A ceiling fan runs in every room of my house, and until last fall I had never switched the direction on any of them. The summer setting pushes air down, creating a breeze that evaporates sweat. The winter setting reverses the motor and pulls air up, pushing warm air trapped at the ceiling back down … Read more
“A Space Heater Costs a Dollar an Hour” — Let’s Meter It Every winter the same number gets passed around: “a space heater costs a dollar an hour to run.” Run the math and a 1,500-watt heater at the national average rate costs about 22 cents an hour at full blast — a fifth of … Read more
Our bedroom hygrometer read 28 percent all last winter, and I kept refilling a dumb humidifier that ran wide open until the tank was dry — 3 a.m., empty, humidistat never consulted. Then I did the math that made me replace it: a bedroom held at 40–45% instead of 30% feels several degrees warmer at … Read more