Mimimalism

[bledsoe3]

Here is my attempt at emergency heating. I bought $2 worth of candles at the dollar store as mentioned here. I also got a quart paint can free from a local paint center. I melted down most of the candles on the stove. When it started to harden, I stuck three whole candles into the mix and let it set up. The flame is not as big as some others, but three of them get pretty warm. For $2 if it doesn't work I'm not out much.

[Laredo]

commercially available 'emergency candles' that size come with up to 7 wicks you can place according to where you need a wick most.

[bledsoe3]

Ive got one like that too.My experience was that the candles burn unevenly.After a while,one will melt enough wax to flood the other whicks.Using a single whick would be better if its a larger whick.Maybe braid several together?

Originally I was going to do it differently. I bought seperate wicks. If they melt together, I'll melt the whole thing down again and put new wicks in. I have extra candles so I can add more wax as needed.

[vinoscooter]

George write's......Water, I favour a top notch water purifcation system like the Nature pure, this means that in a pinch even dirty ditch water can be made safe, clear and tasty, thus requires a decent electric pump but as its such an infrequent use solar power no probs. or revert to hand or foot pump...

Ive been looking into water purifacation...starting to anyway..I have a small unit I used to use for back packing..Pump the water out of a creek,goes through the filter..into a canteen type of thing..Allways works well for 1 person..Payed around 50 bucks for it...Used to make a solar water collector..dig hole,put plastic over hole,w/small rock in middle on the top...put container in hole under the tarp,the rock forms a small V shape over the container..condensation forms under the tarp at night..runs down to the V..& drops in the container...At best a pint a night was all we could get..in the desert only a cup..or less..helpfull but not a enough..So any first hand experience w/water purifacation, different products,method's etc. out there?...used water purifacation tablets alot..taste is lowsy, but maybe the easyest fix..or boiled water...used alot of fuel though...Doing mostly mountain survival..water is plentifull..But now in the desert...different story..Maybe it comes down to...how much water you can carry...& how much can be made pure,to extend survival time.. vinoscooter..

[GeorgeTelford]

Hi Vino

Thats two seperate issues, getting water is one and making it safe is the other

I use a Nature pure system, read here on test results http://www.generalecology.com/testdata.htm

I would tend to avoid desert in a survival situation, getting cool, water supply and food are major problems unless you are really into survivalism and even then why make life hard?


Wicks bleeding into each other? In the photo the wicks are to small, bigger chunkier wicks are needed

[asianflava]

A common mistake about boiling water.
Although it works ,it must be done properly.
You cannot boil water and drink it to be safe.The process of boiling water is to let the water boil and catch the steam as it condences back into water.The steam is the purified water source,the boiling water is not safe to drink because all the solids are still in it.Boil the pot dry and look at the scale and crud left behind in the pan.That crud would never be safe for drinking.

I am not a "Survivalist" by any means, but I think you are confusing purifying water and making it safe to drink. If the water is clean but may have bacteria in it, a 5min boil is probably all it needs.

If you are talking mud puddle water, then you will have to do more than just boil it. You have to get the suspended solids out of it too.

[asianflava]

A local gentleman boiled water from a stream on the mountain and wound up in the hospital for 6 months.He was a large man and now he is not.

Maybe that's what I need to do. Not making light of his situation, I'm just kiddin.

[asianflava]

I have often wondered how to get yourself immune to Montezuma's revenge. The people who live there drink it so it obviously won't kill you. I don't know, make yourself sick from it a few times?

On a different but similar note, a friend of mine is super paranoid about her kids being in contact with germs. She washes and has them wash all the time. To me it seems counter productive because it prevents the kids from getting immunities when they are in contact with all the other kids. My mom and dad both worked in hospitals and clinics, who knows what they brought home to us kids, but we were rarely sick. We played in ditches and canals too. Even now, my wife seems to get sick twice as much as I do.

BTW you couldn't pay me to go into those ditches now.

[JunkMan]

a friend of mine is super paranoid about her kids being in contact with germs. She washes and has them wash all the time. To me it seems counter productive because it prevents the kids from getting immunities when they are in contact with all the other kids.

I agree, I think that we lose our imunity to a lot of germs by being so fanatical. Obviously the people that live in the areas with bad water drink it without getting sick. I think they just build up an immune system. How about the bums that eat out of dumpsters? I see them all of the time behind my business, but they never seem to get sick from it.

My wife & I eat a varity of foods, and do a few things that you are not supposed to (share & re-use water bottles, eat foods that have gone out of date, eating leftovers that are more than a couple of days old, etc.), and we seem to have fewer problems when we travel than others that are pickier eaters and more fanatical about germs.

[bledsoe3]

I have often wondered how to get yourself immune to Montezuma's revenge.

I wonder how to get immune to hair of the dog.

[angib]

I have often wondered how to get yourself immune to Montezuma's revenge. The people who live there drink it so it obviously won't kill you.

When my company had a contract in Veracruz, the Mexican visitors to Britain occasionally got ill, despite our water being as clean as most - the bugs that get you are the ones you're not used to....

I was more severely ill in Veracruz than anywhere else in the world, but only went there once. I worked quite a bit in India and being ill (Gandhi's revenge?) becomes a fact of life - there's no way you'll get through a couple of weeks unscathed. But you do grow used to it and got better at noticing it coming - I had no difficulty in stopping meetings to say "I'm going back to my hotel now to be really ill. We'll meet again tomorrow at 9am if I'm better by then".

Andrew

[Flonker]

Hi Vino

You admit Igloos are surprsingly warm, and yet you cannot see the tear being warm enough

Igloos have a 'wind tunnel' that acts kind of like an air lock, pointed away from prevailing winds. A teardrop doesn't. The tunnel loses some heat, not the interior. With a teardrop, there's nothing keeping the wind & cold air from coming in the door when you open it.

Question for you

which contains more heat 100 deg C water or 100 deg C air?

You can put your hand in 100 deg C air for 5 seconds say and it feels warm no burns though, put your hand in 100 deg C water (boiling point) for same time and you will get scalded, same temperature, but why the different results? If you cannot answer this the rest of what I say will not make sense to you at all, I will probably be able to demonstrate via little experiments though.

It's the energy density. Water can contain more heat because it's denser, and you don't get the convection heating as much from air as you do from water because there's more water molecules in a cubic foot of water than there are in a cubic foot of air.

[Flonker]

How about one of these cute little woodburners? You can't believe how small they are. I had to get in the picture so you could see. It can't be more than a foot high!!! TINY!!!



Mike...

Still looking at space requirements here, Mike. You gotta put it on the order of 18 inches or so from a wall, and run a chimney pipe through a triple insulated outlet in the roof, otherwise you end up with a bonfire where your trailer was.

[mikeschn]

Plus you'll probably cook yourself out of your trailer if you don't get the bonfire part...

I guess another option is in order.

I happen to like the forced air furnace. I've used them twice now... and they work great. The tab has one in it too...

http://www.ducktec.com/itmidx14.htm

Mike...

[Flonker]

Plus you'll probably cook yourself out of your trailer if you don't get the bonfire part...

I guess another option is in order.

I happen to like the forced air furnace. I've used them twice now... and they work great. The tab has one in it too...

http://www.ducktec.com/itmidx14.htm

Mike...

Definitely a nice unit. Wish they'd put some propane consumption figures on the site, tho. I like the idea of them selling a carbon monoxide detector as well, beats waking up dead one morning. Personally, I kinda like the Mr Buddy heater (http://www.elitedeals.com/pohe.html). Runs for about a week or so on a 5 gallon tank.