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Comment by NovaPenguin | Hacker News Reader

Heat people not spaces has been a mantra of mine for decades. It may not be AS comfortable but it is far from unpleasant.

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How does that work in preventing mold in dwellings, though? Moist air (byproduct of living things in enclosed spaces) likes settling on cool walls, so heating has other benefits than just keeping a comfortable living temperature.

This is a real problem and ventilating often helps, but depending on the air humidity and walls you have to heat above a certain temperature, yes.

I lived for years too poor to heat. Mold is a real issue. No amount of cleaning and ventilation makes up for not heating your home.

In my last year of study I was writing up my honours project and I had to stop to wipe the condensation off of my monitor. Mind you, it was about 2am.

I stayed overnight in an old castle. The owners didn't have enough money to keep it for a while in the water damage it caused was ridiculous. Castles are dependent on fires in every room to drive the leaking water out.

You can probably not avoid heating your home completely (unless you constantly have a window open), but you can lower the temperature by a couple of degrees without having mold problems if you also keep an eye on humidity.

Dehumidifying & ventilating will be more effective anyway.

dehumidifier. no need to heat

Total game changer. Pouring out a tank full of water that otherwise would have gone into your walls is still a delight. And the waste heat warms the room up too.

That is what I have in my shed. It doesn't work because the water freezes to the coils. Once this starts it keeps getting worse until you thaw the coils. Sure if you live where the temperature is never below freezing they are an option, but when the temperature gets colder they are not an option.

Not to mention I need heat to keep my plumbing from freezing.

Check out rotary desiccant dehumidifiers. They can work at very cold temperatures. They work by continuously regenerating a desiccant disk.

If you're UK based, I can recommend the EcoAir line of dehumidifiers. (Not affiliated).

It's rather unpleasant to have cold hands all the time.

If you mean because gloves prevent you from doing a lot of stuff while you have them on, I've found fingerless wool gloves to be great at keeping my hands warm while letting me e.g. type on a keyboard, grab stuff from my pockets, from my wallet, etc.

It's also rather unpleasant to wear clothing in general. If there's an opportunity to reduce it to the minimum, I'd rather use it. That's why I like my commieblocks with central heating.

> That's why I like my commieblocks with central heating.

As long as they had proper insulation from construction or a retrofit they're great. The one i grew up (built by Construction Troops in a hurry) had terrible insulation, with newspapers used to fill gaps between the windows and the walls during construction, but after the (government-sponsored) renewal of the exterior it's pretty damn good.

Not for everyone. The more clothes I have to wear, the more I sweat. And that is unpleasant.

If you sweat, you wear too much clothes or the wrong kind.

Wool is nice and merino wool is the best.

Some synthetic stuff might also work, but is not so nice on the skin and some fiber just acts like a plastic sheet, meaning trapping all moisture inside.

But to repeat, we climbers and winter campers use merino wool. It is a bit more expensive, but worth it.

Exactly. If I sweat, I wear too much clothes. So the "islotate yourself" mantra does not work for me.

I don't understand. Do you sweat and still feel cold?

Almost. I typically sweat due to too much clothing, which results in me feeling cold.

What's weird about that? My armpits could be sweating (e.g., wearning a t-shirt + sweater) but my hands (no gloves) could be freezing.

Different parts of your body can feel hotter or colder, because the sensation of temperature is not about your internal body temp, but the heat transfer at the skin.

Hands with a pair of gloves on will feel colder than e.g. armpits under 3 layers of clothing. It's absolutely possible to sweat and still feel somewhat cold.

If you would wear other kinds of clothes, you likely could be warm, but not sweat.

A little bit of sweat is normal, the problem comes, when this sweat cannot vaporate, but remain trapped inside your clothes.

Maybe try merino wool.

Not true. My body tends to 'run hot' and I overheat very easily. Even when I'm in shape (and years ago in high school), I can just be cleaning up at home just in a thin pair of shorts and be sweating. Some bodies are just different. I'd love to try out a wool shirt though, cotton does get very cold.

> the more I sweat

Check transpiration friendly clothing (I am missing the terminology right now) - the underware (and apparel) that you would wear while doing intensive sport. There exists fabric that attempts retention of heat and avoidance of sweating (and its cooling effect).

(By the way: as I tried searching for better terms, three instances, I met the following results, one per instance: 'transgender clothing'; 'see-through clothing'; 'the sexualization of women in sports'. The search engines algorithms are getting some fixation?)

>transpiration friendly clothing (I am missing the terminology right now)

Moisture wicking clothing?

It is easy to get electrical blanket, heated shoe insoles etc. (use 12V/"car plug" versions if you don't trust the electrical isolation)

However, I want "cool people, not spaces" for summer, and it seems rather difficult to find such products - e.g. some kind of blanket and jacket with tubes, and some small compressor-based chiller (Peltier cells are solid-state, but the efficiency is terrible). Any suggestions?

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