Toasty Toes
Staying as snug as a bug in a rug…wearing socks.
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Toasty Toes
Hi there, and welcome to Make-It-Green Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for an Earth Friendly Life. Today’s episode is about winter survival. In episode 017 “Power Bill Blues” I said that power companies recommend you turn your thermostat down two degrees in the winter, and you can save about ten percent on your heating bill. Well, after you’ve done that, how in the world are you going to live in that ice-box? Find out how in this episode!
My metabolism is about equivalent to that of a lizard. My ideal temperature is 85 degrees or hotter. So needless to say, this episode is not just about winter survival, but how to be comfortable no matter how cold it gets. I should know. Even in the summer, I freeze indoors where folks are perfectly comfortable in their little air-conditioned spaces.
Clothing Not Optional
If you’re one of those people who like to be extra comfortable in your house, with respect to clothing, winter is not the time. But for some of us, 68 degrees is just too cold to ask us to survive. So here’s a fun way to find a perfect temperature for you and your family in the winter. Start with the temperature you normally set your thermostat to, and find your most comfortable sweater. Put on that soft, fuzzy sweater and walk around the house doing your normal things. Every time you think you might be getting hot, turn the thermostat down one degree instead of shedding the sweater. After a while, you will stop turning the thermostat down because you won’t be getting hot anymore, or you might be getting a little chilly. If it’s the latter, try turning up the temperature setting a notch to see if you get comfortable again. This is your ideal temperature setting, and you should always keep it there when you’re in the house.
If you are doing activities that occasionally raise or lower your body temperature, make sure to dress in layers. This is key for anything you do when it’s cold outside (or in the case of my office building, cold inside). Your base layer should be a moisture wicking fabric that takes sweat away from your body and helps it evaporate. This will keep you dry, which is key to staying warm in cold weather. Additional layers should be easy to put on and take off, to make your strutting around at the office or in your house as comfortable as possible. For example, keep a sweater at your desk at work — after you’ve been sitting for a while, your blood flow slows down and you start to get pretty cool.
Frosty Fingers and Toasty Toes
Another way to make sure you feel warm and toasty is to keep your extremities warm. Your hands and feet are great temperature regulators, because there are lots of juicy blood vessels close to the surface on your hands and feet. By cooling or warming these blood vessels, your whole body feels cool or warm. You should never be without a pair of socks or slippers in the winter. It’s not good for your feet to be in socks and shoes all day, but whenever you’re sitting still for a long time, you should definitely have something on your feet. By that same logic, if you have bare tile, linoleum, or hardwood floors, these materials suck up the heat from you feet very quickly — covering them up with an area rug not only looks stylish, but rugs don’t steal your body heat away as fast.
I know it’s unusual to wear gloves in the house, but I definitely wear gloves at work because my hands get so cold at the office. Mine are wool, with the tips of the fingers missing so I can still type. Speaking of wool, choosing your fabrics wisely in the winter helps too. Wool is the classic insulator, but other garments made from goose down or polyester can be just as warm and not as itchy. Goose down and polyester blankets help keep you warm at night, too, so piling on the blankets will help take the chill off in the morning.
Heating Systems
I lived in an apartment with wall heat once, and the heater was in the most illogical place — between the kitchen and the bathroom. These two places were perfectly capable of heating themselves up by virtue of the activities performed there. Cooking and hot showers heat up those rooms just fine. My bedroom, on the other hand, where I slept and did all my work, was as far from that wall heater as humanly possibly. In addition, the heater kept blowing it’s pilot light out, so we had to turn up the flame just to keep it lit. After a couple big power bills, we gave up. I had an electric blanket, but I made working bearable with a small space heater placed at my side to heat up my legs and feet while I worked.
It may seem like a funny way to save electricity, but getting space heaters and electric blankets will help cut down on your power bill and keep you more comfortable. My reasoning is simple — heat up a smaller area and use less power. Space heaters are great for working at home or watching TV, and electric blankets are great for keeping you toasty at night without wasting power heating up rooms that no one is in. Rooms that no one uses should be closed off at all times. Make sure to get a good seal around the door with a rug or pillow or something, and shut of the vent in that room. That way, your ventilation system won’t have to work extra hard to heat up an empty space.
Blind Management
One of your best weapons against the cold is our best friend and worst enemy — the sun. The sun has a dual nature because the summer sun seems like a more powerful, angrier sun. In the winter, it’s something we long to have return to us. So make the most of it while you can.
Open your blinds during the daylight hours to let the sun help heat up your house. The best windows for this are south and west facing windows for us in the northern hemisphere, and north and west windows for the southlanders in the southern hemisphere. These windows get the most direct exposure of hot sun during the day, so don’t let a minute of sunlight go by without opening up your blinds.
Closing your blinds at night will help keep your house’s heat inside. Glass is a very good thermal conductor, which is why it feels hot on a hot day, and cold on a cold one. So all the air next to the window is cooling down in the wintertime as the temperature drops outside. You can keep that amount of air to a minimum and trap it between the window and the blinds by lowering the shade. This is called a boundary layer, and it’s the same principle that helps keep you warm in bed, too. Your body heats up a layer of air between you and your blankets, keeping you toasty all night long.
Hope you all keep warm this winter, and remember that saving power does not have to mean suffering in the cold.