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brin_bellway[cw: poverty, food, (arguably) apocalypse]
It's weird having it be above room temperature out.
I'm used to running household cost-benefit analyses that treat the waste heat of electrical appliances as an offsetting *benefit*, not a cost. "Waste" heat isn't truly wasted: it contributes to heating the house.
...except during the warmest three or four months of the year, when it *detracts* from the house's climate control. Suddenly the usual scales are out of balance, and I find myself wondering if I need to experiment more with how long common items need to coast on a turned-off burner or oven to work out the same as leaving the heat on the whole time, and whether I should be putting lids on my pots.
---
Today, though, the forecast is below room temperature for the foreseeable future. There is a frost advisory tonight.
furnaces have a life expectancy of 15 - 20 years and ours is 32
I saw two different Californians say recently that they bought heat pumps and it cost them two years' wages apiece, and yeah Californians also quote electricity prices three times what even non-subsidised people pay here but still
plus you're supposed to finish your insulating renovations before you even *think* about getting a heat pump, partly because you won't truly know what size heat pump you need until then and partly because the natural-gas company won't give you renovation rebates if you're not primarily on gas heat (and we're already taking the electricity programs as far as they'll go)
Well, that's another matter. For now, as autumn sets in, I will take a moment to look over at our dehydrator running a batch of scallions and appreciate its double usefulness.
It's weird having it be above room temperature out.
I'm used to running household cost-benefit analyses that treat the waste heat of electrical appliances as an offsetting *benefit*, not a cost. "Waste" heat isn't truly wasted: it contributes to heating the house.
...except during the warmest three or four months of the year, when it *detracts* from the house's climate control. Suddenly the usual scales are out of balance, and I find myself wondering if I need to experiment more with how long common items need to coast on a turned-off burner or oven to work out the same as leaving the heat on the whole time, and whether I should be putting lids on my pots.
---
Today, though, the forecast is below room temperature for the foreseeable future. There is a frost advisory tonight.
I saw two different Californians say recently that they bought heat pumps and it cost them two years' wages apiece, and yeah Californians also quote electricity prices three times what even non-subsidised people pay here but still
plus you're supposed to finish your insulating renovations before you even *think* about getting a heat pump, partly because you won't truly know what size heat pump you need until then and partly because the natural-gas company won't give you renovation rebates if you're not primarily on gas heat (and we're already taking the electricity programs as far as they'll go)
Well, that's another matter. For now, as autumn sets in, I will take a moment to look over at our dehydrator running a batch of scallions and appreciate its double usefulness.
