The inside walls of the house are covered in foot long hairs, sticking out of the walls. But what are these hairs there for? Why for heating of course! And not just in the way you think. The hairs, have insulated heating coils, within themselves. Hundreds, even thousands of these heating hairs blanket the walls of the house.
Might be quite comfortable to rub up upon on those cold winter days!
I admit, it might be quite a wiring job, and I dunno about effient!-- EvilPickels, Nov 14 2005 Polar Bear Hair is not Fiber Optic http://it.stlawu.edu/~koon/polar.htmlDebunk of popular idea [csea, Nov 14 2005] Yurt-ish https://drive.googl...LH4uQparkt1_FGMIClM [not_morrison_rm, Nov 11 2018] Locally-thermostatic heating wire The idea I said I should post. I posted it. [notexactly, Nov 12 2018] This would make going indoors akin to climbing inside the damp and cavernous nostrils of Kenneth Williams.-- calum, Nov 14 2005 Just think of the lice...-- Jinbish, Nov 14 2005 Pa`ve, that's sort of what gave me the idea, you get the goosbumps, and your body transfers heat to the hair, heating the outside of the body. Well, if there is wind that all goes to waste! Reverse that, and make the hairs be heat tranferers, with an end outside and an end inside. Any heat outside gets transfered inside
Inside, outside, that side, my side!-- EvilPickels, Nov 14 2005 Imaginative as it is, I have to fishbone this on account of my allergies (the hair would be impossible to clean). Sorry.-- DrCurry, Nov 14 2005 Who says he's ever going to invite you over?-- bristolz, Nov 14 2005 Well, if I'm not invited, I'm *definitely* fishboning it!-- DrCurry, Nov 14 2005 I was going to locate a reference to the notion that polar bear hair (fur) has optical properties that bring in radiation and absorb efficiently.
Not so! say recent papers [link].
I think enough fur inside/outside would create great thermal mass, and keep the house warm with just a small heater. No need for the hair to be self-heating, it would capture warm air and keep it from moving about, forming a very thick insulating layer.-- csea, Nov 14 2005 You read the phrase: "foot long hairs," right? They wouldn't all be tiny ones like on your body. I imagine them to be somewhat thick, like the thickness of a Number 2 pencil.-- EvilPickels, Nov 14 2005 Medusa!-- bristolz, Nov 14 2005 As a side benefit, you could have your music as loud as you wanted.-- moomintroll, Nov 14 2005 Yeah, it'd be close to anechoic.-- bristolz, Nov 14 2005 Now I'm repulsed as well as sneezing!-- DrCurry, Nov 14 2005 Wash it with the same shampoo as your ex-grilfriend/ ex-boyfriend used.
You would either try to sleep up against the walls at night, or be pissed off all the time. Both could be considered signs of questionable mental health, and then you would rarely have to worry about visitors.
Then again, a hairy house may cause some to wonder about you anyways. Unless the house wears a mullet on the outside.-- sleeka, Nov 14 2005 I read the name. I knew how I'd vote.
Would the hair grow, need trimming and constantly either be too short in an uncool way, or too long and constantly getting in your eyes?
The Big Blue Bear House?-- hidden truths, Nov 14 2005 Welcome to my Chia pad, the walls are shag baby, Yeah.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 15 2005 Ugh. Mabye cool for an hour or day, but once it starts absorbing odors, getting dusty, etc, it's just disgusting. If I were a roach or a spider, though, I'd definately give it a [+]-- sophocles, Nov 16 2005 I would hate to see the electric bill.-- Weirdo55, Nov 16 2005 This is quite a mental image. To clean it one could just shave the walls. The hairs could be made extrusible, and might slowly extrude by themselves.-- bungston, Nov 16 2005 I was thinking they could just be mounted to pieces of fabric that you hang on the walls (like tapestries, which did serve an insulating purpose when they were popular), and you could just take those down and throw them in the washing machine once in a while. They could even have some kind of indicator that changes color when it gets wet in the washer and then slowly changes back as it dries out (or vice versa, getting dry in the dryer and absorbing humidity from the air) to tell you when to wash them again.-- notexactly, Nov 11 2018 I think OP just means it might not be attractive to people named Effie.
Anyway, I have an idea on my list, from over a year ago, that might be applicable to this one. I guess I should post that.-- notexactly, Nov 11 2018 If the "hairs" were on the exterior of the building, they would tend to reduce air circulation, and so cut heat loss. Wind buffeting would be reduced, and water could be directed away from the structure if the hairs had a "droop" of 20 degrees or more.
They might also work to reduce solar gain in some environments.
An idea worthy of further research.-- 8th of 7, Nov 11 2018 I like the exterior hairs. They'd work just like they do on animals. They'd also provide a place for small wildlives to nest.-- notexactly, Nov 12 2018 ... until the householder turns on the high voltage supply <snigger>.-- 8th of 7, Nov 12 2018 random, halfbakery