Thoughts On Surviving The Coming Winter

We're no longer in winter, just in time for gas prices to go crazy, and with them electricity prices. When winter comes again, many of us will face a harsher struggle to stay warm than before. Perhaps all of us will, if shortages require rationing.

So I have a few thoughts on what we can do to lower the demands for heating that could be implemented quickly and fairly cheaply. They aren't new; our ancestors faced the same struggle, we have much experience from them we can draw on when we need to. If they were new, they wouldn't be quick and cheap(ish).

1. Mist showers. The mist shower (invented by Buckminster Fuller -- who else?) atomisers water to a far higher degree than a normal shower. This great reduces water flow, whilst still soaking the body. Testing by NASA shows that they are as effective as normal showers at washing the body, with a far lower demand for hot water and so energy. It is plausible that we could cut energy use by 1.5 kWh per shower, without sacrificing comfort, and do so merely by changing our showerheads.

2. Canopy beds. Better known perhaps as the four poster bed, the curtains trap heat, creating a bubble of warmer air above a sleeping person. Nowadays the all important curtains are rarely attached, but they should be. These could be brought back very quickly, with simple frames that go over existing beds.

3. Electric blankets. Or rather, spot heating. If people are sat in one place for a while, it makes more sense to heat that place than to heat the entire house. An electric blanket over a packed sofa could put almost all the heat produced into human bodies, rather than wasting it heating empty rooms and air and furniture. If smaller blankets are available (or made available -- existing manufacturing should be able to produce these?), they could be used on chairs. Heat people, not places.

 4. Woollen socks. Actual wool, not "woolly" cotton. Whilst admittedly not the greatest of energy saving technologies, you will still lose heat through your feet touching the cold floor (and even without that issue, cold floors are not the nicest things to walk on). Additionally, wool breathes, far better than cotton does. Perhaps these socks can be safely worn to bed without having to worry about getting trench foot from having your feet covered most of the time?

Well there it is, a few ideas that we can and probably should start working on. Winter is coming after all.

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