The most common mistake when turning off the heating is that people try to heat the apartment. Without a heat source, this is impossible, and attempts usually end with money spent or something much worse. Rescuers recommend another sequence: first insulate yourself, then one room, and only then think about additional warmth. Let's analyze each level in turn, and separately talk about what cannot be done under any circumstances.

Level One: Dress yourself up

The advice sounds trite, but this is where the effect is greatest at zero cost. The principle of multilayering works, where each layer performs its function. The first layer is thermal underwear or any synthetics that remove moisture from the body. Cotton is bad for this role, because it absorbs sweat and then cools.

The second layer, warm linen. The third layer is the most important, it is fleece. The material has low thermal conductivity, because the fibers form air bags, and the real insulation is air itself. The thicker the fabric, the warmer. Fleece has another advantage: it continues to warm even when wet. Fourth layer, dense fabric on top. Two points are usually underestimated. A large proportion of heat loss goes through the head, so a hat at home is not a weirdness, but the easiest way to raise the feeling of warmth. The legs are the first to freeze, because the floor is always cold, so woolen socks and something on top of them.

Level two: one room

The key advice of the State Emergency Service is not to try to heat the entire apartment. It is necessary to choose one room and tightly close the windows, doors and curtains in it. The logic is simple: the amount of air you keep warm decreases several times. Choose the smallest room with the fewest windows and exterior walls. Keep the door to the rest of the apartment closed. If there is a gap under the door, place a rolled blanket or a special roller.

Level three: textiles

Here is the number that surprised me the most when preparing the material. An empty room without textiles cools down in one to two hours, while a «-dressed» room keeps warm for three to five hours.

Carpets, blankets, bedspreads and pillows work not for coziness, but for real hours of warmth.

What to do specifically: lay a carpet on the floor, cover the bed with a warm blanket, throw several pillows and bedspreads on the sofa and armchairs. Textiles accumulate heat and gradually give it back to the room. In the evening, be sure to curtain the windows with thick curtains, because glass is the largest channel of heat loss in the apartment. One detail works the other way around. When there is still heating, the curtains should not cover the radiators, otherwise the heat goes out the window instead of the room.

Level four: slits

Check the thermal insulation of windows and doors. The gaps should be glued with tape or sealant to reduce air circulation. Inspect the front door from the inside. If there is no molding on them, it should be installed, because it works as an additional barrier against the cold. This work should be done now, in September, and not in December at minus ten. Materials are cheap, and time will take several hours.

Which can be used as a heat source

Heaters remain the most underrated tool. Hot objects can be placed in bed or applied to the stomach. Anything works: a regular plastic heater, heated water in a bottle, heated salt in a cloth. A heating pad in bed half an hour before bed removes most of the problem with sleeping in the cold. Hot drinks and food have a longer effect than it seems. After a cup of hot tea, the feeling of warmth lasts for another couple of hours. In addition, the body needs more calories in the cold, so you need to eat more, not less. A tourist gas burner is suitable only for heating food and water in small dishes. I will talk about the restrictions below, and this is important. An electric heater is possible if you have a charging station of sufficient power. But evaluate soberly: the heater consumes from one thousand to two thousand watts, and even a powerful station will not last long. How to calculate my case, I analyzed in the material about autonomy during shutdowns.

What cannot be done under any circumstances

We will have to stop here separately, because the Ukrainian media have a direct contradiction in this regard, and one of the versions is life-threatening. The gas stove cannot be used to heat the room. Neither burners nor oven. I met with a recommendation to light all the burners and oven on a low heat and leave it like that for a while. This advice is present in Ukrainian materials, and it is wrong. The position of the rescuers is unequivocal: gas burners are allowed only to heat food in small dishes, and it is forbidden to use them to heat rooms.

The reason is carbon monoxide. When burning with a lack of oxygen, carbon monoxide is formed, which has neither smell, color, nor taste. A person does not feel poisoned. First, drowsiness appears, which is easy to mistake for fatigue in a cold apartment, then a person falls asleep. It is especially dangerous at night and in a tightly closed room, that is, exactly in the conditions you create when you are insulated.

There is also an additional argument. Combustion burns oxygen, so it has to be ventilated, and all the acquired effect disappears along with the heat that goes out the window. The generator cannot be brought indoors. Not to the apartment, not to the balcony, not to the entrance, not to the garage. The same carbon monoxide, only in much higher concentrations. Candles cannot be left unattended. Use only stable metal candlesticks, away from curtains and paper. Candles remain the main cause of household fires during outages. Alcohol does not heat up. This is not superstition, but physiology: alcohol expands peripheral vessels, due to which heat flows faster from the body to the outside. Subjectively, it becomes warmer, and objectively, the body cools down faster. In a cold room, this is a direct path to hypothermia.

Humidity as a separate enemy

In the absence of heating in winter, the most insidious enemy in the apartment is humidity. Wet air feels colder than dry air of the same temperature, and wet clothes stop heating altogether.

Several things help. Ventilate briefly but intensively, because five minutes wide works better than an hour in slot mode. Do not dry laundry in the living room. Silica gel helps to remove excess moisture.

About sleep

Night is the coldest time, and that's when the most heat is lost. A few practical things. Put the heating pad in bed half an hour before bed. Sleep in a hat or with a hood. Take not one thick blanket, but two thinner ones, because an additional layer of air forms between them. Do not sleep in the clothes you wore during the day, because it has gone raw. If there are several people in the family, sleep in the same room. Bodies release heat, and it really works.

Who should be taken care of separately

The cold affects different people in different ways, and children and the elderly remain the most vulnerable. In older people, thermoregulation works worse, and they often don't feel frozen until it's already dangerous. So don't rely on their words «me normally», but check your hands and feet by touch. If your parents live separately, arrange regular calls on cold days. This is the simplest thing that really saves.

About the house, not just the apartment

One detail is usually not thought of: in a high-rise building, the survival of an individual family is closely related to the condition of the entire building. During long frosts without heating, pipe breaks in the entrances become a real threat. Therefore, it is worth maintaining contact with the board of the condominium or the management company in order to react promptly. The practical conclusion is simple: keep the contact of the condominium head and the plumber in the phone before it is needed.

What to do now while it's warm

The most useful part of this text is not about the cold, but about September:

  1. Seal the gaps in the windows and doors
  2. Check whether there is fleece, thermal underwear, woolen socks, hats at home
  3. Buy heaters, because they cost pennies, and in December they may disappear from sale
  4. Get blankets, blankets, carpets from mezzanines
  5. Identify «warm room» and prepare it
  6. Save contacts of condominiums and emergency services
  7. Check whether power banks and charging station are charged

It all takes one day off and costs little. In December, the same will cost more, and some of the goods will simply not be available.

Summary

The heat in a cold apartment does not depend on a powerful heater, but on the sequence of actions: first yourself, then one room, then a gap, and only then a heat source.

One thing is more important than all the others. No heat is worth carbon monoxide poisoning. A gas stove, barbecue or burner for heating the room is included in the list of reasons why people who just wanted to warm up die every winter. It's unpleasant to be cold. But no one has died from the cold in an apartment with normal insulation and warm clothes, and they die from carbon monoxide every year.


Sources: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, TSN, UNIAN, EnableMe, 50plus.com.ua