Heating

[packrat]

I have a question about heating during the winter. My mom used to turn the furnace down (to 59 eeeek that was cold) at night and kept it at whatever, 64 or something during the day. I've always kept it at the same constant temperature. We got new windows/siding/roof about 5 years ago or so, and that helped w/heating costs during the winter. However, this winter, I've been turning the heat down at night. I'm working every day now, and JD is either working or sleeping if he's on overnights, so seems there's no point in keeping the house "warm" when nobody is here.

Is this the right way to do it? Or is it better to pick a temp and leave it there? Ours has always been set at 78/summer 68/winter, no changing. Now that I've been changing it, I've been turning it down to 60 before I go to bed at night (or earlier if I remember) and turning it back up to 68 when I get home the next afternoon. M-Fri it's turned to 68 from about 4-9pm, maybe 11-am-9pm on weekends.

Got the bill this morning and about shat myself. $275!!!! Holy bananas! We have a small house, have lived here since 2001 and have *never* had it that high. I don't know if it's b/c last month the kids and I were home a little more b/c of Christmas break, or if it's b/c of the horrible -20 to -50 we were having or what!

One of my coworkers has a house bigger than ours, a 30 year old furnace (ours was replaced 2.5 years ago when the basement flooded) and the house needs new siding/windows/roof etc. Her bill was $250 and they keep it at a constant 67. If we have a couple drafty spots can that really cause *that* much heat loss?

 

[dk168]

Unless there is a significant risk of water pipes freezing at low temperatures, I would turn off the heating while I am at work, for it to come back on again a couple of hours before I return.

If I were to leave the heating on while I am away for extended period of time, I would set the temperature at about 14 deg C.

I set the temperature at 18 deg C all year round in the house, and 17 deg C in the car, as I prefer it cool rather than too toasty.

DK

 

[amc80]

Got the bill this morning and about shat myself. $275!!!! Holy bananas! We have a small house, have lived here since 2001 and have *never* had it that high. I don't know if it's b/c last month the kids and I were home a little more b/c of Christmas break, or if it's b/c of the horrible -20 to -50 we were having or what!

One of my coworkers has a house bigger than ours, a 30 year old furnace (ours was replaced 2.5 years ago when the basement flooded) and the house needs new siding/windows/roof etc. Her bill was $250 and they keep it at a constant 67. If we have a couple drafty spots can that really cause *that* much heat loss?

If it's been that cold then your furnace is probably having to run more to maintain whatever temp it is set at. We had a cold December (um, not as cold as you, though) and our bill was around $200. We keep the thermostat at 69 when we are home and awake and 66 or 67 at night and when we are gone. We have pets and a 17 month old son so we can't keep it as cool as I'd like.

 

[monarch64]

Yes, those couple drafty spots can make a big difference! And while you're away, just set the furnace 10 degrees lower, so 58, instead of shutting it off. Idk if this is true, but my dad always said if you turn it (or the a/c) off completely it has to work that much harder to get the temp back to what you want it at when you're home. That could be wrong, I don't really know. They have 2 furnaces and a heat pump or something so I think he knows what he's talking about but...

We close off the rooms we don't use and shut the vents in them. No sense heating the office in the winter (we just use the kitchen table or whatever instead).

 

[packrat]

argh stupid internet finked when I hit submit and lost my response. bah now I need to remember..

I don't shut it off completely, just turn the temp down. I'd be afraid to find out how cold it would get in here if I turned it off completely during the frozen tundra temps.

The door in the kitchen that goes to the attached garage has a draft there-pretty good one actually. We've been planning on tearing out the walls and expanding the kitchen so haven't replaced it b/c it wouldn't be there anyway. ('Course if it's not going to get done this winter we need to just replace it regardless) In the basement a couple weeks ago I noticed one of the three little windows was completely frosted over--on the inside! JD said that was really a bad sign and he would get some Styrofoam in there so seal out the draft until the windows can be replaced this spring. One window was fine and the third was about 1/2 frosted. This is also something we've planned on doing for quite a while and never done. I guess he's going to just have to DO it.

ETA remembered what else I wrote-
My thought process was that if it's 60 in here and an iceberg outside, the furnace would have to kick on less to keep it at 60 than it would to keep it at 68. But I dunno, maybe my thoughts be faulty.

 

[smitcompton]

Hey,

There are weather stripping packages to to your door. At the bottom put a strip. Mine is metal with felt backing, but I have seen them where it just takes a pair of sissors to cut and stick them on your door (at the bottom.) Just put up plastic sheeting on your windows in the basement. All 3 of them. Put towels up on the window ledges for draughts. I have heavy towels around my Patio door.

It is true that in order to start up the furnace from a lower temp, it needs to use more energy. Sorry to say but your electric bill will probably be higher as well. When you go to work, drop temp to 62, and 68 or 69 is good the rest of the day. I think you have to tighten up those leaks. This has been an unusual winter--my bill increased 33% and hasn't even included the real cold.
I need temp much warmer than you, but don't let your pipes freeze. The other person giving you advise is in England. She has no idea of the temp here.

Close your drapes--b;ocks out the air from windows. Go around and check for draughts. Fireplace--cover with plastic.


Gas prices have fallen alot. We are all not used to the big bills. Sorry.


Annette

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We turn our heat down to 50 while we're at work, then have it set to start warming up a couple of hours before we get home. Our heating bill is $700 - $800 in the winter (New England winters, antique house), so maybe we're not being as efficient as we can be.

 

[packrat]

It's actually coming from the side of the door, not the bottom. Not sure what we can put there, but gotta do something!

NEL please tell me that's for the whole winter and not per month.

They say the bitter cold is coming back..not sure if we're in the path or how long it will last.

 

[NOYFB]

NEL please tell me that's for the whole winter and not per month.

I was just going to say the same thing!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We average about 200 gallons of oil/month in the winter and at $4/gallon, it's about $800/month. Some months we'll go through a whole tank, which is 275 gallons. Our windows are newer, but I still use the 3M plastic window cover kits. The big issue is that the section of our house that was built in the 1700's has no exterior insulation.

 

[packrat]

OMG NEL that is craaaazy! That's like me working three weeks just for that one bill!

 

[AprilBaby]

I heard on the radio today never put heat below 55 in the winter or pipes will freeze. Our is 65 at night and during the day while we are away, 70 from 4-10. Our bill, natural gas, runs about 180/mo for 3000 sq/ft

 

[Winks_Elf]

We average about 200 gallons of oil/month in the winter and at $4/gallon, it's about $800/month. Some months we'll go through a whole tank, which is 275 gallons. Our windows are newer, but I still use the 3M plastic window cover kits. The big issue is that the section of our house that was built in the 1700's has no exterior insulation.

I feel your pain. We've put in over $1,000 worth of oil just since the beginning of December, and we're out of oil yet again. The truck can't get up the damn driveway and we're getting more snow at the moment, so when they attempt to come tomorrow (read: IF they attempt), there's no way they're getting up the driveway. For those of you who haven't had the displeasure of dealing with oil heat, it sucks. It is about $3.569 per gallon, and a minimum of 150 gallons for delivery. Most houses burn between 5 and 8 gallons a day in this weather, and for folks like us who live on a mountain with electric being the only public utility in the area, that means your showers, dishwashers, laundry, and heat all come from that oil. That's why we go through so much so fast.

Our house started out life in 1969 as a hunting cabin thing (A-frame chalet?) with pretty much no insulation. The owners before my husband never insulated the old sections, and just added on. So now it's a 4,000 square foot ice box in the winter. We pretty much close down half the house, and it's a luxury to turn the heat up to 65. We typically keep the heat set at about 58-60 all the time. If it's really cold, we'll bump it up to 65, and once it gets up to temp, we'll turn it back down. The boys' bedrooms are controlled by the kitchen heat, which is set at about 55 (keeps the boys rooms at about 70). The girls' bedroom (we gave them the master) is nice and warm when the heat is set at 60, and when you're sleeping, any warmer than that makes you dried out, and hard to sleep when you feel like you're suffocating. That side of the house is the new wing (1993) and well insulated. Our bedroom is the old guest room off of the great room (probably the original master bedroom), and it has three out of four sides exposed to the elements. It's got a crawl space underneath, and no attic space for buffering, so it can get way cold in there.

I still hold out hope for a more efficient house some day.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Winks_Elf, we do the same thing with different temps in different zones of our house! We have 3 zones in our house and they are all set at different temps and heat up at different times of the day. We don't even start heating our bedroom until 9pm or so. I also adjust the heat depending on whether we have a fire going in the wood stove. The logistics of heating our house are surprisingly complicated, haha. My parents keep their heat at 70 all day, every day, all winter long and I find that to be such a luxury. My mother told me last week that they had the highest heating bill they've ever had and it was $240. I said "What? Like, for the week?"

We've had a similar winter to you--we've had our tank filled in early December, then again right before Christmas and again about a week ago. In fact, I just paid an oil bill today, only to get another one in the mail when I got home! And we've gotten a foot of snow in the past 7 hours and we're at the beginning of another polar vortex. Is it June yet??

 

[monarch64]

Sealing with plastic wrap where possible helps tremendously. It's kinda like that shrink wrap stuff people used to use on Easter baskets? Maybe you could use it on the frosty windows, Packrat. The door sounds like it needs a re-do on the weather seal stuff. Easy/quick fixes, just requires the time to go get the stuff and install.

NEL, holy cannoli that's a huge bill!!!

 

[TooPatient]

It's actually coming from the side of the door, not the bottom. Not sure what we can put there, but gotta do something!

NEL please tell me that's for the whole winter and not per month.

They say the bitter cold is coming back..not sure if we're in the path or how long it will last.

We got a kit from Home Depot or Lowes that we were able to put on the side of one of our doors. If you ask the guys there, they'll probably know just what to point you at.

Also, try the 3M window plastic covers. Not too hard to get up and makes a big difference even on our double pane windows.

We bought a laser thermometer at Harbor Freight for about $10 and use it to check how cold different surfaces and areas are during the winter. A roll of insulation (or the Styrofoam sort of solid sheets) at a time gets stuck in the coldest areas. It has taken a couple of years, but the house feels mostly snug and warm now.

 

[JewelFreak]

Neighbors of ours put those weather strip things on their doors & windows, got them at Home Depot, and said their heating bill went down by 30%. I've got to do it too, big drafts at our doors.

I turn the heat down to about 55 at night when the temp is below 30 -- enough to keep pipes from freezing. If it's above freezing at night I turn the heat off completely. We have a/c & heat pump, electric. It has worked for the past 10 yrs. -- & our crawl space is poorly insulated as usual in Dixie.

NEL, yike, the price of a wonderful old house! I grew up in one that was 150 yrs old then, with oil heat, and it gobbled money; I remember my father groaning in pain when he paid the bills.

--- Laurie

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay, this thread is tempering my desire to move back to my family in Vermont and buy a quaint old farmhouse...

 

[aviastar]

Whew! NEL and Wink-- are these your forever homes? Any thought to upgrading/changing out your systems? We have an old house, too (1840), but during renovation my husband added geothermal heat. It's an expensive system to install (like, really expensive) but we pay no more than $175/month for our whole electric bill- including all our heat and A/C. In the spring and fall it gets down to about $80/month. We just pick a number and leave it.

We have a small house at about 1100 sq. feet, but it's not exactly efficient with the dirt cellar, open fireplaces with no flue, and exposed logs with chinking. We've just had our cellar spray foamed and we already notice a difference. New chinking is next and then the fireplaces, so I expect our electric bills to drop even more as we seal the house up slowly. It's been six years since we installed the geothermal and it's already paid for itself.

 

[JewelFreak]

Okay, this thread is tempering my desire to move back to my family in Vermont and buy a quaint old farmhouse...

Yeah, but how will you pay for gems after you pay the heating bill?

Actually, my brother lives near Windsor VT in a log house he built mostly himself (I hate it, glad I don't have to live with him). He rarely uses the heating system -- the woodstove keeps the whole place comfortable.

--- Laurie