my new house and thermodynamics
my house is on a hill, and the main floor is the top floor. one must mount a full flight of brick stairs to reach the front door. the back door opens out onto the ground.
inside, at the foot of the stairs, sort of under the main stairwell, are built in desks. a nice office space. no windows though. adjoining it is another small room, well, we call it "the nook", which also has no windows. and then a large room whose only purpose is to entertain. that room has windows facing north. the south wall for both this room and the office space is masonry holding back the hill.
the house has central heating, but the thermostat is on the main floor. so that room, even in the warm summer days, was nicely cool in the mid-day and uncomfortably chilly at night. I broke out the rollaway oil heater and put it on a low setting next to the futon in an attempt to be less uncomfortable when I was down there for long periods. it didn't work, but the irony of running a heater on high to warm up the coldest room in the house during warm weather isn't lost on me. I just dealt with it.
meanwhile when I want to sit down in the office and do bills or mess about with the music etc, it's also uncomfortably cold. my shoulders get really stiff, it's that cold. yesterday I was so deterred by this I procrastinated on my bills. finally we hauled the rollaway oil heater to sit behind my desk and put it on the low setting again.
that worked. no more cold at the desks. no more discomfort in the big room. I was so happy. I did all my bills and then spent the rest of the evening in the big room. the dogs were happy too. they like the downstairs, with the carpet, better than the upstairs, with the hardwood floors on which they have no purchase.
I guess it all has to do with the volume of the space. the no-windows room basically sucked all the heat from the big room, rendering both heater vents ineffective? and with the little oil heater there, the heat was no longer getting sucked away, and so the big room stayed heated.
anyhow, I am again at my desk, with the little oil heater going. and two dogs on the floor next to me, happy too. well they would be happier if I took them on a walk, but that's another story.
inside, at the foot of the stairs, sort of under the main stairwell, are built in desks. a nice office space. no windows though. adjoining it is another small room, well, we call it "the nook", which also has no windows. and then a large room whose only purpose is to entertain. that room has windows facing north. the south wall for both this room and the office space is masonry holding back the hill.
the house has central heating, but the thermostat is on the main floor. so that room, even in the warm summer days, was nicely cool in the mid-day and uncomfortably chilly at night. I broke out the rollaway oil heater and put it on a low setting next to the futon in an attempt to be less uncomfortable when I was down there for long periods. it didn't work, but the irony of running a heater on high to warm up the coldest room in the house during warm weather isn't lost on me. I just dealt with it.
meanwhile when I want to sit down in the office and do bills or mess about with the music etc, it's also uncomfortably cold. my shoulders get really stiff, it's that cold. yesterday I was so deterred by this I procrastinated on my bills. finally we hauled the rollaway oil heater to sit behind my desk and put it on the low setting again.
that worked. no more cold at the desks. no more discomfort in the big room. I was so happy. I did all my bills and then spent the rest of the evening in the big room. the dogs were happy too. they like the downstairs, with the carpet, better than the upstairs, with the hardwood floors on which they have no purchase.
I guess it all has to do with the volume of the space. the no-windows room basically sucked all the heat from the big room, rendering both heater vents ineffective? and with the little oil heater there, the heat was no longer getting sucked away, and so the big room stayed heated.
anyhow, I am again at my desk, with the little oil heater going. and two dogs on the floor next to me, happy too. well they would be happier if I took them on a walk, but that's another story.