Human cold adaptation has been a bit of an obsession this winter - mostly, it's been Turbo's obsession, but I've been intrigued by my changes in my own comfort range. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer, but the outdoor sensor is also indoor and I carry the two around to monitor the temperature in my various rooms. I consider my living room uninhabitable, and no surprise: it never goes above 15.3 when the furnace is on, and is usually lower. Currently, the furnace has been going for over two hours, and it's at 14.7C. The kitchen hovers around 16.3 when the furnace has been on but I'm not actually in the kitchen. Hanging out in here and puttering around, I'll easily hit the 17.5-18C range. If I've got the oven on, I can go as high as 20C. It's my warmest room.
Me, I'm comfortable at temperatures above 16, though if I am mostly sedentary, I need about 17C and that is on the edge of my sitting around comfort. I have spent the winter wearing long underwear every day, and always have slippers or shoes on. I do not wear a toque in the house.
People who come to visit - and there are not that many - like to complain about the temperature in my house even though I bump the temperature up another two degrees when I have company. The other night, I was sitting around in my poloypro long undershirt, perfectly comfortable, while my guest borrowed a sweatshirt and wrapped herself in a blanket. Hmmmm.
I don't think it's living in a cooler house that has made me more cold tolerant, but the amount of time I spend outside. On average, I'm outside for two hours a day, and I don't even notice the -20 days anymore since when I'm out, I'm shoveling snow or walking to work or skiing or something else. I did notice during the winter camping experience in Algonquin, but mostly, it was the standing around that did me in. Last weekend I went to Silent Lake for Elke's annual yurt experience, and I happily slept outside in my tent. The first night it went to -25 (I took my indoor-outdoor thermometer with me!) and I was so very comfortable in my cocoon of fleece liner, winter bag and synthetic bag to use as a blanket if necessary (I mostly did not use it), but the difference was that I was not losing heat to the ground due to my closed cell foam - thermarest - caribou skin sandwich. The second night was a mere -14, and I woke up so so so hot and ended up shedding the fleece liner and my socks and my fleece pants and my sweatshirt and then, with the bag unzpipped at the bottom and my upper body in its silk undershirt exposed, I felt relief that I was not hot anymore. I had no intention of staying like that, but improbably, I fell asleep (there was no alcohol involved, either). I have no idea how long I stayed like that, but when you are essentially undressed and hardly covered at -14, your body lets you know it's not happy. I crawled back into all my layers of cocoon, but it took until the morning before my core temperature returned to a comfortable range.
Bottom line is, though, that when it's in the negative single digits (C), I am feeling warm. I take off my toque and my mittens. When it's -18 or co, others are complaining and I'm fine. It has to be colder than -25 before my "it's cold out!" response kicks in this year. I am far more comfortable like this than I ever have been in the tropics. I wonder if I would adapt as well if I spent enough time in the humid dampness of Panama or Indonesia.
It feels like it's been winter forever, though. Is it really only January?
Posted by Johanna at January 23, 2009 08:34 AM