𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓞𝓯𝓯𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓵 𝓕𝓡 𝓦𝓪𝔂-𝓣𝓸𝓸-𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭

12/24/2022 | By Laz A. Mataz

[Lazamataz]

I live in an early-60's-build house. For the most part, it's wonderful, but it has very little insulation. I've been meaning to rectify that, but didn't yet.

So, after spending a warm night buried under blankets, I wake up to a shivering-cold set of rooms, all under 60 degrees F.... even though me and the missus set all the baseboard heating to max and left both space heaters going.

So, I decide to go to Walmart. I find two pallets of space heaters, one of them Infra-red, and one of them Oil-radiant. Both are electric.

I go ahead and put one of each in my cart, get a few food items, then decide to pick up one more Infra-red heater.... maybe 5 minutes later.

BOTH PALLETS ARE CLEANED OUT... when I get to the register, everyone had a pair of those heaters in their cart.

[bk1000]

Wifey and I decided to flee the hectic city for sunny Florida this year.
We rented a VRBO house in lovely Port St Joe.
It is 21 degrees this morning.
It was 7 at home, so I guess it isn’t so bad.

[kosciusko51]

TVA is spewing the rolling blackout crap in Northern Alabama. So, far, no blackout here, though we had a bunch of power flickers for about 3 hours yesterday morning.

[Lazamataz]

Laz, I might suggest you wear clothes around the house.

My darlin' won't let me. She says she wants instant-access.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

SW corner of Wisconsin. Frigid! We were down to -12 night before last, then howling winds all yesterday which drifted the 4" of snow that we got, so all in all; I've seen MUCH worse. Only down to 1 degree last night.

We heat with propane and so far, no problems. Our farm house is from 1900, but remodeled and well-insulated with the exception of the added-on kitchen which just has a crawl space below. We run a fan in there and I leave the faucet drip which the cats like, and leave the door open under the sink. The line for our water in the fridge always freezes, but we're used to that.

Christmas at our house on Monday with The Fam - and it'll be in the teens and sunny.

Next week? High 40's and rain!

[Lurker]

Wait…..you have a Mrs?

When did that happen?

L

[wbslws]

I live in Florida. Tell the Yankees to come pick up their weather. It’s in our yard again.

[Lazamataz]

LOL I love hearing about uppity Upstate New Yorkers getting their comeupance!

Oh wait, I’m from Upstate New York.

[cuban leaf]

I have a wood burning stove in my “shop/mancave” building. I bought it with a fully insulated building, and lows down to ten degrees in mind.

It’s 35% insulated now, and our low the last couple of days has been -12 or so. And the high at 5.

The warmest it got my building was 60 degrees for about a half hour, and then 58 was a struggle. I put it on low last night and woke up to a building at 39 degrees. The important thing is that I DID keep it above freezing.

But this is VERY unusual weather for this area (south central Kentucky). And when I get full insulation in it will be significantly better. I sure went through a lot of wood...

What keeps going through my mind, though, was the climate article a read a few years ago that said we should not worry about the planet getting warmer, but that it was getting colder. And a colder planet is a dryer planet. We also had the driest fall we’ve had since I’ve lived here (11 years). And they are having drought problems in other parts of the country - and world.

I guess we’ll see. Hopefully this is just one of those outlier years.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

So HAPPY for you! Love comes late in life for some (like me) but it always comes.

[Lazamataz]

Wait…..you have a Mrs? When did that happen?

6 years ago.... and we aren't OFFICIALLY married. We both tried marriage before, and it didn't suit either of us. We're perfectly happy the way we are.... naked and hittin' it.

[null and void]

The little woman and I live in a house without electricity

How are you posting?

Are you logged in?

[Carriage Hill]

A cloudy, ready-to-snow very bitter cold 3° with wind chill at -12°, outside.

But a toasty warm 75° inside the condo.

My Jeep GC 'Trackhawk' is garaged and warm. And now I have to go out to run some errands; the traffic will suck, bigtime.

I have 2 Dyson oscillating heating/cooling towers -- one for the garage, and a spare -- and my theory is: buy 2. "Better to have it and not need it, than to need it, and not have it."

Just like my theory with "prepping", firearms & ammo (since 2002).

Stay warm Laz, and get your place re-insulated in the Spring, when it's doable.

[conservativeimage]

When i moved into my house a few years ago (early 1900’s build) I asked the electric company what the previous renter’s winter bill was. The house, several log cabins moved and pieced together as a single unit, had an open fireplace in one room and electric baseboard heaters in all. The people I bought the house from were paying over $600 a month for electricity in the winter. They had the fireplace totally blocked off because they didn’t know how to make it draft.

I installed this house’s first air duct system. Before the only way to control the temperature was to close a door or open a window. The propane furnace was positioned to pull air from the fireplace room and push it to the rest of the house. I dug the gas pipe trench in the winter by hand using a high pressure water nozzle connected to our water heater to excavate one day, then use coals from the fireplace the next to melt the frozen trench and dig down further.

Half of the house is log cabin inside a stick frame. On the other half though, we pulled some of the ‘70’s wood paneling back in one of the stick frame rooms and found virtually no insulation between the studs. So I renovated that entire room with foam board insulation, new wiring, outlets and drywall. It’s a super cozy room now.

We drove a couple hours around the mountain range to pick up a used wood stove that fit the fireplace perfectly. The stove cut our wood consumption by at least half. Down to about 0 degrees outside with the help of just the blower motor on the furnace the stove can keep the 5 bedroom house at 70 degrees. When it gets colder than that it’s a little too much work to push the fire. For example this time it was -27 outside and 68 in the farthest room with just the fire going. So that’s a good time to think about turning the propane on to help. The power from solar panels, batteries and generator on RV outside has been brought inside with extension cords and can keep heat going during power outages.

My electric bill is between $120 and $160 now and heating fuel can be picked up off the ground in the woods.

[AppyPappy]

Gas fireplaces, stoves and heaters so we are good. It was 0 this morning, wind chill was -17. Power staying on so far. Going to Walmart later because Christmas Eve in Appalachia. They need an observation deck with a bar.

[Lazamataz]

LOVE ALWAYS COMES!

(I see what you did there)

[Lurker]

“We’re perfectly happy the way we are.... naked and hittin’ it!”

So hit it again…harder!

Merry Christmas, old friend.

L

[FryingPan101]

🤣🎄

[who knows what evil?]

I normally pay little attention to Facebook, but it is hysterical watching the FB page of the local electric company this morning...women are pitching a fit over trying to get their baking done today with these ongoing ‘blackouts’...only ONE poster fives credit where credit is due...the ‘green agenda’. We rode out 37 below in Vermont, and 52 below in New York without ‘rolling blackouts’...we had a cold spell like this in December a few years ago right here in East Tennessee...what changed?

[xp38]

[Lazamataz]

Somebody at our Walmart was in FULL BULLWINKLE MOOSE COSTUME. Hilarious.