and a 6750 watt Generac. It all depends on how much power you need and how much noise you're willing to tolerate. If you want quiet, Honda has some....a bit too spendy for my liking, but they are quiet.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

Ill check into that ,we have alot of power outages here. i might need one

[crashdive123]

Most of the ones at your big box stores will probably have Briggs & Straton engines. One thing to keep in mind is fuel consumption. The bigger the engine, the more fuel it will burn. I ran my little 1800 watt generator during Fay for about 8 hours. Powered the fridge, small TV, couple of fans and a lamp. Burned about 2 gallons of gas. My bigger one would have gone through about 4 for the same load and length of time.

Also consider what type of fuel will be best for you. Gas, diesel, propane.....lot's of choices.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

Diesel interests me , the making of "Bio diesel" from vegie oil could be a handy situation
if you could get plenty of wild seed for oil.

[Gray Wolf]

Here's another option if you don't want to spend the money on a generator, and the maintenance of it. I bought a few years ago, two 1500w inverters. They connect to your car battery. We have 2 cars and my Harley. 1 of the inverters will run the fridge, 3 light weight PVC oscillating pole fans, and a small tv. I also have two 50' industrial gauge extension cords that have outlets every 8 feet. For cooking I have two Esbit stoves that are safe to use even in a car. I bought the 1500w inverters that come in a hard case with all connection cables on sale at the time at Sams for $99 each.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

didnt know about those , thats a good idea

[Ole WV Coot]

Lots of options and I use my small one. Like Crash said, very little fuel and I don't power everything in the house. I did take some #10 and tack too an old extra long screwdriver for the ground. Never tried an inverter and my work van had a Onan that used gas or propane and could run a couple of houses. I used it in a rescue one evening, kid got washed into a storm drain, and the local FD didn't have zip. It powered 4 pumps, lights, compressor and hot air heater to warm the water, the kid and air. We did good, but didn't get paid overtime.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

thats interesting, i need to see what i can find.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

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[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

This is an Indian Oil Stove, an exelent alternative to any other method.

[bulrush]

Well, Mary, you have a lot of opinions to choose from here.

[marylp]

I sure do! What a great help everyone has been!!

[mattco]

Check out Petromax or Britelyt pressurized liquid fuel lanterns. I believe the Petromax are kerosene and the Britelyt are multi-fuel.

I think they both make an adapter stove to perch on top of the lantern that could work in a pinch.

Their products are not cheap, but have a good reputation, and they look good.

For USA source, check out:
http://www.britelyt.com/
http://www.petromax.com/

Still, I'd be tempted to just have some propane or isobutane cartridges on hand and anything from a backpacker stove to some car-camping dual-burner unit available, depending on your risk assessment and needs. Cartidge stoves are pretty close to foolproof, smell proof, and the cartridges will stand storage for long periods without leaks or fumes. Heck, they even make little lanterns to run off those isobutane cartridges.

A CO alarm would be good, as would cooking outdoors or cracking the window open a bit, depending on what you're using as a fuel source and burner.

Get some sort of decent water filtering, purification, and storage system in place so you don't have to waste fuel boiling water.

[Badawg]

Old school white gas coleman stoves are great to have around as a "backup" They will burn white gas, Unleaded, and even kerosene. Do buy a couple extra generators and a pump cup too. You can find them in garage sales and swap meets for under 20 bucks too. What to look for in a used one? Rust is bad...Look in the tank for sludge and rust. the older ones have brass tanks which are really cool!

I tend to like the old stuff as it's easily repairable...

[adurbin]

Make one of these!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY_LKCFlG6k

[wareagle69]

i agrre about the water thing if you are stuck indoors with no power why would you be boiling water? if you are hooked up to municipal water then it will still work as the city will have generaters to keep the pump stations working at worst resort you should have water stored anyways , as rick pointed out as long as there is complete combustion you will be fine to cook most houses are not air tight except the new ones, me personally i have gotten used to eating canned food cold , but sterno is a great resource i aslo have a wood stove for heat so i can heat a can or cook with cast iron- but if you are in a situation where you cannot open windows as mary asked then eat food that you do not have to cook although if you cannot open a window i would think that you are in more of a bug out situation

[AKS]

i agrre about the water thing if you are stuck indoors with no power why would you be boiling water?situation

It must be one of those crazy coffee drinker things. Got no power? Well, still need those 5 cups a day, so figure a way to make the water hot or deal with mr. grumpy.