renewed adventures in contact heating: zippo handwarmer

I had one of these back in the 80s and it seemed to work pretty good. While I was doing the reading for the posts on contact heating I ran across the naptha handwarmers again. Previously I’d used lighter fluid; the cost wouldn’t break me but since I carry Coleman fuel now I figured I’d

final contact heating experiment: heating pad

Finally found a simple heating pad to test for the contact heating experiment. It’s a plain Sunbeam 3-setting pad, $15 in the pharmacy section of Smith’s which appears to be associated with Kroger grocery.  The SKU on the package appears to be specific to the retailer, but it looks like this one from walmart. The kill-a-watt

winter experiments: contact heating

Last winter I used a Mr. Heater Buddy to good effect.  Since I know that works I decided to play with some other options. electric heating Space heating with electricity is impractical off-grid.  Contact heating, however, might have a fighting chance. I had prior experience with these forms of contact heating: electric blankets (200-300w), which

decanting propane

My stash of 1lb propane bottles was getting low, so I refilled them off the tank with the little adapter thingy.   It finally started to run out and it made me wonder when I exchanged the tank last. Turns out it was in Tucson in early February.  So this tank lasted about 3.5 months.    I

cooking with Pareto

The Pareto Principle is famously interpreted to mean that 20% of the people do 80% of the work.  More formally, it says that “roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”. I’ve been experimenting and I think it also applies to cooking:  80% of the cooking is done by 20% of the fuel.   

bill of lading

[ power | services | transportation | exterior | sleeping | interior | lighting | cooking | HVAC | hygiene |multimedia | water | communication | tools | safety] I bought most of the physical stuff off Amazon, but some came from eBay etc when it was cheaper that way. services mobile data/phone:  US Wireless,

three unexpectedly positive reviews

I’m a bit of a cynic about marketing so it’s a welcome surprise when products live up to their billing. grape solar 100w poly panels Ever wonder if cheap panels work? This is the output of a Grape Solar 100w panel at around solar noon on MPPT: Ordinarily I’d expect something like 83w out of