Much to my surprise the heater turned on easily, after resting unused in a plastic bag for five years. Equipment, be it a car or even a bicycle, seems to degenerate when it sits around. I've never understood that.
The warm orange color of the flame and the quiet hiss were pleasant and reassuring. I was headed over to a colder area to buy a new van, and I needed to be ready for it.
Many people would consider it a foolishly proud project to live without heat. Proud, yes; but not foolish. It seemed oddly significant to finally use a heater in my camper, after five years of heater-less living.
It is so stupid and wasteful to heat thousands of cubic feet of air in a normal house, when your skin interacts with only a tiny percentage of that. Why not just dress for cooler air? So you can think of my heater-less experiment as a protest vote against one aspect of the conventional way to live.
Refusing to go along with something conventional and crazy does make an individual feel like they are actually alive. And it adds drama to their life.
Despite the vaunted individualism of Western culture, much of life is just imitation. So much of that life make no sense to the individual. They solve that problem by not thinking about it. But occasionally a person can get feisty and shove away from the mindless complacency of 'going along to get along.' And heater-less living was just one example of that.
Another example, probably more important, is a deliberate, un-imitative diet. In the past I've never given people much credit for odd diets. It always seemed like sickly pseudo-religious guilt. And they make it painful to share a meal with them. But maybe a deliberate diet represents something more admirable in them.
The warm orange color of the flame and the quiet hiss were pleasant and reassuring. I was headed over to a colder area to buy a new van, and I needed to be ready for it.
Many people would consider it a foolishly proud project to live without heat. Proud, yes; but not foolish. It seemed oddly significant to finally use a heater in my camper, after five years of heater-less living.
It is so stupid and wasteful to heat thousands of cubic feet of air in a normal house, when your skin interacts with only a tiny percentage of that. Why not just dress for cooler air? So you can think of my heater-less experiment as a protest vote against one aspect of the conventional way to live.
Refusing to go along with something conventional and crazy does make an individual feel like they are actually alive. And it adds drama to their life.
Despite the vaunted individualism of Western culture, much of life is just imitation. So much of that life make no sense to the individual. They solve that problem by not thinking about it. But occasionally a person can get feisty and shove away from the mindless complacency of 'going along to get along.' And heater-less living was just one example of that.
Another example, probably more important, is a deliberate, un-imitative diet. In the past I've never given people much credit for odd diets. It always seemed like sickly pseudo-religious guilt. And they make it painful to share a meal with them. But maybe a deliberate diet represents something more admirable in them.
Comments
It is not just the warm air that keeps us warm in our buildings. It is the temperature of the materials surrounding us that does. The warm air heats up the materials and then our body doesn't lose heat to the cool surfaces. The energy blog I read, has used the example of how your naked body can feel the heat loss to a cold surface (single pane window).
The insulating quality of clothes blocks some of this radiating loss, but not all. I remember reading an article years ago with a photo of people sitting in their house dressed as if they were outside. Just as you have lived! At the time, I used wood heat from scrap wood (pallets) and kept the house really warm (ruined more than one wood stove from the high temperatures of really dry wood). I dismissed the idea of "Eskimo Living". I love the feeling of freedom of my lightly or unclothed body, indoors or out.
This effect applies to keeping cool, but our bodies can cool down also from the evaporation of skin moisture from moving air. If the air is dry enough, that is.
This affect of material temperature, is why desert climates historically built thick-walled buildings. They aren't "well-insulated", but have a slow rate of heat transfer keeping the wall temperatures stable. Absorbing heat during the day and losing heat to the colder nights.
By the way, the energy blogger made the point of this radiation effect by frost accumulation on his car roof that was parked halfway inside a carport (https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/why-doesnt-frost-form-carport). Frost only appeared on the part of the roof exposed to the night sky (heat radiating to outer space).
When I was a teenager, I was socially isolated, being rejected by my peers. I took comfort in being a "non-conformist". Later, in my wiser, older years; I realized that being a non-conformist just meant I did the opposite of my peers. Not independent actions, but affected by what my peers did. I thought I was "my own person" and superior for being so. It is difficult to truly live an independent-thinking lifestyle, unaffected by the culture we live in.
This winter has been so cold in Southern Arizona we have used our heaters a lot, in our poorly insulated trailer. I often thought of how you were doing in your heat-free trailer. With the image of you sitting in it in the morning (before sunrise), wrapped in a sleeping bag.
Congratulations on overcoming your non-conformism!
William
Interesting comments from William.
I can appreciate the observation that many nonconformists simply end up becoming a member of some "nonconformist" subgroup which then requires a great deal of conformity within the group.
Truth is, we are social animals and it is very difficult to be a group of 1. However, even with that, that person will still be driven to seek out other like minded folks through books or some other means for we just aren't meant to live in a cave by ourselves totally cut off from all communion with our fellow man. This is why solitary confinement is used as punishment and can create psychosis if it endures long enough.
Perhaps that is the point of having a blog. Perhaps why I check in here year after year for a spark of inquisitiveness such as right now. We do seek common ground.
I'm not sure how anyone can really judge who is a nonconformist and who isn't. Probably the bigger question is why is this question even framed in this particular way. For KB, I think the heater is just all about getting older. Nothing more than that. Just my guess though.
George