Last night the temperature (outside) dipped to 26 degrees and stayed there for 11 consecutive hours! Meanwhile, inside, the temperature never fell below 64 degrees. All of this with no indoor heating except for normal activity and whatever the sun shines in.
Nothing less than 38 degree differential, sustained over 11 consecutive hours with no interior heat source. Sorry if you all are tired of hearing this refrain, but this stuns me. I only wish I knew what the temperature inside was when it all started. It was probably between 71 and 74.
The sun is shining brightly again today, so there is no question that we can withstand another night, thus achieving our goal of not using heat until November. And, we never suffered a temperature lower than 64 inside while waiting for this goal.
4 comments :
I think that breaks some sort of family record.
The latest date I remember making on First was late October, and that was with a bit more considerable suffering temperature wise.
Nice.
I have some ideas about building houses from a guy at work.
He is building "pods" no more than the minimum building permit all near each other but not touching, connected by exterior walkways and each self-contained (solar panels for each and a porch for each.
Very neat idea.
But probably each one wouldn't maintain that kind of heat differential. :)
That is great Jame! If the inside temp wandered around 64 while the outside temp held at around 26, this indicates that the heat input by the indoor activity just equalled the heat flow through the walls and windows.
I don't know what the BTU output for a normal human is -- but then two of the resident humans of your household are anything but normal! Anyway, one could probably reverse calculate the average BTU output per person by knowing their average daily caloric input (food). Then you could compute the heat loss from all your exterior windows and wall.
Sounds like fun, eh?!
Oh, and to brag just a little so my grandchildren will know how much their Grandfather suffers:
Usually we turn the furnace OFF on the first of April and turn it back ON on the first of October.
Due to unforseen circumstances (Grandma's strenuous objections and threats to dispense with Lemon Meringue Pie baking) it got turned on this year on about the 21st of September.
Hey, that straw bale house in Arizona had been running their heating system for a couple of weeks when I was there visiting. It froze three different nights while I was there, but there was enough sunshine that it should have offset the cold. I think their problem is that they have steel beams in the roof that are exposed inside, but the ends stick out into the cold air.
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