Brutal Cold Invades USA

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I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. My furnace is oversized - 175,000 BTU's - and was put in when this house was poorly sealed and uninsulated. On cold winter nights it would run continuously. But after I sealed up all the major air leaks and most of the minor ones, and put in 12" or more of insulation in the attic, it runs a lot less - so much less that I've thought of replacing it with a smaller one that might be more efficient.

While it's been chilly here, it hasn't been cold enough for my neighbor's cherry tree to drop all it leaves yet, and the magnolia in the front yard is flowering... as it loses its leaves... Go figure! The lowest my backyard thermometer shows, so far, is about 28F (it has a telltale pointer).

For the first time ever I've rigged up some plastic sheeting as a kind of roof over the sweet and hot peppers in the garden. I'm hoping to keep the plants alive until spring and then give them a jump start on the growing season.

Time will tell.

The weather reports from the midwest are chilling: 30 below... yikes!
 
12F here right now

I have NO desire to do the conversion to Celsius.

However, it's supposed to be in the mid 40s here by Wednesday.

Unlike years past, the furnace has been running well, so far.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Lawrence, glad the landlord has turned on the furnace and you're keeping warm. It's 34 here now, was down to 23 last week with the previous artic blast and we had some icy roads too. The heat pump is keeping me warm at a set of 70 degrees.
 
It has been lower already on previous blasts. There were very light snow flurries a couple weeks ago, just a teaser. 36°F last night, with tonight forecast 39°F and warming next few days. Fri & Sat forecast a high of 78°F!
 
Did I say my furnace is 175,000 BTU's? I must have been thinking it's 100,000 BTU's at 75% efficiency... more like it. Still too big for the 1650 sq ft here. But at least it can get the house as toasty as my finances will allow.

I turn the thermostat down to 60F overnight, so I'm familiar with Toggles' reluctance to get out of bed before it cycles back on in the morning to a blistering 66F. I've invested in a bunch of thick faux chamois shirts and they do the trick indoors at that temp. Also are good for working on the outside of the buildings or on the garden during the daytime. Cheaper than keeping the place 72F.
 
-15 degrees with a wind chill reading of -40 here in southwestern Minnesota last night.

Despite that, I ventured out to see friends who live 30 miles away. Had been housebound Sat-Sun due to a blizzard. Anyhoo, it was so cold that my driver's side door wouldn't latch shut. Had to hold it closed all the way home.

Ah, Minnesota.
 
.

Bitter cold here. 0 Degrees and windy. Before that we got an ice storm! Sucks! Many people without power, and then this cold snap. I am lucky! My electric service is fine,even though some tree limbs broke off in the back yard.
The boyz are staying here, since they have no electrical power. It may be after xmas before the power lines are repaired. Frozen pipes anyone????

12-22-2008-21-55-38--rickr.jpg
 
Lawrence, I'm no converting tem. I'm cheating by ref

~Anyhoo, it was so cold that my driver's side door wouldn't latch shut. Had to hold it closed all the way home. Ah, Minnesota.
Is it true that your parking meters there offer electricity to enable the plugging-in of everyone's crankase/oil heater?

Hi Rick. IIRC in your case you have gravity hot-air as heat so all it takes is two 12v (car) batteries in series or four 6v (lantern) batteries, again in series, to crank open those gas solenoids in a black-out! With a double-pole double- throw switch one could have power to the solenoid be selectable from the transsfomer or batteries as the source.

My supplemental eletric heater finally got the place up from 64*F to 70*F (22*C) in 5 hours. LOL In theory the landlord provides heat, but the superintendent has not figured out yet that the HeaTimer brand control system needs to be tweaked to input (on a dial) the actual outdoor temp every few days.
The timed heating cycle has remained the same for days of 0*F to 50*F and logic tells us ya need more heat in when it's colder out! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

STAY WARM EVERYONE!

It's summer south of the equator (I don't mean the brand of wahers........) isn't it? LOL
 
Plug-In Parking Meters: I've never seen or heard of such a device, Togs, but it would be a great idea. I had crankcase heaters on all my cars, barring the present vehicle, which is a 1994 Geo Prizm (re-badged Toyota Corolla). It has 225,000 miles on it and has never failed to start in the winter.

I recall a couple of winters ago it got down to -29 here, and when I depressed the clutch to start it after work, it took a full 15 seconds for it to return to the disengaged position. Now, that's cold!

Hope you're staying warm, Togs!
 
brrrrrr

Right now its 11 degrees and yesterday with wind chill it 40 below. I have an old house with very little insulation, old windows most are covered with plastic. The second floor doesn't get much heat at all. I can hear the furnace running but very little heat comes out of the registers. I don't mind it cool up there, I can't sleep in a hot room. I have a heavy blanket with a electric blank I keep the blanket at either 5 or 6, the dogs and cats love it. I have an electric space heater in the living room that helps take the chill off a little. I also have one in the kitchen been concerned about the pipes freezing. I plugged in the heat tape the other day, and it went pop, and the lights went out. I don't like those things anyway.
 
Summer here for sure

Hi Steve,

The pics that everyone is posting are amazing, I hope you're all staying warm.

As we approach Christmas here in Queensland, we have highs of around 35degC and Lows of 17degC (95degF and 63degF respectively) The southern states here have been cool the last few weeks, with lows below 10degC and highs in the mid 20's degC.

Its been a couple of weeks since its rained so the humidity is still nice and low and hopefully it'll stay that way until after Christmas.

There are few places in Australia that generate that kind of snowfall and most of them are a long way above sea level.
 
Looking west down Prospect in Waterloo

Brrrrrrr!

From this weekend; more on the way tonight/tomorrow. Think Waterloo received about 10 to 12 inches. Not enough to shut the city down, but enough to warrant the use of a snow blower!

On the drive to work this morning the Tahoe registered -14 degrees F.

Ben

12-22-2008-23-28-45--swestoyz.jpg
 
Speaking of windows covered in plastic...

This old house was "improved" in the 60's or 70's, where they replaced the cool old casement and/or swing-out steel windows with horizontal sliding aluminum frame windows.

Needless to say, the aluminum frame windows aren't very good in the cold.

Most of the windows had aluminum awnings over them. When I removed about 1/2 of them over the summer (more light in the winter, and better ventilation in the summer), I left on the brackets over the windows. I figure I could use those brackets to hand "storm windows" on the ouside of the house. Most of the outer walls of the house are stucco, so the fewer holes I need to drill in it the better - and the aluminum window frames don't offer any convenient attachment surfaces, like an older wooden casement window would.

So I'm thinking of fabricating some lightweight frames of redwood, stretching clear vinyl over them, and using those as "storm windows" to help insulate the windows in the cold months. I could use the old awning brackets to hand the "storm windows", needing only to drill a few holes below for some hooks to hold them against the house.

What's been keeping me from doing this is that I haven't seen any of the optically clear heavy vinyl that I got years ago at a local hardware store... but I think TAP plastics might have something similar that would do just fine....
 
It's 2 degrees!

This cold is ridiculous! In fact there was an article in the local paper today about how "Jack Frost" turned out the Christmas lights. It's been so cold and snowy here in Mid-Michigan since early November that many people could not get out and decorate.

Even thought I need new windows, got storms on all of them now, my two stage furnace has only switched on the second stage in the mornings when we crank the heat up from 68 to 73. I'd like it cooler but my dad with poor circulation can't handle it so I wear shorts in the house all winter. We still have the original thremopane windows from '65. It's interesting, all the upstairs storms have a heavy glaze of frost/ice on them, none of the main level windows do. I turned the humidity down too, when I got the decorations out of the attic the underside of the roof deck was quite wet. I usually keep it at 45% in the fall and spring, and 35% during the winter, forgot to turn it down. The humidistat does track with the temperature, it has an outdoor sensor so I only have to set the desired humidity.

I want a warm up!
 
I think we are in for a long and rough winter this year. We are going to have a heat wave on Friday supposed to get up to 41 degrees, but along with that they are predicting a wintery mix. It's been snowing here, heard the plows go by several times, but I didn't want to get out from under my warm blanket and check until just a little while ago.
 
I'm not converting temps. I'm cheating by referring

Toggles did you say you were converting them?
Just as the right wing always suspected......... :O

( x ) before prison.

( O ) after prison.

NO COMMENT YOUR HONOR! LOL

This morning we are having a "heat-wave" at 10*F

12-23-2008-06-22-27--TOggleswitch2.jpg
 
~I've invested in a bunch of thick faux chamois shirts and they do the trick indoors at that temp.

LOL I broke down and tried "fleece" shirts/tops. 100% polyester. Good thing that a good "T" shir underneath means it only touches my person in the sleeve areas..............

VERY warm, so not very fashion-forward. When in Rome (er... Connecticut) do as the Romans do.........

I no longer carry my gay card with me so if the fashion-police attempt ot revoke it, I can truly say it's not avaialable. When the going gets tough, lower your standards. LOL
 
Om gosh it is colllld!

We had finals last week, well to say the least, everyone missed all of them except for Friday, the hardest one. Yesterday, it was so frozen that we were closed for the first time since 1977. Nothing usualy stops us from at least opening, it was just to icy and cold. Remeber, ths is not North Dacoda, it is Portland.! No work today! More time for Laundry!!!
 
I broke down and tried "fleece" shirts/tops. so no

Geezzz!! I guess another outstanding difference between the fashion-police driven members of the pink card group and us Bears!! We don't care like Y'ALL do, we prefer comfort--that's OUR fashion statement. I live in those type of sweats, or golf/Polo-type long-sleeve shirts, if/wwhen I do wear something when not at work, during the winter.
 
Hi Steve, I did think about being able to use the gravity furnace here with the car batteries in case our power went out too. Good idea!

I have a friend with a huge 3 story house with hot water heat. His power has been out since Friday, so he has been staying with friends. He called me today and said that the power just came back on , and his hot water heat system is ruined. Busted radiators, heat pipes, ect. Plus the rusty water has stained the carpeting in the entire house. He does have insurance, but I think it will be some time before he is able to return to his home. The fresh water pipes seem to be ok, as he left all the valves open slightly. Right now the water to the house is shut off, until the water supply lines to the boiler can be shut off.
 
Steve, try a cashmere v-neck under a pair of flannel jammies. Cashmere has incredible insulating properties, and v-necks are comfortable to wear. You may be able to keep your house several degrees cooler and not even notice the difference.
 

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