mr buddy

MR BUDDY


A good article over at http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html on March 10th. Gives you some food for thought on how the Dow and other markets are just a rigged game and have absolutely no correlation to the economy whatsoever. I mean, we all had our suspicions, since how can the stock market go up along with oil, gold and unemployment? Answer, it can’t. We just didn’t know why other than the more-likely-close-as-possible-to-the-truth detail that the government is buying its own debt through Caribbean proxies. The above article gives another view about concentration of wealth into the wealthy elites hands. Today’s article is on the Buddy Heater. Mr. Buddy, Little Buddy, whatever. I think this might have just been done this week elsewhere. I do apologize for the coattail ride. But a minion asked about it and I’m coming down with some crud and feeling like absolute pond scum and I’m just kind of coasting here. Bear with me.

*

The Mr. Buddy is the propane heater that you can use indoors. It has the ceramic plate that warms up, a low oxygen sensor and a tip over shut off. The tip over works great. A cat would go tearing by it in a fit of exercise, I would bump into it with my clodhopper snow boots, any movement over about two inches and the thing turned off. I have no anxiety about keeping it on the carpeted floor, or scant inches from my chair or sofa. And obviously the oxygen feature works or I wouldn’t be here. Well, I don’t run it at night, and I purposely kept some good drafts going in the trailer when I re-insulated ( without those I would run a PVC pipe outside and upcap it to run the heater- it can be used inside but not if you are sealed up too tight ). I have enough comforters and wool blankets on my bed that until the insides get into the twenties, I’m as warm as can be. And I have foam pads under my mattress and under my sheets. In case of emergency, we can stay warm and alive in bed. Which is a great back up plan but it would be nice to have a lot more insulation to retain the heat, either from propane or solar ( a nice article over at the Druid Dude http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ on small scale solar ). Back up plans are great, but all of us are going to be needing propane heat off grid ( assuming lack of cheap wood ) as long as we are living in polite society during Oil Down. If I could, I would cash out and build a passive solar underground home and never have to worry about propane heat again. Not that I have those kinds of assets. Instead I’ll construct an underground pit hovel. This spring, if I don’t insulate the van. Well, perhaps both. I’m up in the air. I do know I don’t want to risk too many more winters dependent on propane. But it has gotten me off grid and up and running.

*

To escape the grid, it is hard to beat Mr. Heater. Pardon the holy mother living crap out of me if I’m calling it the wrong brand name. It is the smaller heater, the one that uses from 4,000 BTU on low to 8,000 BTU on high. Running it on low you can get 100 hours run time on a full propane five gallon tank. It costs $80 to $100 generally. I paid $75 about five years ago for mine at Home Depot and then the next spring as they were on clearance I paid fifty for a second one. I’m still on my first unit after two Elko winters ( six months of daily use during the first winter and five months so far this winter ). I don’t know how long it will last but I’m already satisfied that I’ve gotten my monies worth. Of course, I highly recommend you never have just one heat source. I bought my unit after I already had one of the small catalytic heaters. The Buddy/Heater was more efficient than the other, and not too much more expensive. But if I’m not mistaken ( don’t bet the ranch on it ) I think the catalytic unit needs no outside air for combustion. Anyway, my point was that I always had two or three heaters as back-ups. If you only have one unit, have another heater of some kind, even if all you are doing is waiting for another unit to go on end of winter sale.

*

By insulating more, you don’t save on propane use. You just become a lot more comfortable using the same amount. 4k BTU’s is not a whole lot of heat. But it will keep you alive. You won’t be wearing a T-shirt, you will have on several socks, two sweaters and some caps. Perhaps even thin mittens. If you do end up in a trailer and a small heater like this, at least throw thick blankets over the windows if you aren’t getting incoming sunlight. My first winter here was mild temperatures ( as I saw in retrospect ) and we were always cold. After I added insulation we were warmer even as temperatures got lower. If you can’t add another layer of insulation to all the walls, at least cover those windows. You can buy $1 spring clamps at Home Depot that make it easy to add or remove blankets from the curtain rods. Or that strip of curtained wood in front of the rod, whatever they call those ( if you’re a guy and knew the answer-Gaydar ping! ).

*

I’m sure I forgot something. I think I’m coming down with Barnyard Flu or something.

END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/

*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.