Thanksgiving Warmth

  
I have always been a little skeptical about those claims that you can heat a super-insulated zero carbon house through body heat alone. I mean, your body heat might keep a sleeping bag warm, but your whole house?

But this thanksgiving gathering was a natural experiment. We haven’t turned the central heat on in our 1937 not particularly well insulated stone house yet. The sole wood stove usually struggleds to get the living room temperature into the 60s when ( like yesterday) the outside temperature is in the 30s.

But by the time we packed twelve family members and guests around the table, the thermostat was in the mid-70s even though the wood stove fire had dwindled to embers. People were stripping off their  fleece.

Apparently, each human body gives off about 100 watts. So our ten guests were the equivalent of a one kilowatt space heater in the middle of the living room. I had a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving! And the turkey in the oven didn’t hurt.