11 ms·

From the comments: > Sorry, I am not buying it. Not because you haven't done good work on the article: you have. Also not because N.American homes are overheat

• mcot2 6y ago
  Had to laugh at your comment about Scotland because people in Maine do the same thing. Heat is either blasting or turned off. Very poor insulation.
  • ashtonkem 6y ago
    We had a problem with this in older Chicago apartments, usually 2 flats and quads. These buildings usually had radiator heat fired by a common boiler in the basement and city mandated turn-on dates and minimum daily/nightly temperatures. In theory each radiator has a regulator valve that allows you to moderate the amount of steam flowing through it. In reality these valves are all painted over/corroded/never worked in the first place, and all radiators run at full blast. It was not uncommon to see apartments with open windows in January to help regulate the heat produced by the radiator. Tenants didn't care because they didn't pay for the gas directly, although it was obviously built into the rents, and the land lords never wanted to spend the money to upgrade these old buildings, since the excessive usage of gas was built into everyone's rent and the upgrades were not. Then again, given the age of those windows there probably was very little difference between them being open and closed anyways. This problem was fixed when I moved into a new construction apartment which had a minisplit to heat/cool the living space. Until I found out that mini-splits have the same issue heating as ACs occasionally have in very hot summers; they can't provide any heat once the ambient temperature gets colder than the exterior coils (since it's literally an AC running backwards). That was a bad surprise.
    • wittyreference 6y ago
      > It was not uncommon to see apartments with open windows in January to help regulate the heat produced by the radiator. Known as the Brooklyn Thermostat.
      • fennecfoxen 6y ago
        These days I have the same problem because the downtown Brooklyn PTACs all have the thermostat sensor right next to the window.
      • pavel_lishin 6y ago
        This blew my mind more than anything else when we moved to New York.
    • xxpor 6y ago
      There was an article the other day that basically said these steam boilers became popular during the 1918 flu pandemic, and they thought increased air circulation would help people not catch the flu (turns out they were right). So the boilers were tuned to run extra hot, as they were intended to be run with the windows open! Found it: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/the-curious-history-of-steam-heat-and-pandemics https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/the-curio...
      • oftenwrong 6y ago
        As I suspected before clicking, that article cites that explanation as being given by steam heating system expert Dan Holohan. He has a talk up on YouTube that I came across a few years ago. It is interesting on a number of levels, and I recommend giving it a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQB0KK2rxcw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQB0KK2rxcw
    • tootie 6y ago
      I live that way right now in a 1950s building in NYC. The heaters only have two settings: off and thermonuclear. And the controls are centralized, ie there's no thermostat in my home. So, yeah, we control the temp by opening the windows sometimes. All that being said, living in an apartment building is automatically far more efficient than a house. We don't need to insulate three of our walls because they directly abut other heated residences and not open air. We have one big boiler for 120 or so residents.
• fnbr 6y ago
  Yeah, I find that people spend the least amount of money on insulation/heat that they can. I’m from Edmonton, and the coldest I’ve ever been was the winter when I lived in London, UK, as their insulation sucks and their heating sucks. In Edmonton, that’s not possible, because you have a few days of -40C weather annually, so your pipes will freeze without proper insulation (and you’ll die). Now, it’s not comfortable living through -40C weather, but it’s as cold inside as -5C in the UK (outside it’s way, way worse, of course).
  • grecy 6y ago
    The difference there is the humidity making you feel cold. I live in the Yukon where -40C is the standard daytime temp for months, and I'm perfectly happy/used to it. I felt cold to my bones in the UK.
    • kortilla 6y ago
      The comment isn’t about the temps outside, it’s inside the house. The point was that in really cold places people have to have good heating and insulation so the house feels better than places with more mild winters.
      • grecy 6y ago
        The humidity is still a big factor inside, and it's why you feel colder than in places with low humidity.
        • cududa 6y ago
          Odd you were downvoted down much for mentioning that humidity impacts how we feel temperatures..
        • fulafel 6y ago
          Humid -40C air becomes very dry +20C air when it gets inside a heated house. Saturated vapour density, the basis of relative humidity, about doubles every 10C.
• atemerev 6y ago
  I am from Siberia. I no longer live there, but I cannot tolerate the temperature at home lower than 23 degrees C. For the same exact reason.
  • odiroot 6y ago
    I was born and raised in Poland. Granted, Polish winters are not as bad as Siberian (-32°C is the lowest I experienced). My friends and colleagues from the south (or even US) always ask me, why I dislike winter -- "I should already be used to it". I doubt you can ever get used to it, but we've insulated our houses well and have good heating system (especially in dense cities). And you'd usually try to escape the cold as often as possible, mostly spending winter inside. On the other hand, an additional negative of winters (or late autumn) is the heating makes the indoor air "thick" and unpleasant. You need to ventilate the room every hour or so. It's really tedious. During summer, you'd just leave your windows open whole day and have a nice air exchange.
• masklinn 6y ago
  Interestingly the same can be seen in Japan despite it being a common example: Honshu (the main island) generally has poor insulation and heating. Hokkaido, however, generally has good insulation and central heating. Unsurprisingly, while nowhere near as bad as Winnipeg winter in Hokkaido is much longer and deeper than in most of Honshu. Although it likely helps that Hokkaido is much drier, especially in summer, meaning house rot is less of an issue.
  • fomine3 6y ago
    Because Japanese house is traditionally built to be able to pass winds for natural wind cooling in summer. It was fine for summer but bad for winter, so we love Kotatsu. Now, we can't live with natural wind cooling in summer (A/C is the only option), it's bad in both summer and winter.
• loblollyboy 6y ago
  And (thanks to climate change) my flat also get hot enough to kill me
• cauliflower2718 6y ago
  Seconded. I've lived in high-rises in NYC and cute houses in the bay area. Despite it staying much warmer outside in the bay area, my house (and others', apparently) is so poorly insulated that I feel much colder indoors in the winter in the bay area compared to in NYC.
  • joecool1029 6y ago
    >I feel much colder indoors in the winter in the bay area compared to in NYC. NYC is uh, special. Due to the prevalence of steam heat most apartments I've been in usually open the windows when it gets too hot in the winter. Having a thermostat in such an apartment is a status symbol. In short, combination of humidity plus tons of waste heat means you generally don't get cold there (unless something broke or you don't live somewhere with steam).
• nojokes 6y ago
  It is a British. Our family friend, who has British husband complains about constant freezing during their stay there.
• lazyant 6y ago
  This is my experience as well (going to mild places in Europe and many houses without central heating being at almost the same ~ 10C - 15C temperature as outside on the streets.) Unrelated (I think) https://www.aceee.org/portal/national-policy/international-scorecard https://www.aceee.org/portal/national-policy/international-s...
• amingilani 6y ago
  I concur. My account is just as anecdotal and also limited to a specific region. That said, I recently moved to North America and have lived in Pakistan my entire life. A combination of poorly insulated building materials, old houses, an energy crisis, and a low GDP per capita leads most individuals to people conserving body-heat in the winter. It isn't fun, and you're never warm enough. It was bizarre for me to lounge around in a T-shirt and jeans while it was snowing outside this month. The average coldest in winter for Lahore is 5.9 °C (42.6 °F). When the weather turns, you pack your summer clothes and unpack your trunk of winter clothes. You're wearing many layers and a heavy jacket indoors with your gas-heater burning a flame for extra measure. Oh, and your blankets are much heavier in the winter. The record coldest it's ever gotten in Lahore was an unfathomable –2.2 °C on January 17, 1935. It's never been that cold in my lifetime. And yet, winter feels infinitely colder in Pakistan than it does in Canada.
  • 1996 6y ago
    > That said, I recently moved to North America and have lived in Pakistan most of my life. Welcome here! I hope you'll like it! Is it your first winter? It's a special experience! My favorite thing in the winter is a hot Tim Hortons drink - I rotate them, because they are all quite good! > And yet, winter feels infinitely colder in Pakistan than it does in Canada. Until you go outside and try to walk in the street :)
    • loloquwowndueo 6y ago
      > Until you go outside and try to walk in the street :) There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing. Dress appropriately when going out - every Canadian 5yo has mastered that skill.
      • nucleardog 6y ago
        I appreciate the thought and agree in most situations the solution is to dress better, but when it’s -40 actual temperature and hitting -70F with the windchill I’d still call it “bad weather”. At that point you can get frostbite in under a minute. Dressing appropriately starts to feel more like putting on a hazmat suit than getting dressed to go out as any bit of exposed skin is at risk. Even many cold-weather accessories you might have start to feel insufficient. A knit scarf or toque is great in many situations, but the cold wind will cut through it like a knife. I remember being sent outside at recess as a kid at those kinds of temperatures. I mean, I still go outside when I have to but I don’t exactly look for excuses to leave the house.
• Guest19023892 6y ago
  I lived in Cyprus one winter. It would only go down to about 5-7C at night. I was freezing. Actually, I got sores on my toes because the tile floors were so cold in the apartment and I needed to start wearing my sandals in the house. It was a small one bedroom apartment. During the day it was fine, I had the windows open. At night, I'd run the two wall heaters, I'd wear a hoodie, and I'd be cold unless I was under the heater. To warm up the bedroom before going to bed I'd close the bedroom door, turn the heater on high, and leave it for at least 30 minutes. If I then went in the room and turned the heater off, within 20 minutes it would be cold again. In Canada it can be -10C outside and I've always been perfectly cozy indoors. In my Canadian apartment now, I don't even run the heat at night and it's fine, and I only partly cover myself with the duvet. In Cyprus I was using multiple blankets and was uncomfortably cold in bed, even with the heat running. I can only imagine people in Cyprus and other countries with poorly insulated homes hearing about the weather and Canada and fearing for their life. Meanwhile, it's December in Canada and I'm literally wearing shorts in my house now.
• pea 6y ago
  I think there's a specifically British thing about accepting being cold and not complaining about it - I've lived in Scotland or London for most of my life, and no one will turn on their heating before November and most houses are 150-400 years old and are not insulated. I can literally feel the breeze inside as I type this.
  • Swinx43 6y ago
    I tip my hat to you sir. It is very true. My Irish neighbours were always surprised at how warm our flat was since they ran heating at 18 degrees in winter. Me having not grown up in the U.K. still run it at 23 to this day. Two of the places I lived had beautiful old sash Windows. Only problem was you could see the curtains move as the breeze came through them in winter.
  • abraxas 6y ago
    British housing often seems neglected. Especially the windows. I once had an apartment in Glasgow that had such terrible windows that wasps were getting in during summer while windows were closed. When I complained to the landlord he stuck some cotton balls in the bigger holes. That was the "repair" undertaken.
• sleepydog 6y ago
  I lived in Kyoto for a year. To me it seemed that the houses there prioritized being comfortable during the oppressive summer heat they have there -- lots of windows, very drafty, shaded outdoor porches, etc. I wouldn't call the winters miserable -- I had a space heater, a warm robe and thick blankets. Kyoto does have fairly mild winters, though.
  • freetime2 6y ago
    Kotatsus[1] are also wonderful inventions. You can turn down (or turn off) the heat in the room and crank up the kotatsu and be very cozy. It’s not the most practical source of heating since it doesn’t follow you around to different rooms like warm clothing does. But it’s good if you know you’re going to be in one place for a while (e.g. watching TV). The feeling to me is almost like taking a bath, where your lower body is at a warmer temperature than your upper body, and your circulation keeps your whole body warm. Definitely not miserable! [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu
• renw0rp 6y ago
  When I moved to the UK and I was looking for a property to rent I was surprised to read advertisements bragging about "double glazing". I don't really remember seeing single glazing in my home country (even pre-second-word-war had double, just not two pieces of glass in a single window frame, but two separately openable single glazed windows). But it doesn't get that cold (outside) in winter in the UK, while the strongest winter i remember was getting down to -30 degrees celsius. However houses are definitely cooler inside in winter in the UK. Nowadays there are increased requirements for thermal insulation in new houses and many new buildings where I come from have triple glazed windows, some people get recuperation (warm air having house warms up newly coming air) and some even heat pumps (winters got milder recently, so even air source heat pumps are sufficient most of the years) Talking about Canada, when I was an exchange student in Halifax, New Scotia, one day when the snow fell (not even a particularly big amount in my opinion) the uni cancelled the classes; we were some of not many people who arrived to the uni building so we went sledging on a small hill nearby. It was the only time in my life that school/uni was cancelled due to weather! So Halifax didn't live up to the stereotype and my expectations about Canada, but maybe it's because it's not really a hardcore part of the country :)
• coldtea 6y ago
  >I do not buy it because the Japanese live the way you suggest in the winter, and it is miserable Yeah, so? Eating properly is also "miserable" compared to eating junk food. It's also better for you and for society.
• m463 6y ago
  > Of course, clothes can also be washed in a pedal-powered washing machine, and the hot water could come from a solar boiler, eliminating fossil energy use altogether (and keeping you more than warm enough while doing the laundry). I think that sentence alone ...
• krn1p4n1c 6y ago
  This is probably more of a factor of humidity than insulation. I've felt colder in -1C in Dublin where humidity was over 90% than at -20C in Luleå and 10%. Insulated clothing is less effective in higher humidity as moisture in the fibers wicks the heat away from the body faster.