Ok, at 6:19AM the electricity went out. Kind of made the electric blower and electronic ignition used by my gas furnace completely useless. Temp dropped down to 52ºF inside the home. Electricity just came back on–thankfully.
Good news was my HW tank uses a gas pilot so I have steaming hot water for a shower.
Join some of the most experienced and recognized building professionals for two days of presentations, panel discussions, networking, and more.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
My house is 50 or less every morning when it's cold out. That's where I set it at. Sometimes I turn it up past 60 in the evenings.
I'm with you. I keep my thermostat set at 58.---------------------
Swimming through the ashes of another life, no real reason to accept the way things have changed. Wrapped in guilt, sealed up tight.
Dang Mark, are you also a menopausal woman?
In the evenings, when you are feeling plush, do you also have "Lamp Time" where you allow a light to be turned on? :) (I laugh and think about my in laws every time I see that pizza comercial)Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
I'm crankin 62 degrees this evening. Starting to sweat. I like the cold, it's invigorating, plus we have some cold weather here, so becoming acclimated makes the real cold bearable. I have a somewhat similar routine in the summer to become acclimated to the heat, but it's not as sucessful. I don't tolerate heat as well as cold. I'm getting my ice bicycle ready to hit the trail. Got nokian studded tires on it.
Sounds like you need to upgrade the insulation in your house, close off some drafts! The heat you had in the house was going fast!! A portable generater might be a good investment, but I would go for insulation first!
Sounds like you need to upgrade the insulation in your house, close off some drafts! The heat you had in the house was going fast!! A portable generater might be a good investment, but I would go for insulation first!
A lot of that "depends." Might be an older house, so it's the infiltration, not the insulation.
Could be that the temp on the stat was low the night before, too. Going from 60º to 52º not so dramatic as going from 78-80º to 52º after all.
Genset is an interesting idea, but a portable may not have enough juice to run the blowers for forced air (and gets into the not-so cut-and-dried question of what is a "must" electrify item for power outages--the fridge, desipte being contraintuitive, is a major item to keep running even in an ice storm, unless you want to roll it outside).Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Yep, the wife sets the downstairs to 58ºF when its bed-time. She walks on a treadmill in the morning downstairs and likes it cool. Upstairs we've been leaving it around 60-62ºF this season since we had both of our house cats shaved--and they hate us today.
Sounds like you need to upgrade the insulation in your house, close off some drafts! The heat you had in the house was going fast!! A portable generater might be a good investment, but I would go for insulation first!
Welcome to southern construction! I'm in a five year old track house that cost me $250K 45-miles outside Atlanta, Georgia. Its the bestest constructed house according to the Georgian builder that is responsible for it.
I live in NJ in a "beautifully" built track home!! and have spent the last 8 years "finishing" what the builder started. I understand where your coming from. Some utility companys will check out the heat loss for free and might help with upgrades.
I live in NJ in a "beautifully" built track home!! and have spent the last 8 years "finishing" what the builder started. I understand where your coming from. Some utility companys will check out the heat loss for free and might help with upgrades.
I checked the Summer before last and both my co-op and GP wanted $300 for a minimum evaluation. Remember, the South is where the money evidentally is, right? We are all richy-rich. No need for stinking insulation, or high-performance construction because we can afford to open the windows in Winter and blast the furnace at full-throttle until the cows act like flying pigs.
Sorry to hear that.
If you ever build new, think about building a house that won't get cold, ever. Our normal winter low is 65º inside. A few degrees higher if we bothered with window treatment. Not due to our Virginia winters, the original one was Missoula- same 65º.
We'd miss electricity for a different reason, no water pressure. This am started with snow, sleet now, changing to freezing rain soon. That's the prescription for power outages. Had the diesel tank filled a couple weeks ago in preparation.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
My next home will be built not by some redneck track builder. I'll take a year off to GC it after spending a couple of years learning how to do it. I'm leaning toward 10" SIP construction with 12" SIP roof for the shell.
Put in a 12 kW gen set 5 years ago after a 2 day outage getting by on a portable 3 kW gen set. Have not had an outage over an hour since, good insurance?
The 12 kW unit is on a trailer, so can use for big jobs if need be.
Bad news for me is that I have an old house with insulation in the attic, but none in the walls. No room for insulation in the walls either.
Good news is that I also have an old natural gas hot water radiator heating system that can be run for days off a car battery if the power ever goes out. No circulator pump to push the water, just plain old convection. It only needs enough power to open the gas valve.
Yeah, our temp's normally around 68 during the day. On a zero-degree day it MIGHT get down to the low 50s in 6 hours without power. That's upstairs, of course. Downstairs is half below grade (split entry) and if we keep the doors closed it'll hold heat a lot longer.
Of course, at some point I'd throw some logs into the fireplace. Should be sufficient to keep the downstairs comfortable and the upstairs above freezing even in 20-below weather.
happy?
Our heat went out yesterday. My wife was up before me, and started bugging me to do something about it when she realized the furnace wasn't working.
So, I called my plumbing/heating friend. He came out in the afternoon, did something to the pressure switch, and told me I owed him a beer.
I figger its worth at least a 6 pack by making my wife happy.
With conventional framing and high performance air tightening measures my home will typically lose only one degree of heat on a freezing night with the temp starting at 70 degrees. This type of performance can be acheived without SIPS and can also be difficult to achieve with SIPS. Research on PERSIST when you start studying up on high performance building envelopes.
We were out about 24 hrs. Bleeech. Everything daughter asked to do was met with "no honey, that needs power." Eventually she accepted my suggestion to read, read, read.
I read, read, read the thermostat as it fell to 52ºF. hah
We were lucky I guess. I was just responding to an e-mail from a friend in Kansas who saw Asheville icestorm on weather channel ( to tell her we were ok) and ours went out about 12:45 pm Thurs. Came back 12 1/2 hrs later. I lost 10 degrees. Took the heat pump a while to recover.
Power to our place makes a long loop from station about 1 1/2 miles away but covers about 7 mile run. Neighbors across road had power as theirs comes the short route.