November 26, 2010
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Winterization
We started early this year, sealing windows, plugging holes, and such. We insulated places we’d never done before. So it was alarming when the weather started turning cold and we could barely attain a 30 degree difference between indoors and out. Ideally, we should be able to have at least an 80 degree difference. My tropical houseplants don’t like temps below 50°F (10°C), nor do I. I keep my fridge at 40°F, and when the room temp drops lower than that, I whimper and bitch. With the temp around freezing outside, it was merely uncomfortable in here. The alarm arose from looking ahead to the sub-zero weather we knew was coming. Thirty below zero is common, and fifty below is not unprecedented.
When it’s 50°F (10°C) at eye level where the thermometer is, our water jugs on the floor can freeze due to the colder drafts down there. Jugs can be moved up onto tables and counters in that case, but if it drops below freezing at that level, plants die and water jugs freeze and burst. Having had these things happen before, I don’t want to repeat the experience. Last winter, our wood stove had done a satisfactory job, and I was at a loss to understand what was wrong this year.
One or the other of us, my son Doug or I, said every day or so, something like, “Why can’t we get this place warm? Is there a new hole in here?” Then, one recent morning, I found the problem. One of the big living room windows, the first one I had covered with poly sheeting this fall, was showing frost on the inside of the plastic sheet. It wasn’t cold enough for that to happen, so I took a closer look. The duct tape holding the bottom edge of the translucent window covering had come unstuck. We had failed to see it earlier because a freestanding bookshelf stands below that window, its top edge even with the bottom of the window, obscuring the tape.
Doug was asleep and I didn’t want to waste time waiting for him to get up, so I got out the new roll of industrial strength duct tape, kicking myself for previously having bought a cheap roll of “utility grade” tape. I took books off the shelves and moved 3 CD towers onto the floor. That wooden bookcase is almost too heavy for me to move even when it is empty, but I did it, and I sealed the bottom edge of the Visqueen®. The frost melted even before I’d moved the book shelf back into place, and I could feel the difference in the warmth of the room.
I think we’re ready for winter now, but we’re going to need to repair the roof again next summer, and Doug is going to have to shovel it promptly every time snow falls all winter. There’s a new leak in the back room.
Comments (3)
Oh hell no. I’d die. I hate cold. Hate, hate, hate. I wish you warm days inside your abode… or at least, comfortable ones!
Note to self…almost time to find a suitable clearing in the woods on a day in which a cloudless sky permits the primordial cold of space to descend to the surface of the earth…and read “To Build A Fire”.
SR
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