~o~
Monday 17th 13F/-10C. Another cold one but sunny again. It is three degrees [C] colder than forecast.
8.00 Up at 6.15. 57F/14C in the room. The stove is lit. The bathroom, oil-filled radiator is really struggling. Only 55F/13C in there. Despite running almost continuously according to the orange pilot light. I bought a radiator of twice the size for the kitchen and moved the small one to the bathroom.
A week ago it was 68F/20C in there. So I turned it right down. The bathroom is losing heat on three sides. The low, overnight temperatures are unusual. The recent winters have been relatively mild. I have often wondered if sitting at the bottom of a low hill caused it to be a cold spot. The lowest I have ever measured here was -25C/-13F. I used several digital thermometers to confirm it. The extension cable to my telescope mounting froze into a giant coil spring. I didn't dare move it until it thawed.
8.20 14.7F/-9.5C outside. 24F/-4C in the lean-to greenhouse. The sun will help to raise this later. Now 60F/16C in the room. Time for a walk.
Just a walk to the lanes in bright sunshine. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek when walking parallel to the sun. The opposite cheek on the return leg. Passing traffic was enough to provide a serious wind chill factor. Walking into the almost imperceptible breeze too. I stopped walking briefly. Just to prove to myself that my own forward motion was enough to make it feel much colder. My fingers were soon cold in my warmest gloves. So it's not the gloves. I must be suffering from poor circulation. I was too warm in my down sweater on the return leg and opened the zip.
10.10 23F/-5C. The sun has reached the greenhouse: 51F/11C. Rising rapidly! Now 64F/18C in the room. I am so used to colder indoor temperatures that it often feels tropical in office buildings and shops. I dress appropriately at home. Long, thermal underwear under normal indoor clothing. Which includes a warm, wool jumper and wool socks. When we used the old stove we wore down jackets indoors. It could not compete with the modern stove.
14.00 Bright sunshine. 31F/-0.6C outside. 68F/20C in the room. 87F/31C in the greenhouse. 66F/19C upstairs. Still only 55F/12.8C in the bathroom. I have only been pottering about and tidying stuff.
It is surprisingly difficult to get an accurate temperature reading in the greenhouse. I am using the "Outside" sensors of two digital thermometers. These are mounted on the end of long leads. One sensor is behind the logs near the floor. So receive very little sunlight. Currently reading 69F/20.6C.
I tried a white card in front of the second sensor. The card must have been absorbing some warmth as it showed a steady 87F/30.6C. Then I hung a large piece of card from the greenhouse roof to shade the white card from direct sunlight. The reading dropped to 85F.
Then I found a piece of polystyrene foam packaging about 10mm thick and fixed the sensor to the back of that. Again shaded by the cardboard mounted above. The temperature reading has dropped very slowly to only 80F/26.7C and remained steady. This is the same reading from a remote "pistol" laser guided thermometer. On both the card and the polystyrene.
The sensor is at about chest height against the white painted brick, house wall. It feels warm standing in the sunshine out there but not tropical. Opening the door to the house would not provide much extra warmth. No doubt the air temperature could be raised with black surfaces on the house wall. To absorb more of the sun's heat free of charge. However the three, living room windows leave little wall space for adding anything useful in area.
The greenhouse is no longer well sealed to the house. The sponge draught strip having deteriorated over the years due to UV exposure. Draughts can easily be felt out there in windy weather. The curved, plastic sheeting at the "shoulder" of the greenhouse has sagged away from the aluminium frame. Causing air gaps which are difficult to seal cosmetically.
That said, the greenhouse provides a valuable, year round buffer for much of the southern facade. Greatly reducing heat loss. Particularly in sunny weather. I find that spring and autumn are best for borrowing free heat from the greenhouse.
The major advantage of a lean-to greenhouse, over wall insulation, is that you can grow tomatoes out there. Or even sit out there when conditions are favourable. Which means warmth and shade. Being under bare glass in sunshine is most unpleasant for most of the year. So don't believe the greenhouse manufacturers ads. Showing models enjoying the sunshine inside their wares!
Hopefully the fridge and freezer are now returning to normal. I have a digital thermometer reading the freezer temperature. It is supposed to be -18C [according to Google] but it is still sinking very slowly past -10C.
Dinner was a pork chop with chips and peas. I tried to cook the chop in the oven but had left it too late. So I took it out and fried it. It was fine but the chips were a bit crispy.
11.25. The fridge didn't want to start after switch off. It slowly rose from -10 to-6C. So I gave it a nudge and it started working again. -6C is much too warm for the naked boxes and bags of frozen goods. So I have put the cool bag in a storage tub on the table outside. So no animals can get at it. Overnight temperatures are likely to hover around -5C. The cool bag and tub will hopefully use the contents to maintain a lower temperature. Than the freezer compartment and bare frozen foods in their packaging.
11.35 I just checked again and the freezer temperature has already dropped to -13C. Hopefully I shan't have to stay up all night to see it reach a safe temperature. It is dropping fast now. Down to -16C. I'll bring the bag in from outdoors and put the stuff away.
~o~
No comments:
Post a Comment