How many days a year to you have to run your home heater? (Portland: hardwood floors, townhouse)

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by Minervah

The size of the place may or not make a difference. There are other factors involved.

I live in the smallest apartment ever but because there is little to no insulation in the walls, I am paying the highest electric bill ever. My apartment is all electric with baseboard heating. Even though I am sandwiched in between two other apartments, it does nothing to keep the heat in my apartment.

You need to expand your strategy to finding a place that was built after the 70's and would be well insulated as well as the types of windows and doors it has. Also the type of heating. Stay away from baseboard heating if at all possible.

Depending upon your neighbor downstairs to help you heat your place is a hit or miss. Your neighbor may not run his/her heat enough to benefit you. Also most apartment buildings in Portland are on one level. There are apartments that include heat in the rent but as heating costs go up so does the rent. You cannot control that.

Before you rent a place, check with the utility company to see what the average cost of electricity or gas has been for the previous tenants.

That seems like sound advice. I would rather pay only $50/month max. if it can be helped.

In my Portland area apt. searching, I didn't find most to be one level, except for some brick units in the Hawthorne area and a few places in the more rural zones. At least 3/4ths of them (in west Portland out through Beaverton) were 2 or more stories. Can you give a couple examples of single-story complexes? I wouldn't mind that option (to minimize noise) but found them scarce.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by Minervah

The size of the place may or not make a difference. There are other factors involved.

I live in the smallest apartment ever but because there is little to no insulation in the walls, I am paying the highest electric bill ever. My apartment is all electric with baseboard heating. Even though I am sandwiched in between two other apartments, it does nothing to keep the heat in my apartment.

You need to expand your strategy to finding a place that was built after the 70's and would be well insulated as well as the types of windows and doors it has. Also the type of heating. Stay away from baseboard heating if at all possible.

Depending upon your neighbor downstairs to help you heat your place is a hit or miss. Your neighbor may not run his/her heat enough to benefit you. Also most apartment buildings in Portland are on one level. There are apartments that include heat in the rent but as heating costs go up so does the rent. You cannot control that.

Before you rent a place, check with the utility company to see what the average cost of electricity or gas has been for the previous tenants.

Ditto on the baseboard heaters. I keep reading about "monitor heaters" fueled with kerosene as being super efficient but that seems more common in houses, not apartments.

[Minervah]

I was thinking of looking into the kerosene heaters too. I don't know if they come small enough for apartments or what kind of ventilation they require. I would worry a bit as to how safe they would be in a small apartment.

I actually have a small electric space heater I used to heat up the bathroom because the electric base board heather takes forever to heat up. I also use that heater in my small living room when it's not too cold outside.

Regarding the one level apartments. I was thinking of the Hawthorne area where I live and the complexes farther SW where I used to live along Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy. There are lots of complexes there. NE for example Sullivan's Gulch has similiar apartment buildings to SE. SW near Goose Hollow and NW in the Alphabet District has large and small apartment buildings.

It all depends upon where you want to live. It seems I always see more one levels but then maybe that's because that's what I usually look for when.

[khyron]

Originally Posted by Minervah

I was thinking of looking into the kerosene heaters too. I don't know if they come small enough for apartments or what kind of ventilation they require. I would worry a bit as to how safe they would be in a small apartment.

Absolutely all heaters of any kind which involve combustion require venting to the outside. Even "ventless" gas fireplace logs, which if you ask me are some of the stupidest things ever, require you to open a window during use (which nobody does since it's cold out, which then results in them breathing unhealthy amounts of exhaust, yuck). Oh yuppies and their lazy "looks pretty, no function" accessories.

Also, this probably won't make anyone else laugh, but for some reason every time I read this thread title on the forum main page my mind parses it as "home theater" and I wonder to myself "huh, what does that mean, are they concerned about their projector bulb?"

[Rob Allen]

1700 sq ft 2-story home, gas heat, and the gas is only for heating. Monthly bill averages $30. We use it from October to June.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Also, this probably won't make anyone else laugh, but for some reason every time I read this thread title on the forum main page my mind parses it as "home theater" and I wonder to myself "huh, what does that mean, are they concerned about their projector bulb?"

Glad I'm not the only one!

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Rob Allen

1700 sq ft 2-story home, gas heat, and the gas is only for heating. Monthly bill averages $30. We use it from October to June.

That's great. It's one thing that we renters loose out on. We can't choose what type of heating we get with out rental apartments or change it if we don't like it.

Recently PGE installed new meters for two apartments in my rental. One for me and one for a neighbor. They then claimed that the old meters were wrong and we both wound up getting $50.00 increases in our electric bills. We had been on the budget plan which averages out the usage through the year.

They said they would reevalute next December. Big deal. One thing for sure, I will never rent a place again that has electric baseboard heating.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by Minervah

I was thinking of looking into the kerosene heaters too. I don't know if they come small enough for apartments or what kind of ventilation they require. I would worry a bit as to how safe they would be in a small apartment.

I actually have a small electric space heater I used to heat up the bathroom because the electric base board heather takes forever to heat up. I also use that heater in my small living room when it's not too cold outside.

Regarding the one level apartments. I was thinking of the Hawthorne area where I live and the complexes farther SW where I used to live along Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy. There are lots of complexes there. NE for example Sullivan's Gulch has similiar apartment buildings to SE. SW near Goose Hollow and NW in the Alphabet District has large and small apartment buildings.

It all depends upon where you want to live. It seems I always see more one levels but then maybe that's because that's what I usually look for when.

A Monitor heater (http://www.monitorproducts.com/pdf/manuals/m2400.pdf - broken link) (seems like a brand name patent) is said to introduce no fumes into the interior, and to be over 90% efficient. You apparently need to have the fuel tank outside, so it might require an accommodating landlord or be impossible with fire codes, etc. For a smaller stand-alone house it seems ideal for cheap heat.

Update after a little research:

No reason to worry as Monitor retires heaters, sellers say | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram (looks like it's something to get ASAP or find something similar)

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by khyron

Absolutely all heaters of any kind which involve combustion require venting to the outside. Even "ventless" gas fireplace logs, which if you ask me are some of the stupidest things ever, require you to open a window during use (which nobody does since it's cold out, which then results in them breathing unhealthy amounts of exhaust, yuck). Oh yuppies and their lazy "looks pretty, no function" accessories.

Also, this probably won't make anyone else laugh, but for some reason every time I read this thread title on the forum main page my mind parses it as "home theater" and I wonder to myself "huh, what does that mean, are they concerned about their projector bulb?"

Clarification: Home vs. car heater, the latter probably being in use for all but the summer months. Half joking.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by ca_north

A Monitor heater (http://www.monitorproducts.com/pdf/manuals/m2400.pdf - broken link) (seems like a brand name patent) is said to introduce no fumes into the interior, and to be over 90% efficient. You apparently need to have the fuel tank outside, so it might require an accommodating landlord or be impossible with fire codes, etc. For a smaller stand-alone house it seems ideal for cheap heat.

Update after a little research:

No reason to worry as Monitor retires heaters, sellers say | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram (looks like it's something to get ASAP or find something similar)

Thanks for the information. I remember KeroSun heaters being advertised a while back. So that's what happened to them. I have a very nice accomadating landlord who actually used to work for PGE before he retired. I am going to talk to him about this.