[mistletoe]

I recently took off the big velvet curtains we had put over all the windows in the summer. What a huge change in my mood! We had created ourselves a cave we were living in as we pursued energy efficiency. Now I’m seeing the importance of natural light and windows in a house. To be honest our energy usage was exactly the same as last year for this month, when we didn’t have the curtains. I suspect a lot of free and nice heat comes in through the windows in the daytime. What spurred the change was a google photo memory from a year ago and I saw how different the house was with the beautiful old windows shining light through.

There is light during the day in winter it just doesn’t last as long, so important to get what you can. I may explore building some led lights for when the sun goes down. UFO lights on Amazon are quite inexpensive now and very efficient. Heat they generate indoors in winter works to heat the house as well and depending on your gas prices might not be that bad compared to your gas furnace or could even be cheaper so it is like free strong lighting.

https://www.pickhvac.com/calculator/heating-annual-cost/

A good calculator here. A reminder that LED lighting is ~100% efficient just like an electric space heater, as all heat generated is trapped in and heats your house. Of course things like heat pumps can reach over 100% efficiency (up to 300%!).