Arctic dipping south

[ny biker]

It's not as bad in the DC area as it is in the midwest, but we are experiencing record temps for our area and my heat pump is not dealing well with it. Around 10:00 last night it started turning the auxiliary heater on and off repeatedly. The thermostat is programmed for 71 in the evening, 68 overnight and during the day, and 70 in the morning when I'm getting ready for work. I reset it to 65 across the board, and that helped, but it still went straight to stage 2 + aux heat every time it clicked on. This morning I called the HVAC guys to ask if I should be worried, and they said it was normal behavior for this kind of weather.

It went down to about 5 last night in my yard (air temp, not wind chill). I already have insulated thermal drapes or shades on all the windows and a clear vinyl shower curtain covering the balcony door. Last night I tacked a fleece blanket across the balcony door for added insulation. This morning when I woke up I turned on the small space heater that I keep for emergencies and that helped a lot in the main room where the thermostat is.

And then the electricity went out!! Apparently it was "a widespread outage due to a circuit breaker." I was worried about the pipes freezing if the heat was off for too long. Happily, they had it fixed in about an hour.

I am very glad that this little adventure will not last much longer!! And in the meantime, I'm making good use of my wool base layers.

[Catrin]

It is an entire 5 degrees above zero this afternoon - yayyyyyyyy! I do still have multiple upper body layers, but just my jeans for my legs. Am nervous about getting to work tomorrow morning, everything is ribbons of ice, very rough ice, and I figure that as the temps rise tomorrow things will get even more slippery. Frankly I don't want to go out tomorrow either, but I do need to get to the office and my boss wouldn't understand. At this point I am thinking that perhaps an earlier start so I can leave before the evening rush hour would be the best approach. Assuming my car starts in the morning...

[tulip]

It was 8F this morning when I walked the dog, with a windchill of -7F. But a dog's gotta walk. Thankfully I had that balacava from my cold bike commuting days, along with a hat, my bike tights, goretex pants, Nova Scotia fisherman's sweater, Ibex, and my winter jacket. Oh and lobster gloves. My electric heat pump is having a hard time keeping up, like nybiker's. I usually have it at 68 when I'm working here during the day, and 63 at night but I've switched it to 65 in the day and 60 at night and just bundled up. It's not so bad, actually. Pots of peppermint tea really help. I do have a wood stove and I used it on Sunday before it got too cold, but I'm saving the wood for an electrical outage. I don't have too much wood left since I didn't get an order in. So far, the power has stayed on and the pipes haven't frozen. My dog does curl up in surprisingly small ball for a 45-lb beast, though, so you know it's cold.

It got up to 19F today, which felt pretty normal. Funny how quickly we adapt (lots of layers helps).