Your car as backup

The one rule

Warming up in the car

A parked car with the engine running is a real way to warm cold people for a while, especially children.

1. Park outside, away from the house, windows and vents.
2. Clear the tailpipe. Snow blocking the exhaust pushes carbon monoxide into the cabin. Check it again if it is snowing or drifting.
3. Run the engine about 10 minutes each hour, not continuously.
4. Open a window slightly on the side away from the wind while it runs.
5. Do not sleep in a running car. If people are sleeping, someone stays awake.

Charging from the car

• Phones, power banks and radios charge well from the USB ports or 12-volt socket.
• A small plug-in inverter (around 150 watts) will run a laptop charger. See small car inverters on Amazon.
• Charge while the engine is running, or you may drain the starting battery. Cold batteries have less to give.
• A power station can be recharged from the car on the drive or during those 10-minute runs.

Do not wire a car, an inverter or an electric vehicle into your house wiring. Powering a home from a vehicle needs equipment made for that vehicle and installed by an electrician.

Fuel is the limit

An idling car burns roughly 1 to 2 litres (a quarter to half a gallon) an hour. Ten minutes an hour over a full day uses about 4 to 8 litres. That adds up, and when the power is out across a region, gas stations cannot pump.

• Keep the tank at least half full all winter.
• Decide how much fuel is reserved for leaving, and do not idle below that line.
• Electric vehicles: keep the charge high in winter, and remember that cabin heat and cold both cut range.

Keep a winter kit in the car

• Blankets or a sleeping bag, hats, mitts, spare socks
• Shovel, ice scraper, traction aids or sand
• Booster cables or a jump pack
• Flashlight, phone cable, water, food that will not spoil
• A candle and matches are in many official lists, but a blanket and a full tank do more

See winter car emergency kits on Amazon.

The car as your way out

The most valuable thing the car does is get you to somewhere with heat. Before you rely on it:

• Make sure it starts. In deep cold, a block heater does nothing without power, so park out of the wind and start the car once a day if you may need it.
• Keep the driveway clear enough to get out.
• Check road conditions on the radio, and tell someone your route and when you expect to arrive.
• Traffic lights will be dark. Treat every dark intersection as a four-way stop.

No car?

Then the plan is made of people and places instead: a neighbour who drives, a friend you can walk to, the nearest public warming centre and how you would reach it. Work that out now. Not having a car is a planning condition, not a failure.