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Heat people, not spaces (2015)

solar.lowtechmagazine.com

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Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#311

Post by Yeroc »

Tagbert wrote: post #309
Yeroc wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that's kind of silly about most of our shower stall designs is their open-top design. While a few are sold with caps most are not. Having a cap on top of the shower allows for lower ambient temperatures in the bathroom while showering in (relative) comfort. This also has the benefit of reducing condensation on the ceiling and walls of the bathroom.

Probably because moisture is a much bigger problem in homes than heat or cold. If the shower stall were closed on top, when the door was closed, the moisture would sit in the shower and not evaporate. That can lead to mold problems.

It's much easier to deal with moisture when it's largely restricted to the interior of the shower! Easy to wipe down the sides and then leave the door open to allow the remaining moisture to evaporate. Seems superior to having the water vapours condensing on ceilings and walls in the bathroom that likely can't be wiped down.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#312

Post by sizzle »

novok wrote: post #60

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. If your slippers have sheep's wool in them, like ugg slippers, then they often sweat a lot or feel a little wet while simultaneously feeling cold at times, or warm enough. Most sweaters are also not designed to keep your armpits a little bit cool…

I tried MIR infrared heated fabric and it penetrated my skin and centimeters below very nicely.

I wonder if it causes cancer cause it works so well I’m surprised no one talks about it.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#313

Post by culi »

hedora wrote: post #141
culi wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe still today AC usage is at less than 5% of all households. Sure the US likely has more cities in really hot places, but ACs are still generally an American thing

They say air conditioning settled the west. Desertification in that area is starting to roll that back though. Never-irrigated ranches are drying up. Without argiculture, the towns die. The ecosystems don't recover, even in places where the people are gone and the buildings have rotted to dust and blown away (too hot / no rain). This must have been how people felt when the Sahara turned into a desert. I can't believe…

Not to mention the onset of a new Dust Bowl[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THSm-I790H0 (PBS Eons vid about it)

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#314

Post by novok »

Yeroc wrote: post #311
Tagbert wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because moisture is a much bigger problem in homes than heat or cold. If the shower stall were closed on top, when the door was closed, the moisture would sit in the shower and not evaporate. That can lead to mold problems.

It's much easier to deal with moisture when it's largely restricted to the interior of the shower! Easy to wipe down the sides and then leave the door open to allow the remaining moisture to evaporate. Seems superior to having the water vapours condensing on ceilings and walls in the bathroom that likely can't be wiped down.

You can also just have a small shower room, with a separate door, it's about equivalent. You see this in many houses where the sink vs shower & toliet are two separate 'rooms' connected to each other.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#315

Post by alfor »

fulafel wrote: post #294
alfor wrote: post #128

Our body NEED infrared light. (real doctor research with scientific evidence) An interesting recent discovery is that our body need infrared radiation to function properly, not just UV light/vitamin D. I think that people living in the northern climate discovered/felt that it was better to be exposed to the radian heat of the fire in the winter. We recently (50-100) years have been getting rid of fireplaces and repla…

IR light aka IR radiation is radiated heat. Our bodies generate it.

They talked about far infrared, I didn’t get the special lamp with the proper spectrum knowing that with a red hot coils I would get a continuous spectrum.

There is a bit of visible red light too, I didn’t study the detail closely, it was a cheap/fast test and it worked for me.

I would guess that the best thing is the sun light, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#316

Post by TimedToasts »

rootusrootus wrote: post #56
bagacrap wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the appeal of a swimming pool on a sweltering summer day but if you have to heat it...

In many places, even on a warm summer day the pool may be uncomfortably cold. Lots of thermal inertia, and if it's shaded at all it may not get enough solar energy to warm up. Without a heater the swimming season can be very short indeed. Also, it's pretty darn awesome to fire up the pool once a year in the winter, like for Christmas, and host a swimming-in-the-snow party. Wouldn't want to keep it heated, but for a c…

Honestly that sounds awesome. I come from a cold climate I could absolutely see the appeal of that.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#317

Post by novok »

occz wrote: post #225
mypalmike wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not personally advocating for this, but some argue for water conservation by taking a https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower which involves only about 2 minutes of time in the water.

>A Navy shower (also known as a "combat shower", "military shower", "sea shower", "staggered shower", or "G.I. bath") is a method of showering that allows for significant conservation of water and energy by turning off the flow of water in the middle portion of the shower while lathering. Hold up - do you mean to tell me that people do not turn off the water while lathering? I've showered this way all my life, is thi…

The controls to get back to your proper temperature after a shutoff are unreliable. What you need is a shutoff valve on the shower head itself, so the temperature stays the same, which is not common on many showers unless they are using the navy shower head too. It's mostly a UI issue.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#318

Post by novok »

scott0129 wrote: post #164
novok wrote: post #60

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. If your slippers have sheep's wool in them, like ugg slippers, then they often sweat a lot or feel a little wet while simultaneously feeling cold at times, or warm enough. Most sweaters are also not designed to keep your armpits a little bit cool…

For the issue of "fingers are cold but gloves affect mobility", purchasing a pair of thumbhole arm warmers have made a world of difference for me They're almost like fingerless gloves, but more comfortable and easier to manage. You might be worried "but it's the fingers that are cold anyway, so fingerless gloves are not what I need." I thought that too, but trying them immediately proved me wrong and I never had an i…

Oh that's really cool and good to know. I can totally afford to heat my place, but it's like a challenge for myself to find a set of home clothing that would keep me comfortably warm despite it being a bit chilly inside.

Still need to solve the cold yet damp (from sweating?) feet and sweating armpit issue although.

As others had noticed, the cold hand / feet thing is mostly a computer thing for me. Also probably due to me restricting my eating at times.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#319

Post by Ma8ee »

joe_the_user wrote: post #305
wolverine876 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we could all live like the hero of To Build A Fire That (and 45 degrees) are strawperson arguments against turning down the thermostat a little and putting on a sweater (and let me recommend shoes). My sense is that many people generally (I don't know the parent commenter) shoot down any individual action, because it's individual action - it's reactionary, ridiculing any 'liberal' idea.

I'm actually pretty progressive and do sometimes leave my sweater on after taking walk and turn the thermostat down. However I have a bunch of other "personal comfort issues", related to health. so often leave the heat at seventy while I deal with these. But even more, I do think the "liberal spirit" of trying to solve or pretending you can solve social or environmental issues with exhortations to individual action i…

But we all do consume too much for it to be sustainable. While I agree that we primarily need regulation, mostly on industries and the production of goods and services, our collective individual choices do matter. And I can’t credibly fight for regulations while driving a huge SUV or crisscrossing the world with jet planes.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#320

Post by novok »

woolion wrote: post #308
wolverine876 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problems he mentions basically only happen if you stay at a computer ... That is what most people I know do for a living, and often during personal time, including me - it's probably the most common job activity among HN readers. And what are we doing now to post these comments? And yet, I've never heard those complaints. Also, I think you have things reversed: Active people are the ones who like to buy clothes…

>Put on a sweater. Are we really debating how hard that is? You are either very disingenuous, or have trouble with reading comprehension. The point is, if your hands get cold easily it's not possible to go too low in temperature without discomfort. Of course while having sufficiently warm clothing to have a warm core, as you said earlier. The 4% figure I mentioned is from the Wikipedia abstract; I haven't bothered to…

To continue with what your saying.

Yeah I am already wearing a sweater, warm pants, wool slippers with socks and a beanie / hat. The hands are unexposed and I'm thinking at this point I need a different slippers that are bit more breathable. Also staying warm with breathable fabrics can be somewhat deceptive, because your dehydrating yourself faster via sweat your not perceiving.

Wool doesn't work well for me due to skin issues unless I cover it with a layer of nylon / cotton. Yes I've tried good merino wool, and it's still minorly irritating. I've given up on most wool that touches my skin.

Also my apartment is in a fairly temperate place, and what is hot / cold is a bit weird. The floor is a fairly cold hardwood floor, and I think it sucks a lot of heat out somehow. I'm not in a place that is consistently cold, it's only cold for like 4 months, so places here are not very well designed for it. It's also not carpet which probably solves a lot of the cold floor problems via it's built in insulation.

Also I'm more perceptive about my body state than probably most people and try to avoid wearing antiperspirant when I know I'm not going out that day with WFH. Your are probably blocking a lot of the sweating your armpits would do in this modern age as a result, and I believe we should making clothing that keeps that area a little bit more cool.

My internal body temperature can run hotter if I start eating a lot of carbs and more calories, but then I start consistently gaining weight so I don't do that.

I'm also more doing this as a challenge, I can definitely afford to just heat my room to t-shirt levels and put rugs everywhere, but I'm trying to figure out clothing that would work well without it while using a computer for hours. I'm not raynauds level of issues, but it makes sense this is mostly an computer worker issue too.

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