Saving Money Heating house

[user 4021]

Good morning, everyone. I hope you are all well. I know we are getting to the end of cold weather, but how do you all save on heating your house during the colder months?

I live in SC where it doesn't really get too cold. But I have found a way to save money during the winter by winterizing the house (plastic on windows inside and out), closing off rooms that I do not need to heat, heating only one room of the house and turning the heat off all together at night. I use gas heat and I normally spend under $300 a year to warm the house or in my case one room of the house I stay in most during the day.

I hope everyone has a great day.

 

[Amish Heart]

We use the woodburning stove in the kitchen a whole lot.

 

[user 4021]

We use the woodburning stove in the kitchen a whole lot.

I used to love when my mom and grandma use to cook on the woodburning stove growing up. Really was great at heating the house. Great memories. I hope you have a great day.

 

[Pearl]

We ONLY use wood heat! Our heating expense is gas and oil for the chainsaws and splitters. Lots of work, but we own woods, so step out the backdoor and get busy!

 

[user 4021]

We ONLY use wood heat! Our heating expense is gas and oil for the chainsaws and splitters. Lots of work, but we own woods, so step out the backdoor and get busy!

I was raised carrying wood for the wood stove. Filling the wood box was one of the jobs us kids had. My mom and dad also used to sale firewood as well. We stayed busy for sure. But it was good times and great memories now. I hope you have a great day.

 

[zoomzoom]

I have a lot of windows. Instead of plastic on them, I prefer moving blankets. Significantly more insulation than the plastic.

I use an IR thermometer to check for cold spots or leaks. From inside the house, point the beam at places that are normal weak spots to the exterior (window frames, electrical sockets...). If you get a cold reading, work on those areas. You can also use a candle or lighter near exterior points to check for drafts. When you find cold spots, work on insulating that point by whatever means is appropriate.

I too use wood heat. We have a new furnace/heat-pump which is very efficient so I only need to start a stove when it's below 25 degrees. When it goes below about 10 degrees, I fire up the second one.

$300/year to warm a house isn't bad in my book. Where I live, that would be considered a monthly heating bill for a winter month.

 

[user 4021]

I have a lot of windows. Instead of plastic on them, I prefer moving blankets. Significantly more insulation than the plastic.

I use an IR thermometer to check for cold spots or leaks. From inside the house, point the beam at places that are normal weak spots to the exterior (window frames, electrical sockets...). If you get a cold reading, work on those areas. You can also use a candle or lighter near exterior points to check for drafts. When you find cold spots, work on insulating that point by whatever means is appropriate.

I too use wood heat. We have a new furnace/heat-pump which is very efficient so I only need to start a stove when it's below 25 degrees. When it goes below about 10 degrees, I fire up the second one.

$300/year to warm a house isn't bad in my book. Where I live, that would be considered a monthly heating bill for a winter month.

I used to live up north when I was a nanny and boy was it ever cold. I now live in SC. It gets colder, but not really too cold here. Which I am very grateful for. Hardly ever see anything under 20 degrees. Mostly the coldest nights is around 35 at night. Sometimes around freezing. I keep check on how cold it stays in the house. Most mornings when it is in the 30's outside without heat on it is around 60 degrees inside. So grateful my heater only turns on very little in the morning. Hardly any in the afternoons. I only turn it on now in the mornings for a few hours if that. It has been getting pretty warm here during the day. I hope you have a great day.

 

[zoomzoom]

I u

Can you elaborate just a little?

 

[user 4021]

Can you elaborate just a little?

LOL, yep, I need more coffee this morning. I finished the post and posted it. I hope you have a great day.

 

[Caribou]

I installed two heat pumps and turned off the oil fired boiler. I just topped off the fuel tank and that is the last oil we will heat with unless there is dire need. Electric costs way less around here than oil. Maintenance is less. Original installation is less.

 

[zoomzoom]

So you have gas heat, right? Your total gas bill for the year is $300?
Do you have a heat pump?
Up here in the cold, heating with a heat pump or gas furnace is only a dollar or two a day. If you have electric heat and the heat strips in the furnace kick on, it gets really expensive (like $10 a day).

 

[zoomzoom]

I installed two heat pumps and turned off the oil fired boiler.

Do you have heat strips inside your electric air handler? My heat pump is supposed to work down to 4 degrees below zero but if the thermostat sees the heat pump is not keeping up with demand, it kicks on the heat strips which kills my electric bill.

 

[user 4021]

So you have gas heat, right? Your total gas bill for the year is $300?
Do you have a heat pump?
Up here in the cold, heating with a heat pump or gas furnace is only a dollar or two a day. If you have electric heat and the heat strips in the furnace kick on, it gets really expensive (like $10 a day).

I just have a small gas heater. It has a fan that blows the heat, but I only heat my living room, so the cost is very low to heat the house per year. Plus, I only heat the living room during the day and not at night. I budget $25 a month and I always have enough to heat my house per year.

 

[Caribou]

Do you have heat strips inside your electric air handler? My heat pump is supposed to work down to 4 degrees below zero but if the thermostat sees the heat pump is not keeping up with demand, it kicks on the heat strips which kills my electric bill.

My heat pump is supposed to work to -23℉. It rarely gets down to 20º above, at this house. I have a couple of resistance heaters that I turn on when it gets cold but I had to do that with the oil heat so no big difference. Electric prices were cheap before. We have hydroelectric so the price has remained the same. Oil prices have gone through the roof but I have full tanks if they are needed.

 

[zoomzoom]

My heat pump is supposed to work to -23℉.

Wow, that's awesome! Can you provide the brand name? I have a couple houses that'll need new units in the next year or two.

 

[Wingnut]

Don't forget the "draft dodgers!" I put 'em down by closed doors to eliminate drafts... a rolled towel will work just as well. makes a big difference, since only the merest crack is needed to create a chilly draft. I have built-in "storm windows" instead of dual-pane windows in this home, but they essentially serve the same purpose, there's just a wider space between the glass panes. Either way, the savings in heating & cooling are significant!

 

[zoomzoom]

We're getting impact/hurricane windows installed at our place in FL. I think they said it'll reduce our heat & A/C usage by something like 35%. Looking forward to that.

 

[Caribou]

Wow, that's awesome! Can you provide the brand name? I have a couple houses that'll need new units in the next year or two.

There are other sites that may have better prices, or not.
https://www.highseer.comEdit: There are different seer ratings on different models. A friend of mine turned me on to this brand. He has sold scores of these to our friends. There have been rare problems but the company was responsive.

 

[HippoTwilight]

Wow, that's awesome! Can you provide the brand name? I have a couple houses that'll need new units in the next year or two.

Probably the newer inverter style heat pump, and that's probably the extreme limit. Most likely the duty cycle can't keep up and the backup furnace needs to kick in.

My original "contractor grade" heat pump failed at 8 years old. Like-for-like replacement was $7k (complete indoor and outdoor replacement). It had a 100% duty down to 40F, and completely quit at 10F. So I was intermittently using the electric furnace below 40F.

I opted for a $10k unit which added an inverter heat pump. It can run 100% duty cycle below freezing, and will go down to around -10F before not working at all.

When Siberia invaded right before Xmas, it ran nearly continuously for almost a week. My electric meter shows the emergency resistance heat only kicked on for 3 hours that whole time (visible by a huge spike in the hourly logs).

 

[Caribou]

Probably the newer inverter style heat pump, and that's probably the extreme limit. Most likely the duty cycle can't keep up and the backup furnace needs to kick in.

My original "contractor grade" heat pump failed at 8 years old. Like-for-like replacement was $7k (complete indoor and outdoor replacement). It had a 100% duty down to 40F, and completely quit at 10F. So I was intermittently using the electric furnace below 40F.

I opted for a $10k unit which added an inverter heat pump. It can run 100% duty cycle below freezing, and will go down to around -10F before not working at all.

When Siberia invaded right before Xmas, it ran nearly continuously for almost a week. My electric meter shows the emergency resistance heat only kicked on for 3 hours that whole time (visible by a huge spike in the hourly logs).

I think I paid around $1,800 for the last 24,000BTU heat pump. I installed it myself. I also needed to buy wire (12-2), surge suppressor, 220 breaker and emergency switch for each. I already had the wire. I put one upstairs and one downstairs. Dad built this house 60 years ago. He did a wonderful job for the time but oil was cheap and we have learned a bit about insulation since then.

 

[HippoTwilight]

I think I paid around $1,800 for the last 24,000BTU heat pump. I installed it myself. I also needed to buy wire (12-2), surge suppressor, 220 breaker and emergency switch for each. I already had the wire. I put one upstairs and one downstairs. Dad built this house 60 years ago. He did a wonderful job for the time but oil was cheap and we have learned a bit about insulation since then.

Not too shabby. I don't know what the hardware cost was. They didn't break it down like that. Probably 30-50% of my invoice. If I had the resources to DIY I would've.

I discovered the failure Memorial Day weekend 2020. The failure was confirmed Tuesday morning, invoice signed Tuesday evening. A 2-man crew spent the following Friday replacing the indoor and outdoor units.
It was already in the 90's, I had an infant (with all the added crap that brings), all the bedrooms are on the 2nd floor, no basement. Plus we were working from home because it was 2 months into COVID. I have zero regrets about paying for somebody else to do it.

 

[jazzy]

i got an oldish drafty farmhouse up in mountains. my only hratis a wood stove in living room and a small fan that blows the warm air down the hall to bedrooms.

first thing i did was get someone caulk all doors and windos for me

then i got some good lined thermal curtains for all windows. that is a real help. plus i added a liner--something like a room darkening liner for added insulation.

then i got some rolls of bubble wrap with the medium size bubble.
this is the real winner,

cut pieces of bubble wrap to fit each window, and tape on the window. inside. if you run out of tape you can spray the window with water bottle then press the bubble wrap pieces - bubble aide to the glass-- ive done this and it usually stays up all winter unless that window is sunny all day then it tends to dry out and you need to respray 1-2x. im lazy and use tape.
this is a terrific insulator and draft stopper.

on southern side of house i open the curtains to the sun during the day, i dont remove the bubble wrap til spring and the nights are at least in the mid 30s. then i take each piece down, roll them up and stuff in large garbage bag for next year. i just keep reusing the pieces but i have a large back up roll in the basement in case.

this really makes a big difference for me in getting thru the below zero nights and days in the 20s.
i know it sounds dumb but this really is a huge help each winter. as things get tighter economically and heating costs escalate bubble wrap can be a real help.


remember---medium buble size works best.
place bubble side to the glass. save and reuse.

 

[Magpie]

Half of our house is quite old, and even on a good day feels chilly. I light the small wood burner in the kitchen, and it feels like the whole house is warm.
I recently saw a pic of a candle under a terracotta pot, its meant to throw out heat, has anyone tried it?

Also Amazon has one