Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is the Water Heater in 'un-heated' space? Like Basement? If so i would just turn it down to lowest temp.
For your heat, Do you have a Time of Day Thermostat? Turning the Temp up to 65 when you get up will do no good by the time it get up to temp, you will be gone.
While the 'Wood/pellet' thing sound good, I would not do any leasehold improvements. Why put $'s into a rental, that would take years to recover the cost of buying/installing. And you might not be able to take with you to your next place. And you would have additional cost to de-install it, move it, and put property back to its original shape.
You might want to look @ the plastic covering 'storm' window that go on inside of the home, that will cut down the cold air getting in thru the single pane windows.
I hope eventually they'll move away from subsidizing the borough's operating expenses with electricity. I'm not holding my breath though.
I think there are 3 things that are the biggest electricity hog in the house - water heater, laundry dryer, and the fridge. I've gotten a toaster convection oven to replace my large oven use. So that should helps a bit. I need to plan my laundry a bit better since that involves both the water heater (I don't even wash in hot water), and dryer.
A quick question: I plan to leave Kutztown for 6 weeks during Christmas break. I have families in the Carolinas. I know I need to keep the house heated somewhat to prevent pipes from freezing. Is it OK to turn off the water heater though during those 6 weeks?
The toaster oven is an excellent idea. Dehumidifers are huge electricity hogs. If your refrigerator is old enough, then get a mini frig ($100), you should pay for it in savings in one year.
Air drying clothes is a time tested energy saver. Dryers are some of the most intensive electricity users.
I would just try and turn down the water heater to below room temperature (as suggested above). Why risk a problem when there is so little to be gained?
The vacation will help a lot. As you can see the worst 4 weeks are responsible for 22% of the heating requirements for the winter. Keep the temperature in the low 40's. Some people try to turn it lower, and since a house doesn't heat evenly they burst a pipe.
Bill Date Heating Degree Days
2. Oct. 2012 63
30. Aug. 2012 1
1. Aug. 2012 0
2. Jul. 2012 26
1. Jun. 2012 68
2. May. 2012 452
2. Apr. 2012 423
2. Mar. 2012 837
1. Feb. 2012 1001 <---- worst
3. Jan. 2012 792
30. Nov. 2011 604
31. Oct. 2011 261
30. Sep. 2011 49
1. Sep. 2011 2
1. Aug. 2011 0
It dipped below freezing the night of 12 October. It is colder so far than last winter, but because last winter was so unseasonably warm, it may only be an average winter (long range predictions say average temperature, above average snowfall). But heating oil may break price records this year.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 10-14-2012 at 03:36 PM..
The water heater is in the basement. I will follow the suggestion of turning it down to the lowest setting when I leave for an extended time. Speaking of basement, the landlord did install a dehumidifier that automatically drains out. The problem is, it's running 24/7! I don't think I've ever heard it stop before. I'm thinking of installing a simple timer on the dehumidifier so that it only runs 2-3hrs a day. Is that a bad idea?
I did call the oil company and found out that in the previous heating season, the tenant used 436gal of fuel. The tank is a 275gal. And of course, last season was unseasonable warm! The current rate of oil with this company is $3.76. Is that a lot or oil use?
We have a portable dehumidifier in our basement but we just have it plugged in while it's warm out. A humidifier puts some needed moisture in the air in the dead of winter.
The water heater is in the basement. I will follow the suggestion of turning it down to the lowest setting when I leave for an extended time. Speaking of basement, the landlord did install a dehumidifier that automatically drains out. The problem is, it's running 24/7! I don't think I've ever heard it stop before. I'm thinking of installing a simple timer on the dehumidifier so that it only runs 2-3hrs a day. Is that a bad idea?
I did call the oil company and found out that in the previous heating season, the tenant used 436gal of fuel. The tank is a 275gal. And of course, last season was unseasonable warm! The current rate of oil with this company is $3.76. Is that a lot or oil use?
The oil usage is not very efficient, because I have seen people use less than 500 gallons for a three bedroom house. Unfortunately it is not shockingly high for an older poorly insulated house. Assume the previous tenant got two deliveries averaging 218 gallons apiece. You should not run the tank lower than about 50 gallons.
Unless your landlord is careful, the tenant may have started with a full tank and ended with one that is less than half full. He may have actually used 500 to 600 gallons last year. A landlord should fill the tank when the tenant leaves, and take it out of the security deposit.If he wasn't careful, just check the level so you don't buy him up to $800 worth of fuel that you didn't use.
The supplier usually fills the tank completely. Most suppliers charge a penalty fee if you buy less than 150 gallons. It makes it difficult to return the tank to the level where you left it.
Lehigh Fuels is charging $3.55 right now. A 275 gallon tank is the standard size.
We've had to cut the oil use by close to 35%- 40% since three years ago when heating oil was $2.15/gallon. The primary technique is to keep the house cold, and supplement individual rooms with space heaters. The price of the electricity goes up much less than the fuel bill comes down. As I said earlier, electricity for you is more expensive than heating oil, but you are more efficient with zone heating.
A dehumidifier running non stop 24/7 could be 250 kWh to 500 kWh per month (350 - 700 Watts) . In comparison a refrigerator is usually 50 kWh to 150 kWh per month. Since your last electric bill was 500 kWh the dehumidifier might be significant factor. Unfortunately it is difficult to water proof a basement, and a dehumidifier is an expensive way to keep it from smelling. I suspect that your electric bill is primarily your hot water, your dehumidifier, your dryer, and your refrigerator. Fiddling with your electronics and your lights doesn't help much.
========
The last thing you should do is find out what your electric service is to your home. There is normally 60 Amp, 100 Amp, or 200 Amp service. If you have 60 Amp service the wiring is very old, and your main circuit breaker will blow very easily. Normally 200 Amp service is associated with a larger suburban home. My guess is you have 100 Amp service (it is often marked on the circuit breaker box).
If you have to many dishwashers, dehumidifiers, space heaters, water heaters, etc. going at the same time you might exceed 100 Amps (start up requires extra energy). However it is more likely that you exceed a single 15 Amp circuit somewhere in your house.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 10-16-2012 at 10:03 AM..
We have a PPL plug in thing at my library that is loaned out. It's called Kill A Watt energy monitor. You plug it in to each of your appliances one at a time and you can see how much electricity is being used. Your local library may have one too. PPL was giving them to libraries a few years ago. You can borrow it from my local library by getting a library card at your local Kutztown library first.
My landlord is a very good landlord. He is very meticulous and conscientious. I asked him yesterday about insulation and he said that because this is a brick house, it makes it very difficult to insulate. The oil tank was full when I moved in, even though the gauge says 7/8 full. The gas company said that the gauge is slightly off.
Pocomartin - I looked at my breaker box and couldn't figure out the amperage. Could not find it written anywhere. The landlord did tell me the electrician said that I will need a 40Amp timer if I want to put a timer on the water heater.
toobusytoday - I had a kill-a-watt, but I left it in my house in Raleigh! I will pick it up when I return during Thanksgiving break.
We have a PPL plug in thing at my library that is loaned out. It's called Kill A Watt energy monitor. You plug it in to each of your appliances one at a time and you can see how much electricity is being used.
I bought a Kill-A-Watt energy meter, and it paid back in only one month. There was 5 refrigerators plugged in, and we decided to turn off 2 of them. It was particularly useful for a refrigerator that was over 80 years old (pre-Freon) which was long before anything was labelled. It turned out not be using as much energy as we thought.
There also was 3 dehumidifiers. It turned that the oldest was the worst pig so it is in the closet only to be used as an emergency. By emptying the pans more frequently electricity costs go up. In your case if they automatically drain it can be expensive. I decided that there is no such thing as a cheap dehumidifier (even Energy Star rated ones). The process of getting humidity in your house by poor seals, and then removing it via an electrical appliance is inherently expensive.
The hard wired items can't be measured with a Kill-A-Watt meter. The biggest problem is the hot water. This old house has a strange system put in over 25 years ago involving two zoned hot water heaters.
Unlike the home of toobusytoday this old house uses 24,000 kWh per year along with up to a maximum of 2000 gallons of heating oil (reduced to about 1400 last year) plus 1000 pounds of wood pellets. It needs $40K of renovation work and new appliances.
My landlord is a very good landlord. He is very meticulous and conscientious. I asked him yesterday about insulation and he said that because this is a brick house, it makes it very difficult to insulate. The oil tank was full when I moved in, even though the gauge says 7/8 full. The gas company said that the gauge is slightly off.
Pocomartin - I looked at my breaker box and couldn't figure out the amperage. Could not find it written anywhere. The landlord did tell me the electrician said that I will need a 40Amp timer if I want to put a timer on the water heater.
toobusytoday - I had a kill-a-watt, but I left it in my house in Raleigh! I will pick it up when I return during Thanksgiving break.
An eighth of a tank is 35 gallons. Sometimes tenant fill it up in the middle of April and they burn up a few gallons after that. I am sure they are telling the truth, but in any case it's not like you will be out 150-200 gallons. If you fill it up when you leave, then you are pretty close. Unfortunately the gage on these tanks are never very accurate. The primary purpose of the gage is to see that you don't run the tank to empty when damage to the boiler can be done. At the very least your fuel company will charge you a fee to restart it from zero.
I'm surprised it's not written on the handle. Ask your landlord or add up the individual circuit breakers. The half size (which you may not have) are often 15 Amps. A regular light and outlet is 15 Amps. The outlets in your kitchen are usually 20 Amps. Dryers are usually double switches and are 30 Amps. Water heaters are 30 or 40 Amps (sounds like yours is 40 Amps). Electric stoves can be 50 Amps. The sum for a 100 Amp house will probably be less than 300 Amps. The individual circuit breakers usually add up to less than 3 times the whole house. The reason for that is you don't have everything on at once.
A space heater at fullpower is required by law to be 12 Amps or less. If you run three space heaters (36 Amps) plus a dehumidifer and a dryer and dishwasher and a microwave, you might get up to 100 Amps.
It is much more likely that you blow an individual circuit (especially a 15 Amp one). The safety guidelines do recommend that you run a maximum of 12 Amps on a 15 Amp circuit. So technically if you are running a space heater on a circuit, you shouldn't run anything else (not even a light). In reality, you will blow a circuit if you have a space heater and something heavy like a vacuum cleaner (which are 2.5 to 10.0 Amps).
You may not have a problem anyway. If you purchase three small space heater , you will be trying to save money by keeping the oil heat low, and using the space heaters to warm a portion of the house. Generally, you will only turn one space heater on at at time.
But sometimes you forget and you leave one on in your bedroom and turn a second one on in your bathroom while you are taking a shower. If they are both on the same circuit you will blow a circuit. If you have too much on at once you will blow the main circuit.
It can be difficult to know how the house is wired. In this old house, there is actually one circuit with an outlet in four different rooms. It is easy to plug in a space heater in one room, and a vacuum in another.
Above all be safe with space heaters. Buy ones with tip-over switches. For the bathroom make sure they are labelled bathroom safe (most of them are not). Clearly don't put them where they can fall into a sink or bathtub. Also your bathroom outlets should be GFCI (a little push switch in the middle of the outlet). Use oil filled space heaters if possible, even though they take a while to warm up.
TIMING DEVICES: As we said earlier, the water heater saves very little $$ from being timed. They are only on for a few hours a day. The dehumidifer, or the main thermostat that run 24/7 get more $$ savings. You could try and turn them off or down every day, but sometimes you forget.
At $75 this space heater has a timer and runs at 1500 Watts (12 Amps) full power , but there are two lower wattage settings to save money. It has an anti-freeze override so that it will turn on if the room temperature dips below 44 degrees. It isn't supposed to burn you and is advertised to heats faster compared to other oil-filled radiators.
I generally wouldn't advise you to not turn your oil boiler on at all. The reason is that space heaters may not heat far corners of the house and you may end up with a burst pipe. But it is possible that you can turn your main furnace down as low as 44 degrees, and make judicious use of timers on space heaters to keep the house reasonable when you are there. It is nice to walk into a house that has been heated up just before your arrival. You hate to come home to a home where you can see your own breath.
The homes that were wired in the 1930's and 1940's usually have 60 Amp service. If a home did not have electric heat, it usually has 100 Amp service. If a home is larger or with electric heat, it usually has 200 Amp service. If you have 100 Amp service just be careful too many things are not on at one time. Try and add up the Amperage of all your things. If you have access to circuit breaker (easier with a friend) try turning them off so you can figure out which outlets are on which circuit. That will keep you from overloading a circuit. In a perfect world you should not blow any circuits as they are a safety device only, not an on off switch.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 10-16-2012 at 07:59 PM..
I was contemplating putting a timer on the basement dehumidifier. So I unplugged and plugged it back in to see if it will come on automatically. Recall that unit was running all the time. So after I plugged it back in, the fan did not start. It was ON, and on the automatic setting. It would appear that the humidity sensor must have been stuck before I unplugged it. The act of unplugging an plugging it back on has reset it. It us now running correctly, as in not on all the time!
Hopefully that'll save a significant chunk of my power usage. Pocomartin - I did order a deLonghi radiator heater (I already have one). This is the Vento unit. Supposedly the design of the fins concentrate the heat so that the output is hotter. I don't see how that's possible since the wattage is all the same. Hmm... .
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
