'Bout to get reeeaaaaal cold, who's ready?

jharkin said:

Interesting they keep upgrading this storm, we went from 4 in to now up to 10in snow expected, and now the Cape and South Shore is in a Blizzard watch.

Click to expand...

Same here. We started at 1"-3" then 3"-6". Now they're saying 6"-10". After the storm passes temps drop to single digits overnight and daytime highs in the upper teens to low 20's. Guess it's time to go back into hibernation mode.

I ditched the econobox for the truck today since I have a 35 mile commute right through the 6-10 swath of NJ. The normal hour drive will almost certainly become two tonight... The timing on this one really sucks.

I got some temporary fixes on a few of my biggest air leaks in the last couple days. I put window film on the only remaining window that hasn't been upgraded yet. Before I ran the hair dryer over it, the wind was bowing the plastic into the room and it took a bit of effort to push the bubble back in....with only a 10 mph wind. Then I had one electrical outlet with a big gap between the box and the wall (wall board with an additional 1/2" of 'concrete' and skim coat.) I could see the exterior logs. There was also a gap, 3/8" at the widest point and about a foot long, behind the kitchen sink basin below the window frame. Just found that one recently. Water must have got splashed back there over the years and eroded the wall material. Wind gets behind the logs and seeks out any breach in the interior wall. I could feel air blowing in at the ones I plugged, and the window. I'm not sure how much those quick-fixes with some backer rod are going to help but I've still got 68 in the house, just re-loaded after a 9-hr. burn, and it's 17 out with winds 15-20 and gusts in the upper 30s. We'll see how well it does over the next couple of nights, which will be almost as cold as the last blast. It was down to 60 in here then but I would think I've gained a few degrees, at least. I hadn't been too motivated to look for leaks until this bear of a winter came along.

via ryan maue twitter next 7 days

Woody Stover said:

I hadn't been too motivated to look for leaks until this bear of a winter came along.

Click to expand...

I hear ya! We did the same. There are some we can't really fix until spring, so those are just going to be there until then. We did some new weather stripping on two of the old windows and around one door, that helped a lot. We don't really have air leakage now, so no window film. We also used a left over piece on a "new" window also (as in, relatively new, we didn't put it in but it's not a nice wood frame original it's a junky Anderson vinyl replacement) that we have been wanting to replace. I was hoping the neighbor that was replacing their original windows would get to it so we'd have a good wood frame to use, but it looks like we're going to have to use another vinyl one. It just has to get done this year, it's shot. DH is reporting 67 in the house with 5-6 degree outside air temp, not sure on wind chill. Winds will drop the inside temp if they get above 15-20 mph. Last time we had -25ish windchills we dropped to a low of 49 inside (in the stove room!) before I really pushed the stove overnight and we got it back into the 60's with the help of two 1500 watt electric heaters. We get about a 6-7 hour burn on a full load of pine/spruce and we can reload every 4 to 5 hours if needed. It's only a problem with single digit temps or high winds when it's teens or lower. 20's or warmer out and we're good, 40's or warmer and we can easily overheat it in here. we have some serious weather sealing to do!!

The last big freeze gave me a chance to find some areas where cold was penetrating the house. The basement was extremely cold when the temps were sub-zero, so I went down there with the IR gun and got some readings. The concrete blocks at the end of the floor joists were giving me 28F readings in some spots and some of these spots were right next to water pipes. Yesterday and today, I worked on insulating the joist ends and putting shrink plastic on the only window that didn't have it. It's 14F right now and the difference is very noticeable. My kitchen is directly above the area that I insulated and before, it was hard to keep that room warm at these temps. The floor was ice cold and no fun to stand on in socks. Now, it's as warm in the kitchen as the rest of the house. I also put a floor sweep on the kitchen door, coming in from the sun room and I'm sure that contributed as well.

So if it weren't for that polar thing we had the other week, I wouldn't have been ready for this next freeze.
Next, I'm going to fill in the basement window wells with snow, since it's going to be here for a while this time.

hate, I mean hate cloudy days and 15* in dec-mar. what a difference in keeping the house at 70*. pushing the #### out of the f100 and using a 1500kw space heater for our first floor. mom in-law in the raised ranch basement apartment is oil fired. let have some sun tomorrow if only for 2-3 hours. for those that have it, enjoy the am cleanup.

Weatherman just said we can look forward to -30 windchill on Thursday.

Argggg........

NW NJ is supposed to bottom out at 2 degrees around 5 a.m. Snowblowing at that time of the morning ought to be fun Wife's school already cancelled but I'll need to be on my way by 7:00

Shari said:

Weatherman just said we can look forward to -30 windchill on Thursday.

Argggg........

Click to expand...

Hang in there, Shari !!

I took a few minutes here to admire how well my rim joist and sill plate efforts are working. All bays at about 50F, it's 14F outside, falling fast. Last year I had ice on the basement window interiors, now the surface is still 42F. No drafts perceptible anywhere, which is a huge improvement.

I'm not looking forward to clearing snow tomorrow if it really goes to single digits, happily we didn't get as much as forecast. Philly seems to have gotten what we missed.

TE

BrotherBart said:

No sleeping in tomorrow. Early reload.

Click to expand...

Sleeping in? What's that? I got up at the normal time (5:00) thinking that I'd have work today, if not a little late, and I that I should get a jump on snow removal. Emailed my boss saying hopefully I'd be in by 9:00, went outside and dug out. I came back in at 6:00 to find an email back: "Just got word we're closed..." Of course, the inverse of that would be me sleeping in and the office being open 3 degrees here with a bit of a nasty wind out there in NW NJ. The stuff is going to be blowing everywhere today. My local road is a sheet of ice, but I'm just off a county highway to a state highway so hopefully those are better. Englander is chugging away with a nice load of walnut and oak. Stay warm all!

-2F here, 70F inside. My basement insulating efforts seem to have paid off, the house is warm everywhere.

-18* at 06:00am here in central NY. Brrrr.

a look ahead from wsi energy

nat gas this am http://www.investing.com/commodities/natural-gas-advanced-chart

Well someone had fun this morning:



I'm pretty sure Labrador Retriever heaven must be 2 degrees and covered in snow and ice

It's a whopping 9F here, with out the wind chill, here in Icy Hollow...The PE is settled in to bring the house back up to temp, and the 13 will be settled in shortly.

This is gonna put a dent in my firewood supply for sure.

-11.5 here this morning. Too many coals.

velvetfoot said:

-11.5 here this morning. Too many coals.

Click to expand...

Lol...trying to burn mine down as we speak. I'm banking them up in the back and using short splits. Thank god for the massive firebox on this thing!

lake champlain,vt

-33 in Watertown, NY yesterday. -22 at 10 am today.