These days, we provide thermal comfort in winter by heating the entire air volume in a room or building, an approach that consumes a lot of fossil fuels. In this book, LOW←TECH MAGAZINE focuses on our forebear’s concept of heating, which was more localized. They used radiant heat sources that warmed only certain parts of a room, creating micro-climates of comfort, and they used personal heating sources that warmed specific body parts. It would make a lot of sense to restore this old way of warming, especially since newer technology has made it much more practical, safe, and efficient. By placing heating technology in a historical context, LOW←TECH MAGAZINE challenges the high-tech approach to sustainability and highlights the possibilities of alternative solutions.
Half of the articles in this book have not appeared in print before.
Contents table:
- Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Spaces
- Insulation: First the Body, then the Home
- The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle
- Energy Labels Oblige Frugal Homeowners to Make Unsustainable Investments
- How to Keep Warm in a Cool House
- Sunbathing in the Living Room: Tile Stoves and Other Radiant Heating Systems
- Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages
- The Revenge of the Circulating Fan
Available in our bookshop: Heating people, not spaces, Kris De Decker, 142 pages, Low-tech Magazine, 2023.
Other thematic books in the series:
How to build a low-tech internet?, Kris De Decker, Roel Roscam Abbing, Marie Otsuka, 166 pages, Low-tech Magazine, 2023.
How to downsize a transport network?, Kris De Decker, 162 pages, Low-tech Magazine, 2023.
The Low-tech Magazine archives are also available as a chronological series consisting of three volumes.