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Weather thread for November heatwave

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Julia said:
Why do you both put up with such miserable temperatures? Are you trying to save the planet by not heating your homes?
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I do heat the house, it just takes quite a while to get up to a decent temperature after being empty and unheated all day.

Long term, I'll get a reverse cycle air-conditioner for heating but for the moment it's mainly wood in the house, plus occasional use of the diesel heater in the workshop / garage downstairs. About this time every year, I start getting fed up messing about carrying logs of wood every day. Then Summer arrives and I forget about the hassle and remember instead the benefits of the fire, thus never getting around to doing something about it. In any event, the cat likes sleeping in front of the fire and probably wouldn't like air-conditioning. :)
 
$1000? How often, Smurf? Is that your annual power bill? Quarterly?
 
Julia said:
$1000? How often, Smurf? Is that your annual power bill? Quarterly?
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That's my rough estimate of what I'd spend on firewood, diesel and electricity for heating over a 12 month period.

Firewood - about $600, Diesel - $200, Electrical heating - $200

Long term I'll eventually get around to putting in air-conditioning as I said. Cost of running that should be no more than the wood and electric heating it will replace and has the advantages of no messing about with wood, and being able to stay running nicely all night. Should warm the place up faster too.

The diesel is only to heat the workshop / garage. Most of the consumption occurs on a dozen or so days each year, at the rate of about $1.80 an hour with the heater going flat out. But it does a very good job of heating and is easy - just press a button and it fires up. 5 seconds later there's a huge blast of hot air coming out. :)
 
Thanks for the rundown, smurf. That's way cheaper than I'd have imagined would be necessary for somewhere as cold as Tasmania. Mine is much more than that in Qld.
 
Julia said:
Why do you both put up with such miserable temperatures? Are you trying to save the planet by not heating your homes?
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So they should be trying to save the earth!

drsmith said:
Hell no. That's what the house would be without heating.
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Smurf1976 said:
I do heat the house, it just takes quite a while to get up to a decent temperature after being empty and unheated all day.
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And I thought youse were hard guys like me:)

My reverse cycle aircon has just broken down, during a cold snap.

15C in the day, 12C at night, inside, so okay really, but the kids are whinging, as they have to put more than a T-shirt on.

My energy cost to run Aircon in Summer and Winter would be in the $400-600
range, taking into account recent price rises. Not needed spring & autumn.

I expect this to keep rising, as mine is powerful enough to need 3-phase power, and energy bills are slated to rise substantially.
 
awg said:
My reverse cycle aircon has just broken down, during a cold snap.

15C in the day, 12C at night, inside, so okay really, but the kids are whinging, as they have to put more than a T-shirt on.
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Wow, awg, you're tough! 15 is "okay"? Wouldn't do me.:D


My energy cost to run Aircon in Summer and Winter would be in the $400-600
range, taking into account recent price rises. Not needed spring & autumn.

I expect this to keep rising, as mine is powerful enough to need 3-phase power, and energy bills are slated to rise substantially.
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I guess it's a case of what matters to you. If you're genuinely quite comfortable in 15 degrees, then of course you're not going to want to use the heating. I just hate being cold (the only reason I left NZ), so will happily forgo some other indulgences to keep warm and heat the pool.
 
G'day Julia.
That's an interesting subject, just what is a comfortable ambient temperature. I really dislike overheated buildings, and it's all too common in offices. Why do people need 22 deg during winter? They know they have to go outside afterwards right? Only to contract flu I guess, and bring it back to infect everybody else. Sorry to sound bitter here. It's like, you know, have they considered putting on a jumper, being winter and all? For mine, 20 deg is plenty in a stuffy office.

I live in coastal NSW, my unheated (except by the sun through the windows) winter temps range between 15 and 22 deg. I rarely bother with heating, unless it's the World Cup at 4:30am. Go Netherlands!
 
Probably depends largely on one's personal comfort level. I like around 23 and am still wearing at least two layers. Body build comes into it. Fat people are insulated against the cold.

Agree with you about stuffiness.

Everyone should have whatever makes them comfortable. I only raised it because drsmith and smurf were both seeming to be complaining about the cold and saying their houses were around 15. I was just curious about why they'd willingly be uncomfortable.
 
Julia said:
Probably depends largely on one's personal comfort level. I like around 23 and am still wearing at least two layers. Body build comes into it. Fat people are insulated against the cold.

Agree with you about stuffiness.

Everyone should have whatever makes them comfortable. I only raised it because drsmith and smurf were both seeming to be complaining about the cold and saying their houses were around 15. I was just curious about why they'd willingly be uncomfortable.
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Personally I find anything below 21 uncomfortably cold and normally I heat the house to 21 - 22 degrees. Problem is that most days during winter, it's around 12 - 13 inside when I get home and it takes quite a while by the time I carry the wood up the steps into the house, get the fire going, wait for the fire to warm up, then wait for it to actually heat the house.

As an example, I got home 70 minutes ago and it was 13.5 inside then. Now the fire is starting to really get going and it's up to 15. Give it another half hour and it will have shot up to 21 or so. So it's just a timing issue really.

Ideally, I'd like to install gas central heating since that would be very effective at heating and is relatively cheap to install with the deal the gas company is offering (effectively a $3000 discount on the cost of installing it). Only trouble is, I'm nowhere near a gas pipe... Hence the planned air-conditioner.

Regarding temperatures generally, a few observations:

1. I certainly had fewer colds when I lived in a house that had 24/7 heating and was never cold. No doubt about that at all - I get at least one cold every year now versus very few when living there.

2. At work we actually run the works depot common area where workers start / finsish from at 24 during Winter, 22 during Summer. The reason is simply that with workers out in the cold all day and sometimes getting wet too (we work rain or shine), they like it to be toasty warm when they come back at the end of the day so as to "thaw out". The cost of heating is trivial compared to the benefit of keeping people happy.

Regarding my previous post about costs, I should add that this is only for heating and not including power used for everything else.

One thing that amazes me, is how seemingly unintelligent animals can work things out that humans often fail to grasp. I have some mice with a cage joined by a tunnel to a plastic maze. On one rather cold night, the mice managed to shift fully two human hand fulls of shredded paper through the small tunnel and used it to effectively insulate the maze. Not just paper thrown around randomly - they actually had enough sense to insulate on the other side of the walls of the maze around the area they've decided to sleep in. 8 degrees where they're kept in the garage, very warm inside the maze with all that paper they've taken in. Must have taken them quite some time since a mouse can't really carry too much at once, and they have to go through the tunnel (which is only slightly wider than a mouse) to get it all in. Looks a bit like an igloo the way they've done it, insulated with the paper on all sides with only one small entrance back into the rest of the maze. Smarter than I'd expected...
 
From storms and lightning on Tuesday, we are in store for 40 degrees in Melbourne today.
Summer is here.

We will all be whingeing its too hot soon : )
 
captain black said:
I started my whingeing yesterday when we got to 38. We're going for 44 today :eek:
Taking the Lab down the river for a swim in a minute then sitting under the air con for the rest of the day.
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Is that the Murray river captain? Do you swim in it as well?

How's the kospi trading going?

CanOz
 
CanOz said:
Is that the Murray river captain? Do you swim in it as well?
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Yep, the Murray. I swim in it as well and also kayak on the backwaters/creeks every opportunity I get. Our end of the river was dying a few years ago but is starting to come back to life again after some good floods.

CanOz said:
How's the kospi trading going?
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It's still paying the bills :)
I tend to only trade the first 2-3 hours as they're historically when I pick up the best swings...although it's a bit flat again this morning.
It's 36.5 degrees here now (11am) so I think I'll go for another swim after lunch!

(edit: actually it's 38 degrees here at 11am...yuck!)
 
I grew up in the Riverland CB. I actually miss the days over 40, havent had a 'proper' summer for years since living in both Syd and Melbs
 
prawn_86 said:
I grew up in the Riverland CB. I actually miss the days over 40, havent had a 'proper' summer for years since living in both Syd and Melbs
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I grew up in Loxton, spent 7 years on the Sunshine Coast but missed this place too much and came back, never regretted it. It looks like we've got one of those proper summers shaping up this year after a couple of wetter ones. The Kospi has finally moved so I've picked up my wages for the day :) My lab is looking too comfortable under the air con so it might be time to pull stumps on the Kospi and head down the sandbar at Rilli Reserve :)

We're still sitting on 38 degrees (just to keep the thread on topic ;) )
 
I used to play footy against Loxton back in my premiership winning junior days.

I like the Riverland but think it is just the nostalgia factor as i am bored after a weekend back there :p:

Heating up here in Melbs, currently 35
 
prawn_86 said:
I like the Riverland but think it is just the nostalgia factor as i am bored after a weekend back there :p:
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heh, yeah, each to his own, it completely baffles me why anyone would want to live in a city...
I trade the Kospi so I don't get bored easily.. ;)

prawn_86 said:
Heating up here in Melbs, currently 35
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We've hit 41 now, Renmark is just over 42. Looks like we'll nudge that 44 they've predicted.
 
It doesn't look like we'll be going down the river this arvo. Basil, (my labrador), just came outside with me while I watered my vegie seedlings and took about 10 seconds to turn around, come back inside and lay down under the air con again :)

It's just a smidge under 42 here.

Kospi still sideways. Got short at 254.9 an hour ago but stopped out at breakeven. Short again at 255 with stop now to breakeven. Not much conviction either way at the moment but just taking signals when they happen, getting the stop to BE and letting it go..... am I still on topic :)
 
Kospi flipped at 255, stop at BE now.... looking shaky..poised to flip again...reminds me why I don't normally trade the arvo. Too hot to do much else though!

Temperature here has hit 43, Renmark nudging 46.

Vegie garden looking very sad.

Basil still under the air con. Think I might join him if the Kospi doesn't break on this move....
 
Looked it up. Record for Renmark is 48 which occurred 9th February 2009.
That would kill you pretty quick.
 
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