Just a quick comment on the weather here in Fairbanks, Alaska. As you know, I stopped here for a few months so rented a cabin. It’s been getting colder and colder. Because of that, I’ve been adding plastic windows. I’m up to 3 ‘panes’ on each window now. Night before last, it dipped down to -30F. When I got up, I found that I had ice on the inside of the four plastic windows I’ve added. So yesterday, I worked on sealing up one of those plastic windows for which I had built a wooden frame. It had by far the most icing. I’ve built two like that, the others are just those ‘inside’ window kits with a plastic sheet held in place with sticky tape. Took off the framed window (it’s on the inside of the house since my measurements were off a tad and it wouldn’t fit in the wacko outside frame – the other framed plastic window is working fine on the outside), added some sealing foam, screwed it back onto the window frame and then sealed up all those little leaks still there because of the style of the window surround. For the three other windows I’ll have to go to the store and get 3 more plastic inside windows.
That did help that window. This morning I got up at 10am and it’s -45F outside. Inside it’s 54F. A difference of 99 degrees. Ice on all the inside windows except the one I worked on. At least that one is working. Today, I’ll go get three more window kits. Energy is a lot more expensive then the $9 it will cost me. I’ll be up to 4 layers after these kits go on.
Meanwhile, the ToyoTomi oil fired heater I have here in the cabin has shut off twice this morning. With an EE12 error code. That indicates: “High limit switch activated”. I suppose that means that it’s running at full blast too long because once it’s up to set temp it works fine all day. It’s more modulated then an old style ‘Off-On’ furnace, it has 3 different nozzles for ‘warm-medium-hot’. I’ve got it set to 64F and with appropriate clothes, that is comfortable, and it brings the difference inside to outside to 109F. The cabin is only two room so it doesn’t take much for it to be cozy. I did find one electrical outlet that needed sealing. Very cold air was leaking by the plastic cover. A little sealing foam and it’s good.
I didn’t get to bed until 2am and the tv was still on as I climbed into bed, one of those emergency bulletins came on about all Alaska needed to get ready for a tsunami. What? My eyes popped open while I considered having to swim for it at -40F. Then I remembered that I’m 300 miles from the coast. What they meant was all of ‘coastal’ Alaska needed to run for the hills because of a 7.5 earthquake offshore. I’ll have to go look that news report up because the radio hasn’t said a word about it so far this morning.
See ya!
Wow. An Alaskan tsunami sounds c-c-c-c-cold!
Yeah, it turned out that we are only 300 feet above sea level here in Fairbanks and if the tsunami had been big enough, I might have awoke to 2-3 feet of water under my bed. Luckily it didn’t happen that way…
when i was a kid and we lived in a small town railroad station house, the electrical outlets on the north facing wall would frost up. mom tried chipping it off, but it just let cold air in so she left the frost on them and it was a natural air plug.
living in those railroad station houses are the reason that i refuse to live wihtout indoor plumbing and why i despise (with great abandon) outhouses.
in jewel’s book, when she talked about doing a music tour with her parents in alaska, she wrote about waking up and finding frost on her eyelashes.
winter is such a cool season.
I haven’t had to worry about the outlets frosting over but the windows are! On the inside! (Not that much because I have triple pane and all but still…). But, it’s suppose to warm up to -10F or so tomorrow, then I’ll go out and buy new interior plastic windows. This morning, it was -50F outside. Wow. The space heater has been working all day and finally got the cabin up to 64F at 5pm. As long as this heater works, and I’ve got electric, I should be OK, but if the power goes out, I’m screwed for sure. Oh, wait, I have a propane heater, I could last a few days without power with that.
Jim if a tidal wave managed to get to you wouldn’t it be ice cubes by then?
Why yes, yes it would. And I could make a nice drink with them…
I can’t even imagine -50 degrees!!!
I know! It hurts a little to breathe at that temperature.
Does your car start ok? It must as you are getting around but do you have a core heater in it or something?
I have 3 devices in it…one is an oil pan heater so the oil stays warm, another is a heater for the water in the radiator, and then I have a small battery charger hooked up so the battery doesn’t freeze. When I’m about to go somewhere, since those things are all plugged in, it usually starts right up. Then I let it sit and idle 5 to 15 minutes. Oh, and there are many stores here in town that have these electrical towers out in their parking lots so you can drive up and plug in before you go shopping. I don’t use them much since I can usually get my shopping done in under an hour…
Now that you have had a good low temp experience this year do you think you will spend another winter there?
I still haven’t decided. I’m going to try an ad in the paper and see if I get any consulting business. If that’s a hit, I might stay another, don’t know yet. But we’re not into the coldest part of winter, that happens in Feb.-March and I might hate it when it stays at -40F for weeks, who knows.
Is there any problem with the planes taking off and landing at those low temps?
Not that I’m aware of. It’s an international airport so they work really hard at keeping it open.
I assume you winterized your motorhome…LOL
I parked next to the cabin the day before it snowed 4″. And I put several electric heaters in the RV to keep things unfrozen. Then when we had a few days of warm temps, I blew all the water out of the water lines, emptied the water heater, then emptied the 70 gallons of water in holding tank into a 3 gallon container over and over and brought it into the house and dumped it into the holding tank in here. This cabin doesn’t have city water. The owner tried to drill a water well but it got to cold and the crew gave up for this winter. The tank here in the cabin holds 233 gallons. I could pay to have someone fill it but what I usually do is take the 5 gallon water jug I got in Mexico over to the RV park where I volunteer and fill it there. Do that perhaps 3 times a week and I’m good.