This was a news flash to me, maybe everyone else already figured it out.

Restaurant supply stores sell Sterno and other canned jelled alcohol fuels in gallon cans. Restaurants refill the little cans from the big one. Costs about 20 cents an ounce in the gallon can, which is as cheap as AlcoBrite and about 1/3 the cost of little Sterno cans. So buy a pack of little cans and a gallon for refilling.

This is safer to store than propane (not compressed) but has fewer BTUs per ounce. On the other hand, you don't have to buy a camp stove, and this doesn't generate carbon monoxide. Put a couple bricks on the counter, or 3 or 4 cups turned upside down, and put a cooling rack on them. Bingo, you're cooking.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), August 04, 1999

Answers

I dont know about that CO statement. Seems every other person tells you that Sterno or Propane does not create CO. However every product I see that uses these fuel sources warn about CO.

I wish someone with REAL credentials that prove their knowledge of this matter would chime in and tell us how much CO is produced from sterno, propane, kero, fuel oil, etc.

-- Fat Tony (FatTony@youmammashouse.com), August 04, 1999.

While alcohol and propane are much cleaner than many other fuels, I don't think anyone should assume that they produce *no* by-products of combustion. Propane fork-lifts are used in warehouses because they produce very clean exhaust, but they still produce exhaust gasses.

Any fire indoors should be accompanied by enough ventilation to be sure occupants are not subjected to dangerous levels of CO or O2 depletion. A can of Sterno would not normally be cause for concern, but in an emergency someone might try burning one for an extended time in a tightly-closed room. That could prove to be *very* unwise.

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), August 04, 1999.