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[SERIOUS] The I need help, my house is freezing thread


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Lostboy 2 has been without heat since Sunday. He has power but the heater in his brand new house broke. He just moved in a week ago. Builder was no help, vendor is not answering calls. 🤬 He is in Easton Park, SE Austin, if anyone has a spare space heater he could use until he can get the heater fixed it would be greatly appreciated. It sucks to not be able to get out and help your own kids. 🥶Thanks for this board!

Edited by Lostman
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There are some really good people on this thread.  Was very thankful that a heroic Lyft driver braved the hills around Far West and rescued my 70 year old parents from a house that hasn't had power in 2 days.  Really feel for people that still don't have power.  It's amazing to me how poorly the city of Austin has handled this in terms of the roads.   And don't get me started on this "rolling" blackouts thing...how do you plan so poorly?!?  Rant over.  

Just wanted to say thanks to those that have offered their homes/cars/help.  You are the best of us. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Thx for this.  I grew up so poor, idling a car was never a good idea.  I was wondering if there was a limit as to how long one could safely idle a car.

idling a car is absolutely fine.  burns about 0.6L or 1/8th of a gallon of fuel per hour.  (no, engine size doesnt matter, its been tested). 

just dont do it in an enclosed space.

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1 hour ago, Acropora said:

There are some really good people on this thread.  Was very thankful that a heroic Lyft driver braved the hills around Far West and rescued my 70 year old parents from a house that hasn't had power in 2 days.  Really feel for people that still don't have power.  It's amazing to me how poorly the city of Austin has handled this in terms of the roads.   And don't get me started on this "rolling" blackouts thing...how do you plan so poorly?!?  Rant over.  

Just wanted to say thanks to those that have offered their homes/cars/help.  You are the best of us. 

 

 

Yeah, I get that true winter weather isn’t that common down here but it’s not an excuse to be COMPLETELY FUCKING UNPREPARED. Frustrating to say the least. 

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2 hours ago, Lostman said:

Lostboy 2 has been without heat since Sunday. He has power but the heater in his brand new house broke. He just moved in a week ago. Builder was no help, vendor is not answering calls. 🤬 He is in Easton Park, SE Austin, if anyone has a spare space heater he could use until he can get the heater fixed it would be greatly appreciated. It sucks to not be able to get out and help your own kids. 🥶Thanks for this board!

does he have a place, is his problem solved?  does he need a place?

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3 hours ago, futureman said:

something like this happens once every 100 years? could be that. 

Not really.  We had cold events in 1985 and 1989. But we are always having some kind of event whether flooding, drought, infrastructure failure or whatever. There is no excuse for not attempting to prepare or be informed. 

If you do these things you will not only help yourself, but give yourself the bandwidth to really help others.

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posting here to see if anyone has any ideas.

my brother has been without power for 30 hours. he lives on south lamar by uchi

i have power at my house at Stassney and Manchaca. it's literally 4.5 miles away and I'm not sure how i can get him to my house. his rwd is not going to get him here

anyone have any thoughts on how?
finally got him over. the walk wasn't happening tbh (~5 mi) and he tried to drive with his car but could barely make it out of his parking garage

got lucky and was able to find an uber driver after trying to get one for a couple hours. glad he's here now, since i don't think his complex has power yet
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17 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

 


IOW, no room at the inn

 

No. We have lots of room and reliable accommodations out here in the country.  We also have 3 goats, 2 cats, and 2 dogs and don't need any pet hassles. Goats are weirded out because we moved them to the garage for warmth.

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Well yeah, they're weirded out...you have to give them something to do.  I asked mine to sort out the various screws and brads I have in my toolboxes.  They feel productive now and are staying warm and amiable.  

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Lostboy 2 has been without heat since Sunday. He has power but the heater in his brand new house broke. He just moved in a week ago. Builder was no help, vendor is not answering calls.  He is in Easton Park, SE Austin, if anyone has a spare space heater he could use until he can get the heater fixed it would be greatly appreciated. It sucks to not be able to get out and help your own kids. Thanks for this board!


He should get on Nextdoor or the neighborhood Facebook page and put out a call for help. There’s probably a handy guy nearby that would be willing to take a look.
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If you don't own already, go by at least 1 large size Mr Heaters. They can use either small propane bottles or will run for 36 hours or better on a large propane tank(grill size). Indoor safe and has a built in battery operated fan that will heat up a medium/large size room very well. 

 

Edited by immortal13
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When I was in Wal-Mart earlier today looking for firewood, I was shocked by how many people were buying charcoal.  I guess this was the go-to due to the lack of firewood.  I'm really concerned by how many might not know not to burn it inside.  Many of the buyers were women.  Before I get chastised for being sexist, I probably wouldn't have known not to burn this stuff inside until I was in my 30's.  I don't recall this one being in my father's Top 100 advice list.

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FYI, I am in Rowlett if anyone needs anything in the area.  

We're now getting 2 hours of power on; 2 hours off.  We've got room if you'll ignore the mess as we're afraid to run the dishwasher and/or the washer due to our upstairs shower drain being frozen.  I can come get anyone in need.

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4 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

When I was in Wal-Mart earlier today looking for firewood, I was shocked by how many people were buying charcoal.  I guess this was the go-to due to the lack of firewood.  I'm really concerned by how many might not know not to burn it inside.  Many of the buyers were women.  Before I get chastised for being sexist, I probably wouldn't have known not to burn this stuff inside until I was in my 30's.  I don't recall this one being in my father's Top 100 advice list.

People are using it to start their fireplace....stupid 

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6 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

When I was in Wal-Mart earlier today looking for firewood, I was shocked by how many people were buying charcoal.  I guess this was the go-to due to the lack of firewood.  I'm really concerned by how many might not know not to burn it inside.  Many of the buyers were women.  Before I get chastised for being sexist, I probably wouldn't have known not to burn this stuff inside until I was in my 30's.  I don't recall this one being in my father's Top 100 advice list.

I too was not fully aware of the hazards of this.  I never had the thought to put it in an indoor fireplace, but my FIL did it earlier this winter and we all kinda raised our eyebrows and went to the googles.  Luckily, we did this pretty much immediately after he had lit it, so we were able to fish it out with no harm done.

But yeah, I mean, it seems like it SHOULD be ok.  But it ain't.

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Just now, immortal13 said:

People are using it to start their fireplace....stupid 

It's funny you should write this.  When the fam and I moved back to Texas 3 years ago, we got a fireplace that had both a gas inlet and wood.  There were some leftover ashes in it as well.  I thought back to my grandparent's fireplace which had a fake log and ran on gas.  Why the F would one light a gas fireplace, but then add wood?  Of course I eventually figured it out, but it's just one of those things that may seem obvious to some with prior experience; but, perplexing for those new to the system.

/don't judge my grammar please

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Spoke to a young lady while walking the dog earlier. She said she had a propane heater going in her living room. Asked her if she had an open window, and she just looked confused and no that would let all the heat out. Told her she is lucky to be alive and explained the dangers.

Hope she listened. I tried not to be to toney.

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5 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

It's funny you should write this.  When the fam and I moved back to Texas 3 years ago, we got a fireplace that had both a gas inlet and wood.  There were some leftover ashes in it as well.  I thought back to my grandparent's fireplace which had a fake log and ran on gas.  Why the F would one light a gas fireplace, but then add wood?  Of course I eventually figured it out, but it's just one of those things that may seem obvious to some with prior experience; but, perplexing for those new to the system.

/don't judge my grammar please

Team woodburing fireplace here.  When we were looking at houses a few years ago my realtor seemed annoyed by my insistence on this preference. I just want to burn some real fucking wood, gotdammit!

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3 hours ago, Jiggy-Z said:

No. We have lots of room and reliable accommodations out here in the country.  We also have 3 goats, 2 cats, and 2 dogs and don't need any pet hassles. Goats are weirded out because we moved them to the garage for warmth.

Stay safe y’all. Glad people are helping, I’d turn the porchlight on but we moved.

Edited by Celery Man
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1 hour ago, immortal13 said:

Team woodburing fireplace here.  When we were looking at houses a few years ago my realtor seemed annoyed by my insistence on this preference. I just want to burn some real fucking wood, gotdammit!

That's the thing that perplexed me.  You only turn the gas on long enough for the wood to catch fire.  Seems overplotted to me, but whatevs.  It is easier than trying to light wood ala carte.

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8 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

That's the thing that perplexed me.  You only turn the gas on long enough for the wood to catch fire.  Seems overplotted to me, but whatevs.  It is easier than trying to light wood ala carte.

Yeah fuck that. I might want to go find some pine knot in the woods to start my fucking fires with. Starting it with a gas ignition seems like cheating 

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Just got turned on (hey-o) after 58 hours.  Propane heat but electric blowers, so it's 55 F cold in here.  Low on propane, because my delivery guy bailed.  Low on firewood, because my delivery guy bailed.

My life has been one giant optimization problem for the last 58 hours.  Wife wasn't happy that I said I was shutting down the furnace once we hit 60 F.  Oh well, put on another coat.  Yeesh.

Good peeps on this site.  I have plenty of pantry food along with a freezer full of frozen protein (chicken, beef, a little pork), but we're stuck in our neighborhood, so I don't know how you could get to us, but if you can, come get food.  2222 & 360 area.

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Y’all are awesome. We had a four day outage in October following Hurricane Zeta that was mostly massively inconvenient and didn’t come with freezing temps (we were in the 40s for awhile). I can’t imagine the two happening at the same time.

Y’all are good people. Godspeed and be safe.

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