Heat Watch: End of the line
As we have the last few years' March, we have wondered when our municipal heat would be turned off for the spring. The official shut-off date is and always has been March 15, but other factors, like a warming trend or persistent cold temperatures can shift this date a few days.
So, after the jump, a diary (with pictures) of our last days of city heat.
March 7
It is still more than a week until the date we think our heat should be shut off, but we are already studying the volume of output from our smokestack. Warmer days show less, and a warming trend before March 15 (during the day, that is--nights are still below freezing!) means that they turn off the heat during the day. That always makes me nervous that they might not be able to start it up again.
March 14
It is a warm day, and the heat is shut off during the day. We aren't sure if this meant heating season is really over. As we sit down to eat supper, Randy notices something really odd. A smokestack for a central heating plant a few blocks away is really smoking. I look across Changping and the rest of the smokestacks I could see that have been dormant all day now puff white clouds into the evening sky. Okay. Heat for another night, we all thought.
March 15
A good thing to see when I am walking out the door that afternoon. We are still in long underwear and layers, so having heat just a little bit longer would be wonderful.
March 18
We still have heat. Surely, they could not have shut it off since it snowed overnight! That morning one of the black cab drivers by our building tell us they heard that Changping heat was going off at 2 am the next day. To me it sounds like a ridiculous rumor--in the middle of the night?
March 19
I wake up to a frigid apartment. The heat is most definitely off. How on earth did it get so cold in here so quickly, I wonder. I turn on the space heater in the bedroom, the 2000W unit, and it gives us a warm spot to change clothes.
Since then we've been running the 2000W heater in the bedroom all night, about 12 hours, though there have been a few days that it has been run most of the day. Just this past winter, I blogged about the addition to the electrical load of our air cleaners. Pales in comparison to what the draw is for our electrical heater. It's spring, and warmer days are coming. Just last week I noticed that the tables were set up at the noddle shop in the car wash next door. Al fresco dining, anyone?
So, after the jump, a diary (with pictures) of our last days of city heat.
March 7
It is still more than a week until the date we think our heat should be shut off, but we are already studying the volume of output from our smokestack. Warmer days show less, and a warming trend before March 15 (during the day, that is--nights are still below freezing!) means that they turn off the heat during the day. That always makes me nervous that they might not be able to start it up again.
March 14
It is a warm day, and the heat is shut off during the day. We aren't sure if this meant heating season is really over. As we sit down to eat supper, Randy notices something really odd. A smokestack for a central heating plant a few blocks away is really smoking. I look across Changping and the rest of the smokestacks I could see that have been dormant all day now puff white clouds into the evening sky. Okay. Heat for another night, we all thought.
March 15
A good thing to see when I am walking out the door that afternoon. We are still in long underwear and layers, so having heat just a little bit longer would be wonderful.
March 18
We still have heat. Surely, they could not have shut it off since it snowed overnight! That morning one of the black cab drivers by our building tell us they heard that Changping heat was going off at 2 am the next day. To me it sounds like a ridiculous rumor--in the middle of the night?
March 19
I wake up to a frigid apartment. The heat is most definitely off. How on earth did it get so cold in here so quickly, I wonder. I turn on the space heater in the bedroom, the 2000W unit, and it gives us a warm spot to change clothes.
Since then we've been running the 2000W heater in the bedroom all night, about 12 hours, though there have been a few days that it has been run most of the day. Just this past winter, I blogged about the addition to the electrical load of our air cleaners. Pales in comparison to what the draw is for our electrical heater. It's spring, and warmer days are coming. Just last week I noticed that the tables were set up at the noddle shop in the car wash next door. Al fresco dining, anyone?
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