A Heating Vow... (loft, houses, to buy)

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by starwalker

I have been a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder for years.

Me too! What great advice Star. When we get up if we are not equipped with a wood burning stove, I know we'll get one in short order. I think DH will also try to outfit us with solar as well.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by dramamama6685

Me too! What great advice Star. When we get up if we are not equipped with a wood burning stove, I know we'll get one in short order. I think DH will also try to outfit us with solar as well.

I designed and built an add-on to the 80-yo addition (kitchen) on the 100-yo house we had in WI that was a passive solar heater/greenhouse/summer kitchen.

That was when I took the building inspector class -- to get it through code -- and fought with the local utility co that had a rebate process but refused to qualify me becuase they said "passive doesn't work in WI."

Well after our first winter's bills came and went, they were wanting to bring tours through to show it off! LOL

I calculated the worst-case winter sun angle and the worse-case summer sun angle and then designed the roof of the room -- which faced south and ran the width of the back of the house -- so that part of the roof was shingled and part was covered with a flat greenhouse glazing, allowing the winter sun to shine on the entire floor (cement, with rock underneath that was insulated from the ground both on the sides and bottom) but giving us summer time shade in the heat of the day.

The entire south wall was glass (recycled storm windows from a neighbor's house) in the winter and I made screen panels for the summer, and included screen door panels so when we were using it as a summer kitchen it was easy to get stuff in from the garden. The original back door to the regular kitchen opened off this "room", though the kitchen also had a side door as well.
East and west walls of the new room had small windows, HIGH on the west and LOW on the east, to direct airflow to control temperature. And I painted the floor dark green.

There was a window as well as the door into the house, and I put a thermometer on the greenhouse side of the window so I could tell when it was warm enough to open up and let the thing help heat the house.

I had a propane stove for canning, put the clothes dryer out there as well, and had galvanized containers along the south side filled with earth for groiwng things. It did as much for me as a screened summer kitchen as it did for heating and growing in the winter; I did a LOT of canning/blanching to freeze the produce and being able to let the breezes blow the heat away, and keep the worst of the mess out of the regular kitchen was wonderful!

I never got to adding insulating panels to the windows, we ended up moving. But that would have been my next step to help the greenhouse. As it was, there were a few nights that I covered the plants with blankets and/or left the door open during the evening, to let the wood stove (we had a combi propane/wood range!) add some warm to help the plants through the night.

It was a fun project that I did almost exclusively by myself as my hubby (you remember him... the one that had to be taught how to hold a hammer when we were building our first home -- which I also designed -- in CO!) had lost a disagreement with a forklift and was hobbling around with two pins in his foot and a non-walking cast at that point. He tried to help, but my desire to maximize the glazed area on the south wall required that the 4x4 supports be toenailed in to "cabinetmakers standards" ... accurately enough that the existing storm windows fit the holes with only a small furring strip on the 4x4s to back the windows. I guess framing to 1/16" specs must be difficult... LOL
actually with the 4x4s I've been seeing these days, maybe I need to re-think that design before I recreate it in Maine.

[mollysmiles]

Star, you're amazing

[dmyankee]

I love the smell of a woodstove in the morning. Smells like...comfort!

[KiddinAroundFarm]

Originally Posted by genmomto5

You are so very brave. I'm not sure if I could take the whining around here if we tried that. In our old house in MD we had a "Free heat machine" wood burning furnace that worked great. Of course part of our energy savings for that was having a Brother-in-Law who cut down trees for a living and kept us supplied with his excess. Since it was an outdoor furnace wood could be burned in it that wasn't good for burning in a stove or fireplace.

Not brave so much as cheap... lol. Hopefully one day an outdoor wood furnace is in our future, but they are sooo expensive!

Originally Posted by starwalker

I am an economy NUT and an eco-freak as well... I raised my kids in a home in eastern WA state that had nothing BUT wood heat and at that, only cook stoves, nothing that would really hold a fire over the night. Freezing nights were common, though perhaps not quite as sever as ME.

And that glass of wine really doesn't help... but it sure tastes good!

All of these are great ideas that you had Starwalker!!! We've used many of them over the years, and will continue to do so. In our old home, a doublewide trailer, we actually lived mostly in the living room in the winter, as it was warmer there w/the kitchen. We are going to do some things to help this year, and the plastic over the windows is an idea once again, but they are soooo expensive as well! Grrrr!!!

I love the kitty thing, we had a cat once that would do that. Now we have a small dog who sleeps in between us with her head on the pillows, she throws great heat, and a 70 lb. pit mix who is our "doggie electric blanket". He feels the need to be ON TOP of us, which is nice in the winter. I was blessed with the "doggie blanket" last night.

Originally Posted by Arcticthaw

Starwalker has good information, that we use in Alaska. #1 is stop the drafts, # 2 is double and preferable tripple pain windows. #3 is INSULATION add it every where. First in the Attic. 18" is not too much. Not knowing your heat source, the best efficiency for oil fired is the Toyo or Monitor brand of heaters. More like room heaters, but work well when sized right.

I agree Artic, unfortuneatley, money is an issue right now. We make ends meet, that's it. So extras are just not an option at this point. I am going to see about the drafts this weekend, and we can seal those up. I'm sure we have them, as the house was built in 1800. For a furnace we have an Olsen, not the greatest, but it's what was here.

[mollysmiles]

I agree...nice smell....and so easy to sit by that stove, get all settled in, and not move until you absolutely have to!!

I broke down and turned one zone of our heat on the other night....we have a split level, and often just by turning on the lower level for a bit it's just enough to take the chill off. I really try hard not to turn it on before I have to, and at night it's on low in my room--65 (it has it's own zone), because I like it cool to sleep. We have a propane fireplace that I just lit the pilot in too, so it will be ready when I need it. I haven't had the chimney cleaned for the wood burning fireplace though, so I'm not sure I'm even going to use that this year--can't seem to make those chimney sweeps a priority right now!

[KiddinAroundFarm]

Originally Posted by midwestmom

We've done a few of the things Starwalker suggested, except the brick part.
I used plastic but in one room where the sun shone on it all day and it stank big time - and put a sheet of 1/2 inch foam board (alias pin-able poster board) that worked well at keeping out cold and heat in summer, it seemed like it just absorbed the outside temperature. We just propped it against the blinds. I'm sure its cheaper if you get a bigger sheet and cut it to fit the window better.

We always had covers in the living room and warm slippers w/heavy socks. The best way we found to keep warm at night was keeping your head covered - I was amazed at how much diff that made. They do say you lose 80% of your body heat through your head so it makes sense.

This was in Wisconsin - probably similar to parts of Maine.

We've tried to go to similar extremes to keep cool here, and I found out we cut our electric (mainly AC) cost to 1/2 our neighbors (same model/size duplex). Well worth the effort and unusual measures..

Foam insulation is a great idea! One that we'll probably try!!! I like that... and it might make a difference at least in the living room, which is very dark at times, which makes it cooler. In the summer it was nice, but in the winter I think it'll be the coldest room. We'll see how it goes.

[KiddinAroundFarm]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

Star, you're amazing

I second this!!! You are wonderfully amazing Star!!!

[KiddinAroundFarm]

I did forget to mention that the house is only 1078 sq. ft. so it should be easier to heat. Oh yes, and we have the ability to close off the heat that goes upstairs, by way of a valve on a pipe in our pantry. So that should help as well. I'm hoping to close that off, and not have to "heat" the upstairs except by simply the heat transfer from the downstairs. And we keep the extra bedroom shut off anyway, so all there really is to heat is the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, staircase and landing, and our room. Not too bad really.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by KiddinAroundFarm

Not brave so much as cheap... lol. Hopefully one day an outdoor wood furnace is in our future, but they are sooo expensive!
<snip>
Now we have a small dog who sleeps in between us with her head on the pillows, she throws great heat, and a 70 lb. pit mix who is our "doggie electric blanket". He feels the need to be ON TOP of us, which is nice in the winter. I was blessed with the "doggie blanket" last night.

<snip>

I agree Artic, unfortuneatley, money is an issue right now. We make ends meet, that's it.

I truly understand "cheap" (make that "thrifty... sounds better <g>) having spent much of my life strugging to make the end of the money meet the end of the month. Finally figured I had mastered the challenges of poverty and challenged the Powers That Be to try me with the challenges of affluence.. and so far it seems to be working at least by my definitions! So the focus of my "thrifty" efforts is saving for my move to ME and buying a home there.

I have two dogs as well... my medium size "mutt" sleeps on the bed (along with several cats) and if necessary I guess I can call up the BIG dog for extra warmth... she is a Saint Bernard who usually is on the floor.

I had determined to make my recent trip to ME "out of pocket" rather than "on plastic" and I did... but unfortunately I can now see the bottom of the pocket again... so we focus on building up the reserves again... at this point I am seeing a $40 a month savings in electric... which helps. And now if I can just stop buying "good deals" on meat when I find it and eat out of the freezer <g>