Simple electronics question: AC -> DC

I have an electric "strip heater" that I use to prevent pipes from
freezing.

I want to use it in my cottage one or two days per month when I am
there in the winter.

My cottage has no electricity but does have running water (long story).

So my question is....

Is it possible to adapt the strip heater to run off one of those large
12 volt flashlight (lantern) batteries?

Surely we can find a way to run DC power through those wires to produce
some heat. I don't know anything about electronics but I would assume
we would need some resistors somewhere to slow the current down.
(Perhaps the wires themselves are resistors and that's where the heat
comes from.)

I don't need a lot of heat (I'm sure I have no choice about that - I
assume the amount of heat in one of those batteries is small). And it
is OK if the battery is exhausted after 3 or 4 hours.

Maybe this is not possible given those parameters. Any suggestions..?

Thanks......
sd

.

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