How to Heat Your Home Safely Without Power

Why this matters

When the furnace quits, people get cold, then desperate, then creative, and that's when families get hurt. The numbers from real storms:

• Texas counted 246 deaths from the February 2021 winter storm. Most were from hypothermia, and at least 19 were from carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Oklahoma's December 2007 ice storm deaths included carbon monoxide poisoning and cold exposure, and portable heating sources started house fires (NWS Norman).
• CPSC estimates about 85 people die each year in the U.S. from carbon monoxide from portable generators, and weather-related power outages are the top reason those generators were running.

Cold is dangerous. The wrong fix is faster. This guide covers both, in order of safety.

Never do these

Carbon monoxide: the alarm, the signs, what to do

• Alarm: battery-operated CO alarms, or alarms with battery backup, on each level and outside sleeping areas (CPSC). A plug-in alarm without a battery does nothing in an outage. Check or replace the battery when you change your clocks each spring and fall (CDC).
• Symptoms: headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion (CDC). People who are sleeping or have been drinking can die before they ever feel symptoms (CDC), and CPSC notes people can pass out before they recognize the signs.
• If the alarm sounds or anyone has symptoms: get everyone, pets too, outside into fresh air right away, then call 911. Don't go back in to find the source. Never ignore an alarm (CPSC).

We don't sell CO alarms. Buy one at any hardware store before you need it, check that it runs on batteries or has a battery backup, and keep spare batteries with your outage supplies.

Staying warm with no heat source at all

This is the safest heat there is, and it works better than people expect when it's done right.

1. Pick one room. Small, on the side of the house away from the wind, with as few windows and outside walls as possible. Close off unneeded rooms (CDC).
2. Seal it. Hang blankets or towels over windows and doorways, roll a towel against the bottom of the door, and close curtains at night.
3. Go small inside the room. A tent or a blanket fort over a bed traps the warmth of the people inside it. Get off cold floors: rugs, cushions, camping pads.
4. Dress in layers, with a hat, dry socks and gloves. Wool and fleece beat cotton. Change out of damp clothes right away.
5. Sleep together in sleeping bags or under stacked blankets. Tuck an emergency blanket inside a regular blanket, shiny side toward you, to reflect body heat back.
6. Eat and drink. Your body makes heat from food, and you'll feel the cold more when you're dehydrated.
7. Move a little during the day. Light chores and stretching beat sitting still under a blanket for hours.

If you heat with fuel indoors, do it right

Some heat sources are made to be used indoors. They're only safe used exactly as designed, and only with a working CO alarm in the house.

Fireplaces and wood stoves

• Use them only if they're properly vented to the outside and don't leak smoke or exhaust into the room (CDC).
• Have your heating system and any gas, oil or coal-burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year (CDC). Get the chimney checked before the season, not during the storm.
• Burn only dry, seasoned firewood. Never burn trash, cardboard piles or anything with a fuel accelerant.

Kerosene heaters (from CPSC)

• Use only water-clear 1-K grade kerosene. Never gasoline.
• Never refuel inside the home, and never refuel while the heater is hot or running.
• Run it in a room with a door open to the rest of the house. If the door has to stay closed, open an outside window about an inch.
• Keep it at least three feet from furniture, bedding, curtains and clothing.

Propane and other fuel-burning portable heaters

• CDC's guidance: use fireplaces, wood stoves or other combustion heaters only if they are properly vented to the outside.
• Some portable heaters are sold as safe for indoor use without a vent. If you use one, it must say indoor use on the label, and you follow its ventilation and clearance rules exactly, with a working CO alarm in the room.
• If the manufacturer doesn't say it's for indoor use, it isn't. Patio heaters and outdoor propane heaters stay outdoors.

Every portable heater (from the U.S. Fire Administration)

• Choose one tested by a recognized testing laboratory, with an automatic shutoff if it tips over.
• Keep anything that can burn, like bedding, clothing and curtains, at least 3 feet away. Set it on a solid, flat surface.
• Turn heaters off when you go to bed or leave the room.
• Never leave children alone near a space heater (CDC).

Generators and electric heat

• Outside only, at least 20 feet from the house and away from doors, windows and vents, with the exhaust pointed away from your home and your neighbors' (CPSC, CDC).
• Follow the generator maker's instructions for cords and connections, and the heater maker's instructions for how to plug in the heater.
• Store fuel outside the house and refuel only after the generator has cooled.

Warming up in the car

A running car is a heater, but only outside in open air. Never in a garage, even with the door open (CDC). Make sure the tailpipe is clear of snow, and if you're stuck on the road, run the engine about 10 minutes an hour with a window cracked (National Weather Service). Charge phones while you're there.

Watch for hypothermia

CDC's warning signs in adults: shivering, exhaustion or feeling very tired, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, slurred speech and drowsiness. In babies: bright red, cold skin and very low energy. A body temperature below 95°F is an emergency: get medical help right away. Older adults, babies and anyone sick feel the cold first and say so last. Check on them.

When to stop trying and leave

• You can't keep your one room safe without a heat source that isn't made for indoors
• Anyone shows signs of hypothermia, or anyone has CO symptoms
• The family includes a baby, an elderly person or someone on powered medical equipment and the house keeps getting colder

CDC says if you can't keep your home warm, make arrangements to stay elsewhere, and Ready.gov says to go to a community location with power when cold is extreme. Dial 211 or check your county emergency manager for warming centers. Take your go-bag.

While you're at it: the pipes

Let faucets drip and open the cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls (Ready.gov). If you leave, ask your water utility or a plumber whether to shut off the main and drain the lines.

What we sell for this, honestly

We don't sell heaters, generators or CO alarms. What we sell helps you hold body heat, see without candles, and keep up with warming-center and road news when the power's out.

Sources

1. CDC: Avoiding Carbon Monoxide Poisoning (disaster PSA toolkit)
2. CDC: You Can Prevent Carbon Monoxide Exposure (prevention do's and don'ts)
3. CDC feature: Carbon monoxide symptoms and who is at risk (archived 2013 copy)
4. CDC: Safety Guidelines During and After a Winter Storm
5. Ready.gov: Power Outages
6. Ready.gov: Power Outages (archived December 2020 copy, includes medicine guidance)
7. CPSC: New Report on Carbon Monoxide Fatalities, Urges Generator Safety (2022)
8. CPSC: Survival Tips After Hurricane Rita Strikes (generator and grill safety, 2005)
9. CPSC: CPSC Stresses Kerosene Heater Safety (PDF)
10. U.S. Fire Administration: Heater Fire Safety (PDF)
11. National Weather Service: Caught in a Winter Storm
12. Ready.gov: Winter Storms & Extreme Cold
13. NPR via GPB: Texas officials put the final death toll from last year's winter storm at 246 (Jan. 3, 2022)
14. NWS Norman: The December 8-11, 2007 Ice Storm in Oklahoma