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Seems like it would be the last thing I’d burn for warmth…
by tw98521358 4y ago
Seems like it would be the last thing I’d burn for warmth…
- AngryData 4y agoDepends on how much they have. Bulk used clothes can be had for incredibly cheap, to the point where it can be cheaper than wood. And after decades of people building up old worn out clothes you will have a lot of relatively worthless cloth material. There are places in the world where burning clothes isn't uncommon at all because they receive so much clothing waste from the rest of the world attempting and failing to not throw them into landfills.
- Scoundreller 4y agoSadly it’s increasingly polyester/nylon/spandex and such. Cotton would be pretty clean to burn, but would burn very quickly.
- eternityforest 4y agoThere's only so many you can put on at once, and they're one of the cheaper things people own these days.
- __jambo 4y agoYou can still use them for insulation.. I doubt polyester or cotton would burn very long.
- Retric 4y agoDon’t need them to burn for very long, cotton should have roughly the same energy density as wood by weight. Burning bags of cold clothes that don’t fit isn’t that bad of an idea. Negative teens is brutal, even a well insulated house loses a lot of heat if you want it comfortable but there’s a big range between uncomfortable and dead. -15f to 30f is the same difference as 30f and 75f.
- zdragnar 4y ago> same energy density as wood by weight which means they'll provide a few minutes of heat at best. You'd be better off using them as blankets or letting some water freeze them into scoop shapes and turning them into makeshift shovels. They also aren't going to burn nearly as cleanly as wood, meaning the burn will be far less efficient. Depending on the size of area that you're heating, getting from -15 to 30F will take at least a solid hour of burning cleanly.
- Retric 4y agoIt isn’t going to be clean burning, but the clothes are presumably bone dry which helps. Really though it’s not about how good an energy source this is, but just how much old junk people have. I have seen people toss several hundred pounds of old clothes that don’t have any real value. It’s the same with old books they don’t burn that well but when you have a half a ton you might as well burn em vs toss them in a landfill.
- __jambo 4y agoIf they had several hundred pounds of old clothes they can build a gigantic pillow fort and huddle together in the middle with a candle. This would be better than burning the clothes, as I assume they have enough food.
- Retric 4y agoA pillow fort doesn’t keep liquids above freezing so you have something to drink.
- samwillis 4y agoInsulation doesn't provide warmth, it only reduces the rate of heat loss. If it's already so cold you are looking for things in your home to burn for heat, using clothes to insulate it (rather than burn them) isn't going to help. But that's not the point, the dire situation with little support is the point.
- mcbits 4y agoYou don't insulate the house; you insulate your body. If you're at the point of burning clothes to heat the house, heating the house is already a lost cause unless you have a lot of clothes.
- tw98521358 4y agoBut they would burn terribly, clog your chimney, and are more effective when worn.
- PM_me_your_math 4y agoIt just seems to me that they would be more effective if worn. Even if they don't fit, cut them up and stitch up gloves and cover-ups.
- pigsty 4y agoI’m not asking this to be condescending, but have you ever felt cold? My hands lose all dexterity entirely in winter. With sufficiently cold weather my hands are either cold, stiff, and in pain, or I’m wearing gloves that are too bulky to be useful for anything other than crudely gripping large objects or swatting things away. These people are experiencing cold beyond what I’ve ever experienced, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much worse it is. If people are burning things for warmth, they are absolutely not going to be holding a needle.
- ilyt 4y agowell the article cites -20 I assume based on area F so ~ -7C ...really -7C is cold beyond what you ever experienced ? It's not too bad. I'd imagine the main problem is if those temperatures are rare just nobody have proper clothes to handle it
- _8j50 4y agoYeah, i had to burn furniture once in a slightly similar freeze situation.
- fbdab103 4y agoIn a survival situation, do what you have to do. That being said, I suspect you really do not want to be next to a modern-furniture fire. Almost certainly full of the worst glues, insecticides, anti-flammables (ha), etc.
- tbran 4y agoThen I guess you know how desperate they are.