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msconductIt's a glorious sunny winter day here in Auckland. Exactly the kind of day all Aucklanders dread, because when the winter cloud cover and rain we're so familiar with disperse, it's cold. COLD.
Now, people living in places with snow would scoff at that statement. After all, the forecast today is 12 degrees C (53.6F). Not exactly freezing, right? However, the difference between us and those lucky, lucky people in the snow is that the vast majority of Auckland houses have no central heating. And this morning it's 10.7 degrees C (51F) inside.
Well, why don't you just put in central heating, then? I hear you ask. Not so simple. Power prices in NZ are steep and it would cost a fortune to run. Some people do have heat pumps, which are pretty effective, although it's unlikely they have enough to heat other than a couple of rooms (see steep power prices above).
And some people, like me, live in houses it's impractical to try and heat at all. My house was built in 1906. We call them villas, but they're the same as what San Franciscans call Victorians (I've never been sure why they describe them using someone else's Queen, but let's not get sidetracked). They're built of wood, with high ceilings and wood floors. In summer, they're airy and cool. In winter, you might as well be out on an ice floe. Any heat disappears rapidly out through the (closed) windows. We do use bar heaters, particularly at night when we can sit in the living room and close the door, but that's not really practical during the day. My desk sits in a big open space that bar heaters make no dent in at all.
Nevertheless, I have to do something, because the World Health Organisation recommends a minimum indoor temperature for health of 18 degrees, a temperature I won't be seeing indoors for another four months minimum. And if you can't heat the house, you can at least heat the person. My normal winter indoor garb consists of thick long underwear, heavy fleece pants and a heavy fleece jacket, all rated suitable for mountaineering in Antarctica. That's OK for fending off hypothermia, but I wouldn't call it warm as such.
Then earlier this year, someone ignored my No Junk Mail sign and put some junk mail in my letterbox. Clearly I should have been reading my junk mail all along, because my attention was caught by an ad for heated clothing. Heated? Clothing? I was in.
I wasn't too thrilled with the brand they were selling, though, so I went looking for something better. And I found it. Ororo, a Michigan-based company, had nice fleece jackets in women's styles (my experience with most heated jacket manufacturers is that they only make unisex clothing, and "unisex" always means "made to fit men"). And the batteries lasted six hours on a medium setting. Pretty good. Of course, the usual hassles of shopping from NZ applied: Amazon didn't ship them to NZ, and neither did Ororo from its own site. I can get around that by using a reshipper, but it costs more and takes longer, and even then I'd have to use an adapter for the battery charger, which is another expense. Back to Google. And to my delight I discovered Ororo had an Australian site too and they shipped to NZ. We use more or less the same plugs as Australia, so that was even better.
I put the fleece jacket in the basket, added an extra battery so I could have an entire day of warmthiness, applied the 20% discount for joining their mailing list, and braced myself for the shipping charges. Shipping: free. I know nobody in the US will be impressed by that, but in NZ we're accustomed to often paying as much as or more than the item costs just to get it here. So this was a tiny miracle.
Then once the sale went through, a box popped up on the screen. Did I want anything else? At a 30% discount? My housemate and fellow winter sufferee was also in, so I ordered the whole gubbins again for her.
When the jackets arrived, we excitedly charged them up and switched them on. Oooooooh. The elements are on the top of the back and on the front just below the collarbone, and they really make a difference. Disappointingly, though, because there are no elements on the arms, the jacket still wasn't as warm as my super-heavy fleece jacket. Then this morning, faced with the 10.7C degree figure, I had an idea. Maybe...both? Turned out I could easily get the fleece jacket on over the heated one. And that even helped retain the heat of the jacket.
So here I am, no heater, and absolutely toasty warm. I'm loving it. Not only am I super comfy, it's going to hack at least $100 a month off my power bill this winter. I have no connection with Ororo other than being a satisfied customer, but I thoroughly recommend them. According to the Amazon reviews, their customer service is excellent too. Although I hope I never have to test that, it's always good to know.
Now, people living in places with snow would scoff at that statement. After all, the forecast today is 12 degrees C (53.6F). Not exactly freezing, right? However, the difference between us and those lucky, lucky people in the snow is that the vast majority of Auckland houses have no central heating. And this morning it's 10.7 degrees C (51F) inside.
Well, why don't you just put in central heating, then? I hear you ask. Not so simple. Power prices in NZ are steep and it would cost a fortune to run. Some people do have heat pumps, which are pretty effective, although it's unlikely they have enough to heat other than a couple of rooms (see steep power prices above).
And some people, like me, live in houses it's impractical to try and heat at all. My house was built in 1906. We call them villas, but they're the same as what San Franciscans call Victorians (I've never been sure why they describe them using someone else's Queen, but let's not get sidetracked). They're built of wood, with high ceilings and wood floors. In summer, they're airy and cool. In winter, you might as well be out on an ice floe. Any heat disappears rapidly out through the (closed) windows. We do use bar heaters, particularly at night when we can sit in the living room and close the door, but that's not really practical during the day. My desk sits in a big open space that bar heaters make no dent in at all.
Nevertheless, I have to do something, because the World Health Organisation recommends a minimum indoor temperature for health of 18 degrees, a temperature I won't be seeing indoors for another four months minimum. And if you can't heat the house, you can at least heat the person. My normal winter indoor garb consists of thick long underwear, heavy fleece pants and a heavy fleece jacket, all rated suitable for mountaineering in Antarctica. That's OK for fending off hypothermia, but I wouldn't call it warm as such.
Then earlier this year, someone ignored my No Junk Mail sign and put some junk mail in my letterbox. Clearly I should have been reading my junk mail all along, because my attention was caught by an ad for heated clothing. Heated? Clothing? I was in.
I wasn't too thrilled with the brand they were selling, though, so I went looking for something better. And I found it. Ororo, a Michigan-based company, had nice fleece jackets in women's styles (my experience with most heated jacket manufacturers is that they only make unisex clothing, and "unisex" always means "made to fit men"). And the batteries lasted six hours on a medium setting. Pretty good. Of course, the usual hassles of shopping from NZ applied: Amazon didn't ship them to NZ, and neither did Ororo from its own site. I can get around that by using a reshipper, but it costs more and takes longer, and even then I'd have to use an adapter for the battery charger, which is another expense. Back to Google. And to my delight I discovered Ororo had an Australian site too and they shipped to NZ. We use more or less the same plugs as Australia, so that was even better.
I put the fleece jacket in the basket, added an extra battery so I could have an entire day of warmthiness, applied the 20% discount for joining their mailing list, and braced myself for the shipping charges. Shipping: free. I know nobody in the US will be impressed by that, but in NZ we're accustomed to often paying as much as or more than the item costs just to get it here. So this was a tiny miracle.
Then once the sale went through, a box popped up on the screen. Did I want anything else? At a 30% discount? My housemate and fellow winter sufferee was also in, so I ordered the whole gubbins again for her.
When the jackets arrived, we excitedly charged them up and switched them on. Oooooooh. The elements are on the top of the back and on the front just below the collarbone, and they really make a difference. Disappointingly, though, because there are no elements on the arms, the jacket still wasn't as warm as my super-heavy fleece jacket. Then this morning, faced with the 10.7C degree figure, I had an idea. Maybe...both? Turned out I could easily get the fleece jacket on over the heated one. And that even helped retain the heat of the jacket.
So here I am, no heater, and absolutely toasty warm. I'm loving it. Not only am I super comfy, it's going to hack at least $100 a month off my power bill this winter. I have no connection with Ororo other than being a satisfied customer, but I thoroughly recommend them. According to the Amazon reviews, their customer service is excellent too. Although I hope I never have to test that, it's always good to know.
