Weird OT mystery...

[Edwin Pawlowski]

It is also humid under the conditions we've had the past few days adding to the dis-comfort level. All of a sudden it feels very close, very stuffy.

[Silvan]

Good thought, but it wouldn't distribute the heat without the fan running.

Maybe it's just down to dog farts.

[Silvan]

Half brick. Weird construction. Bricks are mostly on the north side though. Not terribly well-insulated.

Used the microwave.

I do have a 1 GHz AMD box that runs 24/7 and makes this room toasty, but the rest of the house was pretty toasty too. Same thing again this evening, actually.

Must be body heat.

[Silvan]

She's not that bitchy woman who drives the black Lexus is she? :)

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Thanks for the visual.

Barry

[CW]

Check for volcanic activity under the house.

[admin]

I've got numbers ranging from 450 (sleeping), to 570 (hard work). I know that that second number is somewhat _conservative_. For rough calculations, and 'average conditions', 500 BTU/hr/person is a reasonable approximation.

Guess it depends on what you consider a 'small home'. The house I grew up in was about 1200 sq ft on the main floor, 2 stories over 25% of the space, and unfinished basement under about half the main floor. Due to 'accident' of incremental construction, the place had _two_ smaller furnaces. one rated at 48KBtu/hr 'net', the other at 64k net.

One winter, one of the furnaces *died*. We don't know just when, we -noticed- "something unusual" during a viscious cold spell (daily highs circa -20F, lows below -35 F brrr!). The "big" furnace was running nearly continuously. about 50 minutes out of each hour. Vs. a normal 12-15 -- maybe 20 in really cold weather. Went looking, and discovered the other furnace wasn't running _at_all_. So we've got the _one_ furnace, 64kBTU/hr, running at about an

85% duty cycle, keeping the _entire_ house comfortably warm. In *sustained*

-25 F weather.

Call it about 55k BTU/hr effective, from the furnace. For somewhere between

1600 and 2200 sq ft of 'livable space', depending on how you count things.

Four 20'x20' classrooms (1600 sq ft total), with 30 people/room, produces around 60K BTU/hr of 'people power'. The 'energy' _is_ there to keep the place warm at -25F, without requiring supplemental heat.

[admin]

I got out my reference books. I think you mean 500 BTU/hr. 500 watts is about 3x higher.

[admin]

The *GOOD*NEWS* is that he has his skivvies _on_. Even as ratty as they are.

[Silvan]

That tears it then. It was definitely the alien microwave thing. The little slanty eyed gray buggers were trying to cook us!

Or maybe that. :)

Anyway, it makes me feel a lot better to know it wasn't just me. If you live in Blacksburg somewhere, you're bound to live several miles away, so it must have been a big atmospheric flummy.

[Silvan]

I could have done a lot worse, so now I will. Somewhere on the web there's a picture of me floating around, wearing nothing but a sock and an electric guitar.

*That* ought to keep you up at night.

(Yes, I *was* drunk at the time. Very much so.)

[Silvan]

Nah, there'd be steam. My dehumidifier has been going 24/7 for months, and it's still moist down there. No longer quite so dank, but still irksome. Gotta get that in check before I have to figure out how to replace all my joists.

[Andy Dingley]

European practice is more like 150W

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Wood Butcher]

That's more in line with the number I remember from one of my engineering courses many decades ago. The human body at rest generates ~100W of heat. An active body generates more but I don't remember how much more.

Art

[Mark & Juanita]

I seem to recall from my college days (engineering school), the rule of thumb was 100 Watts / person.

[Mark & Juanita]

I suspect that may be your real problem. If the humidity is high, water isn't evaporating from your skin, thus you aren't benefiting from natural cooling. 81 and dry is pretty comfortable, 81 and humid might be pretty uncomfortable. Did you say you have a de-humidifier? Is it running?