You’re Cold? I’m Cold!
SO, you are cold huh? I know the feeling.
People laugh when we residents of Hawaii complain about the cold. Yes it is true that we get snow, but it is far away and up above 10,000 on our volcanoes. Still the winter temps (day and night) drop by 5 degrees during the winter.
When I moved here, my first night in the house was shocking. It went down to the low 60’s. While that does not seem cold to many, I had no long sleeved shirts, no long pants and no real blankets. Add to that no insulation in the ceiling, walls or floor and the only thing between me and the cold air was a piece of plywood and a bit of carpeting.
Windows! We use lots of glass here both to allow looking at the view and to use as air conditioning. We open the windows during the day and close them at night. We often have louvered windows which allow drafts to flow in and out.
So I went into town that next day looking for help. At K-Mart I looked for an electric blanket. The sales lady said “What? No such thing!” when I told her it was a blanket you plugged in. A co-worker explained to her that it was like a heating pad but bigger. I ended up buying one online.
I now have an oil-filled heater that looks like an old radiator. Yes, we could us things like that all over, however keep in mind that our electricity is perhaps 3 or 4 times as expensive as yours. With just a computer, LED bulbs instead of incandescent ones, TV, hot water heater, deep freezer, fridge and washer and dryer, my electric bill is over $150 a month. It is not difficult to double that cost.
We love being in a place where during the summer and for that matter, most of the year, we can keep the doors and windows open, wear shorts, t-shirts and flip-flop type slippers and feel comfortable. However, most of the year is not winter.
So yes, we can swim in the ocean and stay warm during the day year round, but winter is colder for us. We still have snow at the higher elevations today and it is freezing up top. We have had blizzards up there and it can be lethal, just an hour or two drive away.
Our island is about 90 miles by 90 miles, the size of the state of Connecticut. We go from sea level to 14,000 feet in just 45 miles. So every 1,000 feet you go up the volcano, it gets colder. I notice the difference in temperature between my house and sea level. I’m just a couple miles from shore, but 850 feet up. It is about 5 degrees colder here.
So while my house is not covered in snow and ice and I generally don’t need anti-freeze in the truck, it IS uncomfortable here during the winter. So yes, we moved here for the warmth but is can elude us.