Hiei said:

I know!
Let's put a futon on top!
So that the heat won't escape.

Whatever floats your boat.

It's the same as pseudo-kotatsu Paracite talk about

Is it THAT cold?

thanghe said:

It's the same as pseudo-kotatsu Paracite talk about

Eh, that'd be with the table too. This is a pesudo-heated blanket.

It's somehow weird that I think Admibro's implying that he would be the one to act as the futon.

geraldbattler said:

Is it THAT cold?

Japanese build without central heating, without insulation. They heat only one or two rooms, and their primary heating is the kotatsu and kerosene heaters.

elgee said:

Japanese build without central heating, without insulation. They heat only one or two rooms, and their primary heating is the kotatsu and kerosene heaters.

Let me guess: It's because central heating is too expensive for most Japanese?

MarqFJA87 said:
Let me guess: It's because central heating is too expensive for most Japanese?

Actually no, check the previous post, it's a cultural development thing instead. The only houses with normal heating are the ones further up north but the rest is a concious decision to NOT make insulated heating a thing.

There are more pages online if you look but the trade off is that the houses are better equipped for Summer than they are Winter basically. Cool Biz and all that.

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Tetsamaru said:

Actually no, check the previous post, it's a cultural development thing instead. The only houses with normal heating are the ones further up north but the rest is a concious decision to NOT make insulated heating a thing.

There are more pages online if you look but the trade off is that the houses are better equipped for Summer than they are Winter basically. Cool Biz and all that.

We'd probably have to do a long term comparison of the health and economic aspects of heating a house artificially through cold seasons vs. cooling it through warm seasons.

RNGCombo said:

We'd probably have to do a long term comparison of the health and economic aspects of heating a house artificially through cold seasons vs. cooling it through warm seasons.

Insulation (especially around the roof) also helps during the summer, even if you don't use AC. Just ventilate it during the night to cool down the structure and take advantage of thermal mass (i.e. heat capacity).

RNGCombo said:
We'd probably have to do a long term comparison of the health and economic aspects of heating a house artificially through cold seasons vs. cooling it through warm seasons.

I'd say probably depends on how long your seasons last. Where I live, Fall/Winter(together) is only about 4 months. the other 8 months is all spring summer and it never gets cold enough to snow where I live. Granted I live in the US so normal heating and all that but if I were to give up normal heating, it wouldn't be a big deal.