I like to sit in front of the heat vent of a forced air furnace and let the warm air wash over me like a warm hug. I find great comfort and solace by having warm air blowing on my back. It’s not at all a sexual thing, it’s very much a comforting thing along the lines of a weighted blanket.
It probably goes back to my childhood. Our home was older and had a “iron octopus” forced air furnace. It did a crap good job of heating the whole house but the hot air vent in the living room kicked out a lot of warm air. My mom would have us kids sit or stand in front of it to warm up and dry off after having a bath. Believe it or not, I enjoyed taking a bath just so I could sit in front of the heat vent to feel the heat. Or sometimes I’d just get out of bed in the middle of the night to sit in front of the furnace vent. Our upstairs bedrooms had NO heat so this might explain my motivation.
To this day, some 60 years later I still enjoy warm air blowing on my back. Our current home has a high-efficiency forced air furnace. It does a great job of keeping the whole house at the desired temp. But in so doing, the air coming out the vents isn’t a whole lot above ambient temp meaning I don’t get the nice all-enveloping warm air hug I desire.
My shop has a ceiling mounted “Modine” type heater. The louvers are set direct the heat output almost directly down. That works well to heat the room, given the shape and furnishings of the room. It also allows me to wheel my office chair so that I can sit directly under the warm air and let it caress my back. It’s wonderful on a cold winter day while I sip my coffee.
I’m not worried about this, this is not a problem looking for a solution. It’s just a weird thing I like. It doesn’t hurt anybody, but at the same time it’s probably too weird to talk about with anybody I know IRL.
My question is, am I the only one or are there other people out there who are into getting cozy in front of a forced air heat vent?
I have a Mr Heater 30k BTU propane heater and the vent for the heat is right at buttock level to me. I turn it on, stand in front of it with my shirt pulled out and my pants sagged just enough for the hot hot heat to wash all the way up my backside. Before this I had an ancient Coleman gas heater with a big grille up top where the heat came out and I (and every visitor in winter, eventually) would sit on that thing every time it fired up until it got too hot to sit on. So no, I have no idea what you’re talking about!
When I was an undergraduate college student, I found a utility door that didn’t close properly, so anyone could get in to the dormitory basement, and from there down into the cellar. There was an immense boiler down there and I’d go down and sit next to it in the dark, soaking up the heat. It made a low-pitched rumble like the world’s largest kitty cat purring. I’d go down and stay for hours.
A house I lived in a for a few years in middle school and high school had floor vents for central heating, located up against the walls of the home. In the wintertime I used to sit against the wall, my butt on the floor in front of the floor vent, and let the hot air blow into my shirt. It was nice.
As a kid, the strongest floor vent was in the bathroom, right over the furnace below. In the winter, my mother was regularly frustrated to find me camped out in the bathroom behind the door, sitting on the vent and reading books.
When I was very young my Dad installed a fireplace in our living room. It was a fine-looking fireplace that would have been nice warming up from on cold winter days, except it was fake. It only appeared to generate flames when you flipped on the switch. But, still, it was comforting to lay in front of the faux flames in our house that my parent’s kept rather chilly (to save oil, I presume).
But, a few years later, Dad installed a real Franklin Stove in front of the fake fireplace. It looked ugly and out of place, but that stove kicked out serious heat. Then it became comforting to lay between the ugly stove and the good-looking fake fireplace while looking at the faux flames, imagining they were real.
It was a little disconcerting feeling the heat from behind when my brain said it should be coming from the fake flames in the front, but nonetheless, it was pretty comforting.
Now I live in Florida with a gas fireplace that I never use.
I do something similar, but with cold air. Here at the University of Texas at Austin, there’s a ventilation grate that blows cold air in the sweltering summer. I would just stand there and let it blow my legs (that’s as high as it reaches.)
Ditto. When I’m even a little warm, and I find a focused cold spot, I get those pleasure-tingles akin to an ASMR response, on top of the basic improvement in temperature.
Recent example: While exploring the Louvre this past summer, I discovered in their underground gallery featuring restorations of the original palace walls that the air conditioning is delivered via floor vents. I gave my kids permission to run around unaccompanied for a few minutes so I could stand on one of the vents undisturbed.
Back in the day when my wife and I had two cats, the ultimate thing for me was to lie on our sofa with the sun streaming in with one of the cats sleeping on my chest.
I do this with portable electric heaters, the kind with a fan.
I grew up in a house with a built in electric heater with fan in the bathroom wall, and liked to sit in front of it, even in the middle of the night. My most comforting childhood memory is of sitting in front of it in the dark and realizing I could see a star or two in the window on the far wall.
I never knew anybody else who liked this, until I discovered just a couple years ago that a friend does.
I have clear memories of getting out of the tub draped in a towel and getting in front of the vent in the “duck and cover” position. I’d hold the towel so it would trap the warm air coming out. It was very pleasant but I haven’t thought about that in a loooong time.
Not kinky. Anyone, esp. from a cold climate, craves warmth.
We don’t have those vents that blow a lot, so if I’m cold I’ll take a quick-yet-almost-scalding shower, or toss a sweatshirt in the dryer for a few minutes, like Kramer… ahhhh…
