Warmth 11/22 '18
This building is so warm. It's bizarre. Even at -10 outside, it's 22 in here. The air handler hasn't come on in a couple months despite a colder than normal month. I'm not sure where the heat comes from. I guess I could walk around with an infra-red thermometer and figure it out.
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I did walk around with a thermometer and there's no obvious source of significant heat. The little wall in the laundry room with the hot water pipe in it is 4C higher than ambient but everything else is all within 1C of the floor and walls.
I guess a pie-wedge shaped dwelling design in a circular building with a lot of insulation on the exterior wall is just really efficient (duh), and at least on the south side where we are, exposed to the angled winter sun, it's enough. The cats sure like the sun.
We'll see how it goes in three months though.
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It's certainly a pleasant change from multi-hundred dollar heating bills in the old house.
There are other bills, though. The condo fees ($630) pay for all utilities except electricity, along with exterior and common area maintenance, amenities, staff salaries and property tax on the building. Our electric bill is about $70 a month, with $40 of that a constant connection fee, which kind of sucks. And then there's city services tax, and contents insurance. Under $1K a month all in, with not much chance of a sudden disaster/emergency expense, which is really what you want for a retirement situation. Sure, we're a few years away from that, but it's good to be settled early.
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Also, for those of you in the south who celebrate the harvest well after those of us in the north have typically already several days of frost in the morning, happy Thanksgiving. (We do it in early October in Canada. Because we like to eat more fresh things than potatoes.)