Here Comes the Sun
February 18th, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in rural life
The temperature outside was -5 when I got up yesterday morning and a cool 59 degrees in the house. The fire in the wood stove had died hours earlier. But the new day dawned with a cloudless sky. As an experiment, I decided against lighting a new fire in the stove in order to see whether the sun alone could heat our home to a comfortable level and how long that might take.
The two females in the house were still snug in their beds, fast asleep, when I left the house to feed the animals. The sun broke over the hills to our south a few minutes after 7.
By the time I returned from my morning chores 45 minutes later, the temperature inside had risen three degrees, as measured by the thermostat mounted on a wall in the kitchen. Over the next couple of hours I watched the temperature steadily climb. Finally, at 10:30, the thermostat hit 70 degrees. Our outdoor thermometer, meanwhile, showed a scant 10 above zero.
In other words, it took the sun shining through our south-facing windows slightly less than two and one half hours to raise the indoor temperature 11 degree–from 59 to 70–while the outdoor temperature remained 22 degrees below freezing.
Eventually the temperature inside, as measured by the thermostat in the kitchen, would rise to 72 degree, but no higher. Other parts of the house–especially the upstairs–apparently were not so warm without a fire burning.
“It’s freezing in here,” lamented daughter when she woke up.
“We’re not like you, Ed,” said my wife. “We get cold.”
So at 2 p.m., with the sun angling sharply away from our bank of windows and the indoor temp headed south, I threw in the towel and fired up the wood stove.
Peace was restored.
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