I am trying to prepare for various scenarios in an urban setting and have been relying heavily on the combined knowledge of all of you forum posters. The thing I'm having the most trouble finding information on is what fuels, if any, can safely be burned inside my house in the event of a "snowstorm with power outage" scenario without having to go outside or open a window and let out all the trapped heat. I've search these forums and the web for info and all I get is contradictory advice. It seems like alcohol is okay, but petroleum-based fuels are not.

Does anyone know with any certainty what I can and can't use to heat water or cook food that won't fill the house with CO? Also, do you have any recommendations for stoves that use safe fuels?

Thanks,
PFB
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If you burn fuel, it requires oxygen. For a significant amount of heat you need a lot of oxygen no matter what you burn. Petrolbased fuels tend to produce more fumes than alcohol if not burned properly. It will be required to ventilate properly in any case.
Bear in mind that burning fuel also releases water. The resulting moisture could become a problem if you neglect ventilating.
In conclusion you should set up a proper fireplace and only make fire in that place. Make sure the fumes can escape through the chimney. Burning fuel in stoves over a long period is going to bring you trouble one way or the other when you do it indoors.

You should never use fire for heat without ventilation to provide Oxygen to yourself and the fire and to vent any possible build up of Carbon Monoxide! Cover that requirement before you light a birthday candle.

That having been said, I have used various wicked kerosene heating devices and heated with wood stoves for most of my life. It is very safe and effective if you properly ventilate the area. If you live in a hi-rise condo with windows that don't open and ventilation that is provided by electricity you may want to consider how stale the air will get without your adding smoke from a fire. In such a situation relocation may be required.

One highly recommended kerosene unit is the alpaca stove which will provide for heat and cooking. It is available from Majorsurplusandsurvival.com for around $100 + shipping. Stores small, heats big and can be used for cooking. Petrol fuels like kerosene have a MUCH higher BTU density than alcohol and store quite stabily for long term storage.

As mentioned before, the products of complete combustion of alcohols and hydrocarbons (strictly speaking alcohols are hydrocarbons also) are water, CO and other carbon molecules.

As I mentioned in another post, the soda can or cat food can stove can bring a quart of water to boil within 6 min. on 2 or 3 tbsp of denatured alcohol and only costs pennies to make. For just purifying water or soup or water for dehydrated meals they work great. for longer buring times go for something store-bought. If you're trapped inside and don't want to open a window you should have a fire place in your house.

Having a battery powered CO/ smoke detector is a must if you plan on doing this. You can't smell or taste CO but you will feel the headache and dizzyiness. Consult your CO detector packaging for appropriate placement in your house.

As others have pointed out (and they know much better than I do, I'm sure) your main concern should be proper ventilation. What sort of building are you planning to heat? If it's an older house with a built-in fireplace, then you're laughing. If there's no built-in fireplace, then consider installing a wood stove - decorative, great conversation piece, and functional, too. Lots of folks here in Canada install them.

If that's not an option (e.g. you live in an apartment or a condominium) then maybe you want to buy a portable wood stove, such as they used to use to heat ice-fishing huts. Unfortunately, according to Garret and Alexandra Conover, legal liability issues and lawsuits have forced virtually all the manufacturers of these items out of business. As long as it's enclosed and properly vented to the outside, it should be safe. My idea here would be to cut a piece of plywood to fit the window opening, with a circular hole cut in it to accomodate the stovepipe. But if at all possible, check with a professional to ensure you're not going to burn down the apartment block. Your local hardware/home handyman store may even have a book on how to install wood stoves, or you may be able to order one.

Some fuels are obviously worse than others. Wood fires inside a home or in a stove have been used for millennia; natural gas stoves are still in use (my sister in Toronto has one). Otoh, there's a very good reason why barbecuing is universally considered an outdoor activity; remember the Hibachi barbequeue? Many people died from CO poisoning because they made the mistake of thinking that those could be used indoors. I strongly suspect that barbequeues of any ilk are major CO producers.

Generally, CO is produced by inefficient burning. A nice, blue, nearly invisible flame on your Coleman stove will produce very little CO; a yellow flame will be producing a significant amount. The common worst case is when a pot of cold water is placed directly in the flames; the cold water kills the burning process before the fuel is completely burned, and when that happens, you get CO production. If you're boiling water, make sure the container is not in contact with the flames - either raise the pot up, move it off to the side, or use the coals for heat instead of the flames. (For this reason, I would strongly advise against using a Thermette or Kelly Kettle indoors.)

Just to pile on for a moment...

If you're talking stove-for-cooking, that is a whole different matter than trying to provide environmental heat. I'm comfortable with our circumstances, but no way would I suggest my solutions for your unknown-to-me circumstances wrt environmental heat.

Heating food/water - use a liquid or gaseous fueled stove, keep a fire extinguisher handy, and don't worry about it. Perhaps you already cook with natural gas or propane, hmmm? Use that stove as-is. Your house already transpires enough for that. If you have a small apartment with tight construction and an electric stove, then perhaps you should exercise some extra care, but a brief stint with a fueled stove to heat water or a meal should be OK. A CO monitor would be a good idea, but there is battery life to consider and I find the CO monitors to be plauged by false-positive alarms (very annoying).

I really don't think it's a good idea to burn any fuel indoors for environmental heat unless the combustion products are vented outside. Besides the potential CO2 and CO problems, you are asking for some damage to the house from condesation and freezing of the combustion water.

Let's see if there is another, safer way - how is your hot water produced? If you have a gas-burning natural vented 40-50 gallon hot water heater, there is another, safe way to put aux heat in part of your house during an electrical power outage.

So - is your hot water heater a gas-burner and not power vented? If so, I can explain how to safely take advantage of that for heat.

Tom

I should have been more clear: I am talking about heating water and/or food, not the entire house. We live in a fairly typical suburban four-bedroom house without natural gas or a fireplace. I figured since natural gas is considered relatively safe for cooking, there may be others that are reasonably safe as well (recognizing that burning anything involves some risk). We do have two battery-powered CO detectors, but I would not like to find out the hard way that I shouldn't have been burning (fill in blank) to heat some water.

I had also considered MRE heaters and wondered how effective and safe they are. I realize that they can be more expensive to use, but that's all right for my needs.

Thank you all for you input.

Coleman propane fueled stove with a bunch of 1 lbs disposable cylinders would be just fine for your use. I suggest the "large" 2 burner or perhaps the 3 burner - both better fit common household pots and pans than the "traditional" size 2 burner models.

If you think you might want to bug out, there are more versitile choices, but a green box is great if staying there is your choice.

HTH.

Tom