4Real Forums: keeping out the cold

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Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry

Topic: keeping out the cold

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SusanJ
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 1:22pm \| IP Logged

We just got our December heating bill. OUCH! It was just over $400 which is almost twice what we were paying in Minnesota. This is the first time we've had a full house to heat but with much warmer outdoor temps and brand new windows here we thought things would be better.
We have had the thermostat at 62 during the day and 57 at night but I just turned it down a bit more. I think our house is very poorly--if at all-insulated. It took three hours for the indoor temp to drop four degrees this morning.

Any ideas? Is this just a normal amount to pay to heat an old house in the winter?

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CrunchyMom
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 1:35pm \| IP Logged

Blow in insulation in our attic helped a great deal a couple of years ago.

Plastic shrink wrapped windows can help a lot and look pretty nice until a little boy hits it. Unfortunately, it isn't so cheap to do that replacing it constantly would be cost effective.

I just bought black out/insulated roller shades for the bedrooms (they haven't arrived yet), and we'll see how they work. We need to block out a neighbor's bathroom light, too, but we are hoping the insulated factor helps with drafts.

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Lindsay
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JodieLyn
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 1:49pm \| IP Logged

are the brand new windows double pane? if they are then adding to the windows may not make much difference.. I would really look at the blow in insulation for the attic.. since heat rises if the rest of the house is fairly tight.. that's your most likely loss of heat.

And it will also be a source of heat in the summer when you don't want it because the sun beating down on the roof will warm your whole house.

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SusanJ
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 1:54pm \| IP Logged

I think the windows are double-pane. We are renting and the landlord was pretty proud of them. I wonder if anything can be done about insulating the roof. It's not up to us, obviously. The upstairs is about 6 degrees colder than downstairs, on average. There is no crawl space access to the roof but I'm sure there's no insulation and all the heat is just going right out the roof.

We shrink wrapped our windows last year because we had old, loose, drafty windows. I think it helped quite a bit but I'm not sure that it would do much here. The door is a little drafty but I just got out some weather stripping for that.

I'm wondering if we can move into the kitchen and just use the heat from cooking

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 1:58pm \| IP Logged

hmmm you could shut heater vents and cover doorways with blankets.. that would let you isolate the area that's heated more.. if you could cover the stairs or at least close all the upstairs doors.. and the vents in those rooms.. then you won't be heating up there at least during the day.

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SusanJ
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 2:09pm \| IP Logged

We have old steam radiators powered by natural gas so I can't block anything. It just today occurred to me to shut the door at the top of the upstairs. We also get very little direct sun through windows. That's nice in the summer but a pain this time of year.

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 2:16pm \| IP Logged

you could try adding some electric space heaters.. the new space heaters are pretty efficient. My sister has an older oil furnance in her rental and she found that adding a couple of space heaters saved money in the long run.

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CrunchyMom
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 2:33pm \| IP Logged

I think that the space heater thing might be especially efficient if you put one in the room you spend the most down time in. This way you can keep the heat really low in the rest of the house that isn't used as much, but have a toasty spot to do "sitting" things.

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Lindsay
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Paula in MN
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 8:43pm \| IP Logged

I would also check with the electric or gas company and have them test lines, etc. to make sure all is working properly. That could significantly reduce your bill.

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juststartn
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 8:51pm \| IP Logged

Definitely have the electric/gas company come out and check. Those double paned windows are really nice, but only if the walls around them (and the ceiling/floors) are as well "insulated"...If you knew someone with an infrared/heat seeking camera, or night-vision gear, that might help you see where your heat loss is worst at--you could look at night, and see a lot of things you could never see during the daylight hours.

We've kept ours set at about 62 all the time (mostly to keep our propane use to a minimum, as we've not refilled the tank yet

), and even with the Christmas lights (and I do ALOT of lights!), our electric bill for a 3400 sq ft home, came to $160 last month. Seriously. We used about 5% of our propane, too, so even with the cold, we made sure to keep ourselves dressed warmly, day and night, and ate lots of warm soup, hot tea/cocoa, etc.

((HUGS)) on the high bill. Our summer time ones can be brutal down here.

Rachel

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juststartn
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Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 8:52pm \| IP Logged

Oh, and you know what? If the heater is old, it won't matter--because chances are, the doggone thing is highly inefficient.

Check your filters, too--those can clog up faster than you realize, and cause your heater to work overtime to keep things warm.

Rachel

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