Extreme cold considerations

#14 & #15 should go without saying, but in today's world I understand why they were included, people just don't pay attention.

Here a funny thing I saw about driving in snow ...

https://i.postimg.cc/CKz6B3JH/419861948-10161228108515818-17...

It got up to ~ -10F overnight where i'm at, suburbia of chicago.

Had new hvac installed a year ago. 80K btu 96%, vs 92K btu 92% that it replaced. Based on the math, the sales guy wanted to sell a 60K btu, but that seemed too undersized. Considering the old unit met our needs quite well for 17+ years.

So far seeing off periods for 20-40 min depending on night or day (sunlight does help).

As for the car, it's in the garage. I don't drive much so it stays connected to a battery tender.

Here's a useful pic from beestat - third party project that takes ecobee data and presents it in much more meaningful ways.

https://i.imgur.com/7Jinx1i.png

Likely in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s I learned that -40 deg C was numerically the same temperature as -40 deg F. It probably was an algebra problem.

Fast forward to the 1970’s and I was a project manager on the Alaskan Pipeline. I spent a great deal of time at Prudhoe Bay. Typically the lodging entrance and the dining hall had an analog thermometer with both deg C and deg F. One day, as I stepped out of my lodging I noticed -40 on both…flashback to high school.

As a point of interest the current temperature in Prudhoe Bay is -9 deg F, a relative heat wave!

My ductless heat pump units don't throw much heat when the temp gets this low. They are rated down to -10F but no way do they throw their rated BTU when it gets that cold.

In the past, heat pumps never used to be considered as a primary heat source in my location. Now however, they are getting popular here since we don't get the extreme cold we used to.

I,for one, am glad I also have oil heat.

An interesting story both about you and your work background. I had not idea. I swear I could hear Johnny Horton singing, North to Alaska, in the background as I was reading your post.

Wasn't Prudhoe Bay one of the destinations of the Ice Road Truckers show?

Season 3 of Ice Road Truckers (2009) and covered the Dalton Highway, which connects Fairbanks, Alaska, Coldfoot, Alaska, and Deadhorse, Alaska. Deadhorse is the airport for Prudhoe Bay and is about 5 miles from Prudhoe. Deadhorse is also about 6 miles from the Arctic coast at Prudhoe Bay and about 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

-40° being the same is old hat but some other easy to remember conversions are.

5° C = 40° F
10° C = 50° F
16° C = 61° F. Just reverse numbers
20° C = 68° F
28° C = 82° F. Just reverse numbers

If I need to convert, multiply C° x 1.8 and add 32. From F subtract 32 and divide by 1.8
There is a fractional formula but this one I can do in my head.

OK. I watched a few seasons of it, the so called roads they were on were crazy. My career was truck driving, but straight trucks no trailers.

I had a fresh new carton of Jumbo white eggs freeze overnight in my car last week. Unfortunately, I did not read the article until today. My life story !

Multiply by 9 and divide by 5 when going from C to F. Multiply by 5 and divide by 9 when going from F to C. Using 9 and 5 instead of 1.8 may make it easier to do in the head.

Up here in canada we get those Temps all the time. They have been pushing and pushing to get us to switch to heat pumps and getting rid of Natural gas. Even giving us rebates. Of course electric cars too. They don't charge in cold weather worth two cents either i read today with pics of all the Teslas going nowhere. So we have our government wanting clean air. Who cares if we can't stay warm or can't to work. Are they really that dumb? Oops i forgot....we voted them in.

Oops this comment was supposed to add to bdhsfz6

Hmmm, I started this thread to caution people about things to remove from their cars if they live in an area that might be subjected to cold temps. We are experiencing very cold (and unusual) temps here in Philadelphia, 12 deg F. tomorrow morning.

Not sure your reply is meaningful…

I have had water bottles freeze in my car. Luckily, nothing else.

We often don't think about temperature ranges.

I installed a Cisco swtich/router/firewall maybe 6 years ago, brand new out of box, and the switch failed. Come to find the IDF was routinely 120F, which is beyond the range of the equipment. I don't work with the stuff anymore but from memory, a lot of equipment's upper operating range is 114F.

We've had ruggedized tablets cease to function and batteries fail, because the cab of tractors get up to 125F (frankly I have no clue whatsoever how a human can work but that's another story).

The other extreme is recently I was asked if direct thermal printers can print at 34F. I actually thought no, but yes, they can. Thermal transfer, no.

I used to leave my corporate laptop in my car, but have been in the habit of removing it at all times, for about 10 years. Once when it was 6F outside and I booted it up, I got a warning from the BIOS and it failed to boot.

When it's cold, I'm happy to have a 2020 furnace. The old one, although working, had a struggling blower whose symptoms surfaced at age 20. I pushed it another 4 years. Not to mention it was a 78% model from 1996....

I keep 4 large and 3 medium ice packs at the ready. When we go out, we bring it, and the medium/small cooler stays at 39F for more than a day, i.e. we can put restaurant leftovers and buy food, and leave it in the car, summer or winter.

I moved them all into the back of the SUV, to give the freezer a break (more airflow with them out as we're pretty full).

A neighbor earlier in the week had left a dozen eggs under the seat which froze in the 9 deg F Tuesday AM temp. Quite a mess but all on a carpeted rear floor mat. I suggested she take it to a dry cleaner before summer arrives.

LOL