New, modern yurt build in Mongolia

[UKadventurer]

How's your winter going, guys? Are any of you living in your yurts?

In my case, I think we're over the worst of it and I'm VERY relieved. This winter was colder than most. Every 10 years or so, we get a colder than usual one. This has been one. Before now, the lowest I've experienced is -46C (-50F) in January 2011 when I lived in an apartment in the city. The last couple of nights were in the -40's (same in C or F). Take a look:



It reached -43C (-45F) ambient temperature on Monday night, -41C (-42F) on Tuesday and then just -34C (-30F) last night. Luckily the forecast is trending warmer in the -30C's to mid -20C's. Which seems positively tropical for me. Bear in mind I'm at a higher altitude than the city by 400m (1300') so my actual temperatures could be different. Probably a few degrees less. Potentially windier too.

Take a look:



How did I manage? I say "I" not "we" because my wife has a sick aunt with acute liver failure and is the designated caregiver in the family. So she's been staying bedside in a city hospital in a toasty room. It's just been me at the camp for going on 2 weeks. What difference does that make? Well, at night, it's very comforting to share warmth under the blankets. She's a great bed warmer amongst here many talents. I've missed her.

I've actually been warm enough at a significant financial cost. My December electric bill was US$370. January's will possibly be higher. This is with cheap electricity rates of about 4-5 cents per kWh. I need to heat not only the 2 gers and bathroom connection but a well-house (critical components) and an insulated shipping container. To at least keep them comfortably above freezing.

Luckily, our other living expenses are very low. We own the land and improvement free and clear.

It's actually been more stressful than anything else. I need to monitor the heat of the outbuildings (well house and insulated container) with an app, especially of the well house. If I'm careless I could freeze the 2 pumps and rupture them losing my water supply. That already happened once with the well house to gers pump. This didn't happen this time because I was vigilant enough.

Indoors, it's cozy enough (at a cost) with underfloor heating barely keeping up and I can have wood fires in the evening to reach a very nice room temperature but I can't keep a wood fire going all night. The fire needs frequent feeding to stay burning. Because of this morning temps in my bedroom usually drop to 10C (50F) which I've got used to. Then the sun comes up about 10:20am in our high valley and I can turn the heating off entirely and soak in the passive solar heat.

The 5 animals (3 cats and 2 dogs) are also something I worry about more than myself. The larger dog has a well insulated kennel but he doesn't always use it at night. His choice. The oldest cat has one too. He always uses his. The puppy is about 2.5 months old now and just sleeps on a sheepskin rug outside. She seems to suffer no ill effects at all from sleeping outside, shockingly. She's a big ball of fur now so I'm sure that helps. I thought she'd be able to share one of the kennels but that hasn't happened. 2 of the privileged cats get to stay indoors at least at night.

The big problem is when I have to work outside. I'm constantly monitoring my electricity and tripped circuits happen sometimes. I have to go to the main panel (down the hill at the power pole) or the sub-panel in the shipping container to diagnose faults. This is when I suffer with frozen hands. I can't work on electricity problems with thick gloves but when I wear thinner gloves that allow enough dexterity, my hands go numb. I try to work fast but my hands don't allow it. I get frustrated but I need to finish the job. No choice.

So I've decided that I need a bit of reorganization of the circuit breakers. I really need sub-panels in the gers themselves for heating, light and sockets. It's not a difficult job and it's indoors so that's pleasant. This change makes it convenient to reset a tripped circuit breaker and diagnose problems (loose wires, overloads, etc) without facing harsh outside conditions.

For example, last night, the floor heating circuit tripped in my bedroom ger. I didn't notice because I was asleep but if I had, I would've had to get dressed, go outside to the shipping container and reset the circuit.

We do have some advantages despite the extreme cold. We don't get winter storms when it's this cold. OR much wind so there's not much wind chill. I don't need to go anywhere beyond the property so I more or less hibernate and only do the absolutely essential chores. I'm well stocked with food, firewood and propane. All in all, it's not been as bad as I thought it might be.