What have done towards your prep?

[Lightspeed]

Hi LS

Our little wenlock stove is rated at 4.7kw, it was bought second hand in pieces and i rebuilt it, can’t remember the full cost. When stoked up it gets our living room up to 24C+ and bedrooms 18c, quite comfortable temperatures. Daytime when we’re doing jobs fire is kept lower.

The stove is lit approximately five months each winter usually from mid october to mid march 24 hours a day and it works out at 5kg a day at just over £2. We do have gas central heating but it’s hardly ever used, gas is used for cooking and hot water.

It’s funny to see guests come in when it’s cold, stand by a radiator and find its not on.

That's a great prep solution Pete, and a bargain too. It might be worth investigating if there's an in-firebox water heating tank that can be added to it. It'll reduce the heat output of course, but could give you hot water as well. I saw an American wilderness living prepper's set-up like this a few years ago it was entirely thermal syphon driven and gave him and his small family enough heat to keep their cabin comfortable in mid-winter as well as enough hot water for basic daily ablutions.

If urgency requires, we'd water heat in large pans on top of the stove. This would be fine for short term emergencies, but would become tedious if relied upon in the long term. When time permits I intend to make a. experimental version of the American's system.