How and what of heating your home?

**cottageliving** · 08-18-2008, 08:48 PM

oh yeah.... and the ashes from my fireplace get added to my compost bins. I LOVE how little I put out for trash and recycling!

**baxjul** · 08-19-2008, 06:34 AM

We have propane, but don't use alot down here!

**ironmaiden** · 08-19-2008, 07:47 AM

When we redid our bathroom in 1999, we took out the radiator. It is a very small bathroom. So instead we keep the bathroom door open and that's good enough to heat the room except in September/early October when it is cold at night, but the heat isn't on yet. We installed back in 1999 a Nutone light/heater/vent fixture in the ceiling. It just blows out heat - no temp setting. Once when the furnace went out, I left it on all night long for me and the kids (of course DH is always away when things like this go wrong).

**ironmaiden** · 08-19-2008, 07:51 AM

This year we're doing the blown in insulation.

This might be next year's project - getting heat from the fireplace. Fireplaces do not "project" their heat into a room. It is real hot sitting right in front of the fireplace, but that is it. Most of the heat goes straight up the chimney.
These units have blowers to blow the heated air from the fireplace. Then you'd need to set up fans in the house to continue to move the air. I'd love to know if someone has something like this as we're wondering does it make sitting in front of the fireplace like sitting in front of a hot hairdryer?

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Firepl...-Heater-System

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Firepl...eater-System_2

**Judi Dial** · 08-19-2008, 09:00 AM

We have propane.

We've been here 15 years. In that time we had no furnace for 2 years and heated entirely with 2-3 cords of wood.

Most of the years we've been here it averaged $100-$300 a month for propane. Our last bill last year was $600. We're on a budget payment plan, we pay the same amount every week.

However, we can't afford $600 a month so we plan to do interior storms this year, and crank up the wood stove again. Along this line, we've racked up 1.5 cords of wood and have more to do up front from a load we bought two years ago. I'd have left it there, but we have two neighbors who "help themselves" if you're not careful, and so we've moved the wood pile(s) to the back of our lot.

This is a 2,400 square foot LOG/Post & beam house. No insulation on the walls, except the wood itself. If it gets cold enough this winter, I imagine we'll be putting wall board & insulation up on many/all of the exterior walls next year.

There was a thread I started long ago about how folks dealt with heating season/saved $ that I'd reference here, if I could find it!

One thing I've read and never tried...putting hay bales around the foundation. Does anyone do this? How well does it work?

Judi

**ironmaiden** · 08-20-2008, 09:34 AM

What about putting quilts on the walls as insulation?

**hawkgirl** · 08-20-2008, 10:15 AM

This will be my first winter heating via natural gas and I'm not sure what to expect. I will be turning the thermostat down at night and heating the bedrooms with spaceheaters while we sleep on flannel sheets. Here in central Texas it doesn't get as cold as it does for you northerners.

**Michelle** · 08-20-2008, 11:10 AM

Natural gas. We pay the budgeted plan, which is $139/mo year round.

**mommy4ever** · 08-20-2008, 11:39 AM

Our home is officially heated by natural gas, however, we use it as a back up only. From April to October it is OFF. 5 years ago we put a wood burning insert into our existing masonry fireplace, this is able to heat the whole house. We live in a 1500 sqft, 4 level split. We are in Northern Alberta, and our winter averages at about -25ºC, we can have a few weeks at -40ºC. So it's pretty darn cold. Our wood is free, we offer to clean up house builders sights of scraps, the kiln dried wood scraps really burn HOT. So the house is heated nicely for cheap. The furnace does kick on at night on occasion, but dh starts the fireplace again at 5am when he gets up for work, if i wake in the night, I feed the fireplace again. So we try to run it 24/7 as much as possible.

The whole house is warm, the lowest level is cooler, but the kids with rooms in the basement have fleece and flannel sheets, and nice cozy blankets, they prefer it to upstairs.

We still have a gas bill, but between the actual heating and water heating, it averages about $70 a month, I've yet to see it higher than $90.