Has everyone coped with the extreme cold?>

[GillyBee]

I once visited a church of the Victorian high vaulted ceilings variety. They ran big pipes under the pews rather than trying to heat the whole church. The pews then heated the congregation.

[grenfell]

Perhaps I should have been reminded of churches myself given the number I've worked in and the number that have the same idea of big steel heating pipes under the pews. Saying that I can't remember one ever being turned on probably because they cost a lot to run.

[Frnc]

Off topic, but all this talk of heated pipes...there is a thing called district heating. You build a powerstation using solar or whatever, heat water, and pump it direct to people's houses. If the power station uses gas or hydrogen, it can generate electricity, and use waste heat to heat water.

[hobo]

How did we cope? Nothing exciting to add.
We stayed in the living room until bedtime. The overnight heater turned up full costs about £4 per day. Total for all electric £10 per day. We’ve had to juggle money around to afford it. Less pocket money, less oven usage, chucked Apple Music and Netflix and a little tighter with the food budget. Used lots of blankets and duvets during the cold spell, and a hot water bottle in the day and 2 each at night.
Thermals on all the time. Opened up the curtains for a few hours on sunny days, as it’s south facing. Also opened all windows for an hour each day to help with condensation. Didn’t get so bad that we needed gloves or hats indoors. -7 was the worst at night. Had 4 season sleeping bags and family tent in reserve but I doubt (hope) that we’ll ever need that where we are.

[grenfell]

Off topic, but all this talk of heated pipes...there is a thing called district heating. You build a powerstation using solar or whatever, heat water, and pump it direct to people's houses. If the power station uses gas or hydrogen, it can generate electricity, and use waste heat to heat water.

Also fireless steam engines that used waste steam. There is a lot of wasted heat from industry that could be recovered. I read a little while ago that one concentration of bitcoin mining is Iceland simply because it's more easier to dissipate the heat generated by the computors.
The environmentalist in me would like to see far more use of waste heat but I can't help thinking that to some ( some preppers especially) it's contrary to their views of self reliance .

[Arzosah]

The environmentalist in me would like to see far more use of waste heat but I can't help thinking that to some ( some preppers especially) it's contrary to their views of self reliance .

Me too ... but there are so many public buildings of one sort or another that could use that heat, without individuals being forced to use it. Schools, hospitals, medical centres, town halls, libraries ...

[Frnc]

Off topic, but all this talk of heated pipes...there is a thing called district heating. You build a powerstation using solar or whatever, heat water, and pump it direct to people's houses. If the power station uses gas or hydrogen, it can generate electricity, and use waste heat to heat water.

Also fireless steam engines that used waste steam. There is a lot of wasted heat from industry that could be recovered. I read a little while ago that one concentration of bitcoin mining is Iceland simply because it's more easier to dissipate the heat generated by the computors.
The environmentalist in me would like to see far more use of waste heat but I can't help thinking that to some ( some preppers especially) it's contrary to their views of self reliance .

Well, I'm sure they use the NHS. Cooperation is a form of self reliance, it's how our species evolved and thrived until about 10,000 years ago, later in many places. It's how hunter gatherer tribes work. They share stuff and in return, others share with them on other occasions. You kill a deer, you can't eat it all on your own and you don't have a freezer. You probably need several people to kill the deer in the first place. They hunt in groups. There was no rich or poor, everyone was the same.

[Frnc]

Back to the forecast, is mild, several degrees warmer than usual for the next 10 days. Coldest is 6/3 Boxing Day and 6/4 on the 29th. Average for late Dec to Mid Feb is normally 6/1 where I live.

Good. My gas use for Dec so far is 7% over last year's average.

[jansman]

Here’s an interesting article. Interesting,because generally central heating ,and the way we tend to live,is only about 40 years old.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8283796.stm

[grenfell]

Interesting article and comments. I can't help but think that earlier we mentioned heating pipes in Victorian churches . That would be long before domestic central heating and congregations were larger then but now with heating at home and churches unable to afford to be heated we see small congregations and closing churches. Did people just go to feel warm? Correlation or causation or cynicism on my part....