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Old 09-16-2014, 11:48 AM
 
Location: Asheville, NC
12,626 posts, read 31,979,609 times
Reputation: 5419

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopes View Post
Since your heat pump isn't keeping up with the cold, it would be unwise to turn the heat down. The heat pump will have even more work to keep up with the cold.

I would NOT use a space heater while sleeping. It's a fire hazard. Just turn them on when you wake up and turn them off after you get dressed. They heat a room up quickly.

Since it's mostly the three bedrooms a night, I recommend getting new winter bedding. With the proper bedding, your body heat should keep you plenty warm at night. My son lived in a house in Vermont one winter where the indoor temperature was in the low 50s all winter (even with the house having hot water heat and two wood burning stoves). I bought him a fleece wool mattress cover, flannel sheets, a lambswool blanket and a down comforter. He was soooooooooooo comfortable.

What type of clothes are you wearing while you're awake? When I complained about being cold, my husband would tell me to put some clothes on! I was walking around in bare feet, tee-shirt or a long sleeved thin shirt. Once I invested in some really great socks and warmer clothing, I'm never cold anymore. I can't believe I spent decades being cold simply because I didn't have the right clothes for being warm.

When my son got out of that super warm bed in Vermont, he'd turn on the electric heater in his room and head for a hot shower. When he returned to the bedroom, it was warm enough to dress. When he got home from work in the evening, he wore ski clothes to be warm. Of course, you won't need to go to that extreme since you're in South Carolina, but some sweaters and wool socks can make a huge difference in your comfort. Not all wool is itchy. There are some really great soft wools these days. You can keep warm just dressing in layers. Wear a tank top under your long sleeved tee-shirt and a cardigan over that.

I'd seriously invest in some warm clothing and bedding before I left a space heater on all night.

Warm clothing and bedding is the cheapest way to keep warm too.
That was my first thought and I thought it would help. I do put 2 thick comforters on the bed. I can't breathe under the blankets and my head and face get cold. You lose a lot of heat through your head. I wear thermal underwear, flannel pj pants, t-shirt with a sweatshirt and 2 pairs of socks in the bed. I'm still cold! Everyone else is complaining of being cold as well. There's nothing worse than walking around a cold house.

I'm thinking maybe an electric blanket at night I wonder how much electricity they actually use?

Last edited by beckycat; 09-16-2014 at 12:05 PM..
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Old 09-16-2014, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Asheville, NC
12,626 posts, read 31,979,609 times
Reputation: 5419
Would glass doors on the fireplace keep the cold out once the fire dies down?
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Old 09-16-2014, 11:55 AM
 
1,344 posts, read 3,395,210 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beckycat View Post
I do have a fireplace insert with two small blowers. We don't have the glass on the front though, we just use a screen. What do inserts do differently?
Sounds like you have what we do. When the house was built, a fireplace was put in with a design and construction that's something like this.



What we did was to buy a woodstove insert that slides right inside that fireplace.
It then has finishing strips to close in all the gaps to make it look nice.

You end up with an airtight woodstove in the place of your fireplace.

It'll end up like this.



These will put out as much heat as a furnace will.

We run 2 of them and heat about 3800 sq/ft. If both are running, the furnace won't kick on until
temps get to -10° or lower.
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Old 09-16-2014, 12:24 PM
 
5,075 posts, read 11,040,632 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beckycat View Post
I'm finding out that burning wood in a fireplace isn't as efficient as I thought it would be. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The main reason it isn't very efficient is because the hot air going up the chimney is replaced with cold drafts coming in elsewhere. You get the radiant heat in the immediate vicinity while actually cooling the rest of the home.

More modern/efficient stoves have an outside air intake to the combustion chamber rather than drawing in air from the home. They also have more precise controls on the burn rate so it's possible to go 6+ hours between feeding.
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Old 09-16-2014, 12:39 PM
 
43,011 posts, read 107,831,238 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beckycat View Post
That was my first thought and I thought it would help. I do put 2 thick comforters on the bed. I can't breathe under the blankets and my head and face get cold. You lose a lot of heat through your head. I wear thermal underwear, flannel pj pants, t-shirt with a sweatshirt and 2 pairs of socks in the bed. I'm still cold! Everyone else is complaining of being cold as well. There's nothing worse than walking around a cold house.
Even if you get your beds warm at night, you'll still be walking around a cold house when you're awake. Since you're overly sensitive to cold, why don't you install a real furnace? Surely it can't cost as much to heat a house in the south as it does where I live in the north. Our natural gas bill is under 1k per year and our outdoor temps are way lower than South Carolina's. Part of that bill is our hot water heater and cooking stove for the entire year.

Quote:
Originally Posted by beckycat View Post
I'm thinking maybe an electric blanket at night I wonder how much electricity they actually use?
That's safer than space heaters. It will definitely be cheaper than electrically heating a room, but your room won't get warmer with an electric blanket. If you decide to go with electric heat, install electric baseboard in each room. They are safer than space heaters, and you can turn them off when you're not using a room.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanR View Post
You end up with an airtight woodstove in the place of your fireplace.
I like that wood stove insert. It's much more attractive than the traditional wood burning stoves that take up too much room.
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Old 09-16-2014, 12:58 PM
 
Location: Asheville, NC
12,626 posts, read 31,979,609 times
Reputation: 5419
Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanR View Post
Sounds like you have what we do. When the house was built, a fireplace was put in with a design and construction that's something like this.



What we did was to buy a woodstove insert that slides right inside that fireplace.
It then has finishing strips to close in all the gaps to make it look nice.

You end up with an airtight woodstove in the place of your fireplace.

It'll end up like this.



These will put out as much heat as a furnace will.

We run 2 of them and heat about 3800 sq/ft. If both are running, the furnace won't kick on until
temps get to -10° or lower.

That is what we have. I was looking into those newer inserts as well. My issue is that I'm not sure how long we'll stay in this house and I need to offset the cost.
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Old 09-16-2014, 02:28 PM
 
Location: WMHT
4,567 posts, read 5,640,604 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beckycat
As for the fireplace, we run it during the day until 10 PM but my DH doesn't want it running at night due to safety and not too mention, you have to constantly feed it. Therefore, the flue has to stay open all night. I'm sure that is makes the house cold.
A modern woodstove or insert will be a huge improvement in efficiency over a fireplace.

To avoid the safety and feeding issue, have you considered converting that fireplace to a pellet stove or pellet insert? Pellet stoves require a small amount of electricity to run the self-feed auger and fan, but are can run unattended for an entire day; you reload the hopper regularly, and clear out the ashes perhaps twice a week.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrRational View Post
How many of those days do you have each winter? How many overnights get to 35F or lower?
Check out the "Heating Degree Days" statistics for your area. If you use HDD as a ratio, you can more accurately compare year-to-year heating energy/expenditure to see what your real savings are as you make changes.

Electric resistive heat might be 100% efficient, but that doesn't mean it isn't also the most expensive heating option. Have you considered adding a small direct vent gas heater to the coldest bedroom(s)?
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Old 09-16-2014, 02:49 PM
 
756 posts, read 831,133 times
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Post Heat:

Quote:
Originally Posted by beckycat View Post
We have a forced heat pump and when it gets below 35 or so, it fights to keep the temperature up in the house. In turn the house gets cold. We do burn firewood in the fireplace in the living room but it only heats that area and it's not evenly heated.

We are trying to figure out the most efficient and inexpensive way to keep the house warm. We have a 2 story and the house is approximately 1800 sq feet. I've been looking at portable electric heaters, maybe the radiator electric, oil filled ones?? I wonder how much these things are going to increase my bill? I'm also worried if they get hot to touch with a grandbaby here. I don't want a kerosene heater. I'm thinking it's mostly at night in the 3 bedrooms where we need something. Do we turn the central heat down in the rest of the house at night and run these portable heaters or any suggestions? We live in the Upstate of SC. All of the insulation has been checked and replaced.

I don't like to be cold
I Don't Like To Be Cold Either!

Heat Pumps require Emergency Heat.

Since you have a two story house, you should get a two story fireplace.

And also you should get a wood burning stove. I have seen wood burning stoves have chimneys in the middle of the room, runs up to the ceiling up to the next floor, and then up through the second storey room directly above it, and then eventually it makes its way outside the roof. The chimneys to the wood stoves have no insulation which means that the heat escapes to the room the stove is in, and also the room above it. If the stoves and fireplaces are located in the middle of the house, then you can easily heat the entire house!

You could also try to install a geothermal heating or a solar powered heating (electricity or otherwise).

Another solution is to install a boiler system.

For portable heating, I recommend you use "Portable Boilers". They look like old radiators with oil but require electricity. These deliver constant heat with half of the electricity usage. (While the burner cycles off, the hot oils continue to deliver heat!!) These heaters will not burn you but you might want to gate it off because they still get a little hot.

The next best thing to a Portable Boiler is an infrared heater.

And the third best thing is a wall mounted heater such as any baseboard heater.

Make sure that all your windows have plastic over them. If possible, install Storm Windows outside of your regular windows.

Use electric blankets and get thick curtains surrounding your bed like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Make sure your house can handle the electricity.

And finally, you should just move to a warmer climate.
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Old 09-16-2014, 04:42 PM
 
Location: Cold Springs, NV
4,623 posts, read 12,257,058 times
Reputation: 5213
When we moved from California to Reno, NV I put a 20,000 btu natural gas stove in our bedroom. We are starting to get cooler mornings, and in a few weeks I'll be lighting the pilot light. It has a remote thermostat, and by December will be running most of the day. Our house furnace was out for 2 days last year, and that alone made it worth it to me.
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Old 09-16-2014, 06:49 PM
 
Location: WMHT
4,567 posts, read 5,640,604 times
Reputation: 6758
Question All resistive electric heating is 100% efficienct -- and really really expensive to run

Quote:
Originally Posted by In_Correct View Post
For portable heating, I recommend you use "Portable Boilers". They look like old radiators with oil but require electricity. These deliver constant heat with half of the electricity usage. (While the burner cycles off, the hot oils continue to deliver heat!!) These heaters will not burn you but you might want to gate it off because they still get a little hot. The next best thing to a Portable Boiler is an infrared heater. And the third best thing is a wall mounted heater such as any baseboard heater....Use electric blankets...
Delivers constant heat with half the electricity usage? How does that work?
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