Back at the Aerie

The drive back to the Aerie went smoothly enough yesterday. By the time I had gotten down to Utica and the NYS Thruway there was no snow on the ground. That changed a bit as I traveled toward Syracuse where winds out of the north were still blowing and lake effect snow from Lake Ontario were still falling. Most of the heavy snows were to the west of I-81 and only a few squalls made it as far south as the Cortland/Ithaca corridor on Route 13. And none of the snows were accumulating on the roadway. Traffic was moving and I made the 200 miles in just about 4 hours.

There was as much snow on the ground around the Aerie as there was at the Bolt Hole. Terry had cleared the driveway but the constant flurries had ensured that it would be white for my arrival.

Last night we continued to have snow flurries and the temperature went down to a chilly 12 degrees. Today it was more of the same with flurries persisting through the day and the temperature reaching a high of just 28 degrees. Tomorrow and Saturday look to be carbon copies.

The Aerie is actually cooler inside than the Bolt Hole. Up north I rely on the wood burning stoves and have no thermostats to turn the furnace on or off at a set point. Instead, I build up the fires, get them going god and then close the air vents that feed the flames. From then on it's like burning coal in the fire box. The box and the stove pipe may be hot but the amount of heat is controlled by the lack of O2 to fan the flames. The warm air will accumulate and accumulate with some of the warmth being stored in the walls, floor and ceiling and some being lost through the doors and windows. Usually, there's more than enough to push the room temperature well into the 70s and occasionally (like when I forget to regulate the air flow properly or add too much fuel) into the 80s.

Here at the Aerie, I set the thermostats to 65 degrees and let the "brain" of the system add fuel (propane) and pump the hot waster around the radiant heating floor pipes as needed. Unfortunately, the thermostat is not located near the glass windows or the open air space of the cathedral ceiling and that produces a slight false warmth reading. The wall mounted thermostat may say it is 65 degrees while the counter thermometer will say it's only 61 degrees. But the 65 is the ruling "brain" of the outfit and that is the temperature at which it thinks everything is just hunky-dory so it stops trying to heat the house.

Now I've got an option or two as to how I can deal with this: 1) I can turn the thermostat up to 68 or even 70 degrees. This would get the "brain" to say it has to work a bit harder and the room may warm up to 65 degrees. 2) I can build a fire int eh fireplace and allow the air circulating around the firebox to heat the living area. This works wonderfully well but would rapidly deplete my supply of firewood--which I'm saving for those really cold days yet to come and/or those days when the power goes out. Or 3) I can put a sweater on.

We got our first propane delivery of the fall today. The last delivery was way back in April. The tank took around 250 gallons at $2.19999 @ for a $550 bill. I think I'll be digging out those sweaters and union suits in a few days.