A Heating Vow... (how much, house, heat pump)

[KiddinAroundFarm]

So, this year we've decided that we're going to try something. In an effort to reduce our heating bills, oil usage, and generally improve our overall "green"ness, we are going to not use our heat until November 1st, and not use it after April 1st. Now, we've had nights as low as 37 degrees so far, and it's gotten mighty cold. Tonight, at 9pm it's 65 in our bedroom, which is upstairs in what is essentially a cape home. It's 60 in the kitchen, but I've been cooking. Generally we see about 7-10 degrees higher up here than downstairs. So we'll see how this goes.

First year in this house, and the old owner's heating bill was around 500 gallons per year. We'd like to cut that in half if at all possible. Lots of blankets, and warm sweaters. We're used to wood heat, but haven't been financially able to install the woodstove in this home. Next year (hopefully) when we have the woodstove in, we already have 7 or so cords of firewood seasoned, ready to cut, split and stack that hubby got from the old house before we sold it.

Anyone ever done this before? Cut the heating season shorter? Mainers in particular? And has it worked?

[forest beekeeper]

We have been hit by frost.

So the temps must have gotten down to 32, even though the weather service has said that we only saw 37.

[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.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by KiddinAroundFarm

Anyone ever done this before? Cut the heating season shorter? Mainers in particular? And has it worked?

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.

Several things we did helped (and I will warn you in advance, we are not exactly conventional folks...). Co-family sleeping for one...the youngest in between mom and day and the sisters often shared a bed (there were 5 in all, eventually.)

We would heat up a brick for each person in the oven after I cooked supper and the fire was being allowed to burn down and when we went to bed, each person would come to the stove with a hold terry towel and collect their brick. The towel kept the brick from being too hot for hands or feet and kept the stove soot (with wood it seems there is always soot!) off the sheets.

I made nightcaps (think of "A Night Before Christmas..." for each of us; the girls' were mob cap types, my hubby got a stocking cap. Warm heads help. One of my kids had a kitty that loved to sleep by her head, which was encouraged in the winter.

But the main thing is to KILL THE DRAFTS. Even the smallest crack can suck warmth out faster than you would believe. We used those very clear plastic inside panels that you put up on the window trim with double-stick tape and then hit with a hair dryer to shrink-to-fit. With old windows, that helps a bunch... also caulk around the window trim if you feel a draft (or carry a candle about when the wind is blowing hold it up by the side of the window to watch for flame flicker. Sometimes even electrical outlets let in a draft... they have pre-cut foam pieces that you fit behind the cover plate.

If you have drafts under the doors, make "door snakes"... cut at piece of cloth long enough to cross the doorway and them some and about 12-16 inches across. Sew into a tube and fill with ... sand? kitty litter? vermiculite? and then sew shut the end. Place across the bottom of the door.

Heavy drapes help too, insulated ones.. and if they fit CLOSE to the windows and there is a cornice at the top, so much the better.

these are just a few of the things off the top of my head. Here in NC I have a "heat pump" and aux. electric heat and I turned the whole shebang off a couple of years ago as it was so old and inefficient. Rental, landlord doesn't give a hoot about the place... but he leaves me, my dogs and my cats alone so that is fine. I have a couple of grill-size propane bottles and screw-on heater heads for them.. I use these to heat the room that I am in (I work at home, so the design studio... living room when I am in there... bathroom at bath time and changing time to take off the chill.

Ahhh... there was another trick we used in the family... a foldingclothing rack like folks used to dry things, stood by the stove in the winter. The kids would hang their nightclothes on it to warm, and their sweats and jeans in the morning and change by the stove.

Also when sitting to watch TV or do other sedentary things, keep afghans around to throw over your legs or shoulders.

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

[forest beekeeper]

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.

KAF is very brave.

[Elcarim]

Starwalker, that sounds like advise right out of my Little House on the Prairie books! And I drink a lot of Port in the coldest of winter - that would be the upper 30s at best here! But I do love the warm feeling as it travels down into my belly and oh, so sweet it is!

[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.

[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..

[starwalker]

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..

The foam insulation is a great idea. I had not gotten to that point, but don't understand why I forgot to mention it, as it had been on my mind in my "Maine home dreaming" times.

I remember my mom keeping my childhood home cool in the summer (MI) by simply shutting the drapes on the "sunny side" of the house (she was a stay-to-home mom so could keep up with this as the sun moved) during the day and then when the sun went down in the evening, we would make sure all the windows were open and turn on the big fan that my dad had installed in the attic vent window, which blew out, and pulled air up from the cool basement and in through the windows.

Letting the sun shine in helps the head in the winter for sure. I have no sense of smell, but no one in the family mentioned any odor for those "insider" plastic storms...

And of course, insulation in the building is essential. I know folks swear by double- and triple-pane windows, but when I look at the cost of them (being of the less-abundant pocketbook demographic) I tend to look for less costly things I can do that may involve a little more daily work. Now, if they could just make the new windows that would stay "good" for a lifetime (no losing their seal, taking moisture in between the panes and clouding up!) I might be a little more eager to fork over the dough. One thing I insist on for my dwelling... it's got to have sufficient natural light and I have to be able to SEE OUT and to open the windows too.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

Starwalker, that sounds like advise right out of my Little House on the Prairie books! And I drink a lot of Port in the coldest of winter - that would be the upper 30s at best here! But I do love the warm feeling as it travels down into my belly and oh, so sweet it is!

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