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Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

oneroof.co.nz

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Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#101

Post by BLKNSLVR »

dkersten wrote: post #92
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently had to choose between these two options: 1. Removal of splinter from pet cat's eyeball: $1,650 2. Removal of cat's eyeball: $1,400 Blew out my pet budget for a long while. I have the photo that the vet ophthalmologist took - they were cool enough to send it to us.

Oh wow. I’m sorry for you and your cat, that seriously sucks.

Despite adding a month to the mortgage, it was a good news story. Cat full recovered within a day or two, and the joy my kids get from this gosh darn cat makes it worth the expense. (just as long as it doesn't make a habit of getting eyeball splinters - freaking gross).

Very thankful to have the means that enable a spur-of-the-moment $1,650 expense not affecting too much of the future.

I'll have to write the story of this cat one day.

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#102

Post by mleonhard »

Torkel wrote: post #73
Legogris wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having slept outdoors a lot in the past, I think many people underestimate the importance of the ground/floor/bed in keeping from freezing. If you have excess blankets, it could make more difference to put them under you as opposed to above you. Even spruce branches or cardboard will lift you from the ground enough to make a difference in a pinch.

I agree - I packed an air mattress to sleep on during camping when it was cold on the ground. The air didn't insulate as well as I expected so I was freezing from below. There are so many things around us that are such incredible achievements in comfort over not having them. It is a good experience living without some of them for a while to get appreciation for it: - electricity - heating - beds - running water - sho…

The problem with air mattresses in cold weather is that they conduct heat. The gas inside the mattress absorbs heat from your body and transmits it to the edge of the mattress and into the outside air. To be prevent this heat loss, cover the whole air mattress with a blanket or put an insulator between your body and the mattress.

I spent many years in the tropics without air conditioning. But I had a water bed. The waterbed works similarly to the air mattress, absorbing your body heat and emitting it over a large surface area. This is great when the weather is hot. The bed also has a large thermal capacity. Cover it with a blanket during the day and leave it uncovered at night. Then when you lie down at the beginning of the night, it will still be cool from the early morning.

How well would a waterbed work in a camping situation?

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#103

Post by mleonhard »

potatochup wrote: post #99
xsmasher wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you connect the last dot for me and explain why "(mis)allocation of capital into residential real estate" is bad for warmth, affordability, and fighting rheumatic fever?

Presumably, high rates of investment drive up prices (since supply is somewhat constrained). High prices reduce the ability for people to purchase, so they have to rent, but then higher purchase price means the investors have to increase rent too. This means there is a lot of demand at the low end of the housing market, where houses aren't as well maintained/insulated/upgraded

Investing in housing should lead to building more housing, which will lower prices for everyone. Is the investment only used to renovate existing housing?

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#104

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Torkel wrote: post #96
thaumasiotes wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I packed an air mattress to sleep on during camping when it was cold on the ground. The air didn't insulate as well as I expected so I was freezing from below. No sleeping bag?

No, for some reason I decided to use a regular duvet. With a sleeping bag it would probably have been less of an issue.

I was going to say, I never really understood why sleeping bags seem to be the default for camping but I get it now.

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#105

Post by jwilk »

superkuh wrote: post #53

Tough to say. All I saw was a blank white page with no text or images. After jumping through some hoops I saw all that javascript was for a couple paragraphs of text. So I'll just mirror it here for others. As an aside about the actual content: cats come with vet bills you have to be able to pay if you want to ethically own one. That's a huge expense. Cat v panel heater: Which is better? 6:34 AM, 24 Aug 2020 James Po…

There's also picture of this critter:

https://s.oneroof.co.nz/image/7e/8d/7e8d982a89e64210f2502689...

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#106

Post by arethuza »

mark-r wrote: post #89
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our cat acts as an alarm clock. Pretty close to 5:30 every day. The problem is that no one in the house needs to get up at 5:30 (except the person that doesn't want the cat to shit inside).

We have litter boxes that operate 24/7. The problem is when the cats run out of food at 5:30.

Our cat gets me up at about 6:30 just because he can.

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#107

Post by arethuza »

viraptor wrote: post #10
saagarjha wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you can keep your cat indoors?

Or in an outside enclosure. They're not very hard to install around your fence.

We try and encourage our cat to go outdoors - this, of course, makes him stay indoors.

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#108

Post by nurettin »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #6

“ A 3kg cat has a heat output of 14.8 watts, or 129.65 kilowatt-hours...” Playing fast and loose here. That’s 129.65 kilowatt hours per year. 14.8 watts is 0.0148 kilowatts of course. Kilowatt hours are a measure of total energy output over a given time not instantaneous output.

http://www.c60design.co.uk/many-cats-take-heat-passive-house...

They just took this content here, inflated it a little bit with filler sentences and published it as an article.

"In summary then, cats are expensive… and wasteful."

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#109

Post by martinlaz »

reaperducer wrote: post #13

I was once desperately poor. Too poor to turn on the heat. But I did have access to friendly cats, so I've been through this experiment in real life. One cat stuffed under the blankets at night is a significant improvement. But as you add more and more cats, the improvement becomes only incremental. I eventually learned that two cats was really the best one could hope for. Best positioning is between the legs, and wi…

I can't really tell if this is truth or fiction but either way your comment warmed my day.

Re: Cat vs. panel heater: which is better?

#110

Post by lambdatronics »

LinusS1 wrote: post #36

I wonder... if you feed a cat more, it will become bigger, and so it will produce more heat.

Assume a spherical cat. As the cat gets bigger, the surface to volume ratio goes down, so the cat gets hotter. This will lower its metabolism, which means that the food calories increasingly go toward storage, which makes the cat get even larger. Asymptotically speaking, the cat tends to become a furry blob of melted lard.
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