First. My personal BACA meeting notes are over at the super secret site. User: thismeeting PSW: neverhappened.
Second. It is 16F outside and I’m ok. Not happy but OK. My electric meter is spinning like a CD. It is spinning so fast I don’t even want to think about it. The heated floor for the kitchen and 4 heater fans are keeping the house above freezing. Somewhere, there is a polar bear drowning because of me.
The two heater fans, are keeping the 1st floor at 63F. It did get up to 66F, but I was cooking with the gas oven and had the fans at full blast. I also tried to stop up any leaks I found. In recent days I have bought heavy curtains to block leakage around the windows. IKEA has some very ugly plaid curtains for sale at 19.99. Ugly but thick and warm. Maybe when it warms up and I develop a crush on a Austrian widower, I’ll make clothes out of them.* I also made a wind break between the front door and the hallway. It helps a little.
I have currently retired to the second floor where I am keeping one room warm with one little heater fan. It feels like 68F. When I do go to bed I’ll keep the heater on and heat up my little bags of rice to keep the bed warm. I took some short grained rice, sewed it up in a old sleeve of a shirt I had torn apart, and made a little rice pillow. I heat up the pillow, about 1 minute per each cup of rice in it, in the microwave. Then I throw them (I made two) under the covers at the foot of the bed. They keep my feet toasty warm all night, and is still moderately warm in the morning when I wake up.
This is not an ideal situation, and I am going to hate to see my electric bill when it comes. I typically don’t use a lot of electricity. Usually when I see my meter spinning fast I rush in the house trying to figure out what is hogging up the juice and turn it off. I hope Spring comes soon.
* Please tell me you did get the Sound of Music reference.
You can also take a Nalgene bottle (sold at most outdoor stores), add boiling water, screw it closed, and put it in an old sock…keeps you warm alllll night long! I got the SoM reference…
Why not get the furnace fixed? Would that deprive you of stimuli to make it an interesting blog?
See Furnace Saga. But the short of it is that I had planned on ripping the boiler out with the 2007 renovation.
I know, there was gunk in the furnace due to years’ of build-up, but I am not sure whether that’s really fodder for blogging — vs an emergency to take care of ASAP.
If you are going to rip out the whole thing anyhow, why pour more money into it? Besides, this makes for a more interesting experience. My furnace works but I am a cheap b***&rd with an old house so I keep it set at 60F and use a space heater upstairs in the bedroom.
Viceroy of Lost Umbrellas.