Ways to Conserve Energy and Fuel
Joe
Ron Recer
"Joe" <useful...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e4bf7886-3f41-4df2...@f47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
> http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/conserve.html
Out on the farm, my grandparents were way ahead of their time. They only
heated the kitchen and living room. Of course they had no need to worry
about closing off ducts in other rooms since there were no ducts. They just
kept the doors closed to keep the heat from spreading to the other rooms and
sometimes put a rolled up towel at the bottom of the door to keep the cold
from creeping in under the door. The propane stove in the living room did
triple work. It heated the living room and kitchen, it powered the
humidifier (kittle sitting on top) and provided hot water (same kittle as
humidifier).
Heating the bathroom was no problem. By the time you got there on a cold
day it felt warmer just to get out of the wind. You weren't concerned about
reading material on a cold day, you just wanted to finish your business and
get back to the house. When it was really cold, you tried to wait until
someone else came out and then get in quick while the seat was still warm!
<g>
No problem keeping warm while sleeping. There were lots and lots of quilts.
So many that once under all of them you could hardly move, but then once you
got your place warm, you didn't want to move. <g>
That old house was way ahead of it time, it was built to minimize energy use
summer and winter. The bottom of the windows were the same level as the top
of the bed. With the windows open on hot summer nights the breeze would
blow right across you and cool you off. That is , if there was a breeze.
And all that cooling was free, no need to use electricity for a fan!
As a kid, I can remember laying there at night sweating, when it had already
cooled down to 95 or so, and praying for a breeze to come up and blow across
my body and cool me off a little. That was about the time that I promised
myself that when I grew up I would be cool on hot summer nights as long as I
had any money!
As long as the money holds out, I'll stay warm in the winter and cool in the
summer without going through all kinds of exercises to not heat/cool parts
of the house. Keeping comfortable is money well spent!
Ron
william boyd
> "Joe" <useful...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:e4bf7886-3f41-4df2...@f47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
>> http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/conserve.html
>
> Out on the farm, my grandparents were way ahead of their time. They only
> heated the kitchen and living room. Of course they had no need to worry
> about closing off ducts in other rooms since there were no ducts. They just
> kept the doors closed to keep the heat from spreading to the other rooms and
> sometimes put a rolled up towel at the bottom of the door to keep the cold
> from creeping in under the door. The propane stove in the living room did
> triple work. It heated the living room and kitchen, it powered the
> humidifier (kittle sitting on top) and provided hot water (same kittle as
> humidifier).
You were in a modern home and didn't even know it. <G>
We had a dogtrot house with the fireplace in the living room and cook
stove in the kitchen attached to the back of the house. The part of the
house on the other side of the breezeway contained the two bed rooms,
with no fireplace or heat.
The water tank attached to the big iron cook stove was the humidifier as
well as bath water, dish water and what ever else was used for hot
water. Course now we did have to carry the water in from the well or
stock tank when the well was dry, as it always was in mid summer.
Course during that time we took our bath down in the creek, weekly was
enough.
Didn't worry about electricity, just didn't have any.
Went to bed quite early so as to be able to get up before dawn and feed
the livestock, before walking over two miles to school.
>
> Heating the bathroom was no problem. By the time you got there on a cold
> day it felt warmer just to get out of the wind. You weren't concerned about
> reading material on a cold day, you just wanted to finish your business and
> get back to the house. When it was really cold, you tried to wait until
> someone else came out and then get in quick while the seat was still warm!
> <g>
Hardest thing for us to get accustom to was the slick paper that they
started printing the Sears & Roebuck catalog on. Corn cobs worked better
but they were cold, has to store them in the outhouse, kept the catalog
inside the back door of the house, stayed dry that way, and a little
warmer. <G>
>
> No problem keeping warm while sleeping. There were lots and lots of quilts.
> So many that once under all of them you could hardly move, but then once you
> got your place warm, you didn't want to move. <g>
>
> That old house was way ahead of it time, it was built to minimize energy use
> summer and winter. The bottom of the windows were the same level as the top
> of the bed. With the windows open on hot summer nights the breeze would
> blow right across you and cool you off. That is , if there was a breeze.
> And all that cooling was free, no need to use electricity for a fan!
The windows were also very tall. You could open the top so as to let the
summer heat out and draw cooler air in the bottom, modern method of air
conditioning back before the mechanical method was developed.
<I guess-G>
>
> As a kid, I can remember laying there at night sweating, when it had already
> cooled down to 95 or so, and praying for a breeze to come up and blow across
> my body and cool me off a little. That was about the time that I promised
> myself that when I grew up I would be cool on hot summer nights as long as I
> had any money!
seems as though we are able to forget just how rough it really was back
in the good old days. <G>
West Texas was unforgiving some times, but glad I lived through it and
can appreciate modern improvements such as electric lights, school buses
and running water. <G>
>
> As long as the money holds out, I'll stay warm in the winter and cool in the
> summer without going through all kinds of exercises to not heat/cool parts
> of the house. Keeping comfortable is money well spent!
>
> Ron
>
>
--
BP
in full reminiscent.