What will you do about heat for next winter? (Seabrook: house, purchase)

[clairz]

We've only been away from New Hampshire for a year after having lived there since the early 1980s, and my thoughts are often with all of our friends back there.

Every year we dreaded having to face that huge financial burden that comes with keeping a home warm in the Northeast. With the frightening rise in the price of home heating oil, I'm wondering what you all are planning to do for next winter. Do you have alternate heating plans in the works? (I see that GregW knows a bit about geothermal systems???) Can you still prepay for a season's worth of oil? Have you come up with some other creative solution?

~clairz

[bryfry]

I plan on lowering my thermostat and putting on more sweaters!

[nicolem]

Well fortunately we have propane and not oil. However, propane prices are rising as well. I saw something in the local paper the other day about locking in propane prices- I had never seen that before-just for oil. I saved the ad and we are going to do a little more research on it to see if it would really be worth it.

Other than that-sweaters, blankets, etc.like bryfry said.


Nicolem

[jthibodeau]

Originally Posted by nicolem

Well fortunately we have propane and not oil. However, propane prices are rising as well. I saw something in the local paper the other day about locking in propane prices- I had never seen that before-just for oil. I saved the ad and we are going to do a little more research on it to see if it would really be worth it.

Nicolem,
I also use propane and purchase it through Energy North on a budget plan. By using this plan, the price is capped for the year. Of course, every year the price does go up. And, the budget plan sign up fee has doubled over the last few years so, I guess they get you one way or the other.

Clairz,

My creative solution is to install an additional wood stove and lower my usage of propane even more. I'll wear my self out with the cutting, splitting, stacking and feeding but, unlike others who have posted, I'll spend the winter in shorts and tee shirts. There is nothing like basking in 80 degree temps and watching the snow fall outside or listening to the TV reports of the present blizzard conditions.

[lisa g]

Good question!
See my recent post "revisiting pellet stoves in June".
We'd like to install one in the basement and get heat through the ducts.
I remember someone here doing just that, but can't remember who.
Yes, you can still prepay for oil.

[DareToDream]

We put in more insulation before this last winter and we used the plastic stuff on the windows that use use with the hair dryer to shrink to size, made sure all the outlets that were along an outside wall were well insulated and even closed used "removable caulk" on one of the doors we never use and on a couple of the windows. When the sun was out, I opened the drapes to let the sun in and that also helped.

I work from home, so I was home all day, but we still kept the thermostat around 62-64 and I was comfortable wearing a few extra layers. At night we cut the thermostat back to 58 and used extra blankets and comforters if needed. If we got REALLY cold, we would put the thermostat up a bit in the evenings. We ended up using 700 gallons of oil for the heating season (one of our neighbors used 1700 gallons).

This year we joined the Our Town Energy Alliance (cost was $25). Once they set their price, we will have the option of using them or checking with other oil suppliers in the area to see if we can get a better "lock-in" price.

Oh....we have a fireplace in the living room and my husband built a "decorative" wood "cover" to go in front of it when it was not in use and that kept out any drafts that were coming from there.

We're in northern NH and we were quite comfortable for the most part. Yes, we wore layers in the house, but it really wasn't that big a deal.

[AngelaK]

What will I do next year?

F-R-E-E-Z-E

I'm with BRYFRY............I will lower my thermostat and look about 20 pounds heavier due to all the clothes!!

[GregW]

Keep the electric cold hooked up to the Seabrook Station and let all those Uranium atoms dissasemble themselves to run the steam turbine generator.

Just like last winter. Biggest bill was $270 for January.

[clairz]

Originally Posted by GregW

Keep the electric cold hooked up to the Seabrook Station and let all those Uranium atoms dissasemble themselves to run the steam turbine generator.

Just like last winter. Biggest bill was $270 for January.

Greg, could you explain a little more?

~clairz

[Valerie C]

This past year we lowered the thermostat to 65 when we're up and about, and 60 for overnight. We break out the down comforters, and I think everybody sleeps much better when the air is chilly and you're nice and warm under the covers. Also, I'm going to insist that everybody wears slippers. NO BARE FEET! I know that if my feet are cold, the rest gets cold too. Because I grew up in a house built in the 1800s with no central heat, we had all sorts of "warming techniques" that I use today I have large smooth "dinosaur egg" rocks that I've collected over the years. I put them on the wood stove top and let them heat up, then wrap in a towel and put them under the covers of the kids beds shortly before they head to bed. We did the same thing when I was a kid No electric blankets for us!

We've also changed every window in the house from single pane to energy-star approved, added glass doors to seal off the "sunroom", and changed the heat reclaimer on the wood stove to a quieter and more efficient one. We have glass doors to seal off the fireplace chimney flue, so no drafts there. I work from my home office quite often, and in winter I tend to work in the room where the woodstove is, and keep the main heat temp down to 60. Because the stove is in the 1st level (of a split-level) the heat rises to help heat the area where the thermostat is, which helps by "tricking" the thermostat. The areas just away from the thermostat are much cooler, and that works for me

We've already pre-bought our oil for next winter, we have a couple cord of wood all stacked. Winter? Bring it on...

FWIW, wondering what people consider "cold" and what is "turning the temp down"? Down from 75 to 70?