Keeping Your Writing Space Warm

It’s been a long time since I posted anything related to “Fed, Safe, and Sheltered” on resilience and sustainability. That’s because the book covers everything I wanted to say about the subject.

But over the past winter, thanks to my new writing desk, I learned something new about keeping warm during the winter that I’d like to pass along.

It started when I reviewed my home heating bills 2017/2018 winter. I was horrified. It wasn’t that cold of a winter here in central PA; we have had much colder ones.

But we burned 355.7 gallons of home heating oil at $3.31 per gallon. We spent $1,177.22 to heat our 2,000-square-foot house.

This is the most oil we’ve burned since the 2003/2004 winter when we burned 392 gallons. Back then, oil was $1.45 a gallon, costing us $567.21.

As you know if you read my book, we’ve done all we can to heat our house efficiently. We insulated, insulated, and insulated. We added multiple layers of cloth over each window to trap heat overnight. We keep the furnace in A-1 condition for maximum efficiency and set the thermostat low.

So why, when we rarely burned over 300 gallons of oil since ’03/’04, did we use 355?

Blame My New Writing Desk

What happened was that I had been spending more and more time writing at my desk, the new one my husband built in one corner of the living room.

This corner gets cold. It faces two outside walls and doesn’t get sunshine for long.

Unfortunately, I am the person in the family who gets the coldest. I put up with the cold for as long as I could, shivering in my corner while wearing my knit hat, compression gloves, slippers, multiple layers of clothing, and lap blanket.

But I broke. I raised the thermostat a few degrees. It worked. I still wore all my layers, but I was warm.

I paid for two tanks of home heating oil like always, gasping at the price. But I didn’t add up how much I spent until July when I knew for sure that I was done with the season, and I was getting ready for the next one.

Flashback: Our First Year

Our biggest bill came the first winter when we bought our completely uninsulated house. After that dreadful bill, I had Bill suit up and do battle. He attacked the attic with pink insulation, attached 2 inches of rigid insulation on every bare wall, and caulked shut all the gaps.

But that wasn’t all we did. I sewed and installed insulated drapes on all the windows. We caulked and weather-stripped and replaced storm doors. We replaced some windows with better, more air-tight ones. We insulated the unfinished basement ceiling and replaced the finished basement’s carpet with thick hotel-grade carpet and the heaviest, thickest pad the carpet store had. We placed rugs on the floor, down comforters on the beds, and blankets on furniture. I made quilts for the beds.

Back to the Present

We did all we could insulating the house; now I needed a way to keep me warm in the living room. I had two options:

1. Reduce the thermostat and insist everyone dress appropriately for the weather; i.e. put on a damn sweater if you’re cold.

2. Warm the space I’m working in.

What we didn’t want to do is turn up the thermostat. That two-degree difference (or more!) burned more than 50 gallons of oil at $3.31 a gallon.

Burning Down the House

I found the answers at Low Tech Magazine and its sister website No Tech Magazine.

Both sites preserve information about how our ancestors lived more efficiently with limited amounts of money. They both recommended heating only where you are rather than an entire building.

Here’s what you can do:

Wear Gloves

I use compression gloves for my hand pain, but they don’t do a good job keeping my hands warm. But my next-door neighbor was moving asked if I wanted his pair of Jack Skellington fingerless gloves? I thought for a moment — it was hot that day and did I want to feel hotter? — then came to my senses and said yes.

They work like a dream. My hands are warm, my wrists are warm, they slide right over the compression gloves, and my fingers are free to type. Despite my fingers being covered only by the compression gloves, they are not cold. Jack is keeping my hands warm and that keeps my fingers warmer. These free fingerless gloves are a permanent addition to my winter work wardrobe, along with my coat, my knitted watch-cap, and my lap blanket.

But I know that fingerless gloves won’t be enough when the deep winter comes and the house gets colder. Sixty-four degrees isn’t very warm, especially when you’re sitting still.

Insulate the Desk

The underside of the desk is the coldest part of the room. The vents can’t heat it, but my legs can. If I can trap that heat, my legs won’t get so cold.

In other words, if I insulate this space where my legs go, I could solve my problem.

If you’ve seen a traditional desk, you know they are not open on all sides. They are enclosed by drawers and have a front panel that hides the legs. This keeps the user warmer in an otherwise very cold house.

My desk consist of a sheet of plywood mounted to the wall and supported by legs. So we needed to insulate my desk, but without spending any money or causing a moisture problem.

We considered installing temporary foam panels against the walls, which we’d have to buy, store in the off-season, and run the risk of moisture damage.

Nope.

We thought about quilted panels which I would have to sew and then store in the off-season.

Pros: They could be hung in a way to create air space between them and the walls. They also wouldn’t cost any money since I could use some of my stash.

Cons: I didn’t have the time; I was busy sewing cloth grocery bags for our book shows. They can also be hard to wash well, if they aren’t heavily quilted, and there’s still the risk of moisture and mildew since they are separating a cold space from a warmer one leading to condensation. Room had to be found to store them in the off-season.

Answer: Old bath towels. We have an ample supply. No time needed to be spent on getting them ready. They can be easily washed. They have a storage place already in the downstairs yellow bathroom. Installation would be easy: mount cup hooks under the desk, drape towels over wooden dowels and adjust so they wouldn’t touch the floor and allow for more drying air flow.

So that’s what we did. Bill mounted cup hooks under the desk on three sides to surround my legs. The towels are safety pinned near the top of the curtain rods so they don’t shift. They’re hung on the rods so they are gathered, rather than folded over. This makes for more dead air space and it was easier to adjust the fit of the towel. At the end of the heating season, the towels come down to be washed and put away. The cup hooks and rods stay in place.

It took less than an hour to install. What took the longest was measuring and then adjusting the rods’ length with a hacksaw. The towels do not get in the way of my legs, even when I’m using the Hovr.

I’ve already set the thermostat for the winter at 64 degrees during the day and 55 degrees at night. No matter how cold, I should be more comfortable. If the winter is typical, I won’t use more than 300 gallons of home heating oil. I seriously doubt if the price this upcoming season is going to be less than $3.31 per gallon.

You can do this too. Insulate and heat where you are, rather than your entire house. That’s the point behind wearing a sweater and throwing a lap blanket onto the couch. You’re warming yourself rather than empty, unused rooms. That costs you a lot less, leaving you with money you can use for something more important.