Ebenezer Scrooge was right!

Read a great article about old school heating systems in the aptly titled LOW←TECH MAGAZINE, which sounds like my kind of magazine.

Main takeaways

Convection heating systems (most commonly, forced air central heating) require heating and circulating the entire air volume of your dwelling (house, apartment, etc.). This is inefficient.

Older heating systems relied on radiation and conduction.

Examples of radiation: hot stove, fireplace, radiator, space heater.

Examples of conduction: sweater, scarf, slippers, night cap, heated car seats, heated floor.

Why did they switch?

At some point, people abandoned these various solutions in favor of a largely homogenous central heating system. Why? The older systems were much less convenient. With radiating heat, you either had to be right next to the stove (which was often too hot) or far way from the stove elsewhere in the room (which was often too cold). Wearing lots of layers indoors was apparently also less than ideal.

And while radiation is technically more efficient, older systems like fireplaces were less efficient than they would be on paper, since there were unavoidable drafts from the chimney or just poor home construction.

What do modern radiation and conduction heating systems look like?

This is the question I want to answer next.

Can a good space heater add comfort to a room, without adding a lot of noise (like a circulating fan).

Is a night cap comfortable, or does it just make your head hot, forcing you to switch back and forth with it on/off all night long?

I am now officially an old person.