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Heat people, not spaces (2015)

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Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#241

Post by woolion »

wolverine876 wrote: post #204
oxplot wrote: post #127

Heat properly insulated spaces. I don’t want to walk around with piles of movement limiting and suffocating clothing inside my own living room. The problem is not what you heat up, it’s how well you insulate it from losing its heat. In Australia where I live, insulation is non-existent in the average home/apartment. Even simple things like tinted windows (for hot days), double pane windows and floating floor is missi…

> I don’t want to walk around with piles of movement limiting and suffocating clothing inside my own living room. That is a strawperson - People wear a sweater all the time - they are pretty popular, believe it or not - without wearing "piles", having their movement limited, or even suffocating. If you find yourself suffocating when wearing sweaters, see a doctor! Holy cow, the burden of wearing a sweater is just inc…

I realize reading this comment that I should not have responded to your other comment either. This is so uninformed and rude that it feels like low-effort bait. Which worked like that given how many replies it got.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#242

Post by myth2018 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #65
myth2018 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are near to the equator here. Seasons don't work the same. Here they call the 3 rainy months "winter", and the rest of the year is summer. And the temperature gradient I've mentioned is correct. No noticeable changes along the whole year, I'm sorry.

> No noticeable changes along the whole year, I'm sorry. It does sound kind of unpleasant, but I imagine you get used to it.

Yes, we get used to it, not unpleasant for me, at all.

But it changes the way you live. Compared with lives of friends from Europe, I notice that theirs has a bit more of a "structure" and predictability. E.g., hang out more in the summer, doing more reading and writing more in the winter.

I think I would enjoy that. Of course I could plan my life based in months instead of seasons, but it's not the same, especially considering that people around me wouldn't be following that same plan.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#243

Post by Ekaros »

wheels wrote: post #218
screamingpots wrote: post #181

I'm in UK (south east). I work in tech, working from home. I very rarely put the heating on. The best part of not putting the heating on is that I've had my garden doors open almost every day through the winter. I mostly work at my laptop, just inside sitting on a comfy sofa, right next to the outdoors. In December I was mostly opening the doors about midday just for the afternoon, but since mid to late January I'm b…

In continental Europe (Germany, specifically is where I have experience), most apartments are so well insulated that they don't even get significantly cold without the heat on. I often travel in winter, and have come back home, say, mid-February after a month away, and my apartments have never been lower than 15º C (about 60º F) inside. (Admittedly, it'd be colder if everyone in the building had their heat off.) That…

I wonder if this effect of effectively "stealing" the heat from neighbouring spaces. After all the walls are quite large radiation surfaces...

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#244

Post by Ekaros »

throwaway984393 wrote: post #149
bitwize wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, depends on where you live. I was surprised, for example, to find out the abysmal state of insulation in New Zealand. Only in the last five decades have Kiwis had decent insulation standards -- for new construction. Homes from before that time often remain without adequate insulation -- and it gets cold throughout much of New Zealand! Many new Japanese homes are uninsulated, with the residents using "heat the pers…

Japan also had a history of homes with permanent passive air circulation; old Japanese buildings are often not much better than sleeping outside. That plus sitting-on-the-floor lends itself to a kotatsu culture. But different cultures work differently, and as a result the same solutions don't fit other places. There are probably a bunch of different solutions that we just need to make it a little easier for local peo…

Also what I have heard from media is that the parts of the country that actually get cold with lot of snow for longer periods in winter do have all of the modern insulation and so on.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#245

Post by Blahah »

xigoi wrote: post #182
wolverine876 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An issue with keeping yourself warm with clothing is some hotspots get too warm, and others too cold. Like the armpits usually get too warm, but your exposed hands too cold. We can sit and imagine problems with every course of action, and never step forward. In my life, I've never had the quoted problem and I've never heard anyone else say it's a problem. On my list of things to worry about, this ranks near the bot…

Do you wear gloves indoors? If not, aren't your hands colder? If yes, how do you cook or work with a computer?

I wear fingerless compression gloves when coding. They are usually sold for arthritis/carpel tunnel/raynauds. If you get cold fingers these might be life-changing for you as they were for me.

Another factor is just getting up and doing some light exercise every 30 mins or so. 5 push ups, or jogging up and down the stairs a few times, is enough to keep your circulation reasonably balanced.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#246

Post by thaumasiotes »

Lio wrote: post #232
thaumasiotes wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Shanghai, which is too warm for snow in the winter. But it's still freezing cold; when I wasn't running heat (because I didn't know how), I'd wake up in the morning with my toes suffering from frostbite. I was miserable all the time until I obtained a space heater.

Frostbite! I'm really sorry you had to go through that, it's a serious thing. People often don't pay much attention to their toes but they're pretty important for balance. It must be difficult living with that injury.

I have no lasting damage - my blanket was good for that much. My toes would be red and painful when I woke up.

https://www.healthline.com/health/frostnip

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#247

Post by danielfoster »

I actually looked into using directed infrared heating to heat myself as a more efficient solution. Given the high electricity costs in Germany I realized it would still be cheaper just to heat the entire apartment the old fashioned way.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#248

Post by jillesvangurp »

wheels wrote: post #218
screamingpots wrote: post #181

I'm in UK (south east). I work in tech, working from home. I very rarely put the heating on. The best part of not putting the heating on is that I've had my garden doors open almost every day through the winter. I mostly work at my laptop, just inside sitting on a comfy sofa, right next to the outdoors. In December I was mostly opening the doors about midday just for the afternoon, but since mid to late January I'm b…

In continental Europe (Germany, specifically is where I have experience), most apartments are so well insulated that they don't even get significantly cold without the heat on. I often travel in winter, and have come back home, say, mid-February after a month away, and my apartments have never been lower than 15º C (about 60º F) inside. (Admittedly, it'd be colder if everyone in the building had their heat off.) That…

Yes, I have heating in every room in my apartment in Berlin. But I only use the one in my living room. I never heat my two bed rooms or the bathroom. The rest of the apartment is a bit cooler but stays warm thanks to the neighbors below me heating their apartment. I actually prefer sleeping in a cold bed room so I never use the heating in there. I just toss on an extra blanket when it gets really cold outside. I generally have the window open there throughout the year. Even when it gets well below freezing temperatures.

Nothing worse than a stuffy warm room for sleeping for me. It's one of my annoyances with hotels actually. I hate it when I can't open the window. Generally the first thing I do is remove most of the blankets, turn of whatever heating is there, and if possible open the windows. For me the ultimate in stupidity is a hotel room with the AC on where people use blankets to stay warm where you can't even open the windows.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#249

Post by GeekyBear »

gnicholas wrote: post #180
GeekyBear wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had family members who lived in a home in the deep south that was built before air conditioning was common. It had a large fan in the ceiling of a central hallway that vented the air from the inside the house out through the attic. This was an industrial grade fan that moved a huge volume of air. At bedtime, they could open the bedroom windows and turn on the fan and a stiff wind would blow in through all the bedro…

We had a whole-house fan like this in Sacramento. It worked especially well there because (1) it was not humid, and (2) the temperature at night was much lower than in the daytime. It might be 100° during the day, but it would be in the 60s at night. Fans like this aren't nearly as effective if either of these conditions is not met — then you're just pulling in air that is somewhat less uncomfortable each night, inst…

As mentioned, this was right on the Gulf of Mexico where it was both very hot in the day and very humid all the time.

In the early summer, the temperature dropped from the upper 90's in the day to the low 70s at night. In the worst of the summer, the temperatures were only dropping to the 80's, and they did use the air conditioners then.

However, that fan moved so much air that there would be a stiff wind blowing across the beds all night, and that cool humid wind would have you under the blankets in no time.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#250

Post by taoufix »

One thing that always bothered me about energy waste are fridges in the cold winter.

Outside the house is cold, so we heat the house. Outside the fridge (house) is hot, so we cool inside fridge.

Is there no option for fridges/freezers to get cold air from outside the house? Or is the overcomplication not worth it?

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