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Comment by ice3 | Hacker News Reader

Installed solar power last year and an air source heat pump. My pellet burner is still going to be the main source of heat/hot water though. Got pellets at the start of the year (with only 80% premium over last year, now the prices are 3x of what they used to be ), have wood to offset use of pellets and even some coal [just in case]. Replaced every bulb with LEDs from IKEA.

Set all rooms in the house to 18-19 c. Going to heat my home office/bedroom to 20-21 c only during the day/while being there.

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20c is incredibly warm. As a broke college kid living on the east coast we kept the furnace at 55F (13C) all winter. Wear a jacket. Double socks. Drink warm beverages. Get up and do some push-ups. If you’re reasonably young and healthy, you’ll survive.

Note for anybody reading: don’t actually do this if possible, it’s bad for cardiovascular health [1].

1. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-...

Finally some evidence about indoor cold. I'm nearly getting slaughtered by my entire extended family since literally everyone in Lithuania believes every respiratory (and some kidney and bladder) diseases are caused by:

* Not wearing socks and slippers indoor

* Having draft indoors, even when it's +30C outside

* Going outside after shower with wet hair

* Air conditioner

Problem with 13C in many European houses is that will get mold at 13C. The insulation prevents any ventilation.

>If you’re reasonably young and healthy, you’ll survive.

I'm not. The lower limit of my comfort zone is 19c, anything colder and I can't work.

I have a hard time typing when I'm cold. Putting on jackets doesn't seem to help, unfortunately. I can't imagine trying to work in a 55° room all winter.

(Heated) fingerless gloves?

I previously worked with a developer who told me of an employer he had while working in Russia who would turn off the heating. He told them to type faster for warmth. Not sure the gloves would help much.

> Get up and do some push-ups

I’m just gonna ask now because I’ve seen it so often. Is this an idiom or is there some kind of expectation people can do push ups? Personally I can do a bunch of pull ups but I don’t think I’ve ever done a single proper push up. Judging from obesity stats I’d expect like half the populace to not be able to do either.

most folks can do a leaning pushup, where you lean against a counter, table or wall and push yourself up. with practice you can progress to lower objects and eventually a full push up.

You must have pullups and pushups backwards. I'd bet most people can do 0 pullups but can do pushups.

In my case the problem is that I literally can’t work (meaning, program) if the temperature is less than 22C. Warm clothing, hot drinks, nothing helps. Tried many times.

Hope that electric heating will still be legal.

Yes you can.

Lol yeah, it's like how I say I can't live with these health problems.

Yeah, I can, it turns out. Our bodies can take a loooot more stress than we think.

Decreased comfort = decreased productivity. On an individual level people can cope but on a societal level it’s a real issue. I want a society full of productive people so I want investment in clean energy supplies and high performance buildings.

No, many can't. Yes, you can live and survive at colder temperatures, but concentration requires no distractions, and the constant slight pain caused by being cold is enough distraction to completely derail any train of thought.

Concentration does not require no distractions. It’s the mechanism to avoid distraction.

I take it you don’t have ADHD? The reason people with ADHD often work while wearing noise-cancelling headphones even with no audio playing is because this mechanism doesn’t properly work, it can’t tune out anything.

As result, we need to minimize external stimuli to be able to concentrate. And being uncomfortable due to the cold is one such stimulus.

That's interesting. I realize you can argue about people in general (e.g. 21 is still fine with me!), but how can you negate someone else's feelings? It's like replying "no, you are not" to someone saying "I'm sad."

Make sure you office is the smallest room and get a space heater to keep it at your desired temprature

If your office is the smallest room, then you get fast to high CO2 concentration in the office.

My office is in fact the smallest room, just enough for a table, a chair and my homelab (a bunch of rPIs, some network equipment, a few servers).

All the electronics keep the room relatively warm, so most of the heating is actually turned off in that room :)

Heat the space immediately around you. Don't bother with central heating. Get a small electric blanket that you can have on your lap.

If you are feeling more adventurous I got through a cold winter where the heating broke when I was a student with a mix of warm clothing, blankets, and doing exercises to keep warm. When you start getting cold, do some press-ups/squats etc.

If you are feeling really adventurous I would recommend going outside wearing less clothes than you want to, just trousers and a shirt/jumper. When you get really cold head back in and it will seem positively warm! Another way of doing this is cold showers.

I'd say heat the person, not the space. Following on from the Electric Blanket mention, I'd recommend a heated vest. I have one made by Arris [1], and it has a 7.4V battery. Following a tip in an Amazon review, I contacted their customer services and got a voucher for a second battery at half price.

Last winter, I used it a lot when WFH to avoid the temptation of using the boost on the central heating. With two batteries, one can be charging while the other is in use. According to my meter plug it was economical to charge.

I found it worked best with a thin base layer underneath the heated vest, and a good fleece over it. There are several heating areas on the front and back, and I found that the battery lasted best by starting at the highest heat setting and then stepping down through the levels as I warmed up. Very useful when sitting still long periods at your computer. And of course the advantage over a blanket or electric fan is that you can walk around with it on.

[1] https://www.arrislife.com/products/arris-heated-vest-size-ad...

> I'd say heat the person, not the space.

I agree, but OP seemed a bit reluctant to try that so I suggested the next best thing.

Thanks for the heated vest suggestion.

My office is in a cool (64F) basement. Something I've found works to warm me up is to do a bunch of squats and pushups when I'm cold. If you're able to, perhaps try doing 10 squats then 5 pushups on repeat 3-5 times until you're warm/hot.

I find the warmth lasts about an hour and has the side effect of also warming my office a degree or so.

>Hope that electric heating will still be legal.

Air source heat pump (split AC unit) is the way to go. Those things have efficiencies of 200-600%.

I am renting my apartment in Switzerland, where split AC installations are prohibitively expensive ($3000 or more for a single unit) and usually forbidden by landlords.

At this point finding a unit and someone to install it might not happen until 2024 in some places.

You can get heated office chair covers, think like a car's heated seats but for office chairs. They pull about 30W and made a big difference when I lived through Illinois winters.

Some extra things I do.

My combined water boiler is set to turn on/off on schedule. When running off electricity it only heats water during the night.

Some other appliances are also set to work on schedule. Washing machine, dish washer etc... usually run overnight.

All computers are set to sleep after 10 min of inactivity. The only things that are on 24/7 are APs, a few cameras and a NAS.

I also have a garden. I grow/pickle my own tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, apples, prunes, mushrooms, nuts, berries. But not potatoes, since those are cheap to buy.

I think in total, it would be enough to last for 3-4 months.

You still had non-LED bulbs? We moved almost exclusively to them over 8 years ago in India.

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