~o~
Thursday 23rd 50F/10C. Heavy overcast. A whole day of gales from the NW is in the forecast. With showers. Gusting to 24m/s. [54mph] Arguably the best direction for protection from the wind thanks to the tree, shelter belt.
Up at 6am after having weird dreams and getting up twice in the night. I have a problem clearing my throat, an intermittent wet cough and slightly runny nose. Should I go to the cooking class and risk passing it on to the other guys? It started yesterday morning at the museum. I didn't notice it during the afternoon. It returned this morning. I have decided to stay at home to protect my fellow cooks.
It was 63F/17C in the room this morning. I had put another log on at bedtime. 50F outside and in the greenhouse. I lit the stove at 7am. The kindling is burning normally at the first attempt. I asked the supervisor at the sheltered workshop about it. Where they split the kindling from used pallets. He said nobody else had mentioned kindling which would not burn. The logs are going down rapidly now. I have all but used the last rack load.
8.30 51F/11C. It is unusually dark indoors but the room is warming nicely. Now reached 68F/20C. I have a slight headache. The tow bar rack for the e-bike is out for delivery today. According to track and trace.
The self-opening [gravity] louvre on the kitchen, extractor fan is letting too much air in when it is windy. I hear it rattling and can feel the wind blowing through the fan housing. Not good.
I have just swapped the battery in the balcony room thermometer. Presently reading 14C/57F. These coin type cells only last about a year. The large, digital thermometers were heavily discounted. So I bought half a dozen and placed them strategically around the hovel. They can be easily read from several yards away. The old digital thermometers had small display screens. Requiring close reading wearing glasses.
The west facing, double glazed, gable end of the old balcony must lose heat in winter. The ceiling out there is newly covered in strawboard panels. With 30-40cm of rockwool above. It is unheated except for heat loss from the cool bathroom/kitchen below. The bathroom ceiling has 4" of glass fibre insulation. Intended to reduce heat loss when the balcony above was wide open. I left it in place when re-boarding the bathroom ceiling.
The downstairs warmth could be felt rising up my face as I walked back down the stairs. Suggesting there is no serious heat loss up the open stairwell. Perhaps the stairwells distance from the stove is helping? The far end of our old bedroom is at 62F/17C.
We lived upstairs, year round, for a quarter of a century before my wife died. It felt more comfortable up there in winter. The new stove is far more powerful and should be circulating the warmth better. Thanks to its convection design. So it makes no sense that it is so cool upstairs. All the windows are firmly closed. The stove in the living room is right under the old bedroom area of the open plan attic.
The balcony room has a large pair of ill-fitting, single glazed doors. [French windows] Separating it from the rest of the attic. Triangular windows are readily available and could increase the light into the attic. If one were placed on either side of the doors under the 45º roof/ceiling slope. This would give a much more open and airy feeling to that end of the attic. With views out over the westerly garden to the boundary trees. Without increased heat loss in winter.
I took down the faded velvet curtains. Which hid the old glazed doors for most of the time. The balcony room was and remains an untidy storage area. Plans to clear all the junk. To allow me to sit out there are on hold. It would need solar protection of the huge glazed area. Temperatures soar out there in summer. I imagined making louvres for the entire gable end but the motivation is lacking.
A large, triangular, solar sail would work. Provided a 20m long guy line was affixed high up to one of the boundary trees. It would need somebody to go up a ladder. To fix hooks for the other two edges of the sail. A skylight, placed as high as possible on the north ceiling out in the balcony room, would help to shed unwanted heat.
10.00 72F/22C in the room. I feels too hot! Making me feel unwell. I'll have to let the stove go out for a while. Or open the intervening doors to the kitchen and warm it up out there? Upstairs now at 64F/18C. The balcony room is at 52F/11C. Exactly the same as the greenhouse and out of doors. If there is no extra warmth out there then it can't lose heat. It is just acting as a thermal barrier or air lock. Much as do the small entrance halls.
A closed, glazed porch around the back door would reduce draughts. Provided the main entrance door is replaced with a glazed door with modern seals. To let direct light into the hall.
12.30 The room remains at 70F/21C. Though it feels cooler. While the kitchen has risen to 63F/17C from 55F/13C earlier. It is still raining. With the wet, greenhouse roof covered in larch needles carried by the wind.
I have started a second post for today. To discuss the arrival of the Buzzrack e-Scorpion e-bike rack.~o~
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