Few, its tropical in the house with central heating. The men have finished most of the pipe work and tearing up floorboards. Before the weekend they have left us with a fully functioning system apart from the thermostat which an electrician will come and install on Monday.
Initially the children got really excited about the heat, we started peeling off layers of wool clothing until we could do no more to stay decent and then we just laughed and laughed. It was sooo hot that we had to go and shut the thing off again. That was 30 mins into having the heating system on. We became aware that the woolly socks we wear, the jumpers and quilts we used seemed useless against the temperature rise but when we shut the system down, it cooled down very quickly and noticeably in the house. The conclusion therefore is that central heating is like a bandaid to an ongoing lack of warmth. We also felt that over the years we had acclimatised to lower temperatures and as the seasons change, we change our clothing requirements. The house is old and the walls take a long time to heat up and then slowly release the heat, and it stays cool during the summer. That sounds ecologically sound to me. So what now? We took the decision not to have it on again as promised until the temperature dives to such a low that we are not able to keep warm. I am so glad that my knitting of socks and jumpers will be ongoing and that the wool provided by sheep, mixed with some alpaca will continue to provide us with insulation against the elements. On a positive note, should we ever feel like a change of climate we do not need to travel far, just flick a switch....which has to be better than flying to warmer climates.
Initially the children got really excited about the heat, we started peeling off layers of wool clothing until we could do no more to stay decent and then we just laughed and laughed. It was sooo hot that we had to go and shut the thing off again. That was 30 mins into having the heating system on. We became aware that the woolly socks we wear, the jumpers and quilts we used seemed useless against the temperature rise but when we shut the system down, it cooled down very quickly and noticeably in the house. The conclusion therefore is that central heating is like a bandaid to an ongoing lack of warmth. We also felt that over the years we had acclimatised to lower temperatures and as the seasons change, we change our clothing requirements. The house is old and the walls take a long time to heat up and then slowly release the heat, and it stays cool during the summer. That sounds ecologically sound to me. So what now? We took the decision not to have it on again as promised until the temperature dives to such a low that we are not able to keep warm. I am so glad that my knitting of socks and jumpers will be ongoing and that the wool provided by sheep, mixed with some alpaca will continue to provide us with insulation against the elements. On a positive note, should we ever feel like a change of climate we do not need to travel far, just flick a switch....which has to be better than flying to warmer climates.
1 comment:
Like you I wear alot of warm clothes in the winter - hand knitted socks and sweaters - here south of Chicago winters are very cold (although milder of late) and my house is new and well insulated. I run my heat from 6am to 9am and from 5pm until 8pm. Because of the insulation it stays pretty warm if the door arent opened too much. Hot water bottles with knitted covers at night plus duvets and fleece blankets. I probably not typical as we are all rather spoilt over here. English by birth we never had central heating just electric and coal fires and frost on the inside panes in the winter. When you get the thermostat sorted it will be much better.
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