just added an idea for locally defined vars like the thermal_zone

.config.lua

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+thermal_zone = "thermal_zone1"
+

.config/awesome/rc.lua

@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ local menubar = require("menubar")
 require('naughty')
 vicious = require("vicious")
 
+--require(os.getenv("HOME").."/.config.lua")
+
 -- Set programs to autostart. They will only runce once even when reloading awesome.
 local autostart = {
     "cbatticon",

.gitignore

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 !.config
 !.config/awesome
 !.config/awesome/**
+!.config.lua
 #!.config/mc
 #!.config/mc/ini
 !.gitignore