Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Baby It's Cold Inside

I know I shouldn't fuss about the weather. After all, there are more serious things to worry about these days and I am thankful that I have all the creature comforts that I do. And I certainly don't live anywhere truly frigid like Sweden or Minnesota. But, we have been having quite a cold spell here in southern Italy. I mean, 3, 4, 5 degrees celcius (that's 37 to 41 degrees Farenheit) is pretty chilly, especially when it's about the same temperature inside the house as it is outside!

We do have central heating in my house, but the house is 200 square meters and to warm it up even minimally means running up a very steep heating bill. Last year we installed 24 solar panels on our roof and two large electrically powered air-conditioner/heating units in the hopes of eventually saving money...as well as protecting the environment. The electric heaters usually work fine, but during this cold spell they have not been enough.

I am a real wimp about the cold, I have a hard time warming up and my hands and feet turn into ice cubes, so I have adopted the very attractive, very sexy, "indoors heavy dressing" technique. I have fleece pants over nylons, a wool undershirt, a wool top, two fleece jackets, wool fingerless gloves and...the heavy-duty no-slip Little Red Ridinghood slipper socks!

5 comments:

Patsy said...

Saretta.You need to eat more fish, that will marm you up!Hooo have a glass of wine.That will do it.

Saretta said...

I have tried all the tricks, Patsy, but there's no getting around it, I am just "freddolosa"!

Nick said...

Ciao Sara Freddolosa. What happens to the solar heat when the temp gets down to the 37-41 F level? Not effective when sky is overcast for a prolonged period? Or, heat produced is insufficient at said temps even if sun is abundant? As I recall your solar panels produce electricity that in turn fuels electric baseboard heaters? Yes? No? Let me know please.

Saretta said...

Electric baseboard heaters? That would be nice, but no...we have no such thing! We produce less energy with the panels in the winter because there is less sun and the sun lies lower so it doesn't hit the panels as directly, but the problem is that the electric heaters just aren't powerful enough when it gets this cold. Remember that we do not directly consume the energy that we produce with the panels. We sell to the power company and the value of what we produce is taken off the next bill.

Patsy said...

Basically is the home construction. Everything is made of stone material,Walls, pavement, roofs and that teaks a lot of energy to heat up,and then the rooms are so large.