So, my homes rickety old heating system gave out mid afternoon. It is going to snow tonight and is going to be well below freezing. What would be the best ideas. I have placed a blanket on top of a duevt, wearing and multiple layers am trying to find a hot water bottle…any more ideas?
The fixit guy is coming in the morning.
Can you go out and buy (or borrow) an electric blanket? He might not be able to repair your heating right away and it might be cold several nights (and days).
But in principle. you should be okay as you described.
For starters, I would turn on every light and AC-powered appliance (TVs, etc.).
Get a friend in there with you.
Then you might as well put on your cooktop.
Any bottle can serve as hot water bottle, as long as it closes well and is wrapped in a towel.
Or stay with a friend or neighbour. Nice way to get to know people.
Light the wood-burning stove.
Keep ventilating. No use in suffering CO poisoning.
Wear a hat in bed, warm socks at ready, maybe even a scarf against cold air. (You loose a lot of head over the head if it’s the only uncovered body part).
If you’re sitting around before/ after sleeping, drink lots of warm … tea, coffee, juice… Better yet, don’t sit still unless sleeping, move around. Feet and hands can get cold quickly.
Can you improve isolation quickly (stuffing openings in window and door frames)? Put up things that can store heat (bricks, stones)? Build an open fire on the floor of your living room? 
I’m sure you already know this, but a knit had on your head provides an amazing sensation of warmth when sleeping in the cold. The thicker the better, but honestly, I’ve been caught by surprise while camping once or twice, and even just a bandana helps a ton.
Iron oxide hand warmers are pretty cool. When I’m camping, I put on a pair of socks, slap an activated hand warmer on it, and then put another sock on over it. This protects my skin from any accidental burns but gives me direct heat on my toes. Repeat for hands, if needed. (And buttcheeks, if I’m being totally honest.)
Since you are indoors and presumably still have electricity, little electric heaters are available at most chain drugstores (CVS, Walgreens), Family Dollar and retail stores like Walmart and Target for around $20. They’re so much safer than they used to be, with features that turn them off if they’re even tilted, much less fallen over. Won’t heat your whole house, but they handle one room very well. We used them in our bedrooms at night during a Chicago winter week when we had no gas. We brought two into the living room (luckily, we have two circuits in here - one just for the AC in summer) and the two kept our large living room very comfortable.
If you don’t want to spend the money, use some of your extra blankets and towels and sheets to seal your doors and windows. You can roll them for the bottom crack, and hang them to reduce drafts from around the other edges. Creating just a little pocket of air between your window and your room really adds to the insulation factor. Pick a room to mostly inhabit, and hang a blanket or sheet over the doorway to it, so whatever heat you create in that room doesn’t wander off to heat rooms you’re not using.
ETA: Please don’t use your cooking appliances for warmth, unless you’re literally freezing to death and can’t get out to better safety. Lots of people die from that every year, either from excess CO buildup, or just simply burning their house down around their ears.
Don’t try to keep the entire house heated. Close the doors to rooms you don’t need to occupy until central heat is restored (unused bedrooms, spare bathroom, basement, etc). Close the heating grates to those rooms as well.
Ask a relative or neighbor about borrowing a space heater (electric preferably, but I realize beggars can’t be choosers), or go buy one. Use it to keep one room at least above freezing. Or, as other have said, use the stove/oven as a space heater. Be careful if it’s gas; make sure you have some fresh-air ventilation.
You are alreadfy wearing extra clothes and such, so you should be okay. Pile on some blankets if necessary (you’re creating “warm-air” pockets from your own body heat), and you’ll make it through the night just fine.
Is a hotel room out of the question?
If you’re lucky enough to realize the heat is out *before *it gets really cold in your place, the best thing you can do is cover the doors and windows. I typically only have blinds over the windows because of the cats, but I have blankets at the ready to hang over them when the heat goes out (which it does at least two or three times each year).
Other than that, bundle up and let your aggravation warm you.
Change your socks just before bed. The sweat from your feet will make your feet cold otherwise.
I learned this one the hard way in the Boy Scouts.
2 liter pop bottles make great hot water bottles, fill em most of the way up with hot water (leave about 10-15% empty of water), squeeze out all the air and zap in the micro wave. then put them under your blankets.
if its going to be cold for days the space heater idea is great, use blankets to close off rooms without doors and just heat one room (smaller is better) then you can be comfortable in one area of the house making the rest bearable for whatever trips you need to make out of your warm spot.
Another vote for an electric blanket. I sleep with an electric mattress pad and it could be -40 out there and I wouldn’t notice.
Oh, come on!
I’ve slept in nothing more than a sleeping bag, outside, in temperatures in the 0° range. Yes, it’s cold. No, I didn’t freeze to death. Wear long underwear and a T-shirt, and put some extra blankets on the bed. You’ll be fine.
But beware of the risk of freezing pipes. I would advise opening cabinet doors in the bathroom and kitchen if the pipes are behind that wall so they will get a little heat from the room.
Get as many electric space heaters as you can.
Wool blankets if you can find some. If you can find 2, one should go on the bottom and one on top of you, then pile more blankets on top of those. ANYTHING wool you can put on your body will help - wool hats, gloves, socks, etc.
Years ago we bought some oil-filled radiators at Wal-Mart, they were the kind that you pretty much have to slam with a baseball bat to get them to tip over - and if they DID somehow tip over, they automatically turned themselves off. They had the kind of oil that never evaporates and they worked great - not something I’d use for a whole house but if you just need something to heat a room for a while they’re awesome. They were about 34 bucks IIRC.
Where do you live?
What Diana said about covering windows and Whynot said about covering your head and feet. Warmth conservation is about stopping heat loss by radiation, while at the same time keeping enoug ventilation.
Pipes can freeze, but the problem is not the freezing, but the bursting if they are full of water and the water expands if it freezes. You dont’ have to keep the pipes warm, you have to let our enough water so they won’t burst if they freeze.