Re: Microwaves for You (SMTP Id#: 510) - Reply

[772EAR@delphi.com]

At 08:58 AM 3/7/97 -0600, you wrote:
>As to what you are trying to
>do with central heating, you are trying to decrease the heat loss from
your 37
>degree body to the surroundings.  

Anyone who thinks that central heating is used soley for the purpose
of creature comfort has obviously never lived in the Northeast.  The
purpose of central heating is to provide a consistent environment 
for a living space.  This includes the walls,  floors and ceilings 
where things like pipes live.

If you walk into a cold house in the Northeast,  the first thing you
try to do is "take the chill off the house."  This means waiting while
the walls and floors absorb enough heat so that they become less of
a heat sink and more of a heat reflector (a poor one, I'll grant you).
Trying to keep a house at a livable temperature also saves walls from
cracking, pipes from freezing and structures from rotting.

I don't know of anyone who has lived in the cold that we have in the
Northeast winter who would use a heat source that does not provide 
a minimum of 50 degress F to the surroundings constantly during the
winter.  At this temperature,  with adequate insulation, you have a
chance of keeping your pipes from freezing when until the utility can
fix the lines after a power loss.

I surprised the original author of the (who claims to be based in 
New Hampshire) would miss this very important fact of living in an
area with severe winters.  He must obviously only do his research
in the summer.

Vince Chase
VinChase@aol.com