5 C (40F) too cold for indoor living ?

[Adam S]

I'm doing an experiment this winter to see if better clothing can
completely replace the need for home heating. So far gas consumption has
dropped from 600 MJ/day down to about 2 MJ/day compared winter last
year, or when the central heating was used daily.
Indoor temperature is mostly 10C (50F), but lately its down to 5~6C
(40F). When I get up in the morning I put on my full thermal underwear,
2 fleece tops, heavy jacket, 2 pairs of pants , 2 layers of thick socks,
beanie, scarf and woolen boots. The problem I find is during periods of
low physical activity such as sitting at the computer where the body
generates least amount of heat. I know I'm pretty hopeless in the cold
compared to most people, but I'm not sure what indoor temperature is
considered too cold when rugged up. Do I just need to buy myself some
high performance thermal clothing ?

Friends who visit my place don't tend to stay very long and complain of
the cold. I just assumed this is because of the inadequate clothing warn
by most people and their reliance on heating. I don't want to give up my
experiment just yet.

Adam

 

[Arnold Walker]

I'm doing an experiment this winter to see if better clothing can
completely replace the need for home heating. So far gas consumption has
dropped from 600 MJ/day down to about 2 MJ/day compared winter last year,
or when the central heating was used daily.
Indoor temperature is mostly 10C (50F), but lately its down to 5~6C (40F).
When I get up in the morning I put on my full thermal underwear, 2 fleece
tops, heavy jacket, 2 pairs of pants , 2 layers of thick socks, beanie,
scarf and woolen boots. The problem I find is during periods of low
physical activity such as sitting at the computer where the body generates
least amount of heat. I know I'm pretty hopeless in the cold compared to
most people, but I'm not sure what indoor temperature is considered too
cold when rugged up. Do I just need to buy myself some high performance
thermal clothing ?

Friends who visit my place don't tend to stay very long and complain of
the cold. I just assumed this is because of the inadequate clothing warn
by most people and their reliance on heating. I don't want to give up my
experiment just yet.

Adam

No problem some places are required by federal law to run that like
Butterball,Pilgrim's Pride,Cargill Packing,
orTyson's.The FDA will shut them down if they don't.

 

[Adam S]

Good hat and fingerless gloves (so you can type). I use the 50 degree
rule before starting a fire. 50 or above no fire, below 50 start a fire.
This way I don't run out of dry wood before winter is over.

Man 40 is pretty damn cold tho.. i'm not that hardcore

Yea, I was surprised how much difference those few degrees do.
So ok then, 50F (10C) is not considered extreme for indoor temperature.
With the finger gloves I think that temperature might be livable. I seem
to handle heat much better, and can go jogging in anywhere up to 95F
(35C) dry weather.

 

[George Ghio]

Yea, I was surprised how much difference those few degrees do.
So ok then, 50F (10C) is not considered extreme for indoor temperature.
With the finger gloves I think that temperature might be livable. I seem
to handle heat much better, and can go jogging in anywhere up to 95F
(35C) dry weather.

18 - 20 C is quite livable and does not cost that much to maintain. Beyond that, get a few good
sized dogs and let them in or out as needed. Great heat source. And no body minds if you rest your
feet on one, unlike the wife or children.

 

[[email protected]]

... get a few good sized dogs and let them in or out as needed.
Great heat source.

If it's 40 F indoors and you let your 2 ASHRAE-standard 50 lb
354.9 Btu/h dogs into your 400 Btu/h house, they will bump
the indoor temp all the way up to 40+2x354.9/400 = 41.8.
Great heat source.

Nick

 

[George Ghio]

If it's 40 F indoors and you let your 2 ASHRAE-standard 50 lb
354.9 Btu/h dogs into your 400 Btu/h house, they will bump
the indoor temp all the way up to 40+2x354.9/400 = 41.8.
Great heat source.

Nick

What? Where are the sixteen pages of formula to prove your assertions.

Most people would keep the door to the room they are using shut. But then such technology is beyond
you.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per [email protected]:

If it's 40 F indoors and you let your 2 ASHRAE-standard 50 lb
354.9 Btu/h dogs into your 400 Btu/h house, they will bump
the indoor temp all the way up to 40+2x354.9/400 = 41.8.

Never even *thought* of living in a home that cold, but from
experience, I'd say that 1.8 degrees feels significant when
you're on/in the water.

 

[[email protected]]

Never even *thought* of living in a home that cold, but from
experience, I'd say that 1.8 degrees feels significant when
you're on/in the water.

Dogs are great heaters, mate. You could warm the house up to 70 F
with 400(70-40)/354.9 = 33.8 dogs, altho 35% of their heat would
be latent, ie dog breath and dog sweat.

Nick

 

[George Ghio]

Dogs are great heaters, mate. You could warm the house up to 70 F
with 400(70-40)/354.9 = 33.8 dogs, altho 35% of their heat would
be latent, ie dog breath and dog sweat.

Nick

In yankee land you heat every room of the house, even if you are the only occupant in a sixteen room
home and only use two rooms 90% of the time.

Amerka is going to hell in a hand cart and spends their resources making the cart go faster.

 

[George Ghio]

Very poor engineering.

The BTU/hr usage is based on a constant differential and thermal
resistance. As the temperature rises the heat loss will also and the
door openings for dog excrementing will increase.

Your hypothetical world never works outside your windowless closet.

Again you lack of historical reference and cultural differences is astounding.

 

[Vaughn Simon]

In yankee land you heat every room of the house, even if you are the only
occupant in a sixteen room home and only use two rooms 90% of the time.

False. That is not the way I was brought up, nor anyone I know. Our heat
and AC registers have manual dampers and we USE them. Now that we are empty
nesters, we shut off the central at night and use just a window shaker in our
bedroom.

Amerka is going to hell in a hand cart and spends their resources making the
cart go faster.

"Again you lack of historical reference and cultural differences is astounding."
Hmmm, where have we heard that before?

Vaughn

 

[Arnold Walker]

Given the problems that Britian is having. It might be good reason to say
thank God.

 

[[email protected]]

We might say that of you and George

Of course, but adding 2 dogs will raise the indoor temp exactly
1.8 degrees... dT = IR, in Ohm's law for heatflow.

That's a trivial increase in heat loss.

 

[Vaughn Simon]

That's just you and people you know. The statistics clearly show that
the USA is by far the largest consumer of energy resources in the
world.

Well, assuming that we are talking about residential energy use per capita
(this is a thread re home heating on alt.energy.homepower), the above is a false
statement. While I am not proud of USA's position on the below list, the fact
is that there are several countries that are worse. Building codes are
improving in the USA, and the use of Energy Star appliances is on the increase.
The below are 2003 figures, so today's situation is probably better.

Vaughn

Region/Classification
High Income Countries 697.9

ISO 2003
Country
Australia AUS 482.6
Austria AUT 872.9
Bahrain BHR 560.3
Belgium BEL 956.7
Brunei Darussalam BRN 158.3
Canada CAN 1,013.8
Cyprus CYP 302.7
Denmark DNK 803.2
Finland FIN 995.7
France FRA 846.9
Germany DEU 864.6
Greece GRC 500.8
Hong Kong HKG 181.1
Iceland ISL 2,276.8
Ireland IRL 678.1
Israel ISR 426.4
Italy ITA 517.8
Japan JPN 377.4
Korea, Rep KOR 380.2
Kuwait KWT 1,069.3
Luxembourg LUX 1,393.4
Malta MLT 208.7
Netherlands NLD 650.0
Netherlands Antilles ANT 634.7
New Zealand NZL 347.1
Norway NOR 834.5
Portugal PRT 302.1
Qatar QAT 324.1
Singapore SGP 143.5
Slovenia SVN 639.6
Spain ESP 329.1
Sweden SWE 823.9
Switzerland CHE 833.1
United Arab Emirates ARE 700.1
United Kingdom GBR 750.0
United States USA 923.5


From:
http://earthtrends.wri.org/searchable_db/index.php?action=select_countries&theme=6&variable_ID=634

 

[Trygve Lillefosse]

18 - 20 C is quite livable and does not cost that much to maintain. Beyond that, get a few good
sized dogs and let them in or out as needed. Great heat source. And no body minds if you rest your
feet on one, unlike the wife or children.

Or even better, a few cows, they will also provide milk. Collect the
manure for methane production. You may even sell them of
afterwards,and maybee make a profit.

 

[Morris Dovey]

George Ghio wrote:

| In yankee land you heat every room of the house, even if you are
| the only occupant in a sixteen room home and only use two rooms
| 90% of the time.

Just passing by and that caught my eye. Sounds really good, Goerge -
where do I sign up for a sixteen room home? No one I know has such a
palace. Is it that way where you live?

| Amerka is going to hell in a hand cart and spends their resources
| making the cart go faster.

Perhaps. There are wasteful people everywhere. Seems to me sometimes
that the whole /world/ is going to hell in a "hand cart". If/when you
get tired of poking your stick at "Amerka", take another look around
your own neighborhood.

If you're prepared to widen your vision of what the Amerkastanis might
be up to, follow the first two links at the page below...

 

[Carolyn Blevins]

You bastards caught us again. Not only do we heat every room in the
house all year (leaving the furnace and the A/C running at the same
time), we also leave our doors open year round to heat/cool the
outdoors so we can keep the global warming thing going. Lately, to
save time I've also been leaving the stove on so I don't have to wait
for the burners to heat up. And to cut down on the time it takes to
obtain food from the fridge, we just took the door off the thing.
Makes a great night light.

Also comes in handy when you need to cool off the cat after tossing her
on the range, Yummy, fried furpaws chilled.

 

[Vaughn Simon]

You bastards caught us again.

Sorry, I can't hear you. You see, my computer is way over on the other
side of my gigantic 16 room house.

Vaughn

(For the record, I don't have a 16 room house and I don't know anyone who
does.)

 

[Vaughn Simon]

If you didn't drive an SUV getting all of 6mpg you could afford a 17
room house.

This may wreck a few stereotypes, but actually I drive a Civic and wouldn't
be caught dead in an SUV.

Vaughn

 

[Vaughn Simon]

Next time I'll add a smiley

Ok ;-)

Vaughn