Help me be more energy efficient this winter!

[wwinorth]

I'm trying to lower our utility bills this winter. We are currently using space heaters (yes, I know! they're horrible!) and a fireplace to heat our house. We simply cannot afford to get a new furnace. (we have 50 year old gas floor furnaces that we are really uncomfortable with, so we never turned the gas on) I'm thinking about getting baseboard heaters, but I'm not sure if they are any more efficient than what we are using.

We are also thinking about getting a heatalator(sp?) for the fireplace. Or, is there a way to turn our fireplace into a pellet stove? (sorry if that is a stupid question! I haven't seen very many pellet stoves) Could we put a small pellet stove in our bedroom?

We don't have a lot of money for this, maybe $500 at most.

Thoughts?

other things we are doing: replacing our lightbulbs with compact flourescense(sp?) covering our windows with plastic.

Thanks!!

[I Fly]

You can buy a woodstove insert for fireplaces, although they will probably go over your budget. Woodstoves will heat much more efficiently than the fireplace, though, so it is worth researching.

How is the insulation in your attic? If that can be beefed up, I think it would help you retain heat.

Do you line-dry your clothes? That is the major change I've made this year, and I've seen my electric bill cut in half almost every month since I started in Jan. You could also conserve hot water/water heater usage by doing more laundry on cold. And, you could cut out use of some appliances - like the dishwasher. Is a solar-oven useful in your area during winter? You could use the sun to cook instead of your oven/stove, which require fuel/energy?

Make sure to let the sun shine in any window it can this winter to help heat.

I wouldn't heat the bedroom - you can dress warmly and use a down comforter to be comfortable there. During one ice storm where we lost power, our house got down to 40-45 degrees, and we were toasty in bed, just chilly once we got out! The main place you need heat is where you hang out during the day.

Good luck!

[calicocj]

A lot of utility companies offer a free audit for your home to identify ways to save energy.... (in a weird way, you saving energy actually saves them money by shaving peak loads) ... so you may want to see if your utility does that!

One idea is an insulating blanket for your hot water heater, and also turning your hot water heater set point down by a few degrees

[wwinorth]

Our hot water heater is in our (finished)basement, so it stays relatively warm. I had looked into a blanket for it last year and decided that it wouldn't have much effect.

Hmmm... I have never heard of a woodstove insert. Please describe it to me!
Our attic is very well insulated it has appx. 9" of blown in insulation (that should be plenty for around here!) We always wash in cold and we sometimes line dry (except not usually in the winter, I'll have to think about that one!)

We actually spend a lot of time in our bedroom. It is rather large and has room for toys and stuff. But, this year I'm hoping to spend more time in the basement the temp is fairly constant down there.

My main concern is our heat issue. The fireplace helps some but I really need to get rid of the space heaters, but we have to have some heat source. Last year my inlaws came down unexpectedly in a snow storm. (s)MIL spent the entire time walking around shivering and whining about being cold. After they left I went into their room and saw that they had turned the space heater up to 80 degrees. That was a $300 electric bill. We cannot do that this year!!!!

Thanks for your help ladies!!

[AngelBee]

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[Merilin]

How is your window insulation? Really thick curtains help keep it warm over night. Also, taking a warm/hot water bottle to bed can help keep you warm and temperatures can be lowered over night.

A ceiling fan is actually also helpful during winter, as warm air rises and "collects" at the ceilings. The fans redistribute the heat, and you will end up using less heat. Running the fan does not use much electricity.

Check, that your doors are closing tightly, if not consider insulation here as well.

[lightheart]

close the curtains at night, open the ones where the sun shine on the during the day

hang quilts/blankets/tapestries on the walls, use as decor.

rugs on the floors

this is more work but can you heat water on or near your fireplace or heaters, could get a large pan and if you can't set it on, try next to the heat source and you won't be using the hot water heater

if MIL come, hand her a pair of socks, a hat set of gloves and throw the breaker for her room! or you could just accendently 'break', meaning remove the control knob to the thermostate in there and say the kids lost it you don't have to be evil and set it at 38 degrees or anything, do something reasonalbe like 45 or 50 (I am sooo awful!)

go hang out at your MIL's house during the colder days... seriously, spending time away from home at the library or public places that are heated and turning down the heat in your house while you are away.

[reducereuserecycle]

I'm thinking about getting baseboard heaters, but I'm not sure if they are any more efficient than what we are using. 


probably no more efficient than space heaters

[KnitterMama]

Two words : window quilts. I did a test run with this last year, it worked really well in our ridiculously drafty apartment. The one I have in our bedroom I have kept up through the summer, as it keeps heat/sun out when needed. Also, I work nights so it has the added effect of keeping every little bit of light out when I'm sleeping during the day. These can be made very cheaply. I used free fabric from freecycle, extremely cheap fabric scraps bought on ebay, an old coverlet from the Salvation Army as batting (worked perfectly) and velcro to attach it to the window (for a tight fit). It was really fun. I'll probably do it for more windows this year.

ETA: These can be very time consuming if you do 4"x4" squares, I would recommend 8"x8" squares (though the 4" ones look really cute!). However, you can do as we did and have an old-fashioned quilting bee. I had my sisters and their sewing machines over and away we went.

[wwinorth]

Those are AWESOME knittermama! I don't really sew, but I think I'll give them a try! Thanks for the info ladies!!

[nurturedbirth]

I was also going to recommend an insert for your fireplace. Fireplaces really do a terrible job of heating - almost all the warm stuff heads up the chimney and outside while the fire draws cold air in from elsewhere to sustain combustion.

An insert is installed into the fireplace. They are cast iron, like a freestanding wood or pellet stove, with an enclosed front that has an access door for adding the fuel. There are both pellet and wood-fueled varieties. They are very similar to any freestanding stove, they just happen to install into the fireplace space instead. If your fireplace is in a semi-central location in your house I'd bet you'd be surprised what a great heat source an insert would be. Probably over your budget, maybe double what you said you have, but at least for me, it would be really worth scraping it together from somewhere to have a warm enough house. Hey, how about telling MIL you want half a pellet stove insert for christmas?

[stelly]

Our house is cold all winter. I made draft excluders (big sausages filled with foam) for under the doors to stop the wind from passing through. We bought a little faux wood stove (it's electric) from Home Depot. We put it in the bedroom and turn it on for 20 mins before we go to bed, and it warms the room up nicely for the next few hours. I also have gel pack that I heat in the microwave and then pop into bed to keep my feet warm.

This year we are going to get thick curtains to hang over our bay window since I can feel the air whistling in through it. I am also going to hang curtains at the bottom of the stairs (which are open to the living room) since all the heat rises up there and is wasted.

I put new caulk around all the window frames, and we installed new insulation on our internal garage door, the door to the basement and this year I will do the front door.

Finally, I swap all the screen doors from the mesh to glass, and I try and make use of the garage entry rather than the front door, since that opens directly into the house and lets all the cold air in.

Good luck!

[brittneyscott]

I actually just stuff a blanket in the crack under the door instead of the foam filled door cover. It works fine too. We live in a very old very drafty trailer for now. We put plastic over the outside of the windows and weatherstripping on the doorways. I also hang up blankets in doorways and block off the parts of the house that don't need to be heated. The first year we had DD all we had was one small heater in the kitchen of the house. Its connected to the living rm so we just put up blankets to block off the hallways so all we heated was the living rm/kitchen area. We all slept in there.

We have 2 heaters that can heat the whole house now but we still shut the doors on the office and bathroom so they don't have to be heated. Just the living rm/kitchen and 2 bedrms. We turn the heaters on 2 or 3 burners(med or high) long enough to warm up the house at night before bed and then turn it down to one burner (low) while we sleep and it stays warm enough. I don't cut them on during the day unless its a really cold day, then I just cut one on low and block off the hallways again. We just wear long sleeves, pants, and socks in the house so we stay warm.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Here's what we did:

Our furnace is old too. Have someone come out and look at it, it can probably work really well with a tune up. but shop around, we had one guy tell us we needed a whole new furnance. Another guy did a tune up and it works great now! He replaced a few parts, said it will last another 5 to 10 years.

Next: Plastic on the windows. We do the outside plastic, it is stronger and lasts longer. I have some up still that we hung 2 winters ago. I have an old house with original windows from 100 years ago. This makes a huge huge difference. We did outside partly too because of our custom blinds, which doesn't work with inside plastic.

We also put weather stripping around all the doors & latch areas. This is one of the number one ways cold air creeps into and heat leaks out of your home! I was getting a full on draft from a half centimeter crack around my door latch! And door sweeps at the bottom. They're cheap.

We also hang blankets & heavy curtains in the winter over windows that don't get plastic - second floor bay window, ones the plastic doesn't stick to because of bad paint job or hooks, whatever (like the one in the baby's room), etc. This dampens the cold.

Cut off any rooms in your house that you don't use and keep the vents to them & the doors closed. Stuff towels under the door cracks.

I really have to beg you to stop using the space heaters! They cause so many devestating fires every year, it's awful! In my town, there were at least 20 fires last winter because of space heaters!

[wwinorth]

I really have to beg you to stop using the space heaters! They cause so many devestating fires every year, it's awful! In my town, there were at least 20 fires last winter because of space heaters!

Yeah, I know. We have the kind that shut off when they are knocked over if that makes you feel any better.

The pellet insert is a wonderful idea but way out of our budget. I'm checking ebay hoping for a deal. I don't really want to use the floor furnaces. Gas prices here in the winter are insane and I don't want to add a gas bill on top of everything else. Besides they are not in the best of locations.

I think I'm going to make some of the draft excluders. I have just used rolled up towels in the past, but they tend to get in the way of the door closing.

Thanks so much for all of your help!!
Mel

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Originally Posted by wwinorth

Yeah, I know. We have the kind that shut off when they are knocked over if that makes you feel any better.

That doesn't matter, a lot of time it has to do with stuff to close to them, cords, wattage, and some other electric mumbo jumbo. Good luck!

[thehappydeer]

A friend of mine had a very pricey pellet stove installed in her living room last year, and I was shocked at how little it seemed to heat the room. I felt like we still had to sit right in front of it to feel the warmth. Maybe it was doing more than I could tell, but I wasn't impressed. Compared to a woodstove which you can feel from across a room, they're kind wimpy. Maybe you can find a way to buy a second hand woodstove and have it installed in your fireplace space somehow. You'd still have to buy wood, through, which is an investment and doesn't always seem like the most sustainable thing to do, but it must be better than relying on a coal fired power plant, right?

Good Luck!

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Wood actually produces a lot of pollution. It is one of the "dirtiest" fuels there is, leaving a lot of carbon behind.

[momto l&a]

First off that fireplace is causing you to loose lots of heat. You do well to put in a fireplace insert. There is nothing quite like wood heat, its a warm comforting heat where so many others are cold heats.

Ceramic heaters put out a lot of heat without being to hard on the power bill.