kotatsu

This is an old draft that I'm resurrecting in honor of the last day this winter with a high of only 23 (you hear me, WEATHER?)

Personally, I'm cold if the temperature is below 74 degrees. I suppose this comes from spending all my childhood winters standing directly in front of a 700 degree woodstove.

But, with natural gas prices, TA stipends, and the ozone layer the way they are, 74 degrees isn't even an option. I've decided I'm pretty much just as cold at 68 as at 65 or 60, so essentially, the most economical/ environmental option is to turn the heat down and heat smaller spaces until it feels like my skin is crisping slightly. One way to do this is with (my version of) a kotatsu:



The Japanese apparently don't heat their houses at all (the horror!), so they all sit around a 3'x3' kotatsu for the whole winter. The kotatsu is a table with a heater under it and a blanket over it. My version is a desk with a heater in the keyhole and a blanket over the back of the desk chair. We're not quite as hardcore as the Japanese, though- the house stays at 64 during the day, 60 at night, and 50 when we're out.

Other good options for keeping warm besides the desk-kotatsu include: electric blanket, space heater, space heater in the bathroom (smaller space), drinking hot tea, wearing a sweatshirt with a down vest and fleece blanket skirt, and standing over the heating vent with the fleece blanket skirt on. Sometimes I do all of these at once.