Frugal Heating Options?

[Satori]

I think I found a place we like but the heating is the kind that uses your water heater then goes though vents. Were avoiding forced air type stuff due to allergies and it just gives me a headache. It also has a fire place with an insert although its pretty small imo. Place looks like its about 800 sq ft. I run the oven pretty much daily for baking so that will offer heat. I'm thinking we could get an oil filled electric radiator for the bedrooms.

Haven't had a fireplace in many many years so I don't even know what it would cost to run for heating since I don't know how long a cord would last ect.

Any other heating options I should be thinking about? We need to find a place quick and options in our price range are pretty slim. This is the nicest place I have found and it has everything I want except the heating.

[Carson]

I think you just would have hot water radiators.  The water circulates through a boiler, in a closed loop and it is kept separate from the hot water you use for bathing/drinking.  This is what we have and it's fine.  The cost of heating our house is much more a function of the energy efficiency (insulation/windows/etc) than it is a function of using a boiler vs. furnace.  The plus side is our electric is pretty low in the winter as there's only one small pump that helps circulate the water.

We keep our thermostat at 66 during the day, 61 overnight.  I use a convection electric heater on energy saver in DS room at night to keep the chill off and him sleeping longer.

[nd_deadhead]

If you have allergy trouble, you probably aren't going to want to burn wood. My Mom had trouble with allergies just having wood in the house (this was wood we'd cut ourselves, on Mom's property). Wood smoke goves off all kinds of stuff to which you could react.

[iowaorganic]

We have hot water heat and I love it!  No dust blowing around and it really isn't too expensive.  Ours is an lp boiler and we have a big old drafty house.  Insulated drapes, the shrink wrap for the windows, and insulation have made a huge improvement in our heating.  The hot water is also nice since the house doesn't get so dry.  

Our bedrooms are unheated- we just open the floor registers and wear warm pjs and use lots of blankets.  I did invest in some used army wool blankets to put under our sheets- that makes the bed sooo much warmer.  Our bedrooms are usually about 50-55 at night and we sleep just fine.  

Our old house was much smaller and used fuel oil and forced air and was much more expensive to heat than our current home.

By insert in your fireplace- you mean a gas insert right?  We use ours for heat when it is chilly- ours runs on lp and is very efficient.  Not going to heat your whole house that way- but takes the chill out in the main space.