Brewing equipment saved the day!

[Mase]

Due to the high winds (60 mph gusts) that travelled through our neck of the woods last Sunday and Monday, we lost power for 2 days, and with temps in the low 30’s (f) in the day and low 20’s (f) at night, keeping the house warm was going to be a challenge. I already have a generator, but it’s only a 3000W, and I needed that to keep the fridges and freezers going.

With all safety considerations addressed, I used my Blichmann Hellfire propane burner to heat the house. I opened up all the window vents in the basement, checked my CO detectors and fired it up. Documentation from Blichmann states it can yield 150,000 BTU, but we didn’t need that much heat. I placed the burner in the basement and let the heat free rise to the first floor, then with a room fan connected to the generator helped circulate the air around the first and second floor.

I was able to keep the house warm at around 67-70 degrees (f) and averaged a 20lb tank a day with the burner off between 9:00pm and around 3:00am.

I certainly don’t condone or suggest anyone try to do the same as it can be extremely dangerous. That being said, without being a brewer, I wouldn’t have had the equipment to keep us warm.

The irony.... having an ice cold glass of homebrew while sitting in your warm house that’s been kept warm with brewing equipment.

 

[Head First]

Well done fellow brewer!
The use of common sense and some brewer ingenuity got you through. The quest to enjoy a nice cold homebrew can never be thwarted.
CHEERS TO YOU AND YOUR EFFORT!

Edit: have been there without power too. It sucks a big one

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

nice, I had a similar venture were I was out for 14 days, I ended up using my car as a generator with an inverter, I have a cast iron insert fireplace with a blower that heated the house, a gas water heater to take showers, I took all my food and used the back deck to chill it -10F and used a camping stove to eat, other than bad lighting it wasn't that bad

 

[Group W]

Nice work Mase! How ironic if you were able to brew as well. Probably reasons other than survival mode that prevented that.

 

[ukbrewer@gmail.com]

Due to the high winds (60 mph gusts) that travelled through our neck of the woods last Sunday and Monday, we lost power for 2 days, and with temps in the low 30’s (f) in the day and low 20’s (f) at night, keeping the house warm was going to be a challenge. I already have a generator, but it’s only a 3000W, and I needed that to keep the fridges and freezers going.

With all safety considerations addressed, I used my Blichmann Hellfire propane burner to heat the house. I opened up all the window vents in the basement, checked my CO detectors and fired it up. Documentation from Blichmann states it can yield 150,000 BTU, but we didn’t need that much heat. I placed the burner in the basement and let the heat free rise to the first floor, then with a room fan connected to the generator helped circulate the air around the first and second floor.

I was able to keep the house warm at around 67-70 degrees (f) and averaged a 20lb tank a day with the burner off between 9:00pm and around 3:00am.

I certainly don’t condone or suggest anyone try to do the same as it can be extremely dangerous. That being said, without being a brewer, I wouldn’t have had the equipment to keep us warm.

The irony.... having an ice cold glass of homebrew while sitting in your warm house that’s been kept warm with brewing equipment.

Time to invest in the natural gas orifice