Just curious, Tango. Have you gone and found the person that built that house and killed them yet, or are they unfortunately already room temperature?
I got into my space and only managed to hit my head on the pipework twice. I even managed to do it without uttering anything too inappropriate as I did it. There were lots of gaps and cracks letting in cold air. I got most of them filled but ran out of foam before I could get them all. The last place is almost impossible to get at, so maybe it's time to buy the professional grade foam gun to get into there. I seriously considered it today but decided to get spray cans instead. The foam gun is nearly $50 just for the gun, and then of course you have to get the foam to put into the gun, and the cleaner to clean uncured foam out of the gun when you've finished.
The person who built the house is long since dead. It was one of my wife's ancestors, I think it was her great-great-grandfather who built it. I'd very much like to get my hands on the last person to work on the electrics before we inherited the place. They did half-jobs and cut corners every which way you can imagine and then some.
I'm not much for wine. But the last time I was in Lancaster County Pennsylvania my wife and I visited a winery and tasted a very nice apple wine. Unfortunately the only place to get it is at the winery.
Well I think I've finally found all the meaningful sources of cold air in my work space. The temperature is now down into the low teens outside and the work space is holding between 48-50 depending on which part I leave the thermometer. Previously it was dropping lower than that. Hopefully the extra cold weather in the next couple of days will determine whether I've really got them all. For the first time in a while I feel optimistic that I've solved it sufficiently that it's worth putting my insulation panels in.
It went down to 9 overnight and this morning the work space was 46. Not as warm as I had hoped but not as bad as it had been before. Just before I went to bed it had dropped from 50 to 48.
I wonder what your temperature would be where I live. It was -20 when I woke up. Wind chill about -49
The temperatures here have gone down to -4, having not risen above about 20 for over 24 hours. The space was down to 43 degrees last I looked. I turned on the space heater in the room with water pipes, hopefully that will be enough. I have another space heater I can roll into action if needs be but I think it should be OK. The walls are keeping the heat out much more effectively than they have done in years. By the time I finally get these panels into place it should make an enormous difference. I'm just debating whether to put fiberglass into the ceiling cavities as well, to keep heat contained better. ETA: Our wind chill here is about -20 or so, and the rooms I'm working on face into the prevailing wind, so fixing the gaps in the wall makes an even bigger difference. The thing I recently discovered in the basement explains one way cold air is getting in - it's much better now but still has plenty of room to improve. When it's a little warmer I'm going to fix the brickwork from the outside.
Temperature indoors dropped below 40, the first time I saw a number that low. I left the door to one room open to let the warmth from the house get in there because it was down to 41. I disturbed in the night and found it was up to 48 so closed the door. Six hours later it was down to 39. TG - not sure I want to know what would have happened if we'd had cold the way you guys do.
I experienced a truly tropical 15 degrees early this afternoon. In this cold I decided not to attempt to work in the work space. Following temperatures of around -6 sustained for 18 hours it dropped to 39 degrees in one room. Thankfully I remembered to turn on the space heater in the room with pipes and that remained at a balmy 42. I'd be curious to know just how cold it might have got in there had I not fixed up so many gaps in the walls.
... and for a change in scenery I decided it was time to fix an elderly lamp I bought my wife years ago. She loves it but one of the bulb holders was loose. Replacing it turned out to be something of an ordeal, with wires sufficiently short I couldn't work in an easy space so ended up poking a screwdriver through all sorts of unexpected gaps to try and get at things. I actually came quite close to ripping the whole thing apart and running fresh wires through the entire thing, with a bit of slack on them that would let me work more easily.