OK - tah... 😉 I'm about 100 km further North, where cod season is just starting..... a week or two delayed, this year. Just waiting for the season first "molje"... ( fresh cod, liver and roe...) Food for vikings 😱
My ancestors used to sort of hibernate, they dug peat for fires and dried it for winter, stilled whiskey, dried fish, made oatcakes etc and stitched themselves into their clothing and were hardly seen again before March.
However they were viewed as unproductive by their southern educated elite, most were forced off the land (the highland clearances) and replaced by sheep 😡
My pal talked about eating molje and dried/smoked fish almost daily, he used to dream about things like apple pie and cream while at sea 😀
It's definitely here, snowing moderately but steadily. No wind for once.. Very serene and pretty from my home office window. 🙂 It has warmed considerably - about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday's high and is now hovering at around 26F (-3 C).
Up to a balmy 28F here (-2C). Sun is out, wind is still whipping the flag.
I left the pellet stove running when I left home today.
I left the pellet stove running when I left home today.
It looks like the main body of the storm has pushed off into the Atlantic east of Boston. A few straggling snowy clouds over central PA. The sun is shining, it's 20 degrees and I'm back to T-shirt and flip flops.....for a few hours. It will be -1 overnight.
I wonder about the energy costs (monetary and environmental) of keeping you mob from freezing for a large proportion of each year.
Where I am if it's a bit cold we just put on a jumper and socks, if it's a bit hot we just take stuff off.
Dan.
Where I am if it's a bit cold we just put on a jumper and socks, if it's a bit hot we just take stuff off.
Dan.
I'd guesstimate that 2/3d of the Aussies have hvac in their homes.
(likely even higher percentages for Victoria and West-Aus)
There are super efficient houses here in New England which can be heated or cooled with just the transfer of a few thousand btu per hour..
Unfortunately that would not include mine, we've done what we can so far, with more planned in the future; 100+ year old houses are not very energy efficient even with a lot of retrofitting.
In this weather I estimate we are currently producing somewhere around a million btu per day for heating, but it is really cold here at the moment! For about 9 months of the year we use 10% of that or less. Our fuel is natural gas.
Unfortunately that would not include mine, we've done what we can so far, with more planned in the future; 100+ year old houses are not very energy efficient even with a lot of retrofitting.
In this weather I estimate we are currently producing somewhere around a million btu per day for heating, but it is really cold here at the moment! For about 9 months of the year we use 10% of that or less. Our fuel is natural gas.
Our house in south Florida (26 degrees latitude) required 27.2 Megawatt hours of electricity for year round cooling in 2013. The house had central heat, but I never used it at all most years. None in 2013. Most winters in south Florida required the cooling to be turned on every day but there were a few days when it did not run. Some winters would require the heat to be turned on, but these are rare and usually only last 1 day. The 1480 square foot house was built in 1978 and the AC was replaced with a 12 SEER RUUD unit in 2008. I kept the thermostat at 78 on AC and 65 when I used the heat. I installed a run time meter on the new unit in 2008 which recorded 6843.75 hours in 2013. The unit consumes 3980 watts when running. For most of 2013 I was the only one at home. I set the thermostat at 78 when I got home from work, then set at 80 when I went to bed. It would stay on 78 over the weekend unless I left the house for more than an hour. When Sherri was home it stayed on 78 or lower, so the cooling costs were higher on most years.
The 1502 square foot house here in the northern tip of West Virginia (38 degrees latitude) was also built in 1978. The heat pump was replaced in 2005 with a unit of unknown size or efficiency, also a RUUD. It requires intermittent cooling (daytime) for about 3 months in the summer and sporadic use on hot days. The electric bill increases about $50 per month for those months. At 10 cents per KWHR, that's 1/2 MWHR per month plus sporadic use, total COOLING about 2 MWHR.
This year we switched on the heat in November and the electric bill increase was about $50, or 500 KWHR. The electric bill increase for December was $120 for 1.2 MWHR. Some of that was due to the use of "emergency heat" for a few days due to problems with the unit. These have been fixed. I'm guessing that January and February's heating usage will be 3.2 MWHR (we used 405 KWHR in the first week of Jan), with March at .5 MWHR. This is a total ESTIMATED heating use of 5.4 MWHR.
Even if my guestimations on heating costs are way off, cooling the house in Florida costs considerably more than heating and cooling the house here. The two houses are about the same size and were built at the same time. The house here has a basement, but it is unheated and was at 41 degrees yesterday.
Newer construction in both climates are more energy efficient. The house we are having built is bigger (1950 square feet) with a heated basement, yet they guarantee that the energy costs will be lower than our current house, or they will pay the first years difference!
And that's keeping the house at 78, which is about as hot as our house gets in the summer without AC.
jeff
Our house is 1500 sq' ranch so not to big. Built in the 50's. We have reinsulted the outside walls. There is a wood stove to help with the heat....fuel for the stove is a mix of shop scraps and what I can gather with the chain saw anytime there is some wind in the area.
Gas is paid on a budget $78.00 for the month. That's heat hot water and cooking.
We have solar on the roof and including the credit we ge from our state for producing most of our own electric our electric cost comes to $85.00 monthly. We definitely use the air conditioning in the summer.
So that's about $163.00 a month energy use.
Not too bad.
Our house is 1400 sq feet, but that does not include the finished portions of the basement (about 300 sq feet) and the basement is heated mostly by our steam boiler and a number of condensate lines that are deliberately not insulated, (I insulated almost all of the steam lines and most of the returns) the basement without supplemental electric heat runs in the low 60s at best in colder weather.
Our heating season is long running from sometime in mid October typically into May, generally in the first and last months heat only comes on sporadically, but over the past few days it is running about 50% of the time, it rarely runs more than this unless it drops below 10 degrees F outside. You would probably not be surprised to hear that our energy bills in what is one of the ten most expensive places to live in the U.S.A probably averages $200 a month averaged over the year. We run some AC in the summer, but not much on average, although we have summer days where temperatures exceed 100 F on the rare occasion, just 4 - 5 degrees cooler is not uncommon in July. Fall sometimes starts in August, followed by Indian Summer in October.. LOL
We are going to reside the house and when we do that we will add house wrap and additional insulation. (We've got R45 in the attic, and R15 in the walls, and newer thermopane windows that are effectively R4..)
Our heating season is long running from sometime in mid October typically into May, generally in the first and last months heat only comes on sporadically, but over the past few days it is running about 50% of the time, it rarely runs more than this unless it drops below 10 degrees F outside. You would probably not be surprised to hear that our energy bills in what is one of the ten most expensive places to live in the U.S.A probably averages $200 a month averaged over the year. We run some AC in the summer, but not much on average, although we have summer days where temperatures exceed 100 F on the rare occasion, just 4 - 5 degrees cooler is not uncommon in July. Fall sometimes starts in August, followed by Indian Summer in October.. LOL
We are going to reside the house and when we do that we will add house wrap and additional insulation. (We've got R45 in the attic, and R15 in the walls, and newer thermopane windows that are effectively R4..)
78 in the Florida humidity is about as hot as I can set it without sweating, and that's when wearing just a pair of shorts.
Even with the central AC set at 78 the temp in my 10 X 10 work room would climb into the mid 80's as soon as I turned on the lights and computer. I added a secondary 6000 BTU window mount AC unit in that room (didn't count that in my previous post). With everything off in the room I could get it to 70 degrees, but add me, the lights, computer, my test equipment, and a couple of glowing tubes, and it would heat right up into the 80's. This is why my 845 SE amplifier never got used.....it will here!
My last electric bill was 1.44MWH, down from 1.97 MWH last year when someone else wis living her with me.
I keep the thermostat on 67 during the day and 65 at night.
There is 2400 sq-ft of living space on two levels.
The heat pump has an SEER of 15.4, and I just turned the emergency heat on last week. I normally have it disabled.
I keep the thermostat on 67 during the day and 65 at night.
There is 2400 sq-ft of living space on two levels.
The heat pump has an SEER of 15.4, and I just turned the emergency heat on last week. I normally have it disabled.
Electricity here is AUD 0.25/kW/hr plus service charges.
Ok, so I'm an energy tight aaarse/greenie so I run low power CFL lighting, and mostly run my low power mini system and/or 32'' lcd tv, in addition to my 18'' laptop.
When I feel extravagant I run my A system and/or 50'' lcd tv.
I also run solar hot water which is a HUGE fossil energy saving.
Including the fridge/cooking, my electricity charge is around $25.00/week including service/connection fee.
I should dig up a few bills and work out what my average daily/weekly kWh usage actually is, but suffice to say I do try to keep it minimal for ethical reasons.
Dan.
Ok, so I'm an energy tight aaarse/greenie so I run low power CFL lighting, and mostly run my low power mini system and/or 32'' lcd tv, in addition to my 18'' laptop.
When I feel extravagant I run my A system and/or 50'' lcd tv.
I also run solar hot water which is a HUGE fossil energy saving.
Including the fridge/cooking, my electricity charge is around $25.00/week including service/connection fee.
I should dig up a few bills and work out what my average daily/weekly kWh usage actually is, but suffice to say I do try to keep it minimal for ethical reasons.
Dan.
Kevin, it's big, cold, windy, and wet....and it's coming your way.
It's just starting here, a mix of rain, snow, and ice. 6 inches of snow expected by tomorrow evening......a foot or more for NYC, Philly and Boston.
The lines at Kroger and Walmart were crazy long too.
It's just starting here, a mix of rain, snow, and ice. 6 inches of snow expected by tomorrow evening......a foot or more for NYC, Philly and Boston.
The lines at Kroger and Walmart were crazy long too.