Comment by galdosdi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by galdosdi | Hacker News Reader

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As a born and raised (dyed in the wool? :P) US American, I am equally amazed it took me so long in life to discover the joy of good wool. I think it's because Americans are conditioned to just stay in their house/car/public building HVAC bubble, with AC and heat always set to about 70 Fahrenheit[1], and never having to think about the real world for more than a moment in the parking lot.

As a result if you talk to Americans about this you might find all kinds of nonsense objections, like calling wool an expensive luxury.

One of the truly formative experiences of my life was the first time I slept in below-freezing weather outdoors. All it took was about $250 worth combined of wool clothing and a well rated sleeping bag. It really made me realize how much more powerful body insulation is in the fight against winter cold. Suddenly it makes sense why in old Victorian books, everyone is wearing nightcaps.

But it's not even that expensive. Like yeah, it does cost more upfront compared to cheap clothes that provide no temperature regulating function, just cover you up. I get it. If you're very poor, it's harder.

But if wearing more wool allows you to lower the thermostat, it can pay for itself massively.

For example, a good pair of very warm long underwear is about $100, and will last 2 winters (let's say 5 months each, total of 10 months) if you are too lazy to ever mend it, significantly longer if you invest half an hour a year or so into mending holes and take good care of it (eg, only wear it under pants to reduce wear)

That is about $10 a month (or half as much or less if you mend) and you can easily be comfortable 10 degrees cooler with it. If you can't save $10 a month by lowering the temperature 10 degrees

If you are worried about your heat bill, first invest in wool. It will pay for itself very quickly.

[1] All temps in this post in Fahrenheit. Not sorry, it's better for weather discussions while Centigrade is better for chemistry/cooking.

> All temps in this post in Fahrenheit. Not sorry, it's better for weather discussions

Fahrenheit is only officially used in the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, the Cayman Islands, and the former American colony of Liberia.

Everywhere else in the world disagrees with you.

>Centigrade is better for chemistry/cooking.

It's been called Celsius since 1948.

So what if "everywhere else" disagrees? They're wrong and they made a mistake.

Thing is, while inferior, Celsius isn't that much worse than Fahrenheit for everyday weather purposes, and it had the metric halo, so people accepted it, and only nerds like me care.

But if you use your own independent thought, ignoring which scales happen to be in common use, it seems obvious that Fahrenheit is better designed for talking about weather.

There's nothing even metric about Celsius. It isn't even easier to divide up than Fahrenheit. Degrees Fahrenheit aren't divided up into 13 Fahrenheit shillings or anything like that. The only 10-based thing about Celsius is to specify exactly 100 degrees between the boiling and freezing points of water, which is useless for talking about weather because the weather never goes anywhere near the boiling point of water. Like seriously, name one situation where it's easier to do something with Celsius than Fahrenheit. You can't, because Fahrenheit was already pretty sane, it was nothing crazy like miles/feet, pounds/ounces, etc.

For scientists doing chemistry, Celsius was slightly nicer, but honestly, not that much nicer, as Fahrenheit users don't really find themselves forgetting the freezing/boiling points of water, and dividing that range into convenient tenths or fifths or what have you is not something anyone ever needs to do.

For everyday people who talk about weather, Celsius was a big step back. The size of the degrees, almost twice as big, is also a step in the wrong direction. 1 Fahrenheit degree is almost exactly the temperature difference a person can notice if they pay very close attention. 1 celsius degree is noticably slightly too large. For setting thermostats, this matters. You either need an awkward half-degree granularity, or you don't have as much precision.

Yes, most of the world's governments have specified Celsius, but that is just an appeal to authority. Fahhrenheit is almost perfectly designed for talking about weather and thermostats, which is what most people use temperatures for most of the time.

PS: Centigrade is still an acceptable name, if quirky when speaking English. Outside of English such as in Spanish it is actually way more common and I've never even heard the term "celsius" in Spanish. I thought you might be interested in this since you seem interested in how it's done outside of just the USA ;-) and I find that "Celsius" as a term is more of an anglosphere thing. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius#Centigrade_vis-%C3%A0-...

> I think it's because Americans are conditioned to just stay in their house/car/public building HVAC bubble, with AC and heat always set to about 70 Fahrenheit[1], and never having to think about the real world

This can also be described as "living in a civilization with abundant energy", and it's an admirable state of affairs - one we should strive to develop further, rather than regressing to the level of societal poverty where we're subject to weather's capriciousness.

I love wool, but not because I hate temperature control technology.

It's a false abundance where we don't pay for its externalities.

Then correctly price in those fairly insignificant externalities. Don't try to force everyone into poverty.

> This can also be described as "living in a civilization with abundant energy", and it's an admirable state of affairs

I think this is the American mindset that I've noticed the most - a historical abundance of energy means future energy supply should be guaranteed. Big cars, A/C, central heating - all are inefficient uses of energy.

Your body naturally produces heat, all day. Wearing insulating material, like wool, makes use of that heat. Burning fuel to replace its loss does not.

Complains about Americans, then uses Fahrenheit for all temperatures.

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