re: yikes! fuel bill! SOLAR.KnowledgePublications.com

re: yikes!  fuel bill!
7 jan 2001
revie wrote:

>ok now that christmas is over and the cold is here, my electric bill came
>and i almost passed out.  $250!!  i live in a 2 bedroom apartment on the
>second floor.  everything is electric.  besides shutting of lights, tv's,
>radios when not in use, what else can i do to keep the bill down?

simply screw the bedroom doors shut, and line the inside of the living room
entirely with r50 strawbales--floor, walls, windows, and ceiling (over 2x4
joists, with posts as needed.) if your body contributes 300 btu/h of heat
(4800 per 16 hour day) and you use a frugal 150 kwh/mo (5 kwh or 17060 btu
per day) of electricity, this average 911 btu/h will keep your living room
70 f on a 30 f day, if it's less than l^2 feet, where (70-30)(l^2+8x4l)/r50
< 911 or l < (-32+sqrt(1024+4x1139))/2 = 21 feet on a side.

or, use fewer haybales and a mature, maintenance-fed, ashrae-standard pet
sheep to make 2.0 btu/h-lb (28% latent) at 68 f with a 1.2" fleece length.

nick