Winterizing Your Home

Hiroyuki Nagashima said:

In Japan being humid
It is the most effective for a saving of heating costs to change a windowpane for vacuum glass.
And it can prevent dew condensation, too.
However, an initial investment is high.
When I lived in an old apartment in old days,
I used a futon dryer.
I warmed futon before sleeping.
In addition, a futon dryer is useful for mold and the extermination of a mite.
Futon kansouki
布団乾燥機 - Wikipedia
A price is around 5,000 yen.
価格.com - 2021年11月 布団乾燥機 人気売れ筋ランキング

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My vote for futon kansouki!! Very cheap and effective!!
Another one for heavy curtains--you'll see how different and what good investment they are!

kusojiji said:

to have a nice warm person to sleep with!

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If, what you mean, is actually sleeping, I would prefer a few cats or dogs. Their body temperature is slightly higher and they are less rambunctious

SCNR

Chidoriashi said:

mr.sumo.snr> actually 36000 yen is surprisingly low to me. I would have thought central heating and air would be way more expensive than that in Japan.

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I checked with my wife and she told me July's bill was 38000 yen (it was a sweaty one this year).

Few other things that should be factored in. It's now my 13th year in Japan and my tolerance to the heat is considerably greater than during those first years. My apartment air-con in 1995 would be set to 20C and maximum output. These days I'm quite happy with 26C on the lowest power setting during the summer days and 28C overnight.

I have excellent double-glazed widows. Vertical sash-type with UPVC frames. Very little heat loss or external heat invasion. Ground floor ceilings are 2.7m and first floor are 2.4m - air has somewhere to go - as does my head! And I guess having my external walls painted cream-color also helps.

But yes, it's pretty reasonable when I also consider I usually have three desktop computers running 24/7. A separate air-conditioner for my classroom (when I used the central air-con alone to keep that room cool my wife would be sitting in the kitchen wearing a fleece jumper - in June), and the house is located in the warmest district in the southern-most city of Nagano-ken. It will hit 38C here in August. Water is heated with oil but everything else in the house runs on electricity.

BTW - it cost 2,500,000 yen to install the central air-con – it came with a 25 year guarantee.

So far this year it's been off early April through mid-June and late August through to now.

--

It is PS3 that run a fever most in my room.

Here's a link I found in English:
Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos

Bubble wrap seems to work pretty well on windows. I found that same advice on some other site I found in Japanese.

Here's some wrap you can get for your windows in America, but apparently not in Japan.
http://www.amazon.com/tag/window plastic

I'll stop going on about window plastic now.

When you seal up your room, please be careful about carbon monoxide poisoning.
As for the winter, death by accident of carbon monoxide poisoning increases.
http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/sj/2/interview/46/

How true !

Hiroyuki Nagashima said:

When you seal up your room, please be careful about carbon monoxide poisoning.
As for the winter, death by accident of carbon monoxide poisoning increases.
http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/sj/2/interview/46/

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I made my house here in Maine(where it gets darn cold) way too air tight.
When we got a new and bigger furnace(forced hot air/oil), it had to get air from up the chimmny, drawing the smoke and CO2 back down and into the house. I ended up having to crack a window in my basement to get enough fresh air into the house for the furnace to run. Sometimes you can over do it.

Uncle Frank

A lot of good points here, especially about safety! You can be warm as can be, but it makes no different if you're dead.

Incidentally, the heater to which I provided a link to earlier doesn't produce carbon monoxide or take water out of the air. Just a thought.

Floors, I think are important, too. I am thinking of going to get a piece of carpet (about 180cm x 180cm) to put in my room for the fall and to put under my kotatsu pad come winter.

OR

I might just move everything into my tatami room for the winter. Tatami is much warmer than wood flooring, so that would solve that problem fine. The only problem with that is that my wall AC/heater unit is in my other room, should I wish to use it on particularly cold days.

A point to be careful to about use of a kotatsu.
A low temperature burn
Skin does a light burn even low temperature when exposed to a stove and a kotatsu for a long time.
About a floor heater,
I use a pot carpet (an electric carpet).
価格.com - ホットカーペット | 通販・価格比較・製品情報
I am on an insulation sheet to flooring,
And I spread a hot carpet.
And I put a kotatsu.
I do not use electricity of a kotatsu.
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/soukai/4901983901109.html

Another useful thing to do is to clean the filter of the AC/heater unit. Makes it work more efficiently (cheaply). I'm gonna have to clean mine this weekend.

BTW, a towelkette or light blanket between you and a futon will make warming up the futon unnecessary.