Teleidoscope

Thu, Dec 03, 2009

New Slider

Posted at 9:40 pm MST to Weather

Wow! The new sliding doors between my bedroom and the deck are impressive. It's 0 Fahrenheit out and I just stood next to the sliding doors, and might as well have been standing next to the solid wall. There was NO chill coming through the door or its frame. There is no wind to speak of tonight, which might make a difference, but this is still very impressive.

Standing next to the new basement doors I can feel a little chill -- they aren't as heavily insulated. But they are still a vast improvement, partly due to being installed and caulked properly, which the previous dorrs were not.

This is excellent.

permanent link || trackback || 0 comments || Add a comment

Block Heater

Posted at 6:51 pm MST to Weather

Yesterday was very cold and snowy. Last night the temperature dipped to 0 Fahrenheit, and this morning my foxy little car (now officially named Reynard) was very cranky about starting.

Tonight is supposed to be very cold again, so this evening I plugged Reynard in -- I had a block heater installed last summer after I bought him. It's a lot cheaper to invest in a block heater than to build a garage to shelter the car from the cold and wind on this ridge.

I have had block heaters in some previous vehicles, and liked them. Besides making the car easy to start on cold mornings, the warm engine starts giving heat to the cabin and defrosters a lot faster.

A trick I have used in vehicles without block heaters is to buy one of those utility lights that consist of a wire cage around a light bulb. Placing a hundred watt bulb into the engine compartment over night, preferably near the battery, can make a big difference on a cold morning.

There is a battery heater available for the Forester. I don't think I need both the battery heater and block heater, and chose the block heater because I like the extra heat it makes available for the driver. If I were going up into the ski areas, I might consider adding the battery heater, but I would need to rig a way to plug both heaters in.

Corporate housing for any gig in a really cold climate should include covered parking, so I really only need the heater here.

permanent link || trackback || 0 comments || Add a comment