Saturday, February 18, 2006
The Insulation Value of Construction Paper
by Tom Bozzo
One of the Joys of Owning an Older Home (U.S. Midwest edition, in case anyone residing in earlier-settled parts of the world need to calibrate what counts as "Older" — think early-Depression era) is that bits and pieces of the place have gone missing over time. In this case, it's one of the glass panels for the triple-track storm window on the dining room's side window. We really ought to do something about that.
As the outside temperature was -15F/-26C at the time of the photo, John's mitten painting was a good enough insulator to allow the humidity in the house to turn to frost underneath it.
A quick check of the climate records shows this morning, which bottomed out at -17F/-27C, to be the coldest since February 1996, when the February record low for Madison of -29F/-34C was set.
One of the Joys of Owning an Older Home (U.S. Midwest edition, in case anyone residing in earlier-settled parts of the world need to calibrate what counts as "Older" — think early-Depression era) is that bits and pieces of the place have gone missing over time. In this case, it's one of the glass panels for the triple-track storm window on the dining room's side window. We really ought to do something about that.
As the outside temperature was -15F/-26C at the time of the photo, John's mitten painting was a good enough insulator to allow the humidity in the house to turn to frost underneath it.
A quick check of the climate records shows this morning, which bottomed out at -17F/-27C, to be the coldest since February 1996, when the February record low for Madison of -29F/-34C was set.
