Like, during the Texas IcePocalypse? If we didn’t have a gas stove and a gas fireplace, my wife and I would have died. There’s no way out of this neighborhood if the roads are all frozen, because we live on one of the steepest hills in Austin.
Sure, freezing doesn’t happen all that often, but we’ve had two big freezes in the past twenty or so years that we’ve lived here, and ERCOT has had multiple long power outages in that time.
So, don’t just worry about freezes. You also have to worry about your power supply/distribution company being made up of incompetent fools who are just out to line their own pockets and those of the other billionaires in the state.
I’m the gas fireplace is legit, but the stove can be replaced with butane cans.
I’ve been without heat in the Midwest in the winter (furnace died in a rental). It’s actually not that hard to keep a single room or two warm enough with simple painters plastic. Staple/tape them up and hang out in that room. By limiting airflow (don’t entirely cut off outside oxygen), you keep an amazing amount of heat in the space. Not warm, but certain manageable with a few layers of.
Propane heaters can also be used relatively safely.
But if you can’t safely get out of the house to go buy the nonexistent butane or propane heaters at the store because all the roads are frozen over and all the stores are closed, then that idea isn’t going to help you very much.
Sure, freezing doesn’t happen all that often, but we’ve had two big freezes in the past twenty or so years that we’ve lived here, and ERCOT has had multiple long power outages in that time.
So, don’t just worry about freezes. You also have to worry about your power supply/distribution company being made up of incompetent fools who are just out to line their own pockets and those of the other billionaires in the state.