Notes from a furnace-free day - Page 3

NiHaoMike · 12-17-10, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyl4rk

What clothes do you wear to adapt to the lower temperatures?

Gradually wear less and less until you're where you want to be.

RobertSmalls · 12-18-10, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyl4rk

What clothes do you wear to adapt to the lower temperatures?

I haven't changed what I wear: a shirt and a thick sweater, two pair of pants, and one pair of socks. Adding a hat is extremely effective, but maybe I feel like I've gone too far when I have one on at home.

My electric blanket is under my usual three blankets, so it's really not losing much heat out the top of the bed. So far it's been great, and I sleep comfortably in a room that is 50°F when I wake up.

I chose it over the electric mattress pad because I believe it has the capacity to keep me warm in a colder environment than the other approach. Still, a mattress pad would have been more convenient and a little more efficient.

Either way, go buy one and turn down your furnace at night. You'll love it. You can even instruct the furnace to turn on half an hour before you wake up, and you'll never know.

AC_Hacker · 12-19-10, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

I chose it over the electric mattress pad because I believe it has the capacity to keep me warm in a colder environment than the other approach. Still, a mattress pad would have been more convenient and a little more efficient.

I have an electric mattress pad, and I think it's a bit of a toss-up.

The down sides of the pad are...

Because your weight bears on the pad, the wires will break (not dangerous) before wires in a blanket would.
Even with a conventional mattress pad on top of the electric mattress pad, sleeping on the wires can be uncomfortable, depending on the electric pad.

I like to use mine just to warm up the bed, and I prefer to sleep with the pad off. I have a down comforter as thick as an Alaskan snow drift on top of the bed and when I awake in the morning, I don't even know what cold is.

I had a really dandy set-up that worked in my old electric pad but not the new one... I salvaged a timer from an electric coffee pot and used it to automatically turn on the mattress a little more than an hour before I went to bed, and I'd manually turn off the pad before I climbed in. A safety feature with the timer was that it had a maximum duration of two hours, so of I didn't make it home, the pad would cycle on, then off.

I found a very sensitive meter in a thrift store that will read microwave energy and EMF. I tried it on my electric bedding and found that there was significant EMF to read, even with the pad switched off. I had to actually unplug the pad from the wall to kill the reading.

I don't know if EMF will actually cause any physiological problems, but it good to know it's there.

-AC_Hacker

NiHaoMike · 12-21-10, 12:13 AM

What about use a Peltier heat pump to make warm air that is then blown into the bed? The small temperature difference means a Peltier can be quite efficient for that use.

MN Renovator · 12-21-10, 09:29 AM

I typed a bunch here but tried to categorize it into paragraphs that should help weed through this easier if you aren't into going through all of it.

Thermostat: 50 degrees. I originally had it programmed for 55 degrees for when I come home for work and drop down before going to sleep and 55 again for when I wake up. After programming it, I have never actually used the program and left it at 50. There are occasions where I will turn it up to 55 or 60 if I'm moving about the house because walking around and being active makes the temperature feel about 5 degrees cooler to me because of the breeze from walking.

Clothing: Almost always wearing a tshirt, jeans, and socks but if I feel cold or I'm moving about in the house a hoodie type pullover fleece does wonders on making 50 degrees more acceptable and it just feels like a nice thick sweater, not like I'm walking around with a coat.

Humidity: At 50 degrees, if it is <40% relative humidity, perspiration leaves the skin and I get cold very quickly. I do not humidify my house through anything other than my shower and when the furnace runs, it burns up the humidity in less than a day if its below freezing out. When it was below zero, I took a longer than usual shower to get myself feeling a little warmer after driving home from an errand, the furnace ran more than usual due to the temperature, in 4 hours 65% relative humidity immediately after the shower was at 45%, another few hours and it was 35% and I almost turned up the temperature on a day that doing so would have been the most expensive to. Usually what I've done to best control window condensation is to get the air moving in the house. I'll turn the thermostat down a few degrees, wait for it to call for heat, when I hear it click on, I turn the temperature up a few degrees again, hop in the shower and the furnace will move the air and also do the dehumidification it does anyway and when I get out of the shower there is no condensation even if the humidity is 65%. Anything more than 65% and my windows are fogged and ready to freeze. I can manage 45-60% decently.

Showering: If I'm not working on a specific day and I'm not going out for the day, if I get uncomfortable with the temperature and take a shower. I take very hot showers and I've been able to walk in the garage at 20 degrees to grab something out of my car and come back in without it being cold. It is like a 15 minute barrier against feeling the cold. Moist skin and a high internal body temperature, does wonders.

Energy usage: So far the coldest day, the thermostat recorded 5 hours 18 minutes of furnace run time. It is based on call for heat time so I have to exclude the beginning 2 minutes into the call for heat before the main burner kicks on, about few seconds beyond 3 minutes is when the actual blower kicks in. I set the span to turn on at -1degree of the set temp and off 2 degrees above, 3 degree total span. My oversized furnace only runs the main burner for about 12 minutes to create that. With the old thermostat, only 5 mins, very inefficient. The new one is better and runs less than once an hour, the other one was turning on and off far too often. ...so the 5 hours and 18 minutes for the -9f day probably ran a little extra per run, probably 15 minutes of heat call, which means that it probably started 21 times or so but probably less. Novembers temperature average was 34.6 degrees F. Novembers gas bill was 27 therms, during summer it seems that about 7 or 8 of that is the water heater. The billing period was 28 days 10/27/2010 through 11/24/2010. 27 therms including the city fee and basic charge was $24 rounded down. Knock the $8 basic charge and $2.50 city fee off and it is $14 of actual fuel usage cost. Figuring $4 of that was the water heater, the furnace was only $10 of gas usage for 34.6 degree outdoor temperatures. The previous owners paid $151 for their January gas bill with 167 therms. Either all of this will dramatically change with temperatures sitting <zero degrees or they had the thermostat set to Tahiti. Either that or I'm underestimating plastic films ability to insulate the patio door for air seal and air gap and the plastic at the bottom of the opening to the bathroom sun light. I haven't found someone willing to help me hang the window frame I took off of one of the bedroom windows after filling its 5/8" air gap which I assume is consistent throughout the house but once I get some help nailing that trim back on, I'll do it for the whole house. Hopefully it makes a big difference and then I'll set the temperature higher. This years 50 degree temperature setting is more of a challenge to see how low I can get the bills in comparison to the family of 4 plus extra guest that I'm assuming was living here before. I've got a roommate who wants to move in and the money that the roommate would pay would more than allow me to set the temp higher and I would rather have a roommate give me money than to try to save this way. So far air conditioning the house to comfortable enough temperatures to fall asleep in the summer is more expensive than heating it in the winter.

Sleeping: I have a low voltage(18.5v) mattress pad heater. The pad itself is rated at 74 watts but the power supply has an input rating of 1 amp, so not sure how lossy the power supply is as it is a little warm but under 120 watts. I don't have a kill-a-watt on hand at the moment to check its actual usage. The wires are thin and I can't feel them. I have a standard thin bed sheet between the mattress pad heater and me so that way I can wash that and hopefully keep the mattress pad heater cleaner, it sounds like a pain to clean. It is about the best energy/money saving thing I've put my money towards inside the house. I've even slept comfortably at 45 degrees a few times. I don't think I'd want to spend more than 15-20 minutes in the house at that temperature outside of the covers.

Today: I set the temp to 45 last night at 6PM and went to sleep at a regular time. The furnace must have cycled once today, the thermostat is showing it ran for 8 minutes so far today. The basement seems to be a good source of ground-source heat that rises up. It is 45 degrees up here and the basement is 47 degrees and the concrete basement floor and unsinsulated walls are 48 degrees. If the temperature was at 55 degrees, with temperatures like what is outside right now, the furnace would have already run 2 hours and it is 9 oclock. 2.5 or 3 hours before noon strikes if the sun doesn't come up. At 50 degrees it usually runs 4 hours a day with outdoor temperatures near 0f. That should be about 3 therms a day or about $60 if I only calculate with the 31-110 therm bracket of $.67/therm, add another $10.50 for the basic and city fees and plus or minus for actual outdoor temperature. I'm sure I won't see the January bill above $80 and the December bill will probably be around $50 total but we shall see.

Doctor and Health: I had a standard physical at the doctor earlier this month and used it as a chance to discuss being outside in cold weather and sleeping in a tent in cold weather for a long period. I skirted around trying to get into a discussion about living in it so I made it seem like I planned doing this a week or two as a camping excursion. He provided all the symptoms of hypothermia and to avoid wind and getting wet as these will freeze you. He also talked about how the body will drop its core temperature a little bit to adapt to the cold. He is right, indoors in a doctors office for about an hour, my temperature was at 97 degrees. At home it is at 95 degrees. The difference of body temperature creates a different level of temperature feel since now I can have it about 3-4 degrees cooler than someone with a body temperature at 98-99 degrees. You don't get a cold from being out in the cold. Hydration is important. That sort of thing.

Eating: I noticed the post above about weight loss. I'll confirm that. In September I weighed 9 pounds more than I do now in late December. I'm not trying to lose weight at all, in fact I really don't want to. I've noticed that the cold drives a different appetite, I eat larger portions and more often on instinct, I'm always hungry and I am drawn to carbohydrates like never before. In addition to the standard foods I eat, I've been chowing through loads of rice and pasta. I'm convinced that digestion is huge because if I don't eat as much the day before, I become colder. So I don't forget to get plenty of food, especially on my days off from work where I'm wandering the house doing things more. I'm basically eating the same diet that I did right before a one day 80 mile bike ride or any other long bike rides that I do where I'm out a large portion of the day biking.

Alcohol: DO NOT make the mistake of drinking alcohol, I had a few beers, actually only two, I usually drink a couple more, the warm feeling that alcohol gives is caused by extra blood flow to the skin, it is actually cooling the body while you feel warm on the outside. You can get hypothermia and die, after the effects of the alcohol started wearing off, I became very very cold and very quickly. I drank a glass of the hottest temperature water I could drink quickly, turned the heat to 70 and took shower with the hottest water I could bear for about 15 minutes. Came out and felt fine, turned the furnace down before it got to 60 degrees and everything was fine. I enjoy small amounts of alcohol from time to time but I have a fridge with beer going bad now because I don't feel like turning up the temperature to drink it safely. Not sure if I was really in any serious danger but it didn't feel to good when I go from comfortably warm to shaking with terrible shivers in a matter of 15 minutes.

I'm quite surprised how 50 degrees can be comfortable with the right humidity levels and making sure I consume enough fluids and food.

MN Renovator · 12-21-10, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

What about use a Peltier heat pump to make warm air that is then blown into the bed? The small temperature difference means a Peltier can be quite efficient for that use.

How efficient are Peltier elements though? The air movement requires additional heating and energy in the fan itself and you also lose the stagnant warm air feeling that comes with bundling up. My mattress pad heater rated at 74 watts will keep me warmer than just being comfortable when the house is 45 degrees, I could probably drop it lower. I turn the dial down on it when sleeping at 50 degrees and half for 55 degrees. If half is the same as actually using half the wattage, I think that is pretty good already. Is it worth it to try and design a Pletier to do this when it takes so little energy already?

AC_Hacker · 12-21-10, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

What about use a Peltier heat pump to make warm air that is then blown into the bed? The small temperature difference means a Peltier can be quite efficient for that use.

I think that in the long run, we are facing two major problems that are inter-related, but are most often dealt with separately.

I also think that we are fast approaching a precipice and the time to consider both problems at the same time is now upon us.

The problems I refer to are:

Finite fossil fuel supply
Global warming

The first problem will be causing us discomfort sooner, the second will appear later, but promises to be far more dire.

I think that the suggestions found on Ecorenovator are generally informed by a knowledge of the first problem, but quite often tend to be blissfully unaware of the second problem.

It is time that our thinking reaches out further and engages both problems simultaneously and considers the full impact of various alternatives.

If a solution is found that uses less manufactured energy, obviously it is a good solution. But if there is another solution that uses no manufactured energy, it is the best solution.

So to the idea, "What about use a Peltier heat pump to make warm air that is then blown into the bed?"

...I would respond, "What about another blanket?"

-AC_Hacker

Piwoslaw · 12-21-10, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MN Renovator

He also talked about how the body will drop its core temperature a little bit to adapt to the cold. He is right, indoors in a doctors office for about an hour, my temperature was at 97 degrees. At home it is at 95 degrees. The difference of body temperature creates a different level of temperature feel since now I can have it about 3-4 degrees cooler than someone with a body temperature at 98-99 degrees.

Could it be that when at home you are more relaxed and that lowers your temp by 1-2 degrees?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MN Renovator

Alcohol: DO NOT make the mistake of drinking alcohol, I had a few beers, actually only two, I usually drink a couple more, the warm feeling that alcohol gives is caused by extra blood flow to the skin, it is actually cooling the body while you feel warm on the outside. You can get hypothermia and die, after the effects of the alcohol started wearing off, I became very very cold and very quickly.

That is true only if you take alcohol in small portions. If you drink it often, in large doses, and the more % the better, then soon your blood will be replaced by alcohol and you can go as low as -114°C/-173°F (freezing temperature of pure ethanol). Been tested and proved by a large portion of Eastern Europeans.
Just kiddin'

MN Renovator · 12-21-10, 04:36 PM

As an update, its been cloudy and its 20 degrees now but probably enough sun for some window heat, been on the computer and tucked in a little after clearing the snow today. Still at 8 mins of runtime and it was 46 at 9am and 44 right now at 4:29pm. I expected it to be at 40 by now. I turn on the faucets every hour or so to be sure I'm not freezing the pipes. I'm surprised that the fridge still runs fairly often and for about the same period of time even though it doesn't need to drop the temperature much at all. Now that the sun is dropping I think I'll see 40 degrees pretty soon. When that happens I'm going to turn on the furnace to 50 degrees and take a warm shower.

I went to the kitchen to cook up some food, at 44 degrees and 40% humidity in here, 5 minutes is the start of discomfort and 10 minutes is when it becomes difficult because the hardwood floor in the kitchen and tile floor in the bathroom is quite cold, even with socks on. Not feeling the house temperature under a thick blanket, quite comfy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Could it be that when at home you are more relaxed and that lowers your temp by 1-2 degrees?

That is true only if you take alcohol in small portions. If you drink it often, in large doses, and the more % the better, then soon your blood will be replaced by alcohol and you can go as low as -114°C/-173°F (freezing temperature of pure ethanol). Been tested and proved by a large portion of Eastern Europeans.
Just kiddin'

Not sure, generally medical facilities of any kind make me less relaxed than usual. Not having a physical exam in over a decade and in the back of my mind I was waiting for unexpected bad news. All is well though but the tetanus shot left my arm hurting for a full week though.

RobertSmalls · 12-21-10, 07:19 PM

Update: My electric blanket uses 0.5KWh per night, so I expect it to come to about 60KWh/year, or $7/yr in operating costs.

The body can adapt to changing conditions. It can vary the composition and quantity of sweat, and that change requires a couple weeks. Hence, one is more susceptible to heat-related illness in May than in August. People who overcondition their environment aren't doing themselves any favors. Setting the your furnace to 70°F in the winter or your A/C to 70°F in the summer isn't going to make you more comfortable.

I guess core temperature depression is one more mechanism you have to conserve heat, but it's one that would slow your metabolism, and all the other chemical reactions we call life. I bet that would make it hard to get as much done in a day. So it comes at a price.

Instead of Peltiers, how about a mini split GSHP HX under your bed, a la bedfan? Or an electric resistive bed heater, which more than makes up for the inefficiency of electric resistive heating with the highly targeted nature of intrabed heating.

MN, your 50°F / 65% RH is a dewpoint of 45°F, which is a dewpoint about 8°F lower than I'm comfortable in.

Humidity is energy too. It's great that it won't escape through my poorly-insulated walls through conduction. But I'm losing lots of humidity in the basement, where the furnace draws it in through the cold air return, and it leaks out through cracks in the walls, and general poor sealing of the basement. That fact may be a mixed blessing, because the temperature of my basement floor (45°F or so) is below the dewpoint upstairs. It's just another reason to get rid of forced air.

12-21-10, 12:13 AM	#24
NiHaoMike Supreme EcoRenovator Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 1,154 Thanks: 14 Thanked 257 Times in 241 Posts	What about use a Peltier heat pump to make warm air that is then blown into the bed? The small temperature difference means a Peltier can be quite efficient for that use. __________________ To my surprise, shortly after Naomi Wu gave me a bit of fame for making good use of solar power, Allie Moore got really jealous of her...

12-21-10, 09:29 AM	#25
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 939 Thanks: 41 Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts	I typed a bunch here but tried to categorize it into paragraphs that should help weed through this easier if you aren't into going through all of it. Thermostat: 50 degrees. I originally had it programmed for 55 degrees for when I come home for work and drop down before going to sleep and 55 again for when I wake up. After programming it, I have never actually used the program and left it at 50. There are occasions where I will turn it up to 55 or 60 if I'm moving about the house because walking around and being active makes the temperature feel about 5 degrees cooler to me because of the breeze from walking. Clothing: Almost always wearing a tshirt, jeans, and socks but if I feel cold or I'm moving about in the house a hoodie type pullover fleece does wonders on making 50 degrees more acceptable and it just feels like a nice thick sweater, not like I'm walking around with a coat. Humidity: At 50 degrees, if it is <40% relative humidity, perspiration leaves the skin and I get cold very quickly. I do not humidify my house through anything other than my shower and when the furnace runs, it burns up the humidity in less than a day if its below freezing out. When it was below zero, I took a longer than usual shower to get myself feeling a little warmer after driving home from an errand, the furnace ran more than usual due to the temperature, in 4 hours 65% relative humidity immediately after the shower was at 45%, another few hours and it was 35% and I almost turned up the temperature on a day that doing so would have been the most expensive to. Usually what I've done to best control window condensation is to get the air moving in the house. I'll turn the thermostat down a few degrees, wait for it to call for heat, when I hear it click on, I turn the temperature up a few degrees again, hop in the shower and the furnace will move the air and also do the dehumidification it does anyway and when I get out of the shower there is no condensation even if the humidity is 65%. Anything more than 65% and my windows are fogged and ready to freeze. I can manage 45-60% decently. Showering: If I'm not working on a specific day and I'm not going out for the day, if I get uncomfortable with the temperature and take a shower. I take very hot showers and I've been able to walk in the garage at 20 degrees to grab something out of my car and come back in without it being cold. It is like a 15 minute barrier against feeling the cold. Moist skin and a high internal body temperature, does wonders. Energy usage: So far the coldest day, the thermostat recorded 5 hours 18 minutes of furnace run time. It is based on call for heat time so I have to exclude the beginning 2 minutes into the call for heat before the main burner kicks on, about few seconds beyond 3 minutes is when the actual blower kicks in. I set the span to turn on at -1degree of the set temp and off 2 degrees above, 3 degree total span. My oversized furnace only runs the main burner for about 12 minutes to create that. With the old thermostat, only 5 mins, very inefficient. The new one is better and runs less than once an hour, the other one was turning on and off far too often. ...so the 5 hours and 18 minutes for the -9f day probably ran a little extra per run, probably 15 minutes of heat call, which means that it probably started 21 times or so but probably less. Novembers temperature average was 34.6 degrees F. Novembers gas bill was 27 therms, during summer it seems that about 7 or 8 of that is the water heater. The billing period was 28 days 10/27/2010 through 11/24/2010. 27 therms including the city fee and basic charge was $24 rounded down. Knock the $8 basic charge and $2.50 city fee off and it is $14 of actual fuel usage cost. Figuring $4 of that was the water heater, the furnace was only $10 of gas usage for 34.6 degree outdoor temperatures. The previous owners paid $151 for their January gas bill with 167 therms. Either all of this will dramatically change with temperatures sitting <zero degrees or they had the thermostat set to Tahiti. Either that or I'm underestimating plastic films ability to insulate the patio door for air seal and air gap and the plastic at the bottom of the opening to the bathroom sun light. I haven't found someone willing to help me hang the window frame I took off of one of the bedroom windows after filling its 5/8" air gap which I assume is consistent throughout the house but once I get some help nailing that trim back on, I'll do it for the whole house. Hopefully it makes a big difference and then I'll set the temperature higher. This years 50 degree temperature setting is more of a challenge to see how low I can get the bills in comparison to the family of 4 plus extra guest that I'm assuming was living here before. I've got a roommate who wants to move in and the money that the roommate would pay would more than allow me to set the temp higher and I would rather have a roommate give me money than to try to save this way. So far air conditioning the house to comfortable enough temperatures to fall asleep in the summer is more expensive than heating it in the winter. Sleeping: I have a low voltage(18.5v) mattress pad heater. The pad itself is rated at 74 watts but the power supply has an input rating of 1 amp, so not sure how lossy the power supply is as it is a little warm but under 120 watts. I don't have a kill-a-watt on hand at the moment to check its actual usage. The wires are thin and I can't feel them. I have a standard thin bed sheet between the mattress pad heater and me so that way I can wash that and hopefully keep the mattress pad heater cleaner, it sounds like a pain to clean. It is about the best energy/money saving thing I've put my money towards inside the house. I've even slept comfortably at 45 degrees a few times. I don't think I'd want to spend more than 15-20 minutes in the house at that temperature outside of the covers. Today: I set the temp to 45 last night at 6PM and went to sleep at a regular time. The furnace must have cycled once today, the thermostat is showing it ran for 8 minutes so far today. The basement seems to be a good source of ground-source heat that rises up. It is 45 degrees up here and the basement is 47 degrees and the concrete basement floor and unsinsulated walls are 48 degrees. If the temperature was at 55 degrees, with temperatures like what is outside right now, the furnace would have already run 2 hours and it is 9 oclock. 2.5 or 3 hours before noon strikes if the sun doesn't come up. At 50 degrees it usually runs 4 hours a day with outdoor temperatures near 0f. That should be about 3 therms a day or about $60 if I only calculate with the 31-110 therm bracket of $.67/therm, add another $10.50 for the basic and city fees and plus or minus for actual outdoor temperature. I'm sure I won't see the January bill above $80 and the December bill will probably be around $50 total but we shall see. Doctor and Health: I had a standard physical at the doctor earlier this month and used it as a chance to discuss being outside in cold weather and sleeping in a tent in cold weather for a long period. I skirted around trying to get into a discussion about living in it so I made it seem like I planned doing this a week or two as a camping excursion. He provided all the symptoms of hypothermia and to avoid wind and getting wet as these will freeze you. He also talked about how the body will drop its core temperature a little bit to adapt to the cold. He is right, indoors in a doctors office for about an hour, my temperature was at 97 degrees. At home it is at 95 degrees. The difference of body temperature creates a different level of temperature feel since now I can have it about 3-4 degrees cooler than someone with a body temperature at 98-99 degrees. You don't get a cold from being out in the cold. Hydration is important. That sort of thing. Eating: I noticed the post above about weight loss. I'll confirm that. In September I weighed 9 pounds more than I do now in late December. I'm not trying to lose weight at all, in fact I really don't want to. I've noticed that the cold drives a different appetite, I eat larger portions and more often on instinct, I'm always hungry and I am drawn to carbohydrates like never before. In addition to the standard foods I eat, I've been chowing through loads of rice and pasta. I'm convinced that digestion is huge because if I don't eat as much the day before, I become colder. So I don't forget to get plenty of food, especially on my days off from work where I'm wandering the house doing things more. I'm basically eating the same diet that I did right before a one day 80 mile bike ride or any other long bike rides that I do where I'm out a large portion of the day biking. Alcohol: DO NOT make the mistake of drinking alcohol, I had a few beers, actually only two, I usually drink a couple more, the warm feeling that alcohol gives is caused by extra blood flow to the skin, it is actually cooling the body while you feel warm on the outside. You can get hypothermia and die, after the effects of the alcohol started wearing off, I became very very cold and very quickly. I drank a glass of the hottest temperature water I could drink quickly, turned the heat to 70 and took shower with the hottest water I could bear for about 15 minutes. Came out and felt fine, turned the furnace down before it got to 60 degrees and everything was fine. I enjoy small amounts of alcohol from time to time but I have a fridge with beer going bad now because I don't feel like turning up the temperature to drink it safely. Not sure if I was really in any serious danger but it didn't feel to good when I go from comfortably warm to shaking with terrible shivers in a matter of 15 minutes. I'm quite surprised how 50 degrees can be comfortable with the right humidity levels and making sure I consume enough fluids and food.

12-21-10, 07:19 PM	#30
RobertSmalls Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 344 Thanks: 3 Thanked 17 Times in 15 Posts	Update: My electric blanket uses 0.5KWh per night, so I expect it to come to about 60KWh/year, or $7/yr in operating costs. The body can adapt to changing conditions. It can vary the composition and quantity of sweat, and that change requires a couple weeks. Hence, one is more susceptible to heat-related illness in May than in August. People who overcondition their environment aren't doing themselves any favors. Setting the your furnace to 70°F in the winter or your A/C to 70°F in the summer isn't going to make you more comfortable. I guess core temperature depression is one more mechanism you have to conserve heat, but it's one that would slow your metabolism, and all the other chemical reactions we call life. I bet that would make it hard to get as much done in a day. So it comes at a price. Instead of Peltiers, how about a mini split GSHP HX under your bed, a la bedfan? Or an electric resistive bed heater, which more than makes up for the inefficiency of electric resistive heating with the highly targeted nature of intrabed heating. MN, your 50°F / 65% RH is a dewpoint of 45°F, which is a dewpoint about 8°F lower than I'm comfortable in. Humidity is energy too. It's great that it won't escape through my poorly-insulated walls through conduction. But I'm losing lots of humidity in the basement, where the furnace draws it in through the cold air return, and it leaks out through cracks in the walls, and general poor sealing of the basement. That fact may be a mixed blessing, because the temperature of my basement floor (45°F or so) is below the dewpoint upstairs. It's just another reason to get rid of forced air.