ETiNME's blog: "6 sure ways"

By. Eric Teague

  HOW TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY HOT WATER HEATER

    Recently after suffering a power loss throughout my community i started to think and prepare for future outages. One of the biggest gripes during the outage was not having hot water. I decieded early upon a secure purchace of a generator would be wise, i was able to isolate certain areas of my house through the electricial panel. However you just need a 110v power recepticle prior to test and to maintain or elevate the tempature.

STEP 1-  Go Collecting

   I found all my items in various places around my house. So this step might vary depending on each individual situation, but here is mine and the items you will need. I first went to the back yard and in my shed grabbed a 5 gallon empty planter bucket. I then walked behind the shed and found a old pool i had, you know the cheep little above the ground ones. I robbed its filtering thingy with the cord, i needed its use not the technical term at that time.Once back inside i found duck tape(recommend getting extra) , 3 heavy duty trash bags, several hose clamps(screwing kind), and a old flexable shower handel with hose.My last items i grabbed in a hall closet were my drill(razor knife optional), a screw driver,and 2 sets of wool sheets.Now use your imagination if you want on the last item however it is EXTREMELY! important that you are certain that your heat is such that wont contact water or cause electricial shock.Since i am probably the last dude on earth with a water bed, i simply stole its heater.

STEP 2- Drill ,Cut and Tape 

     Take the 5 gallon bucket and measure or guess starting from the bottom ruftly 2 1/2 inches up and make a mark on the bucket.Now assuming you already took the time to remove the recirculating pump (a.k.a filtering thingy with cord) from its plastic housing and removed all hoses.You will need to be close if not under when looking at the diameter of its inbound side.Then mark that diameter circle onto your bucket making sure to place center of  diameter 2 1/2 inches from the bottom.Take either your knife or drill and make the hole. Remember less cutting or drilling is always better so keep them holes super tight as much as 1/4 inch less.This hole is for your pump. Take your trash bags and open the one and then the other inside that one.Now on only one side of both bags and up 8-10 inches poke a pencil size hole. Shove your finger through the hole keeping the two sheets together and lift your bags into your container. Oh yea it helps if you shove inside the bag out.Pull that specific pencil hole area of the bag out through your containers pump location hole.Slowly open the hole in both bags, i mean slowly and flatten them outward on the exterior and duck tape them down throghly. You want to remember that this will be its weakest point so less is more in this case. You should now have a bucket with two bags inside and the hole ready and taped.

STEP 3- Heater and insulators

   Take your heat pad or in my case water bed heater and wrap in nice and flat making sure to use equal thickness on both surfaces of the pad,tape down the access.Then opposite the pump hole on your container , stand up your heater pad in between the plastic bags and the inside of the container.At the pads four corners place a large strip of tape at an angle across them.Keep the pad flat along the whole inside before taping all four.Adjust the bags now so they fill the entire container and are not strained by the taped portion exiting the container.Pull both bags gently around the bucket top and over just past the rim on the buckets exterior and gently draw the ties(similar to a trash can).Then either tie off the ties or tape off.Take your pump and very gently from outside in,push your pumps inbound side in through the hole staying on the inside of the plastic and secure with original fitting.Wrap your buckets exterior also with wool sheets or insulation of some kind and tape tightly around the bucket.Make sure not to disrupt the pump from pressure caused by the sheet or insulation and tape down.

STEP 4- Finalize and place

   Taking your final plastic bag place entire bucket inside just like you would throwing it away. Secure its ties and tape them down at just above the buckets rim on the outside and on top of the others.Run a strip of tape all the way around where that seam meets the others.Carful to allow for the cord as well as the hose coming from your pump. The exterior bag is more for looks however it helps to tape any penatrations you need to make.Then after you establish location and placement of heater you can begin to prepare how fast and what functions you wish to use. Mine was for the shower to i had to reduce my hose with the clamps but if not fill her up gently and plug in her heater.

WaaaaLLLlaaaaaa.........instant Hot shower!!

Warning:Electrical shock and or death could occur from not properly inspecting or using a heating pad that is not water resistant. all others should be installed on containers exterior in same fashion and clear from any possible water.Heating times vary dramatically.message me for drawings or schematic for isolating your homes electrical panel in a emergency

Hope you enjoyed the read

Sincerely,

Eric Teague