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Tents as space reducers for heating

 
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Everything I would have said has already been covered.  Good job folks!  We all need to be seriously thinking about these things.  Our lives may depend on it this winter.  
 
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Pearl Sutton wrote:When he started getting cold at night because there wasn't much in the clean bag above him, it was time to do his wash.



I have to say, that's rather brilliant.
Staff note (Pearl Sutton) :

He was an odd one
Very smart, not glued down to the world at all. The laundry bit was probably the only rational thing that he did.

 
Creighton Samuels
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Pearl Sutton wrote:A memory bubbled up today while thinking about this thread...

I college I knew  a guy who lived in an unheated house. He did something he called "sleeping with the laundry" He had four big sheets, safety pinned together two and two, into giant pillowcases, and his clean laundry was in one (the top one) and his dirty clothes were put in the bottom one. He slept between them. When he started getting cold at night because there wasn't much in the clean bag above him, it was time to do his wash.

Definitely using what was at hand, and the things at hand did not include a closet or dresser. So he killed a lot of birds with one rock here, kept his room neater as all his clothes were in one bag or the other, warmed up at night, plus had storage space for his clothes. In summer he slept on top of both bags.



It occured to me just now, that this thread, and this idea in particular, should be translated into German and spread around the German speaking internet.  There's going to be a lot of Germans who can use these tips this coming winter.
 
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I learned a lot of these same tips from my re-enactment days (www.sca.org). Even inside a tent, put the toddlers in a pup tent. This keeps their bedding contained and maintains a warm space around them. It also helps to keep the wildlife out. There’s nothing like being awakened by a field mouse trying to take some of your hair!

I have had a few times with no heat. The worst was waiting on a heater part while we had snow on the ground that week. Teenagers that would babysit for us came over to help watch my girls and help bring in some firewood. We celebrated getting done with sodas that were refrigerator cold from the dining room.  

OK. Let’s keep up the good work and keep sharing tips. I’m eager to learn more!
 
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I'm building an easy 4 post bed cover from saplings to hang decorative and warm curtains. I'm only using suckers or ill formed trees. I'd not want a tent...n my house. You ever heard of a Viking sleep box? I think if I did this I'd use it rest of the year to store unused bedding.
Viking-sleep-box.jpg
Viking sleep box
Viking sleep box
 
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The Old Farmer's Almanac winter weather predictions for 2022-2023 are out, and they are what I expected.
Old Farmer's Almanac Winter weather 2022-2023 prediction
 
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In my passive solar (mostly) heated house, January does get a bit colder than I want.

I need to get the roof insulated better, and I think that would give us a couple extra degrees of protection from the cold of winter, and should help in summer, that week or two when a fan is wanted at night.

I use a heated mattress pad (called an electric blanket on Indian amazon). It's only 40W for the single size on a lower setting, up to 150W on the hottest setting. I use it even on the inverter I have because of the frequent power cuts here. I bought a "countdown timer plug" so in order to turn it on, I have to push the button on the timer plug once for each 15 minutes that I want. It goes up to 8 hours. I usually turn it on for an hour around bedtime. When I lived off-grid here, I used two of those rubber hot water bottles in the coldest part of winter, one for my knees and one for my feet.

I put an old felt wool rug under the bottom sheet for winter, and under the electric mattress pad when that goes on. It makes a good difference. An extra blanket under there would work fine.

I put up plastic over a couple of windows but don't like it on the windows in my bedroom that have a view. But don't mind the white foam over some windows on the north side of the house that don't have any important view, so I ended up leaving it on all year.

I bought a roll of whitish wool cloth and had a tailor make very simple curtains. I try to go around the house and open them all in the morning and close them all in the afternoon as soon as the sun's heat is no longer coming in.

I'd love to make the EPS inserts mentioned by Janette from NZ above. I've been thinking of it for years. I'd cover it with cloth or something.

We bought Army surplus blankets and put them up as door curtains for the winter, but I'm not sure how helpful they are since sometimes they get between the door and actually prevent it from closing properly.

I end up using a cheapo radiant electric heater for some evenings.

The house's solar design involves insulating and isolating the south and north halves of the house from each other. The south side has the rooms we mostly live in: kitchen, bedrooms, bathing bathroom. The north side has the corridors, stairs, storerooms, pantry, and the dry composting toilet. So the north side gets chilly though doesn't quite get down to freezing (0C). The south side stays better but not quite as toasty as I'd like.
 
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Insulting curtains are great. Here is a DIY instruction

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.instructables.com/Insulating-roll-up-curtains-that-cut-heat-losses-t/%3famp_page=true
 
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Michael Cox wrote:One up on your tent idea, which is still essentially heating a whole room but with extra inconvenience for moving around.



This is a traditional style of heated table in Japan. The rooms were typically cold, but the heated table makes for a comfortable space for meals, sitting and socialising, or napping. You can buy (expensive!) electric heater kits to install on a low table. I imagine there would be all sorts of issues of temperature regulation, fire safety, and not burning kids legs to get right.



These are kotatsu and I used one for 17 years in Japan in a not terribly cold winter climate. Example - Water heaters hung on outside walls. My apato [apartments] had room electric heaters/air con units that I really rarely used.

I think they would catch on for some people in north america, I have often thought of making one. I suspect kotatsu heaters could be purchased.
 
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About 15 years ago I had a very cold house.  I had a long table, about 8 feet long and 2 feet wide, 30 inches at the most.  Lots of windows and a concrete floor.  I put a piece of carpet remnant on the floor, put an electric heated oil radiator under the table, put table cloths hanging to the floor all the way around.  When we sat at the table, we put the table cloths up onto our laps putting our knees and feet under the table.  I think I had enough table cloth to hang to the floor between diners.  We had many comfortable dinner parties that way.

Eventually I put in a pellet stove, but that worked well, and seems very like the komatsu.
 
Terry Byrne
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Michael Cox wrote:One up on your tent idea, which is still essentially heating a whole room but with extra inconvenience for moving around.

This is a traditional style of heated table in Japan. The rooms were typically cold, but the heated table makes for a comfortable space for meals, sitting and socialising, or napping. You can buy (expensive!) electric heater kits to install on a low table. I imagine there would be all sorts of issues of temperature regulation, fire safety, and not burning kids legs to get right.



I fell asleep many a time under a kotatsu and I do not recall ever even becoming overheated on my legs, which is what is under the table, enclosed by the comforter under the removeable top piece/table top. A kotatsu heater has two settings and I doubt there could ever be a fire hazard even on high  unless someone put something highly flammable under the table.

Demo, odaijini !!

There are kotatsu heaters for sale on amazon.com and amazon.ca and even complete kotatsu units, table and all.  Pricey tho'!!

In Japan we had sodai gomi days [big garbage days] where, what else, large garbage was put out to be hauled away. This is where all us Gaijin [foreigners] got all the needed furnishngs for our apato[s]. Fantastic stuff, household goods that looked brand new.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kotatsu+heaters&ref=nb_sb_noss
 
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Pearl Sutton wrote:This idea is related to the thread Adding Heating Zones to the House where I talked of making it so rooms in the house can be curtained off for heating issues, I have been checking my tents for set up in the house if needed. Cutting the amount of space you need to heat can be VERY useful, and curtains and tents can partition space nicely.

I'm living in a rental, a cheap tract house that the heating involves electricity, in an area that's known for losing power (especially in ice storms,) and they have been predicting rolling blackouts for the winter. It's a cheap tract house, with insulation issues at best, I fixed a bunch of them last year, but the structure of this house is just badly built, there's a limit to what I can do. So I'm making sure that I have a plan ready to implement if I need it in the winter.

Tents can be a great size for sleeping in, and tend to stay warm with body heat. Mylar sheets or light blankets or can be tossed over them (watch the weight!) to insulate them further. Mylar can be the cheap little space blankets (taped together if needed) or it can be bought in rolls (I recommend buying them NOW if you are likely to need them.) Type "mylar rolls" into any search engine, lots of hits. Lightweight blankets are probably available second hand, make sure to wash them, and if you are sure you will be using them, you might drape them over the tent now when you are testing it (see below) and use safety pins to take pleats in it to make it fit well. Then if you need it, it will drop into place easily.

It's currently late July, and tents are easily available, and on sale for the season ending. They are also showing up in thrift stores as people buy new ones, check the poles carefully after buying it if you buy used. Bad fiberglass poles are not a deal breaker for used tents, they are easy to replace. Tent pole repair kits are worth buying for any tent. Make sure the pole diameter matches if you have to buy a repair kit.

If you want to consider this, I suggest:
>>> Measure your spaces, if you move what you can, what are the biggest dimensions you can use in each direction? Take good notes!

>>> Look for tents that will fit into your space. Ideally you want space left to walk around it. Putting it up WILL be trickier without walking space. Tents with a hexagon footprint fit square spaces weird, make sure you leave extra room if you have a hexagon tent.

>>> When you get one, I REALLY recommend learning how to work it over the summer, before you are in need of it and learning things the hard way. Put it up outside, where you have lots of room. Look at how it goes up, where it can flex or not. When using a pop up style tent, the joints can NOT be flexed in odd angles, they WILL break. Fiberglass poles are more forgiving, but it's still worth having a repair kit on hand.  

>>> When using a tent with fiberglass poles that hook together, you can open joints up, feed the poles through, and hook them back up in order to have space to thread it in the house. If you will need to do that, practice it out in the yard. In the house is a lousy place to learn to do something tricky. I'm a big fan of practicing skills when it's easy, so you are already competent when you need them. In the dark, when it's cold, with crying kids is a bad time to learn anything.

>>> A pop up type tent is great in that you don't have the pole problem and they set up in their own footprint. They do not flex, and you cannot change their size though. They go up quickly and easily. Buying them second hand is iffy, they tend to be there due to broken joints, and the joints are not easy to fix. The twist up kid tents might be worth looking at!

>>> If you have fiberglass poles you can make the space smaller by folding one or two joints of each pole out of the way and hooking it there. It will make the tent baggy, and the excess fabric will need tucking and adjusting, but it will make the ceiling lower so less space needs heating.

>>> Open flame can NOT be used to heat a tent, they catch fire AMAZINGLY FAST! What CAN be done for heat includes:

    ~~~ Insulate. See above about blankets or mylar. The advantage to having a tent indoors is rain and wind are not a problem, so you can get away with things you would not be able to if you were camping. Watch weight on the top, if you need to, consider running stabilizing lines from the tent to furniture or unused doorknobs.  I keep a roll each of mason's twine and clothesline with my tents, as well as things like spring type clothespins, safety pins of all sizes, and small C clamps. Gives me lots of options for doing what I need to. Also consider insulating under it, having extra blankets or a rug ready to use saves a lot of heat if your floors are cold. Ideally you'd sleep up off the floor, this is why beds were invented, but that may be problematic to design. Consider it if you can. If it's going to be a long bad storm, hauling mattresses off the beds might be worth your time. Blow-up beds have air in them and never heat up well, if you plan to use one, have lots of extra padding between you and it, as they will pull the heat out of you all night. If things are bad enough and it goes on long enough, dump all the clothes you own in the tent and sleep on/under them.

    ~~~ Warm bedding. Seems obvious, but I am amazed by how many people own only one or two blankets, assuming the house heat will always be there. Second hand stores are full of blankets this time of year, wash them well, and if you need storage space for them right now, put them under mattress on your bed. Flannel sheets are really nice too! Those tend to show up second hand also, and they also can fold flat and store under your mattress.

    ~~~ Body heat. It's amazing how much heat your body gives off. The more people in the tent, the higher the heat goes. If you are doing something like putting little kids in a tent of their own, it might be a good idea to have the adults hang out in the tent with the kids for a while to warm it up before going to their own tent. Better yet is to have everyone sleep in one tent so body heat is shared. Dogs and cats are warm, as are all livestock but sharing a tent with goats might not be pleasant!

    ~~~ Bring in warm items. If you cook dinner on a fire or cooker of some sort, or at a neighbor's or even in the kitchen if you are doing this just to cut your bills, heat an extra pan or kettle of water to bring into the tent, if not, bring your food into the tent to add it's warmth as you eat it. If for any reason there is something warm that can be brought in, do it. If you have to drive anywhere, put something that will hold heat near a heater vent of the car and warm it up, put it in the tent immediately upon arrival.

    ~~~ Catalytic heaters Wikipedia about them: Catalytic_heater It's a chemical reaction, not a fire, they are safe for tents and trailers. Look for them online under camping equipment. Hand warmers are a type of catalytic heater. Make sure if you are going to use one of these you have the fuel it needs, and me being me, I'd say buy it now. I have two catalytic heaters from camping, and have the fuel I need stocked. If you have one that needs flame lighting, do it OUTSIDE, not in the house at ALL, then bring it in when it's running. Having a carbon monoxide alarm (sold by the smoke alarms) is wise, as is having a smoke alarm. Being too safe is better than not safe enough.


What did I forget to mention? Please tell us! I am getting all of this straight right now,and would LOVE to know if I'm missing something.



What a wonderful and really inspiring post, Pearl - thank you. I’ve just bought a tent and wild camping gear in preparation for one day maybe being a boot at Wheaton Labs. I need my own space - especially at night, and am doing practice camps in my back garden: my tent feels cosy and warm during the day but like a self-interrogation room at night with all of my mind-monsters coming home to roost! This post will help me get friendly with my tent. I’d love to set it up inside the house but there’s no room - but it serves as another area to shelter and feel closer to nature’s night life outside.
 
Gemma Boyd
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Creighton Samuels wrote:

Pearl Sutton wrote:A memory bubbled up today while thinking about this thread...

I college I knew  a guy who lived in an unheated house. He did something he called "sleeping with the laundry" He had four big sheets, safety pinned together two and two, into giant pillowcases, and his clean laundry was in one (the top one) and his dirty clothes were put in the bottom one. He slept between them. When he started getting cold at night because there wasn't much in the clean bag above him, it was time to do his wash.

Definitely using what was at hand, and the things at hand did not include a closet or dresser. So he killed a lot of birds with one rock here, kept his room neater as all his clothes were in one bag or the other, warmed up at night, plus had storage space for his clothes. In summer he slept on top of both bags.



It occured to me just now, that this thread, and this idea in particular, should be translated into German and spread around the German speaking internet.  There's going to be a lot of Germans who can use these tips this coming winter.



What a wonderful idea! Thanks for passing it on!
 
Thekla McDaniels
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You know, I love this thread, and I wonder how everyone is doing now that we are well into the cold season in the northern hemisphere.

This idea is about reducing heating needs:  I have been painting, and when I am up the ladder, I am a lot warmer.  A LOT warmer.  It might be too late for this year, but I built loft beds for my kids so they could have desks or toys underneath…. Or if you could put a few tables together, and put your tent on top, or, a friend as a teenager somehow decided she wanted a hanging bed, and her father located the structural members in the ceiling and attached chains down to a platform with a mattress.  If the idea appeals, the platform could be just far enough from the ceiling to have headroom when sitting up, and entering/exiting the suspended space.

I guess my idea is if possible, get up off the floor.
 
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:You know, I love this thread, and I wonder how everyone is doing now that we are well into the cold season in the northern hemisphere.

This idea is about reducing heating needs:  I have been painting, and when I am up the ladder, I am a lot warmer.  A LOT warmer.  It might be too late for this year, but I built loft beds for my kids so they could have desks or toys underneath…. Or if you could put a few tables together, and put your tent on top, or, a friend as a teenager somehow decided she wanted a hanging bed, and her father located the structural members in the ceiling and attached chains down to a platform with a mattress.  If the idea appeals, the platform could be just far enough from the ceiling to have headroom when sitting up, and entering/exiting the suspended space.

I guess my idea is if possible, get up off the floor.



I have had loft beds for space reasons quite a bit of my life. The problem with lofted beds is in the summer they are hot, all the heat is up there. Depending on your climate and space, would be neat for each kid to have a higher and lower bed, and use whichever works best for the current temperatures.

I had one bed that was lofted up high, had a window below it, and in the summer I slept in a hammock in front of the open window. The hammock slung off the structural supports for the bed.

My favorite loft bed was something I designed, I built a clerestory above it, and an openable window that the moon was visible through when laying in bed normally. That took me some fun math to get right, but OH was it worth it. In winter I put up a storm window, in summer the open window (plus another open low in another part of the house for air intake) drained the heat off the loft. It it was always comfortable up there, and the moon could be watched. And if I laid there and read in summer, with the light on, the moths came in and danced my light, then the bats came in to eat the moths. I loved it! (Some folks have bats in their belfry, I had bats in my bedroom!)

One of the problems with looking at ONLY one problem (like low heat) is not taking into account the other side of the problem (like excess heat.) Design them both at the same time, and it is a much more effective solution!
 
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That sounds wonderful Pearl!

I was thinking that if designed for it, the bed suspended from the ceiling could possibly be raised for winter and lowered for summer, but the clerestory and moon moths bats sounds lovely.

How did it happen you didn’t have mosquitoes?
 
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:That sounds wonderful Pearl!

I was thinking that if designed for it, the bed suspended from the ceiling could possibly be raised for winter and lowered for summer, but the clerestory and moon moths bats sounds lovely.

How did it happen you didn’t have mosquitoes?


New Mexico desert, not a lot of standing water for them to breed in.
I was tearing off and replacing the roof already, and putting in a big clerestory designed for cooling, adding that one at the same time was easy.
Building the loft was trickier, rock walls that I couldn't anchor to, and I put a queen sized waterbed up there. I drew a design, took it to a structure analysis class on campus, they told me if it failed, how and why it would. I redesigned it, took it back, they said at that point I could park a 2 ton truck on that waterbed, if I could get it up the steps It ended up cemented into the floor and braced against all the rock walls to keep it from twisting, the first design was sturdy up and down, but not side to side.

Raising and lowering the bed would work nice!
 
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Trace Oswald wrote:It may be worth mentioning for people that aren't Pearl and don't have all their ducks in a row and so, get caught off guard and aren't ready ahead of time.  It's very easy to makeshift a tent.  Cold isn't so much an issue when you are up moving around and busy, you can simply dress warm and you'll be fine in all but the coldest weather.  When you are tired or trying to sleep, you get cold much more quickly.  A very simple makeshift bed is your kitchen table in an emergency, if you have a table 6' or so long.  If not, you can put the chairs out from the table ends and extend it.  Insulating a table is super easy.  Pile on your mattress and couch cushions, extra pillows, extra blankets, towels, or clothes on top.  Take several blankets, put them down to lie on, some to lie under, and drape more over the table and down to the floor to make a cozy nest.  Lots of ways to use other furniture if your family won't fit under the table.  Four chairs will hold up your box spring, and you can insulate just as you did your table.  Once you start thinking that direction, you'll notice all sorts of ways to make a nest.    



Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you are suggesting we all move into giant pillow forts. I know several children who have extensive expertise in this type of construction and would be happy to consult on any such building projects.
 
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Not to get away from the tent idea, but houses can be configured permanently for this; just insulate the inside walls.

I did this in my current primary residence. ALL walls are insulated. I did it mostly for sound travel between rooms, but it also works well for heating. I have not heated my house by the main boiler since 2016. I installed a pellet stove and heat my great room (kitchen and living room) 24/7, but enough heat migrates from the great room to the back bedrooms to keep it around 63 degrees.

That is too cold to be comfy, but electric heaters then heat individual rooms that people are in. Since the individual rooms are insulated, the heaters don't run long and it saves me a boatload of money on heating costs, about $750 a winter instead of $2800.

But it only makes sense. Turn the electric heater on in the bathroom 10 minutes before you take a shower, and its comfy. Other business is pretty quickly done, so why waste money heating it to 70 degrees 24/7? Add that to other bedrooms and rooms and it quickly becomes clear why I am saving so much money wth no real loss in comfort. Insulating each room individually really helps heat stay within that singular room.
 
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Steve Zoma wrote:.... just insulate the inside walls.



Interesting!..... Steve, do you have any links where this is described in greater detail?  What kind of insulation is used and how is it finished?  Thanks!....
 
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John Weiland wrote:

Steve Zoma wrote:.... just insulate the inside walls.



Interesting!..... Steve, do you have any links where this is described in greater detail?  What kind of insulation is used and how is it finished?  Thanks!....



It’s nothing fancy, just batt fiberglass insulation between studs with drywall covering it


If I was to build a new house I would not have any drywall tho and just use shiplapped boards
 
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I believe it’s not uncommon in modern IUBC homes for bathrooms to be insulated as Steve described.   Insulating for “sound”.  

I like the idea of isolating different heat zones in houses.  My studies of the effects on human health and immune systems, cold and heat exposure and tolerance leads me to value routine exposure to varying temperatures.  There are compounds in the human body called heat shock proteins , as well as cold shock.  Physiologists have been researching these for a while now.  (Probably be awhile before the standard ama practitioner learns of it or integrates it into their practice, and I guess conservatism might be a good thing in medical context, but that’s off topic)

In context of home heating, I try to define heat zones.  Personally, I like a warm bath room, in one house reclamation project, I put a direct vent natural gas wall furnace in the bathroom.  Easy to keep that room at 55 degrees, or what ever I wanted.  With the door open, the heat did escape to the rest of the house.  I kept the bedroom door shut so that it would stay cool, and now that I think of it, I insulated that stud wall that was between the bedroom and the room between bedroom and bathroom with heater.  Bedroom also had 2 exterior walls, north west corner of the house.

I had a wood stove in another room in that house. Kind of a mud room.  It had an exterior door , and a tiny bathroom and an opening to the kitchen and great room, and a door and common wall with the pantry (about 5x8 feet).  That common wall was also insulated.

I could keep a fire in that woodstove, and heat every space, but the further you got from the stove, the cooler it was.

I also had a sun porch which I closed at night and opened on sunny days, and a pellet stove in a room far away from the heated bathroom and the woodstove.  

I could sit and be inactive and be warm and comfortable without heating the whole house.  The upstairs bedrooms were passively heated.

If active, I am more comfortable at 55 than 70, when sleeping, more comfortable at 45 than 55, and I managed pretty well in that house.

And veering a little off topic to mention that the only way I could leave whole areas unheated through a cold snowy winter was that I kept the plumbing in a limited area.  If I had that house to do again I would also have installed a simple system to drain all the pipes, but that’s because of the experience I am having now in the latest project house.

But as we look at all the ways to survive winter in an extreme climate in an impossible-to - heat building, it seems worth considering how to get to a winter when you’re NOT having to camp in tents or on tabletops, and plan plan plan😊
 
Faye Streiff
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Many years ago the house was being painted inside and I could not breath with the intense fumes, so slept on the unheated, open back porch for several nights during winter.  Temps were in the 20’s at night.  But I had a clothesline on that back porch so lowered it a bit and threw two king sized sheets over it to make a long enough tent for me to sleep and to bring in clothes, supplies, etc.  I overlapped them a bit, as it was too long end to end.  Wool blankets over that, and an additional quilt over that.  Pinned the ends together with clothespins.  Put a futon on the wood floor which had no insulation underneath.  That wasn’t enough, so added a couple of layers of cardboard under it and  a folded quilt also on the futon mattress, under the flannel sheet.   At night I went in with hat, mittens, scarf and undressed only after my body heat warmed it up a bit.  The bathroom was just inside the door only 15 feet away, so that was cold getting up during the night,  but otherwise toasty warm all night.  Amazingly quick to heat a small space with just body heat if a person is healthy.  
 
John Weiland
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:.... Personally, I like a warm bath room, .....



Ditto!......and although it may seem extreme, I decided to take a cue from the chickens in the coop.  They begged me to install heat lamps this year and when I asked if I could have one too they said "NO!....Those are ours and they cast a ghastly red glow anyway....".  They told me about the heat lamps that are 250W and clear color to the light and now I'm one happy rooster in the bathroom having changed the main ceiling bulb for a mini-version of Sol himself...
Heat-lamp-in-bathroom-ceiling.jpg
Heat lamp in bathroom ceiling
Heat lamp in bathroom ceiling
 
Thekla McDaniels
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That’s a WONDERFUL idea John!  Sometimes I wonder how I miss things.

I put 2 of those heat lamps in the pump house on a thermostat, to prevent frozen lines.

Both my current bath rooms are very cold… sitting down on the toilet seat BRRRR!   I think I will set up a heat light in one of them, maybe on a timer and be happy in the bathroom too!  This new place gets pretty discouraging sometimes.

Thanks!  I could use a lift.😊
 
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:Both my current bath rooms are very cold… sitting down on the toilet seat BRRRR!  


When I built an outhouse at my old property, I installed a wooden seat instead of plastic. Instantly warm when you sit on it!
 
John Weiland
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Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Both my current bath rooms are very cold… sitting down on the toilet seat BRRRR!  


When I built an outhouse at my old property, I installed a wooden seat instead of plastic. Instantly warm when you sit on it!



I will second that benefit of a wooden toilet seat.  Can't recall when I had my first experience on one of those, but recall the benefit to be instantly recognizable!   Never went back to synthetic after that.
 
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