much insulation does your house have or what kind of insulation? How much is your heating bill? Is it kwh or therms?
Cannot imagine why all the thumbs down to Claviushe's absolutely righturwumpe, tooWeight of the vehicle is all on the SRBsThe Aft Skirts transfer the load to the Mobile Launch Platform support bolts that, yes, are secured with frangible nuts.
Just a small correction: Additionally to the 8 massive hold-down bolts on the aft end of the SRB, there is no other connection which carries the weight of the Shuttle The other connections are only weak connections, that would actually break if the Shuttle launches without these disconnecting (but of course not without also causing light damage on the Shuttle)The two connections at the end of the wings provide electrical power, communication and various gases and liquids needed for the ShuttleThe whole fueling of the Shuttle external tank happens over these two plates of connectionsThe ET has additionally two connections for venting gases, which are created when the cold liquid fuel inside the ET gets warmedThe first, the hydrogen vent line, takes gaseous hydrogen from the External Tank and transports it far away from the Shuttle to a small rectangular field, where it is burned, so it can't cause dangerous fires or explosionsThe other, the famous nose cap, sucks cold gaseous oxygen away and blows warm nitrogen gas at the vent valve, so ice does not form at it and clog the vent valve The external tank is connected by four massive connections to the solid rocket motors and the orbiter is connected to the external tank by three large connectionsThat's why the SRBs are first bolted on the pad and all segments stacked togetherFollowed by hanging the ET between the two SRBs and finally, install the Shuttle to the connections of the external tankThe connections look small and fragile from some distance, as many people underestimate the size of the Shuttle (it looks like a fighter, but is actually as large as an airliner), but in reality, the two tubes alone, which transport liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to the Shuttle have over 40 cm diameter.
I live in Central/Northern Saskatchewan, it is not uncommon for us to get temps in the -40C with -50's windchillWe have R20 insulation(fiberglass) in our house walls, and then R20 blown in the attic as wellI have a wood basement as opposed to a cement one and that, believe it or not keeps the basement warmer then it would if you had cement, we have bedrooms and a family room down there and sometimes when I go down there when its really cold it is warmer down there then it is upstairs, and in the summer it keeps it cooler downstairsMy house is heated by natural gas forced air furnace and I spend about $800 - $1000 more of less per yearI keep my house quite warm about 23CMy water heater is also run off the natural gas as is my range/ovenIf you were to use Electric Heat here it would be very costlyMy electric bill per year is about the same I would say, I don't really pay attention to what the monthly bills are, I just pay them!
