If a sweaters enough you must live in a warm ass place.
It hit -8 C last week where I am, still a pleasant 20 C inside without having turned the heat on.
I probably get a lot of free heat from my neighbours apartments though, I would guess.
As long as it’s bearable with additional layers on, I’m going to lean towards doing that, as cool bedrooms make for amazing sleep quality.
God, I recall when we lost power for a week in the middle of a freeze, it was so cold that my multiple blankets weren’t enough to keep me warm when trying to sleep. I had to break out a nasty comforter that I’ve got that doesn’t breathe at all and gets real sweaty during normal weather. Worked well to lock in the heat.
Never mind things like water, pets, children…
Yeah, nah, I’m on the side of the government paying for utilities. Human right to electricity. Figure out a system to prevent overuse, but everyone deserves to have heating and cooling when needed.
That said, definitely wear a sweater in the winter if you can. Acclimate to the season and you’ll hate going outside a lot less, and need less heating in the winter. I typically don’t heat most of my home in the winter (I don’t have central heating). I just use a space heater in whatever room I’m in, and move it to the next room with me, and wear warm clothes. I’m in Tennessee, which routinely gets well below freezing in the winter. Not ideal, but it works
What temp is freezing in F? Is it still defined by the temp water freezes at, like in C, or do you guys have a different scale for this too?
32°F is freezing. 0°F (-18C) happens, but isn’t too common in most of the US.
32f is the same as 0c, and they’re both freezing. 0c is the temp at which brine freezes, but nobody really knows/cares about that. Where I live it down to -25f/-31c at least a few times a year, and normally you can expect at least a few weeks to a month below 32f/0c, but the last few years have been mild
0c is the temp at which brine freezes
I looked that bit up as it didn’t seem right, you mixed up ‘f’ and ‘c’.
Water freezes at 0c and brine freezes at 0f.
That’s a good fact though about 0f being the freeze point of brine, it’s helping me visualise the scale of f a bit better. Thank you!
Whoops, yeah, typod that one. Sorry!
Yeah @[email protected] that’s neat, never knew that!
(btw congrats on having accounts across the most instances I’ve seen!)
Made several because instances were going down left and right at one point. Lol. Finally settled on slrpnk, and only ever use this one when I accidently log into it without paying attention.
Also, gotta say, I love Lemmy, but it still weirds me out being recognized across multiple communities. Like, noticing the same users in one subreddit over and over, or being recognized in the sub is one thing. But on Lemmy I notice the same names pop up in multiple communities, and have had people continue conversations from one community in another because they recognize the username. It’s a weird experience. I feel like I’m in Mayberry. Lol
Figure out a system to prevent overuse
If we’re going down the “government should pay for it” route, then a good solution would be subsidizing thermal insulation. It’s a big investment upfront, but will save a lot of money for both homeowners and the government in the future. Not to mention the obvious ecological benefits.
I feel like it already is. Just not always from the government. I put three pallets worth of insulation into my attic(~$1500) and between the rebates from the gas and power company it ended up costing me like $350. I did have to front that cost though and the paperwork was kind of a pain. Had to draw a scaled picture of my house with the part of the living area covered with insulation on graph paper. They don’t pay for over the garage.
Just looked at what I bought again and insulation has gone way up in price. It’s close to $2500 now. No idea if the rebates also went up but I kind of doubt it.
Absolutely. We should be subsidizing anything and everything that helps decrease energy usage, especially in ways that mean we don’t have to make big changes to lifestyle. Though that’s a whole other discussion. :/ But utilities in general, electricity, water, Internet, gas (though if possible move that shit to electric) should be public and no cost at the point of use, imho
That would require them to think long term and logically , Also i assume lots of companies would not like that they won’t be able to get as much profit.
Don’t get me wrong I definitely agree but there’s just so much things that would work better, be cheaper more efficient and better for the environment but that would cost money and not make much profit. Sometimes I have hope people will get fed up with this BS and change happens but mostly I’m skeptical.
Some people think water tastes better crunchy
Your a poet!
Pets? One of my cats found a nice solution for that: recruit some dumb human as her heating pillow. (The “dumb human” is me, by the way.) And when I’m not on the bed she sleeps inside a blanket folded in the shape of a pocket.
…although winter here rarely goes below 0°C, subtropical region and all that shit. If I was a bit souther I’d probably have some heaters in the bedrooms, and that’s it - there’s no reason to heat the whole house.
Not all of us carry that much fat around ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
How does that prevent you from wearing warm clothes?
To a point, yeah. But when it’s -40 outside, heating to 18 or 21 doesn’t make much of a difference energy wise.
Must be nice living somewhere where you don’t even know that pipes can freeze.
Okay, you can heat your house but only to 50 degrees.
Everyone who has their pipes freeze that I’ve asked said you have to set it to 60 if you really don’t want to risk it to freeze.
Everyone in the metric world:
50 degrees is half of sauna temp at best though.
Using what baseline? 50 degrees is half the boiling point of water, using the logical baseline of zero.
Exactly. And 100 degrees is what a good sauna should be. Maybe I could go as low as 80, but 50 is absolutely pointless.
Are we talking about the ambient temperature in the room or something else? Cause room temperature at 100c is immediately life threatening.
It isn’t. The air being 100 degrees and dry isn’t the same as pouring 100 degree water on yourself. You’re only sitting there for like 15-20 minutes. Ask any Finn and I guarantee you that 100 degrees is what you aim for.
why are they wearing towels?? freaks
I usually only go for 20 degrees, but I guess a sauna would be fun
Pipes can’t freeze if they’re halfway to boiling, I like your thinking
I might get heatstroke but my lizard would be so excited. He could run around without his heat lamps.
based celsius moment
Just don’t be poor. I haven’t lowered my temp… Ever. If I can’t wear shorts in my own house, I’m not interested.
Blood circulation in my hands breaks down completely when I get cold, so no. I will not be turning down the heat.
Meh I just deal with the purple arms
The older I have gotten, the more true that has been for me. I’m in an enclosed room with its own electric heater and it’s plenty warm in here because I’m comfortable in a T-shirt, but my fingers have been like ice since I woke up well over an hour ago and they aren’t getting warmer.
This is the year my hands and feet started getting cold. It’s been… an adjustment.
I can’t remember when it started for me but it’s like a big red “you’re old now” flag. Sigh.
Right? No me gusta, I wanna go back to being 20 kthxplzbye.
I’m a very chilly person who loses dexterity fast. I find some quick exercises warm me up pretty well.
But yeah you’ve got to heat your space to a minimum of comfort
Fingerless wool gloves.
I’m not the person you replied to, but fingerless gloves don’t fix the big problem of your fingers being super cold due to the poor circulation. My hands feel just fine right now. My fingers, which were warm for a while today, have felt like they were suspended in ice water since the last time I was outside about 45 minutes ago.
I wish there were a good solution like that, believe me I’ve tried to find a good one that will allow me both warm fingers and manual dexterity and not be super uncomfortable (like tight rubber gloves or something), but I haven’t found it yet.
Electrically heated fingerless gloves?
Again, they won’t heat my fingers. Which are what were cold until about 5 minutes ago. It took a lot of holding them under my arms and blowing on them.
Gloves wear big ass gloves use gloves that make your hands look like Mii character hands big ass spheres attached to the ends of your arms zero functionality just big ol gloves
This meme brought to you by a child in California that doesn’t know what real winter is. It was 20 something here last night and this dipshit thinks a sweater is gonna keep you alive though that.
To be fair, you could wear winter gear 24/7. I lived like that for a bit. The real reasons we need heating are structural decay and pets. Pipes burst below 55 and pets don’t do well below 65.
There are real reasons to heat your house besides just wanting to be warm.
“Pipes burst below 55°” hahahahhah what now? “Pets don’t do well below 65°” what the crap is this nonsense. Pipes will burst after they freeze with water in them at a temp at or below 32°, the majority of breeds of dogs and cats will be just fine until it is freezing out, some dog breeds are okay below freezing.
Not everyone has a husky or Maine Coone for a pet. You wanna see what happens to a tropical bird at 45F? It will literally stop eating and starve to death.
And the pipes aren’t getting 55 degrees of heat. They’re getting whatever bleeds into their space and whatever the water is doing.
This is basic adulting shit.
Even plenty of dogs do not do well in low temperatures. I have a half-chihuahua/half-dachshund. He doesn’t have a very thick coat and he hates wearing sweaters so much that he will literally lie there and refuse to move until we take it off. We’ve tried multiple times. We’ve waited like half an hour and he won’t move, he’ll just lay there and whine until we take it off.
I can’t force a dog to tolerate clothing and it’s not like I knew he would refuse to wear a sweater when I adopted him considering it was in the summer.
Wait till you hear about infants. They are so tiny a human, they can’t deal with the low temps anywhere near as well as an adult, one of the kids that died in the TX freeze was 7. I’m sorry his family didn’t know about body heat and keeping children in the middle of adults to keep warm. I seriously feel grief over this specific loss of life. I just lived in very cold climates that you forget people who never had to learn how to live in extreme cold just don’t know about the basics. Don’t get too close to the fire, don’t sleep alone.
Pipes are often in crawl-spaces or other outer extremities of structures indirectly heated by the warmth coming from the living spaces of the structure, so 55F is a good rule of thumb in some climates.
The pipes bursting below 55° rule of thumb is because cold water is at ground temperature (aka very cold in the winter) and the pipes tend to be at the edges of living spaces so will be much cooler than the living space. Additionally, it doesn’t need to fully freeze to burst, just enough to create a blockage temporarily.
Basically, you never know what bizarre choices were made in the utility layout of the home someone lives in so giving a rule of thumb that has a comfortable safety margin is the safest bet
20 something
Sweater wont keep you alive
Wait till you hear about the latest tech: two sweaters!
Two T-shirts, think thin layers
I lived up in the mountains for many years, there are risks of frostbite, hypothermia, and death at some temps and no amount of wool will save you. You need heat, most of that time I had a fire place, when I was in a tenant situation the heat was maintained by the management company and we only paid electric, and it was natural gas heaters.
I’m wearing two sweaters even though it’s only 10C (50F) here. I’ve never lived somewhere where it gets very cold, so this is very cold to me.
I’m in the UK and have managed to get this far this year using just jumpers and the heat generated from folding at home on a couple PCs.
Nearly caved last week when temps dropped to around 0 but then i found my slippers
Right chilly today innit?
it’s alright. gf had the heater drying rail on and i’m wearing a jumper
Just set your thermostat to 60 instead of 70
His entire point is no heat just sweaters.
I walked to school uphill in the snow BOOOOTTHH WAAAYYYSSSS.
Ok cranky grandpa, go sit back by your space heater.
I live in Canada and tbh I’m with the Chad on this.
Not saying “turn off your furnace” but energy use (and cost) baloons exponentially based on how hot you have your thermostat set at. Lower your thermostat to the point where wearing a sweater indoors is enough and save money. It’s not even just about the money, it’sresponsible energy usage.
And I’d be happy to subsidize the first X GJ/mo to help people keep themselves from freezing, but if people want their apartment to be the tropics that’s gotta be on their dime.
Same with electricity. I’ll subsidize keeping your lights on but I’m not paying you to mine crypto.
Another possible approach is to keep your home cool (keep it above 50 to avoid pipes freezing because that just sucks to deal with regardless of responsibility) and use a small like 200w heater pointed at yourself to warm up some. I live in a century old farm house and do that because it’s drafty as heck in parts of the house and impractical to fully heat the entire house to a fully comfortable temperature once winter truly sets in and it’s consistently around 0F
Unethical life pro tip: get an apartment that isn’t at the end of a hallway and has floors above and below. In some cases, you can turn off your heat completely and simply steal heat from your neighbors, leeching off of them like some sort of thermal mosquito. It won’t be as warm as is comfortable without bundling up, but it may be warm enough to get by just by bundling up. Watch out for freezing pipes though!
For an added techno bonus: install a smart thermostat connected to a camera pointed at the door with facial recognition tech built in. If anyone other than the residents walk in, the thermostat is automatically reset to 72F/22C. That way if you DO burst a pipe, and the landlord walks in, they won’t have any proof you did it!
A smart thermostat would likely have record of the set and actual temperatures.
Yeah wouldn’t it also be like super cold inside from the temp not being 72F prior to them entering? I mean if it was cold enough to freeze the pipes and all, seems like just they’d be able to tell what’s what as soon as they opened* the door.
Edit: Fixed a typo
good luck finding an apartment that A) will let you install a smart thermostat B) a camera and C) finding an apartment with a 3 pipe climate system as its usually 2 so you dont get to control if its heat or cooling year round.
In the US I’ve generally either had a single system (heat or cooling depending on climate) or a system capable of both controlled by me. I’ve never lived in an apartment where someone else controlled what was happening with my air.
I can confirm that this works. Outside temperatures are right around freezing right now. Indoors, we’re still hovering at around 23C and we have yet to turn on any heating. I wouldn’t call this unethical though. Homes are built this way by design so that you share the heating.
my apartment is 25C right now with no heating on and its stuffy as fuck.
My old apartment was built this way, except it was to share cooling because we lived in a very hot area. I think the insulation or whatever it was supposed to be, was bad because the air conditioning guys were there all summer craning new units onto the top of the buildings. It doesn’t help that nobody would close the breezeway doors and we effectively had a bar of heat running straight through the building. (although maintenance did force the issue right before we left, they removed their ability to stay open.)
my apartment is like this and it heats up to like 80°F without any thermostat setting even when it’s below freezing outside
or… just set the heat only for 55 if the pipes are your only concern. You’ll still save a lot of money on heating, and you won’t have to deal with your stuff getting flooded.
How is this unethical? I live in those conditions and if I turn my heat on I have to walk around naked, the heat from the neighbours is enough
I got sick of wearing cheap jackets and still being cold and/or having them fall apart super quick, so I splurged on a Carhartt jacket. So worth it. This thing is toasty as fuck, water proof and could probably withstand a knife attack.
Just embrace the cold and build up your brown fat which burns calories to keep you warm so you can eat pizza all day and stay skinny*.
- Not really but sorta
yeah unless you’re drying off the thermostat should never be above like 58 for heating. Layers fix everything else
You can’t put sweaters on pets
You need to have one room You can heat if needed to keep the pet in if it’s going to get cold
I mean, they have a built-in sweater. If they got really cold you’d see them cuddle up in a blanket, on a bed, or close to a person. Either way I bet you’d be more risking your pipes freezing than harming your pets.
You can’t put sweaters on pets
I know many retirees who disagree.
Zonal heating what what. My home office is the cat office during the day.
A touque as well. You lose most of your heat through your head. It’s easy enough to take off and put in your pocket if you get too warm, then put back on if you feel like you’re getting cold.
Sadly not accurate, except about touques being sexy and convenient
If it helps, here is an article calling ur mom and the dude from Letterkenny dumb: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/body-heat-loss
Simpler to just model humans as nearly black bodies with known surface area and some heat lost through gas exchange.
Well, maybe my mom just told me that to make sure I wore a touque. ;)
I’m bald now, so it made sense.
Hey I didn’t consent to my picture being released! :)-
If I’m spending 10 minutes walking between buildings and then an hour sitting in them I’d rather be comfortable for the longer amount of time.
Gets ya from point A to point B.
:(
Nice mesh shorts, slut
This instance ain’t big enough
There was the one guy that always walked to class in strappy sandals, a short sleeved shirt, and shorts. No matter how cold it was outside, in New England, there he was.
