Not complaining. Just observing. Steeling myself and observing.
Yes, we could get in the car and drive, drive into this....
I had the idea yesterday of just turning up the heat. Heat the place up until we take off one layer at a time. (My indoor layers include leg warmers.) Let the temperature rise until I'm barefoot and wearing just a T-shirt and light skirt, and we can watch a movie about summer....
We didn't do that. I just warmed myself to the core in a hot bath, and we watched a ludicrously sadistic, dreary, purportedly "beautiful" comedy/drama that I will say something about in the next post.
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But you love Madison so.
65 degrees in Cadiz right now, which appears to be warmer than anywhere in the continental US. We're having a warm, sunny winter.
We binged-watched "Luther", a Brit series about a detective (Idris Elba), who is compulsive in pursuit of the serial-killer psychopaths that are apparently scattered across London's eastern and southern environs. Oh yeah. He has a special relationship with a psychopath who killed her parents.
Given all the mayhem appearing in this series, I am surprised we haven't heard more about a crime wave engulfing London. It's like all the murders on Inspector Morse. Oxford must have had the highest murder rate in the world.
Or maybe they just make it all up and populate the landscape with people who come along once every 25 years in Britain but actually exist in profusion on the south and west sides of Chicago.
Another visitor from a parallel universe is a London police force that is actually committed to preventing, stopping, and solving crimes. In real life, they are timid, disgustingly politically correct, dismayingly bureaucratic, and much more likely to pursue some lost soul ranting on the internet than that burglar who stole your silver over the weekend or the yobbo who beat you senseless outside the Rover's Return last Saturday.
BBC TV is a refuge from reality-- a fantasy safe-space where public servants actually extend themselves to help you.
Let the temperature rise until I'm barefoot and wearing just a T-shirt and light skirt, and we can watch a movie about summer....
???? Natural gas is cheap and abundant. Why not?
If I lived in Madison I would have my thermostat set to 72 degrees. ( I live in SoCal and have my thermostat set to 72 degrees)
-3 NW PA as I keystroke. I told one of my employees yesterday that I wanted to throw a sleeping bag and a tent in my car and head south. Keep driving until the outside temp on the instrument panel hit 70. Pull over and camp out. Temps like this are tough on people and equipment.
The temperature doesn't change indoors. That's what the thermostat does. Just sit near the thermostat.
Everybody with a heat pump will be surprised by the bill. Heat pumps are a net negative as super-cold outdoor temperatures and you're back on backup heat.
On the other hand they're infinitely efficient at the outdoor temperature that's near the thermostat temperature.
Core temperature rise is easily accomplished sharing warm blankets and a large dog. Dogs run 100 dgrees or so.
I watched a local construction company pouring a large concrete foundation last week and just shook my head. Temp in low teens. The flip side was watching a roofing company a few years pounding shingles in south Florida in August. Thankful for the job I have.
"???? Natural gas is cheap and abundant. Why not?"
It's not about money. It's not even about environmentalism (though if I ever pause to count my virtue points, I'd include this conservation).
It's about the dryness and stuffiness of an overheated interior. We like the cool air for breathing. And it's much nicer to find warm in sweaters, wool socks, slippers, and hot coffee, tea, and chocolate than by artificially heating the air.
Also, if you make the indoor air so warm you can wear your summer clothes, you won't acclimate to winter and it will be harder to enjoy outdoor things. You'll resist going out. Or if you do go out (or one person in the household goes out), when you come back in it feels unpleasantly hot.
We keep the indoor temperature at 62° during the day, and that feels plenty warm when you come in from outdoors, and it puts you in a reasonable position for daring to go outdoors.
At night, we set the thermostat to 50° and sleep under an extra-warm down comfortor. We are never cold sleeping that way, and the cool air is great for breathing. Rarely does the temperature actually fall to 50° over the course of the night, but in winter, it is in the 50s inside when I get up.
Also, if you make the indoor air so warm you can wear your summer clothes, you won't acclimate to winter and it will be harder to enjoy outdoor things.
It was in the mid 80's here yesterday.It does get down into the mid 40's overnight.
There was a heat pump, a Jensen or something like that, that put the compressor indoors so you at least captured the heat from energy necessary to run the compressor instead of wasting it outdoors.
Heat pumps still lose to futile defrost cycles though, in super cold weather.
"???? Natural gas is cheap and abundant. Why not?"
Yep, natural gas was selling for $13/mcf not that long ago (2008/09). Now selling for under $3/mcf. How do I know? I produce it.
You can run a motor off of a temperature difference. Heat pumps are limited in their efficiency by the rule that you can't build a perpetual motion machine. You can't run a heat pump off the temperature difference that the heat pump creates.
Since you can run a hefty motor off a big temperature difference, say indoor temperature and super-cold outdoor temperature, it must be that the heat pump efficiency drops way down when there's a huge temperature difference, so that it can't create it in the first place.
Somewhere there's a much lower indoor temperature that the heat pump can create and power itself off of. Which is to say that the emergency heat actually comes on instead.
Have you tried adding a Humidifier unit to the HVAC? Your complaint seems to be with dry air, not warmed air.
Moist air feels warmer too.
65 degrees in Cadiz right now, which appears to be warmer than anywhere in the continental US. We're having a warm, sunny winter.
I also wondered about Ann's map. It was 81 in Tucson yesterday.
47 this morning.
I agree about the dryness of a heated house in winter. When I lived in Northern New Hampshire for a year, I had a humidifier that used over 5 gallons of water a day.
I gave it to my sister in Chicago when I returned to California.
It was 85 here yesterday. On the day of the parade it will be 77 for the high.
Who doesn't want to live in California?
vicki from Pasadena
"Who doesn't want to live in California? "
Certainly every illegal alien in the country wants to.
All year round you can soak in the warm bath of the South China Sea - the "West Philippine Sea" these days, to the locals.
Better there than a Wisconsin winter I think.
And "the season" has started over there. They slow down during the typhoons/rains.
I can recommend the beach resorts at Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, beautiful place, still unspoiled, few tourists, and good facilities. And very, very safe.
"Who doesn't want to live in California? "
Anybody who isn't filthy stinking rich.
California is a wonderful place to live.
Its not such a great place to afford.
We are among the lucky ones, granted there are many lucky ones.
But there are even more unlucky ones. There are wretches here in a worse way than in the third world, where families still exist. In this gilded city of San Francisco there are tent camps covering the sidewalks of dozens of blocks South of Market.
In this gilded city of San Francisco there are tent camps covering the sidewalks of dozens of blocks South of Market.
It's not just "homeless." My daughter was interviewed six times at Apple for a design team job. Her last interview was with the head of the design team, a group of about 20 people.
Her principle concern was about where she would live and how high the salary would have to be to allow her to live in a decent place,
She was thinking about buying a small motor home.
She was not too disappointed to be told they had decided to make an internal promotion.
How do they hire good employees when basic houses are millions ? I know FullMoon disagrees but I looked at real estate sites.
It's chilly all the way down here in Florida. Highs today and tomorrow are barely going to break 70, and then according to Accuweather, we're looking at a stretch of six days where it won't get out of the 60s. Lows down to the upper 30s. That's cold for us.
The difference is that, in California, when we set our thermostats to 72 degrees in the winter, the air conditioner kicks on during the day. It hit 80 degrees in Orange County, CA yesterday.
How do they hire good employees when basic houses are millions ? I know FullMoon disagrees but I looked at real estate sites.
Um, pardon me Dr. Our last discussion revolved around apartment rentals. I pointed out that I actually know people paying 2,ooo or so for nice places. Affordable for potential Apple supervisor in charge of twenty underlings whose salary would probably be $200,000 or more.
Plenty of basic homes for less than a million. Not to say they are not overpriced. It is indeed ridiculous in SF bay area. Most new housing is multi story condos and apartments.
Gas is so cheap here, we keep the house at 65 in the winter and 75 in the summer. The heat pump quits below about 45, so we only use gas below 45.
I run around in a T-shirt and gym trunks.
I guess if all your money goes to property taxes, you have to suffer :-)
" I pointed out that I actually know people paying 2,ooo or so for nice places."
I thought we were talking about houses. I did not get too far into rentals but the apartments next door to her in Santa Monica are $4500 a month.
I think she has given up on Apple and has bought five acres in Idaho. We are going to rent a motorhome next June when it is 115 in Tucson and drive up to see it.
I think she has given up on Apple and has bought five acres in Idaho. We are going to rent a motorhome next June when it is 115 in Tucson and drive up to see it.
You are correct 70's tract homes near Apple gonna be 1.5 to over 2. Ridiculous.
Have friends who sold home in Sacramento,took a pay cut to move to Idaho. New home outside of Boise, 3,000+ square feet.20% down, Mortgage payment around 1,000 including ins and taxes.
Kind of chilly, though.
I grew up in New England, and I suppose my winters were not unlike those in Madison (of course, I'm old and grew up before global warming happened). Much later, I lived in southeast Florida for about 6 years, and that is a land "without winter". But there are some "cold snaps". I remember a few cold days in December and January, and you could tell the full-time residents from the tourists by how they dressed: The full-time residents pulled their old overcoats out of their closets or storage units and they were identifiable by the odor of mothballs that accompanied them; the tourists wore their floral shirts and shorts, under the overcoats that they'd worn when they got on the plane in Chicago or Cleaveland or Minneapolis.
"Kind of chilly, though."
I know northern Idaho pretty well. My oldest daughter went to Gonzaga Law School in Spokane.
Her suite mate at USC got into UCLA Law School with a lower GPA and LSAT but she was Hispanic.
Anyway, I have been going up there since the 50s when Washington State had blue laws. There is no way to make a living up there but it is beautiful.
Also very cold in winter. She is a California girl so it will be a summer retreat.
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