[HN Gopher] The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle
___________________________________________________________________
The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle
Author : Glench
Score : 155 points
Date : 2022-01-21 14:11 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.lowtechmagazine.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.lowtechmagazine.com)
| swilliamsio wrote:
| The fact that this website is solar powered is very, very cool to
| me. I will have to come back in a few hours and see if the
| Spanish night has taken it offline.
| pier25 wrote:
| I'm from Mallorca (Spain) and there you can still find tables
| with a brazier underneath. Hot water bottles made from rubber are
| very common too.
|
| https://images.app.goo.gl/DG73Vs74i6RgQbyk7
| harperlee wrote:
| Huge carbon monoxide intoxication risk!
| Oem18 wrote:
| kowlo wrote:
| My wife gifted me a hot water sausage for work
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08J2FK6KZ
|
| Mine is a little longer...
| llampx wrote:
| In my opinion, electric blankets are a superior alternative to
| hot water bottles. They come in various forms such as throws,
| pillows and mattress toppers, and can be adjusted for temperature
| and don't need to be refilled. The only place they don't work is
| when you're on the move. For that you can nowadays get gloves
| with active heating that are powered by batteries, or chemical
| reaction handwarmers.
|
| A good creative writing piece, but somewhat out of touch.
| asciimov wrote:
| You can't use electric blankets on foam beds as the foam
| retains too much heat and you could end up cooking yourself.
| edent wrote:
| The problem is, once the blanket loses power it gets cold
| pretty quickly.
|
| Whereas you can boil a kettle in under a minute, decant the
| water, and you can stay warm for hours.
| gruez wrote:
| That doesn't sound like a problem unless you're moving about.
| If you're just sitting at your desk who cares if you need to
| keep it plugged in?
| rstupek wrote:
| I think the point is "what if there's no electricity but
| the gas stove still works"
| helipad wrote:
| Your suggested solutions don't work so well for sitting
| outside.
|
| When Covid made outdoor socializing necessary, we used out hot
| water bottles at restaurants and at fire pits.
|
| Blankets and gloves aren't as good at keeping nether regions
| warm on cold surfaces, and anything that needs to be plugged in
| is a no go. A minor point too but I wouldn't want
| batteries/electrics around fire.
|
| Our hot water bottles kept us toasty for hours and you could
| also tell easily when it was running out of power, so to speak.
|
| We've also taken them to winter cabins when you don't know how
| convenient electrical outlets will be. You can have several of
| them for when you're on the sofa, to pre-warm the bed, make the
| dog cozy.
| tstrimple wrote:
| I would hope that Low Tech Magazine would focus more on "low
| tech" solutions, such as solutions which don't require
| electricity.
| llampx wrote:
| You got me there.
| wffurr wrote:
| You gotta heat the bottle; the most efficient method of which
| is an electric kettle.
| TremendousJudge wrote:
| But electricity is not required, you can use a regular
| kettle on a stove or even over a wood fire.
| floren wrote:
| You're not allowed to get a gas stove in California any
| more.
|
| Good thing we never have electric supply issues.
| tstrimple wrote:
| This isn't true. The requirement is just that new
| constructions are ready for electric appliances. It
| doesn't ban natural gas.
|
| https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/No-more-gas-
| stoves...
|
| > A draft code update released Thursday by the California
| Energy Commission would require new single-family homes
| to be equipped with circuits and panels that would allow
| them to be powered by all-electric appliances for
| heating, cooking and drying clothes.
|
| > The new code would not prohibit natural gas
| infrastructure, a step many environmentalists would like
| the state to take. But if the draft is ultimately
| authorized by the commission this year, it would require
| new homes to be "electric ready," meaning they're
| prepared to be transitioned away from gas appliances if
| any are used initially.
| YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo wrote:
| If you get a cold snap like in Texas last year with rolling
| blackouts it's the perfect way to store the heat you can
| produce while your electricity is running. When I camp in
| late fall, early winter I always use a food safe water
| bottle at night and reuse the water in the morning for
| coffee or washing up with the added benefit that with a
| good bottle the water is at least lurk warm.
| Someone wrote:
| I don't think so. On sunny winter days, you can heat them
| in the sun, using a solar water heater
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_heating) and let
| them cool down at night, heating your body.
|
| The low tech version is to paint them black and put them in
| the focus of a roughly parabolic reflector.
| nradov wrote:
| You can build a low tech electricity generator with a water
| wheel in the stream that runs behind your quaint little low
| tech log cabin in the woods.
| tstrimple wrote:
| This is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Not quite "low
| tech" because he has a ton of tools he powers off grid, but
| he nails the quaint cabin feel with the house he built.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zh29DJI_wE&list=PLEZ2hvCDK
| U...
| BenoitEssiambre wrote:
| I do ice in the summer (this is mentioned in the article). Great
| for when you have warm feet in bed. It works longer than the hot
| bottles because of the phase change which adds the equivalent of
| a 60 to 70 Celsius energy absorption.
|
| I think you could do the same with wax for the hot version. Hot
| wax would last longer than hot water because of the phase change.
| I assume this is not commercially available because of the
| dangers of heating wax which should be done in a hot water bath.
| Some people would inevitably ignore the instructions and burn
| down their house.
|
| Edit after a bit of research: Maybe the lesser heat capacity of
| wax offsets the benefits of the phase change.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Besides heat capacity, the advantage of liquid hot wax is that
| it stays at around 50degC during the entire melting process,
| which is a good temperature for something that keeps you warm.
|
| Instead of staying at an ideal temperature, water will
| gradually cool down.
| nickparker wrote:
| Water also has an almost uniquely large enthalpy of melting. EG
| paraffin freezing releases 1/3 as much heat as water
| YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo wrote:
| I use a cooling pad [0] for animals and it's amazing no
| electricity just convection.
|
| [0] https://www.amazon.com/Chillz-Cooling-Dogs-Large-
| Size/dp/B00...
| blakesterz wrote:
| "The first "hot water bottles" - quite literally - were other
| people and animals. Since time immemorial, people have warmed
| themselves by huddling together"
|
| I had to chuckle at that! Low Tech Magazine is such a cool site!
| So many really interesting things to read about there, low tech
| hacking at it's finest.
| josefresco wrote:
| When my mother was a child (Northeast US), they'd take baked
| potatoes to bed to keep their feet warm. Growing up we had one of
| the soft/red hot water "bottles" and it was used mostly when
| someone was in pain or sick.
| nickkell wrote:
| They also double as a midnight snack
| josefresco wrote:
| My mom said they'd bring them to school the next day for
| lunch.
| adventured wrote:
| One side of my family were farmers in prior generations (mid-
| Atlantic US). They utilized heated bricks in the same way that
| you're describing the potatoes.
| logosmonkey wrote:
| Yeah, my mom (grew up in the rural south US) has told me
| multiple times about how her mom would heat bricks fro the
| beds each evening. They were very poor and had no central
| heat so wood stove, bricks, and multiple kids to a bed (there
| were 13 of them) was the go to winter strategy.
| kevinmchugh wrote:
| Very off-topic but if you've never seen someone inflate and burst
| a hot water bottle, it's really something. It's one of those
| goofy strongman feats, like tearing a phonebook in half, with a
| big bang at the end.
|
| https://youtu.be/oM5ZzR2KBSQ
| DaltonCoffee wrote:
| Heheh, love that seam line.
| exhilaration wrote:
| If you need something portable while walking around the house, I
| recently bought this rechargeable heated vest for my wife
| https://fieldsheer.com/products/summit-vest-women-s# who hates
| the cold. She LOVES this vest, wears it every evening. This was
| possibly my most successful gift in our 12 year marriage.
|
| And I don't mean to keep promoting this brand but I've got their
| heated ski gloves too and they're amazing. I was night skiing and
| saw that one of the ski patrol ladies had a lit LED on her
| gloves. I asked her what that was and he told me it was this:
| https://fieldsheer.com/collections/womens/products/storm-glo...
| (wait, I wear women's gloves?) They're fantastic, I wore them
| skiing in 10oF Vermont weather from 9am to 3pm on low heat. The
| batteries died around 3ish but I had hand warmers after that.
| amelius wrote:
| I want a sleeping bag with this.
| mellavora wrote:
| Which "this", a warm and grateful spouse, or a hot water
| bottle?
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Put off by the Bluetooth + phone app. Can you change the
| temperature _without_ an app?
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| "The Summit Heated Vest has 2 ways to adjust the temperature.
| First, the built-in waterproof touch control button. With a
| simple button push, it lets you choose from 4 instant heat
| settings with multi-colored LED indicator."
| mcguire wrote:
| Anyone else notice the irony given the article?
|
| " _Low-tech Magazine questions the blind belief in
| technological progress, and talks about the potential of past
| and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes
| to designing a sustainable society._ "
| exhilaration wrote:
| Oh yes, we don't use the bluetooth functionality at all.
| Everything on the vest is button-operated.
| gertrunde wrote:
| Favourite quote/snippet from the linked vest page:
|
| "update your garments when new firmware becomes available."
|
| Now there's a sentence that I suspect we wouldn't have imagined
| 10 years ago...
| jimmaswell wrote:
| I recently got a whole series of heated gloves, socks, coat,
| etc., and when I have them all on I think of the preacher
| from Johnny Mnemonic.
| odiroot wrote:
| It's funny, but I'd like to have the complement of that! I'm
| never cold in my torso, it's always only the arms and hands.
| calt wrote:
| Heat your torso and the arms and hands will get better
| circulation and feel warmer as well.
| Toutouxc wrote:
| Can anyone recommend a well made EU-based alternative? The
| Fieldsheer collection looks great, but duties and taxes.
| semi-extrinsic wrote:
| My parents have used the Therm-IC products for years,
| especially socks for skiing, they've been happy with them.
|
| Personally I find that either I'm doing low intensity
| physical activity and I can just put on my Sorel Glacier XT
| boots and Hestra Army Leather mitts and stay warm, or I'm
| doing something more high intensity and my feet and hands
| only need normal boots and gloves.
|
| In both cases I wear a thick merino base layer, fleece
| midlayer with varying thickness according to temperature and
| activity level, and GoreTex Pro outer layer that has zippers
| under arms and along thighs such that you can adapt
| ventilation seamlessly to variations in activity level. This
| works nicely from +5 C all the way down to -30 or -40 C
| (depending on wind chill and humidity, you might not last
| very long at -40 C though).
| grogenaut wrote:
| Wonder if they sell just the heat and controls. My wife
| wouldn't like the material / style but would love to make her
| own
| mikestew wrote:
| I say this only so that you know it's worth searching,
| because I don't have any links handy at the moment: yes, you
| can buy the wiring or carbon inserts separately as well as
| some kind of controller. I say this because I've previously
| researched such things for making heated motorcycle clothing
| (which, when combined with the higher power of a motorcycle
| electrical system, will keep you _balmy_ for as long as the
| bike is running). One can do anything from sourcing your own
| wire to buying pre-made carbon inserts (such as in heated
| auto seats), to kits you just sew into the clothing. There
| are pages that will tell you how to do the math for wattage
| draw, etc., should you need such.
|
| It's been a number of years since I've done this research, so
| your options should be even more broad now, because heated
| clothing that isn't motorcycle/snowmobile-specific is a
| relatively new thing (thanks, lithium batteries!).
|
| Anyway, the stuff is out there, you'll just have to go look
| for it.
| masklinn wrote:
| FWIW an other option which turns out to be quite ridiculous for
| heat is the _hanten_ (japanese winter vests).
|
| They're thick padded cotton, and once the vest has warmed up
| (which doesn't take too much time) it's _really_ warm and
| comfy, if a tad bulky.
| Tronno wrote:
| Wool is more effective insulation than cotton, and also
| insulates when damp/wet, unlike cotton (thus the saying
| "cotton kills"). I suspect the reputation of this type of
| jacket is more cultural than anything.
| dahfizz wrote:
| Isn't that just a regular jacket, in Japanese style?
| masklinn wrote:
| Not really. In terms of length it sits somewhere between
| jacket and coat, but is also very much designed to be worn
| indoor (as traditionally japan doesn't use central
| heating). It doesn't much protect against the elements as
| it has a non-overlapping lapel with cords stiched on the
| edge for closure. In essence the front is mostly open, even
| when tied.
| recursive wrote:
| I didn't even know jackets and coats were different
| things.
| randycupertino wrote:
| > This was possibly my most successful gift in our 12 year
| marriage.
|
| My husband got me this heated blanket from LL Bean and it is my
| absolute favorite gift he's given me in 15 years together! This
| thing is amazing! I want to wfh just to curl my feet in the
| blanket. https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/124706
|
| I want to get one for every family member now.
| dehugger wrote:
| I also got my wife a similar one a couple of years ago, and it
| definitely marks the high-water mark for gift giving. I doubt
| I'll ever be able to live up to it. You can also buy a spare
| battery as a follow up gift the next year.
|
| Now if only she would gift me one in return...
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| I would never use one of these because I know how clammy and cold
| it is going to be when the heat runs out.
| thrwy_ywrht wrote:
| Many/most hot water bottles have a knitted fabric cover. When
| the heat runs out (which takes many hours), you are not in
| direct contact with the rubber/plastic body of the water
| bottle, so there is no sensation of cold or clamminess.
| DocTomoe wrote:
| Hm, the ones I am using usually are still warmer than body
| warmth on the next morning... YMMV
| Flashtoo wrote:
| An alternative would be something like a bag of rice or cherry
| stones. You can microwave them and they won't feel cold when
| they lose their heat.
|
| (See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30025026)
| kaybe wrote:
| The coldest they become is body temperature under the blanket.
| It would only have a chance to become colder than its
| surroundings if the water had a way to evaporate, which it
| doesn't.
| thrwy_ywrht wrote:
| Hot water bottles are very popular in the UK for three main
| reasons that don't really translate to the US:
|
| * Every household has an electric kettle
|
| * Kettles boil very quickly (due to power differences)
|
| * Most households have radiator-style heating, which takes much,
| much longer to heat up a room than US-style forced-air heating
| frankus wrote:
| I'm semi-seriously considering installing a few 240V outlets in
| my kitchen when I redo it and smuggling in a European kettle
| (any recommendations on a nice temperature-controlled one? I
| use and like this 120V now: https://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-
| BV382510V-Variable-Temperatu...)
|
| The US secretly has 240V power almost everywhere, but we use
| center-tapped transformers upstream of the service connection
| that provide two 120V legs (180 degrees out of phase). So
| lighting and appliances all get 120V (typically 15A), with the
| exception of high-power items like cooktops, ovens, and these
| machines we have for drying our laundry indoors.
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| My partner and I use hot water bottles extensively (we both
| grew up in immigrant households that used them). We have a
| hot water boiler that we schedule to run in the early hours
| of the morning before any of us are up to use cheaper energy
| and have the water ready for us. We use the boiler for hot
| water bottles, for brewing tea, for brewing coffee (well I'm
| picky with coffee so I reheat the water to exact temp on an
| old-fashioned stove kettle), for boiling noodles or pasta,
| for cleaning caked on grime, etc etc.
|
| I'd suggest that over redoing your outlet, though you will
| have to periodically descale your water boiler, because of
| sheer utility and portability (you can move and you'll still
| be able to just plug it into a standard 1-phase 120V outlet.)
| maccard wrote:
| What you want is an instant water tap like a quooker.
| 99_00 wrote:
| I live somewhere cold and damp. I need this. Thermal clothes
| and turning up the heat doesn't help.
|
| Recently we had a bought of dry cold weather. In -10 C and dry
| I was wearing less insulation and feeling warmer than +5 C with
| high humidity. Real eye opener to understanding the impact of
| humidity and how I can adapt to my winter climate better.
| mberning wrote:
| It's baffling that people have such a persistent and romantic
| fascination with regressive technology. Why enjoy whole home
| climate control when you can dress up like Nanook of the North
| while indoors and sit on hot water bottles? Why is the discussion
| not focused on how to make modern technology better, more
| efficient, more accessible?
|
| Next week we will have a story about how suffering through summer
| heat with a wet towel and sleeping all day are "making a
| comeback".
| oh_sigh wrote:
| > Why enjoy whole home climate control
|
| Because it is more expensive and more energy intensive than a
| direct application of heat to the occupant's skin?
|
| Some people care about their resource usage, or how much money
| they spend on climate control. You also have situations where
| multiple people live in the same climate control zone, and have
| different preferences for temperature. If I like it at 67 and
| my wife likes it at 74, and we're both uncomfortable at 70, how
| can whole home climate control solve this issue?
| bhandziuk wrote:
| baffles, fans, AC and heat running at the same time,
| bluetooth location tracking, robots following you around with
| the right climate controlled temperature application,
| monitoring your brow and toes with IR cameras to check that
| you are perfectly comfortable. Duh, modern technology ftw!
| Alekhine wrote:
| You _can 't_ always make modern tech as energy efficient as
| 'regressive' technology. There isn't always a magical solution
| that addresses all problems. In my opinion, low-tech solutions
| are often just simpler, while maybe lacking a bit of
| convenience.
|
| Here's an example, the open source community has spent
| thousands of man hours developing various note-taking apps. And
| they're pretty good, usually. I could use something like Foam
| to manage my notes, learn to use the keyboard shortcuts, figure
| out how to sync it between my devices, learn every other little
| thing about it...
|
| Or I could just use pen and paper. Which requires no
| electricity, no computer, is durable and does not have a
| learning curve to use.
| analyte123 wrote:
| Whole home climate control costs money. Why run up your gas or
| electric bill to heat your entire 2000 sqft house to 78
| degrees, when the only thing that needs that much heat is your
| own body?
| ssully wrote:
| Some people have poor circulation. Even with whole home climate
| control their extremities (hands or feet) will be ice cold for
| awhile. Sure, there are more modern ways to warm your hands and
| feet, but a hot water bottle is cheap and easy.
| masklinn wrote:
| Also heating up one's entire dwelling to comfortable-enough
| temperatures could be much more expensive than dressing up a
| bit and using that sort of accessories.
| wolverine876 wrote:
| Why write a few lines of code when you can use an entire
| framework? Why walk two blocks or ride a bike when you can
| drive?
|
| > regressive
|
| That depends on your definition of regressive. If you designate
| it as regressive, you create a circular argument: it must be
| worse, somehow.
|
| IMHO, there's nothing inherently better about tech that is
| newer - why do I care if it's newer? - and many see complexity
| as the enemy of good engineering. Technology is tools and the
| only question is, how well do they deliver on the needs and
| specifications (which include efficiency and cost)?
|
| > Why enjoy whole home climate control ...
|
| Whole home climate control has more whole world climate impact,
| so it doesn't deliver well on many people's specifications.
| unbalancedevh wrote:
| That was my first thought as well, but the article is pretty
| thorough about the relative benefits of using a hot water
| bottle, also asserting that the intent isn't to replace central
| heating.
|
| It's an option with some cultural history behind it, and might
| be just the right solution for some use cases.
| tupac_speedrap wrote:
| They are good but make sure that the bottle is sealed properly
| and you don't have the bottle over your body while you sleep
| because people getting burned by these things is surprisingly
| common.
| Cerium wrote:
| In China there are hot water bags with integrated heating
| elements and thermostatic cutoff. I'm sure they are a single
| failure away from a steam explosion, but very convenient. I used
| some while visiting family in the winter.
| ColinWright wrote:
| Also discussed here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30024127
|
| We now use "Wheat Bags" ... cloth bags, usually cylindrical,
| filled with wheat. Heat in a microwave and use where one would
| use a hot-water bottle, but without the danger of a leak.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| They can certainly still leak, but the consequences are
| different. Instead of getting wet and risking water damage you
| have to sweep and vacuum wheat (or in my case rice) out of
| everything. Still, much less harmful to electronics and wood
| floors.
| hammock wrote:
| How about a big slug of cast iron? :)
| voltagedivider wrote:
| It wouldn't play nice with water and microwave ovens. I
| guess you could heat it on the stove or in a regular oven
| instead.
| hammock wrote:
| Yes that's the idea
| masklinn wrote:
| There used to be such device you'd heat up in boiling
| water.
| NikolaeVarius wrote:
| Why wheat? The point of using water is that it can store alot
| of heat.
| ip26 wrote:
| I think they are usually husks of some type. Cheap, smell
| nice, conform to body, doesn't transfer heat fast enough to
| hurt you, and for some reason heats up in microwaves.
| QuercusMax wrote:
| Not husks - those don't have enough heat capacity. I've
| used ones made of corn and rice too. It's heating up the
| actual grain seeds, which I guess have a fair amount of
| water locked in the starch matrix. It always is a little
| steamy coming out of the microwave.
| GordonS wrote:
| You can get ones with some lavender inside too - my kids
| love them!
| PeterisP wrote:
| If it's not dry husks but full grain, they're mostly water by
| weight anyway, so you get almost the same heat storage but
| different other properties (no leaks, slower dispersal of
| heat).
| jonnycomputer wrote:
| Rice works. Can just put in a sock and heat in microwave.
| tempest_ wrote:
| We made these as gifts for our parents when I was in
| elementary school.
|
| You can pop a clove or two in as well to mask the rice
| scent.
| jonnycomputer wrote:
| nice idea!
| brummm wrote:
| They are very traditional and common in Germany. I remember
| making them in primary school and selling at something like a
| "bake sale".
| mikro2nd wrote:
| And they're not ice-cold sometime around 3 in the morning! They
| stay at around body heat, so still give the feeling of being
| warm.
| teachrdan wrote:
| If you want to really spoil yourself or your partner, place
| the hot water bottle in bed about an hour early -- and then,
| just before going to sleep, refill it with fresh hot water.
|
| I find that between the bottle itself and the surrounding
| sheets and mattress, a lot of heat is absorbed in that first
| hour. Pre-heating everything should keep the hot water bottle
| warm until morning. I find this to be an unreasonably
| effective life hack.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Yep, this is a huge benefit over water bottles. I tested out
| both and it's nice to have water as a backup but the residual
| heat effect has a longer tail-off.
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| I wasn't aware that this was a thing that happened. I use a
| hot water bottle now -- the typical flexible rubber one,
| encased in a little wooly jumper. I typically go to bed
| around 01:30 with the hot water bottle under the covers near
| my feet, and it's still warm around noon. I'm getting at
| _least_ 12 hours of warmth from mine each night.
| SamBam wrote:
| Huh? Water has a significantly-higher specific heat capacity
| than these dry powders, so will definitely stay warm many,
| many hours longer. I can say this with experience: the hot
| water bottle I put in my bed at midnight last night was still
| warm at 7:30am, while the buckwheat cushions I got my kids
| stay warm 15 minutes tops, no matter how hot I make them in
| the microwave.
|
| Even with the very best dry microwavable pillows, there will
| be at least a 20x difference in heat capacity.
|
| And your premise doesn't make sense. A hot water bottle under
| the blankets will _also_ be at body temperature after (many)
| hours. There 's no reason for it to get colder than the wheat
| pillows. And the fabric covering feels just as warm.
| masklinn wrote:
| IME they're not necessarily wrong, HWBs without fabric
| covering (which used to be relatively frequent a few
| decades back for some reason) would feel really rather cold
| in the morning, the rubber feels clammy. And because they'd
| be way too warm early on, you'd push them to one side and
| get close but not too close. So body heat wouldn't really
| keep them warm once their eat is expended.
|
| With a woolen cover or padded cotton, the heat release is
| much slower and more uniform, so the HWB is more
| comfortable, last a lot longer, and because you only touch
| (relatively insulating / insulated) fabric it never feels
| really cold.
| zokier wrote:
| I think the effect is more related to that water conducts
| heat well, while cereal pillow will function as insulator.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| I've done this with rice. :)
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| wait what? you mean dry bags.... ooooo
| ColinWright wrote:
| Yes ... more discussion here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30025026
| germinalphrase wrote:
| We use rice, but same idea.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| I use these too, though ours are made with corn for some
| reason. I guess the friends who gifted them were hanging with
| the corn crowd on craft-Pinterest or something. They smell like
| sweet Corn Nuts when heated, which is a pretty pleasant effect.
|
| We do have a cylindrical one but the two biggest are shaped
| like mini pillows, more rectangular patterned.
|
| Combine them with a lap blanket, hot tea, brand new thick
| winter socks, insulated slippers, a hoodie, 50 push-ups before
| work and a 400W zone heater, and you will be able to survive my
| office in the winter :D
| rambambram wrote:
| Exactly this haha. Even a relatively mild workout keeps my
| body warm for hours. For cycling in the winter (which feels
| especially cold after a warm bed) I used to take cold showers
| before going outside. I can really recommend this, as the
| outside temperature feels way more pleasant this way. Instead
| of shivering the whole trip, I actually enjoyed going
| outside. Besides, it mentally wakes you up like nothing else.
|
| Edit: and indeed, don't forget the winter socks! I prefer
| them in wool. Also a baggy fleece sweater/vest made of polar
| fleece (which I can't find anywhere anymore) with the
| thickest and highest collar possible.
| fredley wrote:
| I find they don't keep their heat nearly as long as hot water
| bottles.
| boringg wrote:
| Also known as "magic bags" if you want to buy a premade one to
| put around your neck!
| phreeza wrote:
| One of those (or similar, I think cherry seeds) caught fire in
| my microwave once.
| monkeybutton wrote:
| Never had one catch fired but definitely overdone it before
| and had it forever smell vaguely like burnt popcorn.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| I tried to heat two rice bags at the same time once and they
| melted together. I didn't think about the fact that they had
| used synthetic fabric! I'm so used to doubling the cooking
| time because our microwave is only 600 watts (compared to the
| usual 1000-1200 watts).
| ColinWright wrote:
| Indeed. It needs to be heated for 30 seconds, then "stirred",
| heating again, _etc.,_ and the temperature needs to be
| limited. We had one catch fire, but we patched it and it 's
| good to go again.
|
| I still prefer them over hot water containers. We have some
| that are floppy and flexible, ideal for wrapping around the
| back of the neck and over the shoulders.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| I have one of these that has cherry stones in it. I much
| prefer the hot water bottle for two reasons. Firstly, I
| fully understand the failure mode of the hot water bottle
| and have rarely seen one fail; on the other hand the "cloth
| thing that catches fire inside the microwave" is not a
| failure mode I really want.
|
| But most importantly, hot water bottles are really hot and
| much better at keeping me warm.
| ColinWright wrote:
| We've had more than one hot water bottle fail and it's
| resulted in one case in a soaked bed, which was
| unpleasant and difficult to deal with. I _much_ prefer
| the failure mode of "catches fire in the microwave". The
| fire is small (and mostly just a smouldering edge of
| fabric), easily contained, easily put out, and the
| failure is easily avoided.
|
| We've used both and settled on the wheat bag, but I
| recognise that other people will make other choices, and
| that's fine.
| joncp wrote:
| You can just fill a sock with dry rice and tie it off. It's
| cheap and easy and the hot rice smells good too.
| hilbert42 wrote:
| _"...use where one would use a hot-water bottle, but without
| the danger of a leak. "_
|
| Very interesting. Did you find any noticeable difference
| between the longevity of its heating as compared with water?
| The reason I ask is that the specific heat of water is higher
| than that of wheat so water should retain the heat longer.
|
| BTW, I'm familiar with hot water bottles, they were all the
| rage when I was a kid before electric blankets became
| commonplace.
|
| _P.S.: I can 't say I ever had one leak but I reckon I'd have
| come close. After some use, they'd start to perish around the
| filling point/screw stopper. The idea was to always keep an eye
| on it and once one noticed the first signs of perishing then
| not to gamble too long before replacing it._
| ColinWright wrote:
| My impression is that they don't last as long, but definitely
| for long enough. People think that if you need to heat them
| more often then it's less efficient, but if the heat doesn't
| last as long then almost certainly they take less energy to
| heat up in the first place.
|
| It's all about transferring energy/heat from one place to
| another.
| Cass wrote:
| I've used a bunch of different pillows (cherry stone, wheat,
| etc) and found that, while the initial heat is great and
| feels better than a hot water bottle, they only stay properly
| hot for about five to seven minutes. Once when I had a bad
| back pain day, I put the microwave next to the bed so I could
| keep a constant reheating cycle going.
| SamBam wrote:
| I agree. The buckwheat-filled pillows I got my kid stay
| warm about 10-15 minutes tops, no matter how hot I get them
| in the microwave.
| groby_b wrote:
| Bonus points, they're shaped like cute animals and super-fuzzy.
| Harder to do with a water bottle. (There are covers, but who
| wants a soppy teddy bear?)
| AndrewOMartin wrote:
| Negative points. I come home and think my flatmate has put a
| puppy in the microwave.
| Sparkle-san wrote:
| I recently discovered Warmies[1] which is essentially this but
| inside a stuffed animal and scented with lavender and I'm not
| ashamed to admit that I'm low-key obsessed with them.
|
| [1]https://warmies.com/
| [deleted]
| goda90 wrote:
| My wife and I enjoy a rice filled sock. It has the added benefit
| of being able to wrap around our shoulder/neck when needed. Might
| be a bit harder to heat in a low-tech way than water though.
| newsbinator wrote:
| > The first "hot water bottles" - quite literally - were other
| people and animals. Since time immemorial, people have warmed
| themselves by huddling together.
|
| Ha I never thought of it this way.
| mc32 wrote:
| 3-dog night. An expression inherited from shepherds and their
| sheepdogs.
| jstx1 wrote:
| In case it's not clear - it means a night so cold that you
| need 3 dogs in bed with you.
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Dog_Night#Name_origin
| frankus wrote:
| Water is a pretty amazing heat carrier. I did a bit of poking
| around for a project idea and couldn't really find anything with
| a higher heat capacity, at least for things that don't undergo a
| phase change.
|
| I wonder if there's a semi-low-tech way of taking advantage of a
| phase change for extra capacity in something like a hot water
| bottle.
| masklinn wrote:
| > Water is a pretty amazing heat carrier. I did a bit of poking
| around for a project idea and couldn't really find anything
| with a higher heat capacity, at least for things that don't
| undergo a phase change.
|
| Pretty much the only thing better would be ammonia, and it's
| not necessarily as good for water bottles: it has a higher mass
| heat capacity, but a lower volume heat capacity.
|
| And of course you're dealing with a large volume of ammonia,
| which is not exactly innocuous.
|
| > I wonder if there's a semi-low-tech way of taking advantage
| of a phase change for extra capacity in something like a hot
| water bottle.
|
| There are reusable handwarmers which do that, you heat them to
| liquid, then phase-change them to solid. The advantage is
| mostly that you can _trigger_ the release though, their heat
| capacity is not amazing.
| smeyer wrote:
| People take advantage of phase changes as a way to store
| thermal capacity frequently. Here[0] is one designed to keep
| your coffee hot by using a material with a phase change
| temperature similar to a temperature folks like to drink
| coffee.
|
| [0] https://www.joulies.com/
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| Tangentially related are "Boveda" packets which are the
| opposite of silica packets for keeping food dry, they keep
| your box perfectly humidified. For optimal cigar storage or
| consumption - the humidity is a huge factor. Boveda packs are
| sold by target humidity and are pretty awesome
|
| (protip: you can reuse them by soaking them in distilled
| water for a while after they dry up0
| falcolas wrote:
| People were recommending wax elsewhere, since its phase change
| is above 20degC.
| cheschire wrote:
| We bought some after some of the recent winter related power
| outages. Being able to capture gas-sourced heat (cooking water on
| the stove) and then being able to transfer it somewhere else in
| the house directly where we need it (under a blanket) is a killer
| app.
| madeofpalk wrote:
| fyi, you can see the article also at
| https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/01/the-revenge-of-the-h...
| which lacks the distracting background
| fbanon wrote:
| The high-tech equivalent is an Intel MacBook Pro in your lap,
| running a clean build.
| I_complete_me wrote:
| Our main heat source as students was a HP 33S Scientific
| Calculator; on really cold nights we input sqrt(-1).
| meepmorp wrote:
| Back in the day, I had a dual proc Athlon XP workstation that
| also functioned as the main heating system for my apartment.
| masklinn wrote:
| With a P4 it'd have been a sauna instead.
|
| In reality you'd need pretty low heating needs for that to
| work, the bigger rigs would have a hard time reaching 1kW,
| which is not even a portable heater.
| gumby wrote:
| For winter camping I use a Nalgene bottle full of boiling water,
| which I toss into my sleeping bag to pre warm it.
|
| Before sleeping I pull it out and give it to the dog who knows to
| curl around it.
| anon776 wrote:
| I've read about a few cases where the nalgene pops/breaks and
| leaves you with a wet sleeping bag. Which is one of my greatest
| camping fears.
| gumby wrote:
| It's a legitimate fear as a wet sleeping bag could kill you
| in the snow, but I've ever seen an actual Nalgene bottle fail
| even when we tried driving a forklift and a bobcat over one.
| I did crack one with liquid nitrogen but I don't camp at
| those temperatures :-).
|
| I've been given bottles made from other plastics but I've
| always been dubious about them.
|
| I have cracked the lids, but that takes a lot of work and an
| aged lid. The lids are made of a different, softer material
| which is more compliant to make a good seal. I do replace the
| lids every few years.
|
| Speaking of getting your gear soaked (not): a good habit in
| the snow is to put a nalgene of water upside down into the
| leg of each boot overnight to keep them from freezing. I
| guess you'd be concerned about that too.
| mleonhard wrote:
| This happens when the air in the bottle warms up and
| increases pressure which tries to expand the bottle. To
| prevent this, fill the bottle with hot water, close it, shake
| it for a moment to let the air mix with the hot water and
| warm up, then open it just enough to equalize the air
| pressure, and close it tightly. As the bottle cools, its
| internal pressure goes down. External air pressure will try
| to crush the bottle. External pressure is less likely to
| damage the bottle than internal pressure.
| draw_down wrote:
| danw1979 wrote:
| Even more efficient, but not portable, are electric heat mats.
| I've had one under my desk this winter and between that and a
| couple of jumpers, I've not felt the need to have the heating on
| in my northern UK based home office.
| skyfaller wrote:
| Low-tech Mag wrote a little about heated clothes:
| https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/11/heat-your-clothes-...
|
| That article is a little silly because it's talking about
| heated clothes only making sense indoors (from an energy saving
| perspective), since it can allow you to use less energy heating
| your home. If you are sitting around in your house, electric
| heating pads or blankets probably make more sense than plugging
| your clothing into the wall, especially since plug-in clothes
| don't really exist, but heating pads / blankets do.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| An electric mattress pad is a definite modern luxury up here in
| Minnesota. Snap it on an hour or two before bed. Toasty warm
| sheets and blankets.
| zemvpferreira wrote:
| An electric blanket in every bed has been my only winter must-
| have since I turned 30. I never turn on heat and I walk around
| in shirt sleeves all winter, but getting into a cold bed is
| torture (especially since I sleep naked with only one blanket).
|
| It's the most comfortable thing I've ever experienced and I've
| converted 10s of people to my religion. Electric blankets in
| every bed!
| DenisM wrote:
| Are you not worried about electric shock? Blankets get worn
| out over time, and then there is possible liquid damage...
|
| I'd love me a <36v blanket but 110v or even 220v gives me the
| willies.
| dsr_ wrote:
| Your profile says that you live in Lisbon.
|
| Lisbon's average January low: 47F = 8.3C
|
| Boston's average January low: 23F = -5C
| mcguire wrote:
| From the article:
|
| " _Because I don't have the time nor the budget to send hot
| water bottles to everyone, I have written this article.
| It's largely based on my personal experience - I have been
| using hot water bottles for many years and they are the
| only heat source in my apartment._ "
|
| But then, " _Low-tech Magazine is written by Kris De Decker
| (Barcelona, Spain)._ "
|
| Barcelona's average low in February is 47F, too.
|
| It's currently 32F (0C) here in lovely northern Alabama.
| soperj wrote:
| Edmonton average January low: -15C
|
| And there are people that go around in shorts in the winter
| there too. What's the point of this?
| zemvpferreira wrote:
| I'm not sure either. To clarify I was merely trying to
| illustrate that I am not a cold person and I still love
| love love my electric bed warmers. There's something
| magical about going from a cold room into a really warm
| bed and I'll never sleep another winter without one if I
| can help it.
| dsr_ wrote:
| The point is that in Lisbon, perhaps it's reasonable to
| shut off your heating and use hot water bottles. That's a
| route to suicide in Boston or Edmonton.
| soperj wrote:
| If you didn't freeze to death, your pipes would
| definitely freeze without any heat whatsoever.
| GordonS wrote:
| My home office here in NE Scotland is a converted garage, which
| despite being converted "properly" and having a radiator, is
| always cold (as low as 14C). The heat mat sounds interesting,
| but I when I googled only underfloor heating stuff came up -
| any chance you could point me towards a link please?
| ianmcgowan wrote:
| At least in the US, a google/amazon search for
| electric+foot+warmer comes up with some good options. My feet
| are in one right now!
|
| https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+foot+warmer
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Perhaps something like this under your feet:
|
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterproof-Electric-Temperature-
| Adj...
| post_break wrote:
| Maybe he's talking about an electric blanket. Or you can use
| an electric heat pad for sore muscles. Just turn it on and
| put your feet on it.
| parenthesis wrote:
| As a child, we had an electric kettle on the upstairs landing
| specifically for hot water bottles. Not being next to a sink,
| we'd simply empty the water from the cold hot water bottle back
| into the kettle.
| elric wrote:
| I use my laptop's power brick as a foot warmer. Works remarkably
| well in winter, and it's a great use for what is otherwise waste
| heat.
| Pompidou wrote:
| Hot water bottle. In french we have a specific name for this tool
| : "bouillotte", from verb "bouillir" (boiling) and sufix "otte"
| (diminutive). Everybody in my familly use it. My ex wife was
| litteraly addicted to it.
| djhworld wrote:
| Really appreciate my hot water bottle in the winter, pop it in
| the bed 5-10 minutes before climbing in and it's wonderful.
|
| Oddly I also like a really cold bedroom, I have the window open a
| bit mostly all year round.
| throwaway946513 wrote:
| While the submitted link is wholly appropriate and I take no
| issues with it - I much prefer and enjoy reading Low Tech
| Magazine from their solar subdomain.
| https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/01/the-revenge-of-the...
| leecarraher wrote:
| was kind of hoping for a more analytical take, comparing their
| efficiency to the newish slate of battery powered personal
| heaters, or older iron-oxide single use heaters. My guess is the
| newer electronic devices allow for more consistent heat, but at a
| much higher entry cost, and less flexible charging. I wonder if
| an mechanically adjustable thermal barrier could be employed in a
| hot water device, that could provide a more consistent heating
| experience.
| rdtwo wrote:
| Anyone use an inconspicuous one to keep warm in the office while
| working? What does it look like?
| fredley wrote:
| If I'm cold at work I just zip one up inside my hoodie.
| kipchak wrote:
| Hot water bottles or heat bags are nice for keeping limbs warm
| also, especially if you don't have great circulation. heavyweight
| base Layers and hot tea do a great job keeping your core
| temperature up, but you have to get creative keeping uncovered
| fingers warm while typing.
| shimonabi wrote:
| I just remembered I inherited a "termofor" from my grandmother.
|
| It's filled now with hot water after 7 years.
| infologics wrote:
| danka wrote:
| Mobile-friendly URL - https://outline.com/XFtrM5
| stakkur wrote:
| Last year, when we were without electricity for a week, we used
| hot water bottles to heat the beds and generally for warmth and
| comfort. They're cheap, stay warm for _hours_ , and have many
| uses. I recommend getting several for your home 'emergency' kit.
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| i use it daily. heck, for a family of 3 we have 5 in circulation
| for today. i find hat a tad bit excessive but coughing in the
| home has caught up so its fine. we usually buy every year for
| winter for like inr ~160-300 or $ 3-4. lasts the winter season
| and shitty products leak in the bed, either causing you a burnt
| leg in the morning or a dripping bed. all in all, a good thing.
| pierrebai wrote:
| I personally use a bean bag. I put it 2 minutes in the microwave.
| Seems simpler than heating water.
| bradly wrote:
| dang: can you close/merge this with
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30024127 ? They are both on
| the home page currently
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| I remember a story from college in early 2000's. The university
| was trying to cut energy use by 20% by 2020. The professor asked
| how much power would be saved if we turned off every light,
| computer and unplugged all other electronics: 12%.
|
| This was an eye opening moment. LED's are great but if you really
| want to make a dent in energy usage of buildings it's heating and
| ventilation. Why can't we live in a world where everyone wears
| heated clothes and we just leave the windows open (even in
| winter)?
|
| Seems like heating a person is much more efficient than heating
| an entire house, in which we never occupy more than 1% of the
| available floor space at any one time...
| qwertox wrote:
| > ventilation. Why can't we live in a world where everyone
| wears heated clothes and we just leave the windows open (even
| in winter)?
|
| Sounds pretty radical, but if you think about it, it sounds
| interesting. Specially now with the pandemic. In the first
| months our schools in Germany were forced to leave their
| windows open, even in the winter. I don't know how long they
| did this, but it must have been hard for them.
|
| If everybody had such heated clothing, this sounds like an
| interesting idea, including in the context you're putting it
| in.
|
| Then again, buildings need to be kept warm so that the humidity
| doesn't cause mold.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| Because the tradeoff of energy usage is worth the improvement
| to quality of life.
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| Anecdotally, I hear at least a few friends each year
| complaining about the cost of heat during winter.
| mcguire wrote:
| Complaining, but not doing anything about it?
| inglor_cz wrote:
| I knew a family that struggled to pay their bills and in
| attempt to get even they reduced their inner home temperature
| to 13 degrees Celsius (about 55 F).
|
| They were constantly miserable, because their hands, nose etc.
| were cold. You cannot really perform most of your home
| activities with gloves on.
|
| Plus, the lady suffered from incessant UTIs.
| qwertox wrote:
| This winter I waited a lot with starting to heat, so I kept
| the place at around 16degC. Then when the first sub-zero days
| came I put it on, but I lowered the temperature of the
| thermostats by 1 degree compared to last year. It's
| absolutely ok. Maybe it's good to do such a test for a while
| to see how you can adapt to it.
| masklinn wrote:
| I've got friends who live at 15C or so in winter.
|
| You need good clothing, but also a certain constitution which
| does not eagerly pull blood from your extremities. A beard
| probably helps as well.
| whtrbt wrote:
| We use a kotatsu [0] for this - a table with a heating element
| underneath and a thick quilted 'tablecloth'. I'm in Melbourne,
| so the lowest it gets is a few degrees above 0C, but we _never_
| use air con/heating. Summer we close the blinds in the day,
| open blinds and windows up at night.
|
| It's not fair to expect that approach to work for everyone
| everywhere, but there are plenty that could do this instead of
| wasting so much energy on creating a homogenous environment
| year round.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu
| baud147258 wrote:
| > that could do this instead of wasting so much energy on
| creating a homogenous environment year round.
|
| The worse is when the office aircons are set so low that you
| catch a cold in the middle of the summer heatwave...
| ryanianian wrote:
| Cold temperatures do not make infectious diseases like
| colds more transmissible.
| almog wrote:
| I've been thinking about converting my work desk to a Kotatsu
| in the winter based on an Arduino project I've found sometime
| ago. At the moment though I'm using an infrared incandescent
| bulb mounted just above my keyboard + a floor heating sheet
| mounted to a piece of plywood for my feet.
|
| btw, the Arduino project is this one:
| https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/simp-team/how-to-
| make-a...
| ryanianian wrote:
| I keep my wfh office around 70f but my desk is right by a
| huge window, so my hands get very cold when it's freezing
| outside, making typing and desk-work annoying.
|
| I got a little heated desk/writing pad online, and it is
| amazing.
|
| With it turned to high it becomes almost too warm to touch.
| The mouse and keyboard heat comfortably. After a couple
| hours I can reduce the room temp a few degrees and still
| feel rather comfortable.
| decafninja wrote:
| My wife and I live in the same condo I used to live in as a
| bachelor. My frugal single self saw the electric bill for
| heating and AC around $50/month. I would only use the heating
| or AC for an hour or two when I got back from work, which would
| be enough to heat or cool the apartment until morning.
|
| After we got married and my wife moved in, we use the heat a
| lot, lot more since she can't stand the cold (she's fine
| without the AC - even more so than me). The electric bill
| during the peak winter months easily balloons to $300-400 now.
| Tronno wrote:
| $300-400 could be the electric bill for a large house (in
| winter). If this is what you're spending to heat a small
| apartment, something may be wrong with your building.
| 99_00 wrote:
| >Seems like heating a person is much more efficient than
| heating an entire house
|
| Frozen pipes, and possibly other issues I'm not thinking of.
|
| No need to go to extremes. Turn down the heat during the day
| and wear a sweater. People have to spend time outside anyway so
| they should already dress warm.
|
| At night turn off the heat or down significantly more. Have
| warm comforter. Set the timer to turn the heat on before you
| wake up.
| falcolas wrote:
| > just leave the windows open (even in winter)?
|
| Because even with heated clothes, you can get frostbite on
| exposed skin. Not to mention frozen water pipes, the effective
| inability to remove clothes to clean yourself, and technology
| stops working when it gets too cold.
|
| Even igloos are at or above freezing on the inside.
| fulafel wrote:
| You don't get frostbite sleeping in tent in the winter with
| suitable bedding or sleeping bag, so it shouldn't be a
| problem in a building. Changing clothes and cleaning in
| winter camping works out as well.
| GavinMcG wrote:
| The response was about leaving the windows open. Do you
| leave the door of your tent open when you winter camp?
| giantg2 wrote:
| Hot snapz makes hand warmers and larger sizes that are
| rechargeable by boiling in water. Interesting stuff.
| Accacin wrote:
| Didn't realise they weren't so popular, I know a lot of people
| who use them here. Lovely in bed!
| [deleted]
| vardagsnytt wrote:
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Hah, so nice. It was just earlier today we discussed our newfound
| love for this little device in my family.
| lowbloodsugar wrote:
| in Scotland, it's not a "foot warmer". it's a piggy.
| zwieback wrote:
| We have four of them at our house and one at our weekend place.
| And this is in Western Oregon where it doesn't really get cold.
| kbos87 wrote:
| It's a pretty common winter camping trick to fill a water bottle
| with boiling water, put a sock over it, and put in your sleeping
| bag while you sleep. Works extremely well!
| Lio wrote:
| I just replied the same thing. It's an excellent hack.
|
| Was going to add a warning not to drink the water from plastic
| bottles though due to plasticisers.
|
| Unlined Ti metal bottles should be fine though.
| mprovost wrote:
| Modern Nalgenes are BPA free and don't contain plasticisers.
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| I'd say that argues for using the ol' Nalgene etc. only as a
| foot-warmer, and drinking out of the metal bottle?
| Lio wrote:
| Ideally yes but it's really hard to find fully metal
| driking bottles.
|
| If you buy something like a Sigg aluminium bottle or no-
| name copy it will be lined with some kind of plastic.
|
| If you use a light weight drinking bladder that will be
| plastic too. I've read that risk is much higher if you
| apply heat to a plastic container. This is why you should
| avoid microwaving in plastic containers.
|
| So that leaves you either only using a cold liquids in
| plastic and accepting some risk or buying expensive (and
| relatively heavy) titanium drinking bottles.
| rkk3 wrote:
| > Ideally yes but it's really hard to find fully metal
| driking bottles.
|
| Klean Kanteen?
| mprovost wrote:
| Using an insulated bottle kind of defeats the purpose
| which is to transfer heat from the water to yourself.
| You'll wake up in the morning with a bottle full of hot
| water but you'll still be cold.
| Lio wrote:
| Just looked them up. Looks really nice.
|
| Maybe a bit heavy for me when hiking but really nice for
| day to day stuff.
|
| I like the Vargo stuff. Also the new Keego flexible
| bottles look really interesting.
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Spent the summer with the Nevada Conservation Corp doing trail
| and restoration work a week at a time.
|
| Hot Nalgenes are indeed still all the rage for keeping warm in
| your sleeping bag at night.
| anarazel wrote:
| Just don't forget to budget for the increased fuel consumption
| for heating that water :). No experience around that,
| personally, ahem.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Maybe it's because I am British but hot water bottles have been
| something I've owned and used forever. They just exist as a thing
| you use. To warm the bed, or your feet, or your back. Given that
| the British also have electric kettles for warming water they are
| simple to use.
|
| I did try to buy one here in Portugal and I was sent to the
| pharmacy where they had a tiny little one that you might use for
| pain relief.
| kranner wrote:
| They're common in India as well. My dad uses one every day in
| the (North Indian) winters.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| In my British household we call the cylinder foot warmer ones
| 'mother cats'.
| masklinn wrote:
| What is the "proper" name for these? Last time I looked for
| foot warmers all I got was electric bootstie things, or
| hotplates for foot. So I got a small radiant heater instead.
|
| Though I guess a microwavable grain bag on a normal footrest
| would also work.
| Someone wrote:
| Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_stove) says
| its restricted to wooden ones with hot charcoal, but I
| would call them "Foot Stove" regardless of construction
| material or heat source.
| thom wrote:
| Never seen one of these, but my dad used to have charcoal
| hand warmers similar to this:
|
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pocket-Hand-warmer-charcoal-
| includi...
|
| We used to take them to football matches but eventually
| they became the sort of thing they'd confiscate cos fire
| and idiots don't mix.
| mattl wrote:
| Yeah, British expat now American here... I buy people kettles
| and hot water bottles if I'm going to be at their home for any
| extended amount of time. Also a toaster.
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| As I understand it, electric kettles never became as popular
| in the United States (though of course they do exist) because
| the electrical standards here mean that it's infeasible to
| make one that works really well -- a British electric kettle
| might be rated at 3,000 W (about 13 A at 230 V), but a
| standard U.S. convenience outlet can only provide about 1,800
| W (15 A, 120 V). Even the higher-rated 20 amp outlets are
| only going to get you 2,400 watts. To get 3,000 watts, you'd
| either need a special circuit (like the ones for RV hookups),
| or plug it into a dryer or electric range outlet.
| lewsid wrote:
| I live in the US and have an electric kettle. I was made
| aware of their existence in my travels abroad. It was a
| game-changer. Even with our electrical standards my kettle
| can get to boiling in a mere minute or two.
| ssully wrote:
| I just assumed they never took off here because tea isn't
| as popular in America. The only people I know who own
| kettles in America are people who regularly drink tea,
| including myself.
| txg wrote:
| I drink both, but now use my kettle almost exclusively
| for the awful indulgence of pre-mug warming before
| dropping in the espresso from my stove-top pot.
| [deleted]
| wtetzner wrote:
| I also use mine to make coffee (via a French press).
| time_to_smile wrote:
| Or pourover coffee which, at least anecdotally, I've seen
| become much more popular over the years.
| vel0city wrote:
| I dunno, tons of people I know in the US have electric
| kettles. Its not like its incredibly painful to use them,
| and they'll still usually beat out using the microwave to
| heat water quickly, but only slightly. While it is about
| half as much power than most of Europe, its still only a
| few minutes to go from tap water to boiling. It is not like
| we're talking hours to get it to boil.
|
| From my experience one of the biggest reasons why people
| don't have an electric kettle is because they often don't
| think they have a use for them. Tons of people in the US
| would really only use it for making coffee, of which drip
| coffee makers were incredibly popular for a long time. So
| needing fast hot water is somewhat rare, and usually when
| its needed in regards to cooking you can just measure your
| water in a measuring cup and microwave it for a couple of
| minutes which is just about as fast.
|
| The people I know who actually use electric kettles in the
| US are:
|
| * Those who brew a lot of tea (far less common in US than
| globally)
|
| * Those who often do alternative coffee brewing methods
| (pour over, french press, aeropress, etc)
|
| * Those who make a lot of ramen or other instant noodles
| and have limited kitchen spaces (college students)
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| Our electric kettles work just fine on 110VAC. We're just
| isolated from the rest of the world so external cultural
| changes don't take hold. We still use Imperial measurements
| and serve half-pints of beer. Same reason Japan has an
| "old" World Wide Web; it works fine for them, and their
| culture doesn't change easily.
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| It depends on whether taking more than twice as long to
| heat the water is "just fine" for your use case.
|
| Me, I use the high output burner on the gas range and a
| traditional kettle.
|
| Note that other European and Asian kitchen gadgets have
| had no trouble making inroads in the United States. While
| some people obviously do have electric kettles here,
| they're far, far from being the ubiquitous thing they are
| in British kitchens.
| js2 wrote:
| I bought an electric kettle[1] a decade ago shortly after I
| switched to an Aeropress for coffee. I now drink green tea
| a couple times a day in addition to my morning coffee. I
| think most Americans just don't have much cause to heat
| water for anything except coffee, and they use a coffee
| maker for that.
|
| My kettle is 1500 watts and I just timed it. Heating a bit
| over 1L (~36 oz) of water from 68degF (20degC) to 200degF
| (93degC) took 4:20.
|
| It's one of those things where the first time you use it,
| you can't imagine ever not having one, assuming you have
| cause to heat water on a regular basis.
|
| Still don't own a toaster though. A toaster oven does fine
| with toast and can be used for a lot more besides.
|
| Don't own a rice maker either. That's been an ongoing
| negotiation with my wife for 25 years now. :-)
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-
| CPK-17-PerfecTemp-1-7-Liter...
| vel0city wrote:
| I have a basic rice cooker and I absolutely love it.
| Perfect rice every time without having to think too hard
| about measurements or the time, as the measurements are
| stamped on the bowl (fill rice here, fill water here) and
| it will always switch to warming mode at exactly the
| right time. I wouldn't bother getting a fancy
| computerized model, the old thermostatic ones are pretty
| much perfect.
|
| Technology Connections video on old-style rice cookers:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTNhvDGbYI
|
| We have that exact same kettle, its wonderful.
| greenonions wrote:
| My wife convinced me to buy what I would consider an
| expensive rice cooker, computerized. Now the rice is
| fantastic, I'll admit. However, I'm not really convinced
| that it's worth 6x a basic rice cooker.
| etblg wrote:
| Electric kettles are very common in Canada and we have the
| same power systems as the USA. I've never found that the
| electric kettles here are painfully slow or anything, it's
| just a culture thing on who wants boiling water on demand
| more I guess.
| ska wrote:
| > I've never found that the electric kettles here are
| painfully slow or anything,
|
| You probably would if you were used to UK kettles...
| etblg wrote:
| I guess, but my kettle finishes boiling right as I finish
| hand-grinding my coffee beans, so I can't say it's been a
| big issue in my life.
| hadlock wrote:
| Electric kettles are finally starting to get traction here,
| we use ours for tea and instant coffee, and pre-boiling
| water for making noodles on the stove since it's so much
| more efficient.
| txg wrote:
| On my twelfth year of North-American kettle operation I've
| gotten past the tedium of waiting extra minutes for the
| water to boil.
|
| Visiting my family, however, I now have to flick the switch
| on twice - autopilot usually means the water has cooled
| below the supposed optimal infusion temperature by the time
| I return to the kitchen.
| extrapickles wrote:
| Unless you are in an apartment/condo in the US (which can
| have 208V), you likely have 240V power in your house. I
| have a 240V 15A outlet in my kitchen so I can use a British
| kettle with a swapped plug. It would be nice if it was
| standard to have 240V outlets in US kitchens.
|
| Note: If you are wanting to do this yourself, if you get
| one with any electronics in it (even an led power light),
| you should modify the capacitive dropper power supply for
| the electronics to operate on 60hz. For a well designed
| circuit, forgetting to do so means a resistor/zenier will
| be running hotter, for a very cheap circuit it can let
| magic smoke out.
| bryanlarsen wrote:
| 15A outlets are only rated that for instantaneous current.
| For continuous current, appliances are only allowed to pull
| 80%. So kettles in the US are 1400W, half that of British
| kettles.
|
| Like many modern kitchens, I have 20A outlets. Current code
| says that you either have to have 20A circuits in the
| kitchen or split 15A circuits. What the electrician chooses
| to install depends on whether 14/3 or 12/2 wire is cheaper
| that day.
|
| One of my pet peeves is that I can't buy a 20A 1900W
| kettle. There has to be enough market demand for one? Put a
| big picture of a NEMA 5-20 outlet on the front so that
| fewer people get confused.
| nums wrote:
| 14/2 or 12/2 :-)
| bhandziuk wrote:
| 14/3 was right. They were trying to describe a MWBC.
| Though you can have 20 A MWBCs too (12/3)
| elliottkember wrote:
| I recently bought a Zojirushi water boiler. Instant hot
| water all day. Never going back to a kettle.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| I normally just throw on a blanket or turn up the thermostat,
| but I know you normally don't adjust the thermostat at
| someone else's house.
| Jill_the_Pill wrote:
| I think the idea of the article is, in part, that heating
| people is more efficient/economical than heating space.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| Fair enough. I mean I guess these methods were pretty
| effective for centuries where people somehow didn't
| freeze to death.
| djrogers wrote:
| > Also a toaster
|
| Err, wha? I don't know anyone here without a toaster - or
| 2...
| _jal wrote:
| I've never owned one. I very occasionally toast bread in
| the broiler.
| mattl wrote:
| A lot of people use a toaster oven to make toast, it seems.
| Cupertino95014 wrote:
| Indeed, and you can toast odd-shaped "breads" that won't
| go down a toaster slot.
| function_seven wrote:
| What's the difference between a pop up slice toaster (I
| assume that's what you're talking about) versus a toaster
| oven?
|
| I grew up with the first kind, but now only use the
| second kind to reduce clutter on my countertop. I never
| detected a difference in the two methods, but I'm also
| not very observant!
| mattl wrote:
| It might be a cultural thing but a slice toaster is way
| more of a set and forget operation, which I like... also,
| a toaster gets based used for one thing and a toaster
| oven is used for a lot of other foods, and I have to
| worry about cross contamination.
| function_seven wrote:
| Oh that makes sense. I use mine 80% for toast and the
| remaining use is usually bread-adjacent things.
|
| If I was also using it to heat up chicken tikka masala or
| something, then that would probably not be good.
| jayd16 wrote:
| I can melt cheese over bread or bagel in a toaster oven.
| function_seven wrote:
| Yeah, that's one thing I discovered when I stopped using
| a slice toaster. I can put a cold pat of butter on the
| bread about halfway through the toasting process, and
| avoid the trauma of trying to spread cold butter on the
| toast.
| burkaman wrote:
| Toaster oven should be a lot less efficient and slower
| because it's heating up a larger space, but the result
| should be the same.
| r00fus wrote:
| I do this mostly because I buy loafs of ciabatta or
| baguette, cut and freeze them.
|
| Trying to get those odd/thick shapes after freezing into
| a slice toaster was challenging, and we already had a
| toaster oven so I never replaced my slice toaster when it
| died.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| Highly recommended toaster:
| http://automaticbeyondbelief.org/
| lolinder wrote:
| Seconded on the Sunbeam! We inherited my father-in-law's
| when he moved across the country. He inherited it from
| _his_ parents.
|
| It's been in constant use for at least 60 years (I'm not
| sure when his parents got it), and is now making perfect
| toast for a fourth generation.
| javajosh wrote:
| I prefer toaster ovens because _cookies_. You can make
| cookie dough and make one or two cookies at a time,
| ensuring they are always fresh out of the oven.
| rurp wrote:
| Wow that's a great idea! It's one of the pieces of advice
| that seems obvious once I hear it but I never would have
| thought of it myself.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| People tell Americans rarely put butter on bread in
| sandwiches, so what do you put on your toast?
| jayd16 wrote:
| We put mayonnaise on sandwiches instead but we use butter
| for toast.
| wtetzner wrote:
| Interesting. I always butter my bread. Sometimes I'll
| also put other stuff on it, but always butter first.
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| Toast is usually buttered, but it's not considered to be
| a sandwich in and of itself in the United States.
|
| Now, a sandwich can be made with toasted bread,
| certainly, but in that role it's normally slathered with
| mayonnaise, mustard, or something of that nature rather
| than being buttered.
|
| Exception: grilled cheese sandwiches are often buttered,
| though with those they typically have the butter on the
| outside. On the inside is either nothing or (my
| preference) mayonnaise.
| derefr wrote:
| One of those "chef lifehacks" that stuck with me is that
| you can use mayo in place of butter on the outside of a
| grilled cheese. Easier to spread, browns perfectly, and
| turns out to taste exactly the same. (Which is
| surprising, given that every time I've made a grilled
| cheese with any kind of oil in place of the butter, it's
| turned out disgusting. Emulsifying the oil fixes the
| problem somehow.)
| lief79 wrote:
| Hmmm, I've made a great one with olive oil and sun dried
| tomato bread.
|
| I suspect it depends on the ingredients ... you need a
| bread that goes well with the oil and have to be very
| careful on not oversoaking it.
| ketzo wrote:
| Was just about to comment the same thing. Massive upgrade
| in grilled cheese quality.
|
| If you can get it, Duke's Mayo is just absolutely
| bonkers. I also really like the Trader Joe's organic
| mayo.
|
| Also, since I'm deeply invested in grilled cheeses, more
| recommendations:
|
| I use a ratio of 1 part gruyere, 1 part sharp or extra-
| sharp cheddar. I also really like a little parmesan or
| pecorino, but it tastes less "classic grilled cheese," so
| might not be for everyone.
|
| Cooking method:
|
| - heat pan to medium
|
| - put mayo on one side of two pieces of bread
|
| - put the first piece of bread into the pan, mayo side
| down (it should sizzle lightly)
|
| - heap your cheese on top of this piece, and press it
| down onto the bread a little
|
| - after 2 minutes, take the other piece of bread and put
| it mayo side _up_ onto the top of the cheese. flip the
| sandwich (so that the fresh mayo is now down).
|
| - 2 more minutes and you're good to go. serve with tomato
| soup (naturally) and a little ranch if you're a
| degenerate like me.
| Kluny wrote:
| When I moved in with my partner, she came with a small
| George Foreman grill. She used it occasionally for
| reheating burritos, but together we found out that it
| makes grilled cheese so quickly and easily, that grilled
| cheese went from being an occasional treat to a weekly
| staple. I highly recommend it over the pan option.
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| In my opinion, the Foreman grill is one of the rare
| massively-hyped kitchen gadgets that's actually useful
| enough to be worth the cabinet space in the long term.
| satsuma wrote:
| i should really bust mine out more. i've had one for ages
| and used it a bunch in college then just... stopped.
| _whiteCaps_ wrote:
| Have you tried making garlic bread with mayo? Yum!
| ska wrote:
| if you are going that direction, why not garlic aoli?
| panzagl wrote:
| I'm just here to make sure no one accidentally confuses a
| grilled cheese with a melt.
| js2 wrote:
| Behold, the field guide to the American Sandwich:
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/14/dining/fie
| ld-...
|
| If there's one food America knows how to do in many
| variations, all delicious to varying degrees, it's the
| sandwich.
| learc83 wrote:
| Butter or jam/jelly.
| samwillis wrote:
| Maybe not what you put on the toast but where you put it.
| What about a Toast Sandwich, a slice of toast between two
| slices of bread...
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_sandwich
| sockpuppet69 wrote:
| time_to_smile wrote:
| As an American I've been shocked how they've basically
| disappeared. Hot water bottles used to be a staple of American
| household. While they are easy to find on Amazon, they don't
| seem to be as ubiquitous as they once were.
| hotpotamus wrote:
| I've never put much thought into this but my mother who spent
| some of her teenage years in the UK in the 70's used to use a
| hot water bottle. Here in the US, we had a mid-century ideal of
| "energy too cheap to meter" that would have been provided by
| the burgeoning nuclear industry. It never really panned out,
| but a lot of houses had things like radiant heaters in floors
| and room wrapping baseboard heaters installed for comfort which
| is nicer than having to deal with a fluid filled bladder, but
| obviously much more costly.
| soperj wrote:
| I didn't think you were supposed to put boiling water in a hot
| water bottle? at least the rubber ones...
| [deleted]
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| I do see that there are silicone ones available, those should
| take boiling water in stride (though you'd need to wrap them
| in a thicker cover to avoid boiling yourself...)
| thrwy_ywrht wrote:
| Every hot water bottle tells you not to use boiling water in
| it, but at the same time everyone I know who regularly uses
| hot water bottles uses boiling water from an electric kettle.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| ...but everyone does. I just let it go off the boil and then
| use it.
| vanderZwan wrote:
| > _Maybe it 's because I am British_
|
| Nah, they're also not uncommon in the Netherlands, where I'm
| from, and Germany, where my partner's from (don't know if I'd
| call them "common" though).
|
| What I found truly surprising is that they're impossible to
| find in Sweden, where we live. You'd think that hot water
| bottles would become more common the further up north you go.
| tsupiroti wrote:
| Hot water bottles are quite common in Portugal. You should be
| able to find one at any large supermarket (e.g. Continente).
| juanuicich wrote:
| I can confirm Continente stocks them in all branches I've
| been to, but only at the beginning of winter. By late January
| they're hard to find already.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Scouts used to heat a rock in the fire, put it in a bag and take
| it to their tent.
| downrightmike wrote:
| not too hot, nor wet rocks, those explode
| danans wrote:
| Who remembers waterbeds from the 1980s? Basically a big water
| bottle (some had heaters too). I assume they were uncomfortable
| as heck to sleep on, but as a kid they were sure fun to play on
| until you got reprimanded.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| The ones with internal baffles to prevent sea-sickness are
| still generally liked by people who try them. However, they are
| extremely heavy and if they leak are a potential source of
| significant damage (many apartment and condo complexes have a
| "no water bed" policy for this reason).
|
| I'm not sure, but I think that most (if not all) of them had
| heaters because water can pull an awful lot of heat from your
| body over the course of 8 hours even if it's quite warm (if
| it's under 95F or so, you can cool off quite fast by sleeping
| on a bare waterbed mattress; a bare waterbed mattress under 80F
| can put you at risk of hypothermia).
|
| That being said, the mattresses had insulating covers so it's
| possible there were some where heaters were not needed.
| mikecoles wrote:
| I bought one in the late 1990s. I needed a bed and found
| waterbed mattresses were cheap, actually they were all the same
| cost from single to CA king. I ordered the king size because
| why not and went to building the frame while waiting for the
| mattress arrival. I only had 1' left around two sides of the
| bed in my bedroom after setting it up, but it was the most
| comfortable sleep. I think the "waveless" feature was a big
| benefit. It did take a few days to get used. I now sleep on a
| high end pillow top bed. It's nice, but is second to the
| waterbed.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| I've only tied a water bed once; it was very comfortable.
|
| It had damping inside so it didn't slosh around all that much.
| Tagbert wrote:
| They were very comfortable in many cases. The water container
| conformed to your body and provided very evenly distributed
| pressure. Having a heated bed was very nice in the winter. You
| usually had an extra pad on top to reduce contact with the
| vinyl container. It was hard to sleep with someone else though
| as their movements tended to cause you to bounce around. Later
| versions had baffles that reduced the motion of the ocean.
|
| They were very heavy. I had to get rid of mine when the
| downstairs neighbor could no longer open her door due to
| warping of the doorframe in a very old house.
| ExtraE wrote:
| Dang, can you merge this with the other link to the same article
| that's also on the front page?
| mcv wrote:
| When I was a kid, I remember my grandmother used metal hot water
| bottles with a crocheted cover. My wife has recently started
| taking a cola bottle with hot water (not boiling, or the plastic
| will melt) to bed. Perhaps I should give her one of these fancy
| rubber ones.
| LeanderK wrote:
| here in germany you can buy the rubber ones with cloth over it.
| They are way more comfy and don't get super hot. Regardless of
| the temperature in my room, my girlfriend is always cold, so
| every night I fill it up to warm the bed
| masklinn wrote:
| > here in germany you can buy the rubber ones with cloth over
| it.
|
| There are even different thicknesses of cover, depending
| whether you want lots of heat (thin cover so you don't get
| that rubber feel) or more of a lower temp and slow release
| (thicker padded cover).
| arethuza wrote:
| When I was a kid (I'm in my 50s) my parents had _ceramic_ hot
| water bottles that had knitted covers.
| downrightmike wrote:
| as long there is water at the level the flames touch, you can
| boil water in a plastic bottle, it will deform though.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKN0n0WB6Q
| sneak wrote:
| The only reason this is a thing is because of our habit of
| building cheap buildings that aren't insulated well.
|
| In modern times it is more than possible to build well-insulated
| buildings that can be heated affordably to reasonable indoor
| temperatures everywhere in the living space.
|
| Almost nobody does this.
| baud147258 wrote:
| Since there's a few people here using hot water bottles and I
| didn't found the information in the article, how long does a hot
| water bottle stays hot? (starting from hot tape water or boiling
| water from a kettle)
| jkubicek wrote:
| I have a hot water bottle that I use occasionally in the winter
| months. Filled with boiling water it'll be too warm to handle
| for about 45 minutes, then comfy for hours. Tucked under the
| comforter it's frequently still a little warm in the morning.
| qwertox wrote:
| If you use it to warm your feet by putting it on the floor and
| having socks on, resting your feet on it but changing position
| because of the heat, around one hour, a bit more.
|
| If you use it to have something warm in your bed, if you leave
| it below the blanket it will still be warm in the morning. But
| putting it with boiling water in the bed means that you just
| can't touch it because it's really hot. You may put your feet
| on it for 10 to 20 seconds or put it on your stomach for the
| same amount of time, to heat up quick, but then you need to
| place it somewhere where it has no direct contact with you.
|
| I just love mine, which is one made of flexible rubber (or
| pvc). When I get up I start making my coffee and in parallel I
| heat up a kettle of water until it boils, then i use that one
| under the desktop for my feet. Sometimes I put it on my lap or
| hug it for a while. It's worth it, but only during the winter.
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