A bushcraft trick is to dig a shallow trench, build a fire in it. When you've got coals, cover them over with dirt and sleep on top of that. I'd bet that goes back a looooong way.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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Probably better to use hot rocks unless you've got good ventilation, otherwise carbon monoxide poisoning
I feel like being outside would blow away the small amounts of CO produced by coals (instead of an active fire).
CO is a product of incomplete combustion. Specifically, it is created by ventilation limited partial combustion (i.e. not enough oxygen to make CO2).
So, coals would actually make a lot more CO than a roaring fire would.
Fascinating! Thank you.
Depends on how you build your shelter, really.
Don't put rocks near fire, especially wet rocks, they can explode
edit: I love that there's some crying piss-ass following me and downvoting all my stuff. Whatever I said to hurt your feelings: GOOD!
River rocks can be great for cooking, fireplaces and under sleeping spots…you just have to crack them first like a nut. In a fire, away from everyone else, arranged around the fire ring they mostly won’t explode
I was being pretty stupid once and heated up a rock with a blow torch. The thing was glowing red and was super hot. I'm honestly surprised it didn't explode...
River rocks will if you get them too hot too fast, because they have water inside, and it boils. Drier rocks are usually OK, they might crack though.
The BIG sleep.
I left out the detail of "move most of the coals over to the other side of your area for the overnight fire."
Also, if the ground is wet, dig even deeper narrow drainage channels on both sides of that shallow trench. The fire will dry out the ground you're about to sleep on, and the channels allow for runoff. Luke from Outdoor Boys does exactly this in Alaska, even after digging down to the ground through feet of snow, that's how I know about it.
A year or two ago the YouTube channel primitive technologies did a video where he built under floor heating for his hut with an outdoor fire. It reminded me of how the Romans heated their floors.
I've got some bad news for you...
That video came out 9 years ago.
I looked it up and you are infact wrong, it was 9 years ago. You don't get to hurt me, only I hurt me.....
Half point to you though, I probably did watch it 7 years ago, I got into the channel after reading an article about it on some website and watched all of the back catalog in less than a week.
I immediately thought of Roman hypocausts, but apparently this sort of thing was done in Asia and North America thousands of years earlier. Who knew?
Also nearly every South Korean household has it standard.
Went there a few years back and don't understand how I'm living with this fucking dusty ass air blower drying shit out every winter making parts of me crack that shouldn't crack every year.
American capitalism, every solution should cost the user money for forever and cause another problem for other products to fix.
As opposed to underfloor heating which is maintainance-free and doesn't consume fuel
Looking at my air purifier and water filter that both need replacements from different companies…yes yes this is all fine and I want to give away my monies for clean water
Oh crazy.
In some places of Spain, in the country side, there are heating systems called "gloria" that are basically the same as ancient times.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondol
The page that talks about them in Korea (neolithic) includes a diagram