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With southern Arizona and northern Florida at temps around 32°f, how are some of you coping?
Are you staying warm enough?
It is a balmy 4 degrees this morning here in southern upstate New York, but will be high of a goose egg come Friday, overnight will obviously be negative temps for ambient, and with wind chills even colder. Actually this morning is warmer than it has been.
The Dakota's are high temps in the negative temps °f.
They ( scientists) say that AFTER global warming, comes a mini ice age. I'd believe that's happening now??!!??
I mean most all of the USA is in frigid temps, and a second shot of blistering cold is on its way.
Usually these,temps don't arrive in winter until February. And here it started in decembe R.
Meanwhile they say Alaska has had the 4th warmest year on record. They are getting warmer we are getting colder, lol.
So are you more senior retired people keeping warm?
By the weekend it will have been over 10 days of bitter cold temperatures here in SE Michigan. This morning the temperature is only 1 degree and Thursday through Saturday will be even colder. These temperatures are not uncommon but their duration is extremely long.
Change your furnace filter! A clean filter may help the furnace blower extract more heat to warm your home quicker or easier. It definitely cannot hurt.
The construction of your house makes a huge difference wrt cold nights.
When I was a kid growing up in Phoenix in the 50s, the houses were all brick with interior walls plastered but no interior insulation. The windows were crank out single pane with steel frames. I think we might have had about 4 inches of insulation blown into the attic. I remember feeling really cold with my bed close to the walls. Although it seldom froze, low 30s were a miserable experience in that house.
Here in Colorado the building code requires double pane windows with R-38 in the attic and this house feels warm even if the outside temp drops below zero. It has no air leaks and I run a humidifier to keep the relative humidity at about 35% The only way I know the outside temp is to look at my digital thermometer. It's now a balmy 30 degrees outside.
If you are looking for a home in retirement, make sure you consider how it will deal with temperature extremes. I advise friends to make sure they get an inspection from a certified home inspector.
It has now cooled down to the goose egg(0°f) here according to my smart phone, the COLDEST temp is usually around 8 am. So it could go lower. We have at least warmer temps the n and s Dakota.
I just went to Wally World, and my hand froze just touching the metal door handle to start the car before I put my gloves on.
Our house was built in 1948, so it has no insulation in the walls, and only 2" in the attic. I'm going to start buying insulation for the attic this year to add to the 2", and with the Windows already replaced the following year insulate the walls. Im not keen on cellulose, but unless we have the siding taken down, and tge exterior wall taken down, blown in cellulose is our best bet.
Yeah that will help the hear bill.
Speaking of which... HOW DO YOU STAY WARM? (I should have put that in the OP)
We have nat gas heat furnace, and an electric baseboard unit in the bonus room, an electric fireplace in the living room. We have a small electric heater in the bath forvshowrl time as neither of us want to both wet, naked and cold.
We also have 2 radiator electric heaters and two other small heaters for backup. Assuning we have electricity, lol.
With southern Arizona and northern Florida at temps around 32°f, how are some of you coping?
Are you staying warm enough?
It is a balmy 4 degrees this morning here in southern upstate New York, but will be high of a goose egg come Friday, overnight will obviously be negative temps for ambient, and with wind chills even colder. Actually this morning is warmer than it has been.
The Dakota's are high temps in the negative temps °f.
They ( scientists) say that AFTER global warming, comes a mini ice age. I'd believe that's happening now??!!??
I mean most all of the USA is in frigid temps, and a second shot of blistering cold is on its way.
Usually these,temps don't arrive in winter until February. And here it started in decembe R.
Meanwhile they say Alaska has had the 4th warmest year on record. They are getting warmer we are getting colder, lol.
So are you more senior retired people keeping warm?
I hope so
I live in north central Arizona and it really hasn't been all that bad this year. It's 27 degrees outside right now but a comfy 70 in the house when I got up. I don't run the heat at night but I stay toasty in my warm bed. Sometimes I wake up about a half hour before I have to get up and turn the heat on so it's nice when I get up. I think my house is really well insulated because it rarely gets below 65 or 70 with no heat on. But 70 to me is still 'chilly'.
Our ten day forecast says our highs will average 70 and lows 45. Not bad except I don't believe that low figure because every day when I leave for work it's in the mid 20s. Crazy but that's what it says.
It looks like we are expecting some rain next Wed..
I'm in a 1930 brick house, no wall insulation, plaster interior, old attic insulation (maybe 4", maybe)... but it's also Georgia. The coldest it's been here (with this arctic front) is 18f, cold but hardly terrible. Maybe it's just because I'm a Wyoming native, highs that don't go above -10, for a week straight weren't Common but weren't unheard of either. Plus, I like the cold.. well, with proper gear. I still head out to Montana for a few weeks every winter to ski too, so this is just getting me prepared for that trip.
Anyway, heat pump is doing fine keeping the interior 50* warmer than the exterior and I have an electric heater sitting in my coal-burner fireplace for the living room supplemental heat. I've no interest in dealing with coal for the rare times it's cold like this. If I start to Feel cold, it's either another layer or go do about 15~20 minutes of exercise, which warms me for the next 3~4 hours.
I'm glad for the cold, the bugs this last summer were Terrible because last winter was so mild. A little worried about some of my plants though, but they can be replaced.
...They ( scientists) say that AFTER global warming, comes a mini ice age. I'd believe that's happening now??!!??
I mean most all of the USA is in frigid temps, and a second shot of blistering cold is on its way...
Hope none of the readers are taking this comment seriously. Scientists talk in terms of geologic years, on the order of 1000's of years at least. And when they talk about "global warming" in today's terms they are referring to man made effects like high atmospheric carbon dioxide which slows the heat generated by the sun from escaping the atmosphere.
Philly gal here. I detest the cold so this is making me evil. Gahhhh. One of the problems also for us is the duration and severity. We are use to sub freezing temps in FEBRUARY not December also they are usually for a few days then we get a warm up. It's been 8 straight days and its supposed to get COLDER.
I can only imagine what my electric bill is going to be like. Yikes!!
The construction of your house makes a huge difference wrt cold nights.
When I was a kid growing up in Phoenix in the 50s, the houses were all brick with interior walls plastered but no interior insulation. The windows were crank out single pane with steel frames. I think we might have had about 4 inches of insulation blown into the attic. I remember feeling really cold with my bed close to the walls. Although it seldom froze, low 30s were a miserable experience in that house.
Here in Colorado the building code requires double pane windows with R-38 in the attic and this house feels warm even if the outside temp drops below zero. It has no air leaks and I run a humidifier to keep the relative humidity at about 35% The only way I know the outside temp is to look at my digital thermometer. It's now a balmy 30 degrees outside.
If you are looking for a home in retirement, make sure you consider how it will deal with temperature extremes. I advise friends to make sure they get an inspection from a certified home inspector.
So far, its gotten way colder here in Central Ok than I remember. Last night was miserable, it went down to the tweens and the power went out. My pets wanted to get under the covers. But the worse was the water supply had frozen, and near the windows it was frigid. And then, as the pipes were frozen and the precautionary order of just in case water should have gone in a day or earlier. From now on, a case of water is going to be a requirement for winter weather what ifs.
I wonder how much double pane windows would cost, but the real problem is the floor leaks major cold air and other than covering a hardwood floor, it would be tricky to fix.
We got the house for dirt cheap, so its not a problem. Most of the problems have been fixed but the floor, and its not a simple fix.
Hope none of the readers are taking this comment seriously. Scientists talk in terms of geologic years, on the order of 1000's of years at least. And when they talk about "global warming" in today's terms they are referring to man made effects like high atmospheric carbon dioxide which slows the heat generated by the sun from escaping the atmosphere.
Well, I live in OK, but was born and up until ten years ago, lived in socal. I keep looking at my house and wondering how expensive it would be to stop the cold air and such, since the problem is going to do nothing but grow worse.
Unless my son sticks to his wish to go back to California when he get the chance, suitable job wise, if I do as we've discussed and move in with them, sorta, I don't know if I'd want to be more east of where I live now.
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