How Is Everyone Keeping Warm?

[sudsmaster]

Humidifiers are not generally needed here in the SF Bay Area. IMHO. The winters are generally wet, and the maritime influence keeps the summers relatively humid (albeit hot and rainless).

In my previous abode I got a humidifier and had it running the living room besides the open stairway to the second floor. All it seemed to do was encourage the growth of mold on some of the walls.

In fact, in the current home, I've taken pains to air out the attic and crawl space as much as possible... due to reading that there's a lot of moisture that enters a home through a dirt crawl space. Put plastic sheeting down over the earth floor of the crawl... added soffit ventilation to the attic... even laid sheeting down between the ceiling joists up there. Although that was probably unnecessary in retrospect. The whole goal was to avoid having moisture collect in the attic and create a mold problem. It's an unfinished attic with very limited head room, so it's not like one is losing any living space up there.

Biggest improvement was from adding fiberglass batts to the attic (it was previously non-insulated). Prior to that, the furnace would run almost continuously on winter nights. After all the insulation and sealing, it runs for just a little bit even on cold nights. I even did a statistical analysis of the gas consumption before/after insulating, adjusted to take into account the average monthly temps, and found gas consumption was cut to a third to a half of the pre-insulated consumption. And the home is much more comfortable. Of course, this being California, the utility bills still go up, since the price of gas (and electricity) seems to rise every year.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Once upon a time people did things like:

- leave cabinet and closet doors open where pipes run along exterior walls

- set the thermostat a degree or two higher

- take insulation OFF pipes steam and hot water pipes in the basement

- NOT set back the thermostat at all at night or when the house is empty

- shove some kind of insulating material in the small gap between the water pipe and the exterior wall

- open doors and accessways separating heated and unheated areas

You sort of have a choice: a $50 spike in monthly heating or a $500 plumbing repair.... or a fire.

When I was a kid this stuff was all over the local news whenever there was a prolonged cold snap.

But then again, what do I know? I have some really crazy ideas about heat and heating systems. More than once I've insisted that you can't replace a 24x24x4" hot water radiator with 24" of baseboard and get the same amount of heat. This insistence on my part has often been cited as evidence of my mental confusion.

 

[sudsmaster]

Old radiators...

Back in the 1980's my mom moved into a small apartment in SF. One of its best features (esp since it was on the first floor) was steam heat, with a big cast iron radiator in the living room, which adjoined the bedroom. It kept the place quite comfortable for my mom. It was also rent-controlled, with the cost of heating covered by the rent. Well, you know what happened next. The steam boiler for the building broke down, and the landlord, rather than fix it, ripped out all the radiators and installed small gas fired space heaters in each apartment. Which the tenants had to pay for the gas themselves. Even worse, they put the heater for her apartment in the entry hall, and not much heat found its way to the living room or bedroom. So my mom's usual position in the place in the winter was standing in that dimly lit narrow hall in front of that pathetic gas heater. Oh well.

 

[abcomatic]

-14 tonight. I keep the closet door open in the kitchen. The pipes for the bathroom upstairs goes up through the closet. I have never had a frozen pipe here ever. The door for the bathtub pipes is open now too. Just use some common sense about all of this and things should be ok. Gary

 

[tolivac]

Transformers as speakers-and iron core chokes,too.In our GE 250Kw SW transmitter the modulator-the stages that impose the audio program modulation into the final and driver RF power amplifiers-the modulator is a push pull audio amp that uses two Eimac 7482 triode tubes .Between these two they generate 150+ Kw of audio power coupled to the RF amp via the modulation transformer-converts the PP audio to single end audio to modulate the driver and PA stages.Stand outside the GE transmitter power vault-the room that contains the power and mod transformers you will hear both the modulation transformer and reactor singing away!!!Just like a speaker!!!And its quite loud.And you hear the hum from the rectifier transformers.One set of rectifier transdformers for the RF power amps-another set for the modulator.The transformers are simply VERY big pole mount transformers-the kind you see on H-frames.And if we get an RF arc on a transmission line or in the antenna switchbay-you get the plasma speaker!!!and that is VERY loud!!!!And a nice BRIGHT arc-blue green for copper---or VERY bright white for aluminum.
The AEG transmitter doesn't have a mod transformer or reactor-but a single tube switching modulator (PDM)that you can hear the audio in its LP filter that passes the audio but blocks the switching frequency.A janitor cleaning behind the transmitter insisted it was haunted!!Had to explain to him-no ghosts.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Young people today are not being taught the things about managing a house that we were. There are many and varying reasons from the rich who have people to do that for them to the totally ignorant who don't know anything to pass on to their kids. Some rich kids don't even know how to properly load a dishwasher, let alone cook, because it was done for them. As for how to keep pipes from freezing in super cold weather, that is so far off the knowledge and skills scale as to be laughable. Their ignorance and the use of wood instead of cement in construction makes it frightening and unsafe to live in multifamily housing units. People who don't know basics of safety, like that ignorant woman in NYC who was responsible for 12 deaths and God knows how many injuries because she did not know the basics of fire safety, are being put directly from huts into apartment buildings.

 

[petek]

I keep the T-stat at 72 and it's very comfortable throughout the house. The finished basement is even warmer being that the big old boiler is down there radiating heat as well as baseboards down there in the rek room and spare bedroom. I wouldn't say it was wasted heat down there, I keep the door at the top of the stairs open and that makes it way up into the family room and it also keeps the floor of the floor above warmer.

 

[gusherb]

I have been keeping the heat at 72 through this cold snap and has been more than adequate to make me forget just how cold it's been outside. Once it goes back into the 30s tomorrow and my sister & 2.5 yr old niece have left I'll probably turn it back down to 70 where it stays at most of the winter.

Today marks the 12th day that it's stayed below 20°F in the Chicago area tying a record last set in 1936. We've had far more extreme cold snaps than this but as the records show, haven't had any cold snaps this cold that have lasted this long.

 

[Chetlaham]

@Tolvic: you have a fun job, thats for sure! I know little about the radio side of things but I can imagine its one of those jobs where you learn something new everyday- never a dull moment.

Also thanks for all the info- I did not know the transformers actually played music at a transmitter station- but now I do!

 

[polkanut]

PeteK

We use a 1983 West Bend Water Wheeler humidifier.  The reservoir in ours holds 6 ½ gallons.  In this extremely cold weather it needs to be refilled about every 2 ½ days.

 

I'm wondering if your Kenmore is actually a rebadged West Bend.

 

 

 

 

[petek]

Tim, it look somewhat the same except the layout of the controls is different. I'm surprised you're getting 2.5 days.. I'm filling this thing every 12-14 hrs. Mind you I do have it set pretty high up on the humidistat and it rarely shuts down.. Possibly because here on the main foor, living, kitchen/dining area it's cathedral ceilings so a lot bigger area to overcome. I have 3 different hygrometers to check the humidity and of course none of them are close to each other in read outs..smh One says 35%, one about 27% and the other is down around 20, all in the same room on the same table

 

[washman]

I love non-union furnaces, esp. when it is minus 1 outside.

 

[wayupnorth]

I have no idea who made my New Yorker boiler, union or not. All I know is -13 tonight with windchills around -40. It keeps my house at a constant 65 degrees, although it seems to never shut off and is chewing up oil like crazy. So far this cold started 12/23 and 12" of snow 12/25 and right into the deep freeze since 12/26 when EVERY night since has been below zero. This weather is very abnormal and driving everyone batty too.

 

[jmm63]

I'm surprised at how warm most of you keep your house.  I would LOVE to be able to keep mine close to 70 but that's not economically feasible. I heat with oil, and the furnace is new and 85% efficient. Windows are new and insulation has been upgraded.  I keep the house at 64 when occupied and 61 at night.  I run a small space heater in the bedroom on very low and we have an electric fireplace in the family room that is on 68 most of the time.  I just got 150 gallons of oil 30 days ago at $2.79 a gallon ($416) that should carry is through the end of January.  With this cold snap, it's dwindling and I'll need to call for oil next week.  So that means almost $400 to heat this house to 64 for a month..... I could only dream of setting the t-stat to 70.  I wouldn't know what to do.!

 

[gusherb]

We heat with natural gas, have a decently insulated home for modern standards and the furnace that does the majority of the heating is 97% efficient. NG was 32 cents per therm for December and January.
It's affordable to keep it comfortable.

 

[appnut]

It got to 64 today with a forecasted high of 67 tomorrow.  But the cold will return by the time I wake up Friday morning 28, a high of 45, and low of 29 Friday evening/Saturday morning. 

 

[sudsmaster]

Gas here is $1.29/therm for up to about 64 therms, and $1.84 above that, plus a 6% local utility tax. I keep my thermostat at 66 during waking hours, only occasionally bumping it up to 68. Overnight, it goes down to 63, and when I'm at work. My last bill just for gas was $108.

Electricity is $.20/kWh for up to about 350 kWh, and $.28 above that, plus 6% local tax. My last electric bill was $146.

Welcome to California...

 

[warmsecondrinse]

"We've had far more extreme cold snaps than this but as the records show, haven't had any cold snaps this cold that have lasted this long."

I agree and have wondered how subjective this is on my part. It seems like in the last couple of years there've been fewer absolute records broken but many like

"the longest string of days the temps stayed above/below 'X'"
or
"July had the highest number of days with measurable precipitation than any other July on record."

Or is it just my imagination?

 

[gusherb]

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/article_14f094b0-95f7-52fe-b258-77a68d24ab56.html

Well we had another extreme weather related infrastructure breakdown. I smelled that leak real strong about 3 miles from where it originated while driving to the dr and almost called to report it but didn't wanna distract myself from driving.

Interestingly I think that failure was already starting a week ago because the location is right on the bike trail where I walk past all the time. It smelled stronger of gas right at that spot than normal but I figured it must've had something to do with the extremely high NG demand going on.

 

[mattl]

Maybe I'm odd, but I'm totally comfortable with the heat set at 64 degrees.  It takes me about 10 days in the fall to adjust and during that time I"m not very comfortable. but after that I can wear short and t shirts and be fine.  I do keep my humidity up as high as the outside temp will allow.  Maybe it's a state of mind, not sure but the cooler temps do not bother me.

 

It's been as low as -12 here and I have not heard my furnace kick in to the second stage burner, odd.  It's correctly sized so I guess I'm lucky - I know I still will not like the bill...