Keeping warm?

[muikabochi 208]

I agree Go Native.

 

Instead of nice windows looking out onto the mountains they put the kitchen and toilet there, so we can all see their pots and pans lined up and the extra toilet rolls from the outside!

 

[NoFakie 45]

Not having view windows to the south is mental! All you need is an small overhang to block summer sun. The problem in summer is actually west-facing windows. They'll bake your house if unshaded.

 

My favourite gripe is the combination of a south-facing entrance (fortuitous according to the Japanese version of feng shui) and then not having any windows in it to stop people looking in. You get a dark corridor where you could have had a warm room.

 

One muikabochi's windows invariably has a pile of old tyres under it!

[TheOrange 0]

Are toyu heaters notoriously unreliable? They seem to be from where I am. One i got beginning of last winter has gone mad on me with all that beeping, E4 errors and shutting down just when it's the coldest. Went out to get another one last night. I wonder how long that one will last.

[NoFakie 45]

Stemikster

 

If I had a thermal camera, I'd be straight onto ebay. It would be worth more than my car! I think you can get a "house doctor" to analyse your place using one for 30,000 or so. It'll tell you if you've got a draught problem, an insulation problem, or insufficient heating problem, and exactly where. Just guessing, but the first is fairly likely and is the easiest to fix.

 

The cheap way to find big draughts is to hold a joss stick near door frames, window frames, power sockets, ventilation/air con holes, etc in your exterior walls. If the smoke doesn't rise vertically, you've got a draught. You can also use a candle, which a big draught will blow out , or one of them chakkaman gas lighters from the hundred yenner. A flame's easier to see than smoke.