Last night, the thermometer dropped down to unmentionable temperatures. I’m fine – with proper insulating layers – down to at least zero, and maybe even five below. As the temps hit 10 below at 7:30 last night and kept on dropping, I knew we were in for a doozy of a night. I lamented the need to leave the house (I had choir practice), grumpily layered on my winter best and shivered my way to rehearsal and back. I’m not sure there’s anything that feels better than stepping into a warm, cozy house when you’re cold enough that your nose feels more like a popsicle than part of your face.
my thermometer late yesterday afternoon
As described in an earlier post, Jamie installed a fan over the propane heater which blows the warm air down toward our floor, keeping the tiny house at a comfortable temperature. At night, we turn our heater down to “pilot” and turn off the fan so the residual heat heads up to the loft and keeps us warm. If we leave the heater on at night – even on its lowest setting – by about 2 am we’re both roasting and someone has to go downstairs to turn it off.
This morning when I climbed down from the loft, I noticed several things:
1. I could see my breath
2. The floorboards felt like blocks of ice
3. There was frost on the inside of the door
I turned up the propane heater and about 5 minutes later the house temperature was up from 46 degrees to 55, and another 5 minutes brought us to a comfy 68. In a house with more square footage, it would take ages (and lots more propane) for the heater to crank out enough warmth to bring the whole house up to a comfortable temperature.
Advantage number 319 of tiny house living!
Tiny House Adventures 