Energy crisis: How living in a cold home affects your health(bbc.com)
bbc.com
Energy crisis: How living in a cold home affects your health
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221107-energy-crisis-how-living-in-a-cold-home-affects-your-health
41 comments
South of France here (5°C - 35°C outside, 15°C - 30°C inside my flat), I don't use any heating nor hot water, nor air conditioning all year long, very few devices and really low electricity bill (10€/mo)
> (10€/mo)
I have to pay about double that per month (in £) for electricity, even if I don't use any electricity at all! And the electricity I do use costs nearly that much per day, and that's without having to use any of it for heating or hot water, which is all on gas and costs about as much again.
I have to pay about double that per month (in £) for electricity, even if I don't use any electricity at all! And the electricity I do use costs nearly that much per day, and that's without having to use any of it for heating or hot water, which is all on gas and costs about as much again.
https://imgur.com/fftDs3q
I don't have heating nor hot water as said, it's basically light, laptop, rice cooker, fan in summer sometimes (hence +1€ there)
You probably have leaks or plugged devices
I don't have heating nor hot water as said, it's basically light, laptop, rice cooker, fan in summer sometimes (hence +1€ there)
You probably have leaks or plugged devices
Note: while this is indeed the Japanese standard, it’s not universal: houses of Honshu (the main island) tend to be badly insulated, drafty, and spot-heated. Houses of Hokkaido (and possibly northern Honshu) are much closer to western standards, with insulation and central heating.
The cold is not an issue in and of itself, but it can be a problem depending on other ailments, as well as habits and habituation.
The cold is not an issue in and of itself, but it can be a problem depending on other ailments, as well as habits and habituation.
Winter temperatures in the UK have reached 10 degrees Fahrenheit or lower in recent years, and British people aren't usually adapted to living in yurts.
Presumably their ancestors who've lived there since before modern HVAC survived and perhaps even thrived somehow. That may be snarky, but I honestly don't know how people really lived back then; I just know the UK has been inhabited since pre-history.
They burned wood and built their homes accordingly. Also, extended families all lived together and slept together so the combined body heat, along with the fire, and lots and lots of blankets, kept everybody warm. That's fine and all but we haven't been building houses that way for over 200 years and the people then deforested large swaths of Europe by burning so much wood, there simply isn't enough trees to burn to warm today's population.
I suppose better said would be that as a person who was born in the post-industrial era and lived my entire life in the sub-tropics of South Texas, I don't really have an idea of the lived experience of dwelling through a real winter in pre-modern times. (Though I did get a taste of it in February 2021).
Your homes in Texas are designed to rapidly dissipate heat, which is the exact opposite of what you want in a cold climate. That's another reason you folks got so cold. Also, there's basic strategies for dealing with power outages in subfreezing temperatures you guys didn't know about because you've never had to contend with that before. It was a perfect storm so-to-speak and sadly it cost some people their lives.
Up here in the North we get a taste of living through a real winter in pre-modern times by camping in unheated log cabins in the winter. Fire is essential and even so we benefit from "modern" wood burning stoves - "modern" meaning stoves that came about in the early 19th century. Believe it or not it's fun to do that for a few days in the Winter, but that's a far cry from living that way on a daily bases.
Up here in the North we get a taste of living through a real winter in pre-modern times by camping in unheated log cabins in the winter. Fire is essential and even so we benefit from "modern" wood burning stoves - "modern" meaning stoves that came about in the early 19th century. Believe it or not it's fun to do that for a few days in the Winter, but that's a far cry from living that way on a daily bases.
Also, you would be shocked to see how much wood you go through for heat!
I am guessing they burned a lot of wood. Which in a small space can heat things very nicely but has other negative effects.
Yeah, I will say that this isn't completely hypothetical to me. I've lived in Texas my entire life including through the winter blackout of February 2021. It was truly anomalous weather for us to be caught in single digit temperatures with no power to run any HVAC systems, and most homes don't have fireplaces. It was unpleasant, but in the end the cold wasn't particularly dangerous.
Since then, I've stored away a small indoor-safe propane heater with a few days of fuel supply and a 2KW generator.
Since then, I've stored away a small indoor-safe propane heater with a few days of fuel supply and a 2KW generator.
Aside from the other replies it's probably worth noting that standards of health have improved in the last 100 years at least partly because of better insulation and heating; the problems mentioned in the article were problems then too.
I wonder how much of the articles written about the cost of energy is causing people to not turn heating on at all or suffer needlessly - as the article says she's not turning the heating on because she can't afford to find out how much it will cost her.
there's a need for clearer ways to display exactly how much energy your using (or will use) but that's not simple as everyone's standards and homes are completely different!
As others have said cold is up for interpretation. Our house is between 17 - 20 degrees c. We have very poor insulation so there's no point in trying to heat it excessively. Both sides of the family complain about how cold it is when they visit (without jumpers or even socks on!) though they walk around their own homes with t-shirts and shorts on!
there's a need for clearer ways to display exactly how much energy your using (or will use) but that's not simple as everyone's standards and homes are completely different!
As others have said cold is up for interpretation. Our house is between 17 - 20 degrees c. We have very poor insulation so there's no point in trying to heat it excessively. Both sides of the family complain about how cold it is when they visit (without jumpers or even socks on!) though they walk around their own homes with t-shirts and shorts on!
Even though I can afford my heating I, like the couple featured in the article, don’t want to turn the heating on because I have no idea how much it will cost. Someone I know recently received a prepayment request of 1,000 euros per month from their energy provider.
I realized it might even be cheaper to relocate for the winter. In the meantime, I bought an electric blanket that is surprisingly efficient.
I realized it might even be cheaper to relocate for the winter. In the meantime, I bought an electric blanket that is surprisingly efficient.
We're in the US and don't have it anywhere near as bad for energy costs, but we've turned our thermostat down more than usual this year. It's currently set at 63F(17C) but we've had it a couple of degrees colder. I can't imagine letting it get much lower than that. I'm already wearing sweaters and blankets in the house, and my nose often feels cold.
Hopefully that's not so cold we're putting ourselves at risk of some of the health dangers in the article.
Hopefully that's not so cold we're putting ourselves at risk of some of the health dangers in the article.
You get used to it. You get thougher with time.
I know it because I lived 13 years of gas grid.
Have you tried Damart (thermolactyl underwears) ?
I know it because I lived 13 years of gas grid.
Have you tried Damart (thermolactyl underwears) ?
Here's a business idea: an extension that extrapolates the answer to the question/title of an article from the full-length text.
In this case, I would have loved a bullet list of ways living in a cold home affects my health, not a 5000 word text (regardless of how great or bad the writing is).
In this case, I would have loved a bullet list of ways living in a cold home affects my health, not a 5000 word text (regardless of how great or bad the writing is).
Like how they approach cooking recipes online - an overly long, disconnected narrative up top with a "scroll to data" button which is presented at the bottom of the page?
> Like how they approach cooking recipes online - an overly long, disconnected narrative up top
That's the SEO optimizer and textual add spot.
Followed by regular adds. Perhaps followed by a recipe.
That's the SEO optimizer and textual add spot.
Followed by regular adds. Perhaps followed by a recipe.
The article seemed to offer very little information in this regard, unfortunately. But a summarizer would make an amazing Chrome extension.
Great idea, but wouldn't it better to just have a web app that takes the link to the page as an input?
Yes, also! The advantage of the extension is it could process the contents automatically by detecting the title and the prose and require no user input. Kinda like how Keepa works on Amazon.
Well one problem is the viscous cycle. Because heating less people will open the window less which means it gets more humid and mold starts growing. People should install hygrometer and keep it in the save level. Then low room temperature should be fine.
Slay
The world needs to unite and eliminate Putin. Then we can start trying to fix this disaster.
Just follow the money and find your real enemy:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianpalmer/2022/11/04/oil-and-ga...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianpalmer/2022/11/04/oil-and-ga...
There are other plausible places to direct the blame (for the energy issue, not the invasion). I, for one, think this is poor planning and naivete. The cold War wasn't that long ago and tensions have been high for years (since the invasion of Crimea at least). Nuclear energy has been ignored.
Quite the opposite, this was carefully planned. "Never let a good crisis go to waste."
If you like clever-sounding quotes in place of information, the obvious counter is:
"Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence." -- Aurthur C. Clark
Intelligence agencies love that quote, since it helps them mask their malevolent actions under disguise of incompetence :)
Fixing the cold house disaster for facing even bigger disaster with global warming?
The world would be better off without Putin, but his successor might be even worse. Ultimately Russia can never be considered a reliable energy supplier for the rest of Europe. Their interests are not aligned. Europeans will have to find other more sustainable and reliable energy sources, as well as cutting heating demand though improved efficiency and insulation.
[deleted]
How are you so confident that this narrative you've adopted is representative of the world as it really is?
Ahahaha. He is the source of all of the evil, right?
/irony-off
slay
Allow few notes: more than mere heating poor AND ex-lower end of the middle class dropped to poverty not much by "energy crisis" but by deliberate political choices suffer and will suffer for high prices of foods, energy to cook food, energy to travel. You can easily cover yourself a bit for cold, not comfy but works, washing is harder but again doable, the issue for many is simply the facts that food prices goes up and up and up + the price to cook them. There is not much "covers" for such costs.
Beside that there is a big issue: personally I invested in the so called "Green New Deal" ante litteram, witch means a new will insulated and airtight home, with a modern VMC, modern heat-pump heating/cooling, p.v. etc so IN THEORY I'm both between "the privileged" and "those unaffected by skyrocketing prices" and well... That's actually FALSE.
That's false because most of my gears have an operational life if anything works well measurable in around 10 years. Witch means that EVEN with this actual sky-high energy prices they do not really pay back in monetary terms. Or those who can't/have chosen not to invest get impoverished with "opex", those who have invested with "capex", consequences are different of course, in human terms, but equal in economical terms. And that's MUCH relevant because means a thing, given such infamous publications like: https://youtu.be/Hx3DhoLFO4s the Green New Deal do not really target ecology/energy savings etc but just try to assault Citizens welfare with the DECLARED target of making most owning nothing. Before going into royalist more royalist than the King mode as classically happen on HN or Reddit when anything sound critics about neoliberals agenda get dumped try thinking: are new gears/construction techniques etc energy savings, useful for ecology etc? Yes, FORMALLY. But if they are accessible just by a small minority, let's say 10% of the total WESTERN population and we know it very well is this transition really made for ecology? Or it's just made with ecology as an excuse to reach very different targets? Try to think HONESTLY and without prejudice about that. Try to imaging how can we arrive following actual path to 2030.
Using economy as a key we can make convenient new deals investments with hard-to-find and 3-4€/l gasoline/diesel, 1€/kWh for electricity etc. We are on this very path. Then? If only very few can invest anyway and due to hyper-inflation they are now even far more reduced. Where we go? We make poor simply disappear in a snap of a finger? Even admitting such GENOCIDAL ideas how a new society can be build without poor workers? An army of officers without troops do not work. An army where NCOs have been degraded to troops do not work either, they'll rightly try to seek revenge not cooperation.
Beside that there is a big issue: personally I invested in the so called "Green New Deal" ante litteram, witch means a new will insulated and airtight home, with a modern VMC, modern heat-pump heating/cooling, p.v. etc so IN THEORY I'm both between "the privileged" and "those unaffected by skyrocketing prices" and well... That's actually FALSE.
That's false because most of my gears have an operational life if anything works well measurable in around 10 years. Witch means that EVEN with this actual sky-high energy prices they do not really pay back in monetary terms. Or those who can't/have chosen not to invest get impoverished with "opex", those who have invested with "capex", consequences are different of course, in human terms, but equal in economical terms. And that's MUCH relevant because means a thing, given such infamous publications like: https://youtu.be/Hx3DhoLFO4s the Green New Deal do not really target ecology/energy savings etc but just try to assault Citizens welfare with the DECLARED target of making most owning nothing. Before going into royalist more royalist than the King mode as classically happen on HN or Reddit when anything sound critics about neoliberals agenda get dumped try thinking: are new gears/construction techniques etc energy savings, useful for ecology etc? Yes, FORMALLY. But if they are accessible just by a small minority, let's say 10% of the total WESTERN population and we know it very well is this transition really made for ecology? Or it's just made with ecology as an excuse to reach very different targets? Try to think HONESTLY and without prejudice about that. Try to imaging how can we arrive following actual path to 2030.
Using economy as a key we can make convenient new deals investments with hard-to-find and 3-4€/l gasoline/diesel, 1€/kWh for electricity etc. We are on this very path. Then? If only very few can invest anyway and due to hyper-inflation they are now even far more reduced. Where we go? We make poor simply disappear in a snap of a finger? Even admitting such GENOCIDAL ideas how a new society can be build without poor workers? An army of officers without troops do not work. An army where NCOs have been degraded to troops do not work either, they'll rightly try to seek revenge not cooperation.
It seems plausible that there are health related issues from being cold, but I am skeptical that a cooler interior temperature is really the problem. To use another example from Japan, they have heated table blankets so that you're nice and toasty sitting around the table. For more examples, you can look to nomadic people that live in temporary/portable dwellings that are often unheated.