My own private thermopile

The girly and I have been wearing lots of sweaters as of late. The house genuinely seems frigid. Colder than the last one. Could it be that our pre-fab-love-nest is more poorly insulated than the ancient moldy slum-cottage we left in New Hampshire? The thermostat said it was 62.

Are we really that old? I'm pushing 30, but I thought I had a few midlife crises to weather before senility and the chills we a major issue. What next, sponge baths?**

Something, probably the poor lady pulling on a second sweater and a hat, possessed me to seek independent verification. With what, an oven thermometer?

Yea, it -starts- at 50°F.

My cheap-o multimeter came with a Type-K Thermocouple (actually, the meter and thermocouple is practically identical to the wikimedia photo...). It claimed it's 16°C (61°F) when the thermostat said 67°F. Thermal inertia of the meter? That could mean it was in the 50's before I fired up the furnace.

That said, I'm unsure about the meter's accuracy. At 600V, it's off by about 50V. What if it's the same here and our blood has simply thinned? I tried using the Fluke (whose NIST certificate has not yet expired!) to directly measure the voltage, but i was not able to get a useful measurement, as characteristics of the cold junction are poorly defined, the thermocouple does not give much of a useful value, as the voltage is way to low. It should be in the 100 microvolts, but instead it's a paltry 30 microvolts.

Now, in the time it took to write this, the cheap meter now agrees with the thermostat.... It must have an internal thermister to balance the hot junction of the thermocouple.

Damnit!

Where's a mercury bulb when you need one?


**I am always open to candlelight sponge baths with The Girly