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2025 52 Card Project: Week 5: Heat
Feb. 7th, 2025 01:13 pmI have been preoccupied with heat this week.
My house has an old gravity-fed octopus furnace, original to the house. According to my furnace inspector, only 3-5% of houses still have this type of heating. They are very dependable, but on the other hand, they are inefficient compared to modern furnaces. If I want to keep my heat bill from being too exorbitant, I have to keep the thermostat down low.
So I turn it down to 58 when I sleep at night, and when I leave the house for an extended period of time. On the days that I work, I don't turn it up in the morning for the hour and a half I'm getting ready. I turn it up to 65 only when I'm hanging around my house in the evenings.
Frankly, this has felt like I've been pushing the envelope of my own comfort. I use an electric blanket at night, but (being an aging lady) I have to get up numerous times to go to the bathroom. And stepping out of the shower in the morning when the temperature is set at 58 degrees honestly sucks.
So I have been huddling up with blankets, shawls, and a rice heat pack that I warm up in the microwave. I recently bought a warm flannel shirt that is so cozy that I want to wear it all the time. I have been stocking my refrigerator with soups to warm up for my meals and drinking cocoa and tea in the evenings, trying to warm my hands and my belly.
I keep blowing the fuse when I forget to turn off the space heater when I try to run the microwave.
Escaping to the office had been a relief, but this week, a pipe burst in the floor below us. A hot water boiler provides our building heat. For a day or two the heat was so low at the office that I had to pull my shawls out there, too. Until they get the pipe fixed next week, they have brought in space heaters--but the space heaters are blowing the fuses all over the place at the office, too.
Perhaps because I'm getting older. I'm just feeling the cold more. It's all about striking a balance between personal comfort and my budget. Lately, the balance has been a struggle to achieve.
Central image: An octopus (gravity-fed) furnace. Right: a red lumberman's shirt. Lower right corner: a small space heater. Lower left corner: a woman's hands hold a bowl of wild rice bean soup. Left: a heat pack, the type warmed in the microwave. Upper center: a thermostat.
Heat
Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
My house has an old gravity-fed octopus furnace, original to the house. According to my furnace inspector, only 3-5% of houses still have this type of heating. They are very dependable, but on the other hand, they are inefficient compared to modern furnaces. If I want to keep my heat bill from being too exorbitant, I have to keep the thermostat down low.
So I turn it down to 58 when I sleep at night, and when I leave the house for an extended period of time. On the days that I work, I don't turn it up in the morning for the hour and a half I'm getting ready. I turn it up to 65 only when I'm hanging around my house in the evenings.
Frankly, this has felt like I've been pushing the envelope of my own comfort. I use an electric blanket at night, but (being an aging lady) I have to get up numerous times to go to the bathroom. And stepping out of the shower in the morning when the temperature is set at 58 degrees honestly sucks.
So I have been huddling up with blankets, shawls, and a rice heat pack that I warm up in the microwave. I recently bought a warm flannel shirt that is so cozy that I want to wear it all the time. I have been stocking my refrigerator with soups to warm up for my meals and drinking cocoa and tea in the evenings, trying to warm my hands and my belly.
I keep blowing the fuse when I forget to turn off the space heater when I try to run the microwave.
Escaping to the office had been a relief, but this week, a pipe burst in the floor below us. A hot water boiler provides our building heat. For a day or two the heat was so low at the office that I had to pull my shawls out there, too. Until they get the pipe fixed next week, they have brought in space heaters--but the space heaters are blowing the fuses all over the place at the office, too.
Perhaps because I'm getting older. I'm just feeling the cold more. It's all about striking a balance between personal comfort and my budget. Lately, the balance has been a struggle to achieve.
Central image: An octopus (gravity-fed) furnace. Right: a red lumberman's shirt. Lower right corner: a small space heater. Lower left corner: a woman's hands hold a bowl of wild rice bean soup. Left: a heat pack, the type warmed in the microwave. Upper center: a thermostat.
Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.