Cold House 6.7.2008

I love my house, in part because it reminds me of the house I grew up in in Hawaii. Cinder block construction, louvered windows, flat roof. While that style of architecture works fine in tropical climes and worked well here in the summer time, now that we are fully into winter it is freezing cold. My house literally holds no heat. No insulation, no double panes, loosely fit doors allowing drafts from both above and below. If anything it is a heat sink as the interior of the house will remain cold hours into the day after the sun has warmed up the outside to a reasonable degree. I am considering ways in which I can improve the insulative properties of the house because while I have managed with a large pile of blankets and an electric heater to date that strategy is (i) wasteful in terms of energy and (ii) not particularly effective when rolling blackouts hours in duration are a regular occurrence. I am incredibly grateful to my mom for making me buy thermal underwear all those years ago as it is the only thing allowing me to sleep half the time.