Most interestingly, I discovered that when the temperature is 18 below 0 all you need to do is walk around the house with your hand out to identify all the same sources of heat loss.
No, really, this was a useful thing to have done, and I learned a lot. Probably the most important things were that the biggest source of heat loss in my house are all of the cannister lights (20? 30? 40?), and that I really need to clean the metal filters in my electrostatic furnace filtering system more often than, say, every year or two.
After we brought the house back up to a comfortable temperature (part of the process involved sucking all of the warm air out of the house with a blower fitted into the front door), I turned the furnace off again so that I could clean the filters. They looked like dryer lint catchers, no lie. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photo documentation, so you'll have to take my word for it. They have been delinted and are in the dishwasher now. Hopefully they will be dry before it hits 30 below tonight.
While the house is cooling off, the "Beaches" are popular with the resident catlets. I thought this tableau was striking enough to cause me to break my temporary vow of blogging silence.
Here we have a big stripey and tuxedo on one side of the bathroom sink:
And little stripey and tuxedo on the other:
Adorable.
2 comments:
Having just moved, I am getting used to the what's what of temperatures in this new place, too. I got here on the 23rd, in the middle of a surprising cold snap for LA. It got down to 20, which is not much for you, but for me, without the heater working, was crazy. Now we're having a high pressure wind event, and it will be 88 according to the Barbie Doll who alleges to be my local meteorologist. Yesterday, though, was the kind of day that people move out here for. 70something, a light breeze, a few whiffs of cloud. And yet my place was ablaze.
It was the plasma TV. Holy moly! I had no idea. So if you have one and feel a chill, turn on some Food Netword or DHC (I am addicted to Mystery Diagnosis; go figure) and the ambient temperature of an 850 foot space will skyrocket!
Did they say anything about thermal curtains, or do you already use them?
Your blog updates were missed.
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