wrote in message
...
Just curious. Is it possible for a person to survive winter in the
northern states of the USA without heat in their homes? While I
realize it's not going to be comfortable, is it still possible to
survive? I know people that can not get thru a summer without air
conditioning, while I never have had AC in the summer. I use a fan
and thats about it. There are a few severe days when it gets tough,
but I cope with it. But heat seems like a necessity, while having AC
seems to be more of a luxury. I could be wrong, and that is why I am
asking. I am referring to average winters in a climate where the temps
are generally in the 10s to 30s most of the winter, and may drop to
minus 10 or even 20 for ten or twenty days during the winter. Living
in a standard frame (insulated) house, with no heat whatsoever.


I basically do this, but my home is self-built and super insulated. A 100W
lightbulb keeps my daughter's room at 69ºF when it's 15ºF outside. My
computers heat my downstairs studio. We do have a furnace, and on especially
cold nights, it will run once for 15 minutes until the walls heat up again.
If the next day is sunny, solar heat keeps the upstairs warm. Sometimes it
even exceeds 70ºF with the sun's heat. We keep thermostat at 63ºF overnight.
Rarely does the house temperature fall below that.
Right now, it's 7ºF outside with 50mph winds bashing the trees to heck and
it's warm and comfy in here, despite the furnace being off since early this
morning (14 hours ago).
I also have a MagicHeat heat reclaimer (exchanger) on the exit flue of the
furnace. It produces 50,000BTUs of heat from the waste heat that normally
goes out the chimney. That heats the workshop area of the basement to almost
uncomfortably warm temperatures while the furnace burner is running it's 12
minute cycle.
I have R50 in the walls and R70 in the ceilings, plus foil behind the
sheetrock, tied to electrical ground for RF shielding from a radio tower
down the street, but it seems to help reflect the heat back into the room as
well. Walls are sheetrock, foil, 6 mil poly sheet, 6" fiberglass, 1"
polyisocyanurate foil sandwich, plywood, 30lb felt, masonry/Transite panels
exterior. Anderson windows with foam filled frames and low-E glass.


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Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

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