I LOVE my little ranch ...we only used 550 gallons of heating oil last year

[Joe L]

Originally Posted by clamboy

How do you like your coal stove?
We're effed

C

Its great, I also can burn wood in the lower door.
With coal it can run for 20+ hours and heat most the house with the heat shut off. (You can load a 5 gal bucket of coal in the top and a conveyer inside slowly keeps it going)

I have it set up to shut the oil burner off wile its hot.
Use the ceiling fan on slow to blow the heat down.
It can also burn pellets but the coal hotter and longer.

[Joe L]

Originally Posted by xbure9x

how much do new windows factor in saving energy as opposed to wall insulation? I ask because I live in a 1940s cape, and I sincerely doubt that any of the previous owners opened up the walls and insulated properly. Without the expense of going for blown in insulation or ripping the walls down, it seems the only thing I can control are the windows, and the doorways.

I pay roughly $140-150 per month for gas on the monthly keyspan plan. I try to keep the house at 68 degrees, but have my automatic thermostat set to bump it up to 70 in the morning and in the evening. I also think we have the original boiler here too, so I am sure that is not helping. Does anyone know if this is an average expense for a gas bill, bearing in mind, I need to keep the house semi warm all day since I am here all day with my son...I can't drop the house to 65 or so like I am sure a lot of people do when they go to work.

If you live in a 1940's cape modern plastic windows are going to look like crap. They rip the old windows out and use these big wide capping like the McMansions
I hate them !
Good old Hunter window fans dont fit, AC's dont fit, they dont open all the way.

For 3 months winter I just put double sided tape and heat shrink plastic. It helps astoundingly.
My parents installed those new fancy windows with the Argon gas, the plastic worked better !!!
Now with that Anderson stuff they cant put in there big fans and AC in the bedroom

[nancy thereader]

I have electric heat in my small townhouse. When I first bought the house , people said that I was crazy, but it is more economical than oil right now . I do have a wood stove , though also.

[okaydorothy]

I agree with the electric. In our old house we had electric heat and everyone said we were mad. But the great thing is that you only have to heat the rooms you are in. Our lipa bill never went over $250 ; was about $120 most months ; but remember we didnt have oil or gas to deal with. We alos have a wood stove in the basement that we used all the time and there was a fan in the ceiling which was vented to the living room ; boy it sucked the heat right up to the first floor.

We still own the house and are looking for a tenant.
d

[ClarkStreetKid]

We had a kerosene heater back in the early 80's. Nothing like heating a home with something that's smelly and dangerous. LOL.

One Christmas my parents got me a new heavy quilt for my bed. Nothing says the Merry Christmas better than we're cutting the heat to your bedroom. (I had my own thermostat on the second floor)

[nbres]

Originally Posted by ClarkStreetKid

We had a kerosene heater back in the early 80's. Nothing like heating a home with something that's smelly and dangerous. LOL.

One Christmas my parents got me a new heavy quilt for my bed. Nothing says the Merry Christmas better than we're cutting the heat to your bedroom. (I had my own thermostat on the second floor)

I grew up with the same parents...

We had a kerosene heater - we also had a large fireplace.

My brother and I slept with our outdoor camping gear on in our bedroom sometimes because my parents would shut-off the heat at night.

BTW in the summer we didn't have airconditioning either.

[ClarkStreetKid]

AC for me on Clark street was jumping in the pool for a bit if it was too hot to sleep. My wife and I are a bit better than my parents about the heat, but not much. We have AC now.

[valentine92]

I replaced all the windows in my home as well and noticed my oil consumption go down. Last year we used 600 gallons and the year before that 535 and that is for our hotwater year round also.

[caroltherescuer]

We have a house that is much too big for the two of us so we turn down the heat and use an electric heater and/or electric blanket when we are going to be in just one or two rooms. Also, we turn off the oil burner most of the time April-Oct except when we need hot water (our next heater will be an "on-demand" water heater).