Got a big ol' farmhouse?

[LaLibertad]

Then tell me how you heat it without losing your shirt.

We looked at a property today that was perfect, except the house was HUGE! I pictured my late autumn putting plastic and quilts on windows and shutting off upstairs rooms. Doesn't help that it is oil heat. This is the only hesitation. It is an estate house and priced to move (ie, within our reach!).

What do you do to keep your house warm(ish) in the winter? Even for those with smaller properties but older heating methods, what are your tactics? If we would change from fuel oil to something more sustainable (and cheap!) what should we consider? What does a change like that cost in money and time? Tell me your stories mamas!

[karne]

Well, I seem to have lost my shirt somewhere this winter.................

Actually, there are some great threads on here about heating your home by various methods, oli, wood, pellet stove, etc. Also info re:insulating and keeping warm. A search might give you more info.

We have a large old farmhouse that we heat a good deal with wood from our property, and use oil as a back up. For instance, I won't go to bed with the woodstove burning, so I "crank" my heat to 59-60. We plastic the many windows in the house, and shut off the part of the house we aren't using. it's entirely possible for us to live in 1/2 of our house, and because of the way the pipes are layed out, we can leave the other half unheated. We also have propane heaters hardwired in some rooms, and baseboard heat in other rooms. Gotta love the options! We keep a basket of slippers around and everyone wears layers. This year we're going to a level payment plan for the oil so we can plan better.

Heating an old house is definitely a challenge. In our area we see power losses, so I would not want to be without my woodstove and generator.

[she]

um, it stays cold?

We burned 6 cord of wood this winter and a tank of oil, and we were frugal and cold. Layers, slippers, blankets to cuddle under on the couch. The oil furnace is set to come on at 12C, which only happens at night when the fire dies, or if we are out for the day. During the day the fire keeps the kitchen and livingroom quite warm. The bedrooms stay pretty cool, but with enough blankets, who cares how cold it is when you are asleep?

The fault lies in our old-fashioned cast iron stove, it eats wood like candy! I was filling it every 2 hours - insane. This fall we hope to get something better, an airtight or the like, get more bang out of the wood because I really don't want to buy more than 6 cords.

[Bluegoat]

Yes, a good wood stove is really the way to go. Arranging ducting and getting one of those keen fans can help circulate the heat. A cookstove is great but concider whether you can keep the fire burning through the night.

You will want to put plastic on windows and use storm windows if possible. Curtains on windows and doors into areas that don't need to be heated. Hot water bottles. Make sure pipes are insulated well, and you may be able to add insulation in the attic or in the walls.

Another possibility is a duel wood/oil furnace, a good efficient one. If you can get one with two zones even better, heat upstairs at night and down in the day. Some won't work without electricity though so you might still need a stove.

Hot water bottles or hot bricks in the bed are good. My husbands family used to bring their beds down to the kitchen and living room in the winter to be closer to the stove. The dog's water dish would still be frozen in the morning in the kitchen though. I think they needed a bigger firebox.

[mommariffic]

We don't have a farmhouse, but we do have a large, old ranch that's set in the woods so I feel like I'm half authentic ;] We have a wood burning stove that we light to keep the kitchen & playroom warm, and a pellet stove which covers the living room/music area...with those two on we keep one portion of our house warm, and we save a ton of money. We buy $500 worth of pellets and those have to last us the winter, and we have wood from our forest in the back that we cut down, and dry.

We do have electric heat, and if it's REALLY cold, at night [in our daughters room especially] we will keep it on low for sleeping, because the other heaters go off. It still can be chilly, and sometimes my husband cheats and turns on the heat because he's a wimp, but we are lucky because we never have to use AC in the summer so our bills are dirt cheap.

[*~Danielle~*]

My advice would be buy a smaller house. If you want to be economical on all fronts, it is probably wise to get something that you fit in but not too big for your family.

Bigger always seems more romantic than it truly is.

[1jooj]

Ours is big and old. Just over 100 years, and it wasn't insulated when we moved in. We insulated the upstairs and replaced all the windows, so I am pretty sure that made a difference. But also, like others have said, we plastic the windows that we didn't replace, and we close off rooms we don't use. But our furnace is pretty new and it's natural gas. We averaged about $120 per month this past heating season, and I pay actual. The fast feedback helps us see how we're doing.

We heat to 60-62 when we're home, 55 when we're not home.

[Sasha_girl]

Our farmhouse is old but small. It's still a beast to heat back when we heated with gas. Now we have a woodstove and it has made a huge difference in our energy costs. We also do the basics--covering windows and doors, shutting off unneeded rooms, lots of blankets, etc.

[lucyem]

Take a really good look at insulation in the attic. Any money spent on the insulation now will save you in the future.

[Skim]

I'm following your thread because we, too, are looking to buy land and a house in Wisconsin and hope to stay warm...For cheap.

[Caneel]

We don't live on a farm but we do have a big, old house.

Recently, we covered the original clapboard siding with rigid insulation (and new exterior siding) and completely insulated the attic. It has made a tremendous difference in our heating bills.

[confustication]

We have a woodstove, and natural gas heat. I want to rplace the woodstove with a better one, but this works for now. it helps tremendously to keep the bill lower. We plastic windows and so on as well.

Still, we were at about $350/month over te winter, so we need to do some work. We are planning to put an addition on soon, and after tat we're going to have the whole thin resided with vinyl siding and an added layer of insulation. We *may* luck out an be able to apply for weatherization as with my maternity leave last year my income took enough of a hit to maybe make us eligible... we can hope!:

[wombatclay]

Our current home is tiny (really tiny) and heated with a pellet stove.

But I grew up in a drafty farmhouse built in the late 1700s (and then abandoned for about 40 years before my parents bought it in the early 1980s). Initially we heated with wood and portable kerosene heaters, then we replaced the kerosene with a coal stove. After my brother and I moved out and my parents needed an "easier" heating option they replaced the coal stove with a propane stove w/ thermostat.

Over the years we opened walls (removing lathe/plaster) in order to insulate... these days you might do better with a blown insulation depending on the state of the walls in the house. We insulated the attic and put in ventilation, plastic covered and quilted windows during the winter, closed off much of the house during the winter (we all had seperate rooms upstairs Spring-Fall but had a family bedroom on the first floor during the winter), we got used to indoor winter temps in the mid-50s and nighttime indoor temps in the upper 40s (dress in layers, drink hot tea), we put down thick rugs for the winter and lighter rag rugs for the summer, we made lots of window/door snakes to stop drafts, we planted dozens of trees to create wind breaks, we sealed the old stone foundation, etc.

A lot will depend on what you "need" to be comfortable" (temps you'd consider "too cold"/"too hot", amount of space you'd be willing to close off during winter... is the only bathroom far from the main living/heating area for example?) as well as just what options the house offers... can you insulate easily? Can you have a home energy audit done as part of the evaluation process to see what is available in terms of energy solutions/budget? How are fuel prices in your region and how much work are you able to do in terms of heating?

Good luck!

[LaLibertad]

Ugh, someone put in an offer that was accepted on Sunday, we put a secondary on Monday. So, not going to happen right now, but I'm still taking notes because it WILL eventually! Thanks for all the posts!

[MaryLang]

I have loved this post. We are contemplating an old victorian, but with all the window and the huge size of this thing, we are a little worried. We could easily live in the downstairs alone, so I'm glad to hear others have done this.

[smeisnotapirate]

We replaced all the windows, and our summer project is to insulate the crap out of the house and replace the rest of the exterior doors. We have a 200yo farmhouse, and heat with oil as well. We're looking at a wood stove as well, but have no chimneys in the house.

[nine_rugrats]

Our house is pretty big and we only use wood stoves to heat it. One big one in the living room and a small one in the kitchen...that i also cook on. During the day we bake a lot so the kitchen stays nice, and the living room and dining rooms are always warm. Our bedrooms can get cold tho. We use tons of quilts, flannel sheets and the kids wear layers to bed. Some times you can see your breath in the bedrooms. But we are never cold sleeping cause the beds are so warm...but it makes it hard to want to get up on cold mornings.
We put plastic on the windows and i hang heavy drapes on the windows. It isnt for everyone, but i like. Although there are times that i wish i could just turn up the heat and be warm...
Also i think that you tend to get used to it. We dont have air either, so i guess we have just learned to get used to it.

[htcamommy]

just to let you know I have a 2700 sqft farm house and last month my bill was $617 and this month its $588. This has been an exceptionally cold winter for everyone but living in Louisiana we really don't plan for "winter" so this came as quite a surprise for us. These types of bills are very common in August for us however. In the summer we have and 80 degree rule during the day. When its 105 outside thats still alot of air conditioning. Next winter however we are looking to be much more prepared. Our biggest problem with our home is the add ons and the lack of insulation there.