During hurricane Sandy we lost power for 5 days...I learned from that disaster. I now have a generator that is set up for back feed into the house. We lost power for 4 days during an ice storm in 2014-—other than filling the generator every 10 hours our life was normal. Heat, water, cable, lights, stove top, hot showers, etc. When I went online crazy people were in their houses posting temperatures of 38 degrees.
This is part of the problem with the "open concept" houses.
Pick the smallest room practical.
Everybody in the room, close the door. Body heat will keep you warm.
The best room for this is the kitchen with a burner occationally lit to provide warm food but with an open concept this is pretty much impossible
Yep! 1 year we had a freak 24 inches of snow here as while back and lucky for us a wood burning fireplace to keep part of the house a little bit warm:-)