winter practice annoyances

[bloke]

Winter is when I manage to find a LITTLE bit of time to (gulp ) practice, but it’s also the most difficult time.
- I really don’t want to keep the place heated up to 70°($$$$), so…yeah: flat… until I manage to get the room heated up from 63° to 70°.
- Relative tuning of the instrument is also goofed up until I manage to heat up the larger parts of the instrument, so that the air column inside the larger part is also warmer. One of the symptoms is that tubas - that normally don’t suffer from the “flat third partial syndrome“ - feature a flat third partial, until the big parts of the instrument are warm.

It’s hard enough to get motivated to sit down and practice at night - when I’m tired from working (or get home from actually playing a gig somewhere), but then I have to deal with these “cold“ obstacles.

Does anyone else have trouble with playing in cold rooms - due to trying to save some utility bills money? I wonder if I should pick up some sort of quiet radiant heater, and just plug it in and turn it on close to where I’m going to practice - perhaps ten minutes ahead of time, and with the instrument(s) nearby, as well.

[the elephant]

Yes. All the time. And yes to the tuning issues that take about 20 minutes of playing to rectify.

[bort2.0]

I hate when houses are cold, and I hate when houses are dark. I probably spend more than I should on that, but I refuse to live in a cold and dark house. When I was growing up, my dad would say the house looked like a damn lamp store, and kept the thermostat at like 67 or something in a drafty house.

For me, it's 72 degrees and lots of lights on.

My annoyance is the noise from the forced air HVAC or a space heater. Those plug in oil filled radiators are nice and quiet, and I do like those, but they take a LONG time to heat up a cold room in the basement. Takes the edge off okay, but for a nice warm room, it takes a while. That's where I play my tuba most times, so it does make things a little annoying.

[bloke]

wow @bort2.0 …

Considering that you’re in a super-yankee (mindset) state and a yankee (mindset) town - as well as quite far north, you’re spending a lot of dough on that mess.
Our electric co-op probably offers some of the lowest-rates in the nation, and the nearby town sells natural gas for a really reasonable rate as well, but I still try to burn wood - in the two stoves - as much as I can, instead of using their stuff.
I have to use some of their stuff, because this house has no ceilings… It’s probably pretty toasty warm “way up there“.

a question:
Can you actually sleep at night with the heat blowing like that and heating up your house to 72°? (I have to turn the heat down to about 55° - 60° at night, in order to sleep well.)

…and yeah: our house is dark at night, except for the rooms we are in - while we are awake.

[KingTuba1241X]

Below 60 is uncomfortable, I can't possibly imagine living in the Cheese and Rust belt areas, less even so the Mid-South (but out of necessity might have to soon). Not sure how to survive, I like hotter weather.

[tofu]

.

[bort2.0]

I turn off the lights when I sleep! And I don't understand bundling up in sweaters and thick bulky clothes indoors... Save that for outside!

Frankly, it seems to cost the same to heat our entire house like this as it did for our condo, which was a lot smaller. And not all that much different than it cost to heat our tiny < 350 sq ft apartment in NYC.

It costs what it costs. I'm not being frivolous, but I'm not going to be miserable and cold in my own house.

[bloke]

My Dad used to tell my Mom “You’ve got your personal thermostat set too tight”, and that was before the Carter years, when Americans first began being gouged on their utility rates.

In the summer, I get acclimated (read: am comfortable) to 79° in the house, and - in the winter - I get acclimated to 62° in the house.
Cold air blowing out of the vents in the summer feels cold, and hot air blowing out of the vents in the winter feels hot.

Mostly, I walk around with a T-shirt and jeans all year…sometimes a sweatshirt. (In the winter, shoes make me feel warmer than anything.) As I get older, I find myself putting on a coat when I go outside and it’s in the 30s - and always have, if it dropped down into the low 20s or lower - but if I go out and work pretty hard building something outdoors or cutting trees into firewood and it’s 40°+, I might just be (after the first 10 minutes or so) working in a T-shirt out there.

Buying utilities is sort of like buying someone’s else farts - OK… or buying TV “entertainment“ (very similar to farts). They are gone as soon as you pay for them, and you wonder if you can get by with fewer of them.

TO THE TOPIC:
We have one particular space heater (heats up a couple of glass tubes) that throws off a lot of heat, and is very quiet. I think I might buy another one of those to try out what I mentioned earlier in the thread, which is to turn it on about ten minutes ahead of time - in the area where I practice, and place a couple of my instruments there as well.
Other than the messed up tuning, I would be perfectly happy practicing in an upper 50s to lower 60s degrees room in the winter… but it would bother me in the summer, because that cooler air would be blowing on me, and I would be paying quite a bit for that discomfort, as well.

memory:
Back when we had our brick and mortar store in Memphis, one January the utility company robbed us by doing an “estimate” on our utilities. It was an absurd amount. It pissed me off so much, that I turned the heat off for the month of February. It wasn’t the worst February ever and tended to stay about 42°- 46°or so in there. It’s funny how customers really didn’t notice it, because they had just walked in from it being about 28° outside. Yes we wore a couple of sweatshirts, but kept moving and kept busy, and it didn’t bother us either. The next month, the bill was actually meter read, and we owed zero that month and had a credit for the following month. Basically, I guess I boycotted the “but whole” utility company for a month.

[BuddyRogersMusic]

My practice area is in our basement which is not directly heated but does benefit from a general circulation of air and it does get chilly in the winter. I have one of those electric radiators that gets turned on a few minutes before I start and then I forget to turn it off after I'm done. It's comical how often I forget to do that but remember other mundane things. I try not to use it too much but I want to be as comfortable as possible while holding 20 lbs of cold metal.

[the elephant]

In my house, we also keep it a bit chilly to save money. (The gas bill gets up to over $300 a month so we try hard to keep the heat OFF as much as practicable.

One of my annoyances is having a cat try to climb up into my lap while I am playing. This happens because I am fat, and therefore, warm. My cats will do this year-round, but in February I just turn the dang heat up and we give upwards of half of what our mortgage payment is to the Atmos people.

[What I don't get about this behavior is that the tuba' bottom bow remains cold no matter how much air I put into it, and in the winter it is quite cold. Stupid cats.]

[Three Valves]

We have a two story, three bedroom approx 1800sf house near DC with the original water radiators. The boiler was coal, now gas. The hot water is gas too. The bill may exceed $300 in Jan/Feb but that's it.

Forced hot air makes the air so dry it makes my nose bleed here. I can't imagine what it does to your skin in MN!!

@bort2.0 You need radiant heat man!!

Out house was built before HVAC (1926) so the first floor ceilings are 10ft and I practice right in the front room at 70 degrees in the winter. The original first floor single pane windows do the cool frost thing when it is really cold out...



Yes, the neighbors call it the Alamo house.

[Mary Ann]

I've been living without central air and heat for the last ten years. Four of those in a travel trailer with windows open. Since I got this house, I did everything possible to get the ducts clean enough that I didn't smell mold when I turned on the HVAC, but no success, quite a few thousand dollars later. (I digress, but it's relevant history.)

In the trailer, I used a Presto Heat Dish (Currently $80 at my Costco) and have simply continued that. It doesn't get below the 50s in here so far (since 2015,) and I find that aiming this little toaster-with-a-parabolic-dish at me keeps me warm enough. I do wear a lot of clothing inside, and have to remember when I go somewhere to take most of it off. Not being a big fat tuba-playing guy, I can't sit around in 60 degrees in shorts and a T shirt. I sit around in long johns, sweat pants, fuzzy sweater and fuzzy jacket on top of that. By January I'll be wearing a fur hat too. I'm used to it, don't care any more; just like in summer I wear almost nothing and am used to that too.

So if I wanted to warm my tuba before playing it.....I'd aim the Presto Heat Dish at it for about ten minutes, just like I use it to warm up the bathroom before a shower, and have it be warm. At least in the house, compared to the travel trailer, I have enough hot water to actually take a regular, rather than Navy, shower.

[Doc]

It's sweat-your-@$$-off weather here nine months out of the year. I am NOT running some stupid-@$$ed heat in the winter unless it's absolutely frozen outside. It's a complete waste of money, and I'm friggin tired of being hot. @bort2.0 72 degrees??? You do you, brotherman , but that crap ain't gonna happen here in winter. Half the time, the ambient outdoor temperature here is between 60 and 75, often higher - which means we run the air conditioner 100x more than the heat. Even when it dips down in the 30-50 range, we're so glad not to be hot, the heat rarely comes on, save the occasional 10min run to take the chill out. But even in the coldest cold snaps, it sure ain't no 72 in the house.

Doc (who is cut out for Yankee weather, but not for everything "Yankee")

[bort2.0]

@bort2.0 You need radiant heat man!!

Well, we had radiant heat when we bought the place...

Our house is built into a hill, so technically half of the house is below grade. And when it was built, it was ok/to code to put the radiator pipes for the below grade level in/under the concrete foundation. Maybe that's still a thing, I don't know Nice clean look.

Problem is, if the pipes get a leak under the foundation, then there's no way to find it or fix it. And naturally, that's exactly what happened to us. And even if you fix one leak, it could happen again and you'd be in the same position again. Plus the boiler was old and inefficient, and it was all around ready for replacement. A few other oddities too...

We could have re-piped the lower level, by framing in the walls and running new copper, but there were issues upstairs too. And we wanted central AC, too. So, you know how the rest goes.

Dry air is no issue, all you need is a whole home humidifier like the Aprilaire 600. Not an expensive unit (a few hundred) and it humidifies the air from the furnace before it gets dispersed in the house. Uses some water, naturally, but it works great. My skin is far happier here than it ever was at the condo (which had the results you mentioned earlier).

And as a brand new unit, the whole system is quite efficient. Only problem is that we are still working our way through replacing windows and doors, so there are some inefficiencies there as well. Some windows are crap (2 single panes with a small wooden spacer between them... Which gets ice crystals between the panes when it's super cold). Other windows are brand new from last spring. And the front wall of the house is almost all glass... Original from 1968... Those windows are actually great! Probably over 100 sq ft of glass on the front of the house, biggest window is about 6' x 8'.

Anyway...!

But we're doing our best. We've only lived here for 1 year...

[Three Valves]

The plastic they made in the 60's was pretty poor, that's a shame what happened to you. At least they didn't use it on the plumbing did they??

When they put the A/C in our house back in the 70s they used a 2.5 inch high speed air duct that is now common with renovators of older homes where no ducting exists. The air is blasted thru so it never collects dust or other nasty stuff. It least, so far so good...

[bort2.0]

Doc (who is cut out for Yankee weather, but not for everything "Yankee")

Having lived "out east" most of my life, I had never attributed that word to anything except for New England -- new to me!

Seems like two conflicting types of Scandinavian mindsets here, and which of these are hygge, mys, lagom... I don't know. But it's a lot of that culture baked in here -- it's cold and gray outside. Plenty to do and plenty to be done outside, life does continue through the winter... but when you are inside, it's got to be good.

First, there's the frugal nordic attitude. When it gets cold, put on a sweater. When it gets really cold, put on two. Big socks. Drink a good amount of coffee during the day, and you'll get through it just fine. There's plenty to do and plenty to be done inside. Go to bed early and sleep through a lot of it. Body heat (yours plus someone else's ) keeps you warm. Plenty of August births around here, you know.

And then, the attitude that the home should be inviting, social, warm, and comfortable. After all, you're not outside anymore and you're not an animal. It sucks outside, so get inside, get warm, stay warm. If you're cold, we'll make it warmer. If it's too warm, take some clothes off (plenty of August births around here, you know).

[KingTuba1241X]

Buying utilities is sort of like buying someone’s else farts - OK… or buying TV “entertainment“ (very similar to farts). They are gone as soon as you pay for them, and you wonder if you can get by with fewer of them

I guess you can say the same thing about Food, Drinks and other bodily necessities too...it's just kind of life.

[KingTuba1241X]

Doc (who is cut out for Yankee weather, but not for everything "Yankee")

Having lived "out east" most of my life, I had never attributed that word to anything except for New England -- new to me!

Seems like two conflicting types of Scandinavian mindsets here, and which of these are hygge, mys, lagom... I don't know. But it's a lot of that culture baked in here -- it's cold and gray outside. Plenty to do and plenty to be done outside, life does continue through the winter... but when you are inside, it's got to be good.

First, there's the frugal nordic attitude. When it gets cold, put on a sweater. When it gets really cold, put on two. Big socks. Drink a good amount of coffee during the day, and you'll get through it just fine. There's plenty to do and plenty to be done inside. Go to bed early and sleep through a lot of it. Body heat (yours plus someone else's ) keeps you warm. Plenty of August births around here, you know.

And then, the attitude that the home should be inviting, social, warm, and comfortable. After all, you're not outside anymore and you're not an animal. It sucks outside, so get inside, get warm, stay warm. If you're cold, we'll make it warmer. If it's too warm, take some clothes off (plenty of August births around here, you know).

If I ever were to come up to Minnesota, I'd be parked on your couch the whole time...72 inside is perfect. (Especially when it's Arcticly below 40 outside).

[bort2.0]

If I ever were to come up to Minnesota, I'd be parked on your couch the whole time...72 inside is perfect. (Especially when it's Arcticly below 40 outside).

72 degrees outside in July, and people say it's the best weather and most comfortable thing ever.

72 degrees in your own house on a cold snowy day... and people don't like it?! I don't get it.

BTW, in Minneapolis, it's not uncommon to get below zero temperatures (or even high temperatures that are below zero). The -40F stuff usually doesn't come this far south. @MN_TimTuba gets more of that stuff. The coldest I've experienced here was about -35F, one time, a few years ago.

Typically in my life, I approach new things with an "act like you've been here/done this before" attitude. But on that -35F day, I was a complete joker, and made every effort to be ridiculous and test it out to see what it was really like:
* Eating ice cream outside to warm up (ice cream kept at 0F... 35 degrees warmer!
* Walking outside with no shoes on (ouch!)
* Throwing a cup of boiling water in the air to make snow (throw it down wind from you!)
* Going on and on about how it's a 100 degree difference in temperature between outside and inside
* ^Going well beyond that by using our condo building's sauna, and then running straight from there to outside. Kind of the sweat lodge idea, but the arctic version. Talk about jolting and invigorating!

[KingTuba1241X]

72 degrees in your own house on a cold snowy day... and people don't like it?! I don't get it.

Perhaps Math isn't their strong suit.. It just feels like a hotter 72 then the other 72 you know? Outside below 40 doesn't exist in my vocabulary. Period.