Every morning at around 4:45 an electronic timer trips in our kitchen, which causes the heater to fire up and push hot water through thin reservoirs that lie under our living room floor. It takes about 15 minutes, but by 5:00 am the floor is warm to the touch, and by 5:30 the entire room is pretty warm. We wander in after our showers about this time, and it is very comfortable compared to the rest of our house which is not heated. At 6:00 am the switch turns off the hot water, but the room stays warm until about 7:30 or so. Since we leave the house between 6:30 and 7 o’clock, it works out great. The same procedure happens in the evening before we get home, so we walk into a warm living room after walking home from the train station.
Combine this with the heated toilet seat, and winter isn’t so bad. There are a couple of cold moments walking around our bedroom, but it is pretty comfortable around here. The bills aren’t too bad – we pay at most around $70/month for gas in the winter. Electricity is lowest in the winter (around $50/month), but shoots up to around $90/month for operating our air conditioners. Thanks to all the insulation in our home, the bills are pretty reasonable compared to our old apartments.
