Heating suggestions?

**jolenegreen2** · 06-10-2008, 02:13 PM

Does anyone have any heating suggestions for this winter? I am preparing myself and my family for winter. I know it is going to be a hard one this year. My gas bill was $350 a month last yr and gas hadnt even risen yet. YIKES! I will never beable to afford this yr! I have 2 toddlers and will have a brand new baby as well. Im not really sure what to do as far as heating goes this yr. We have one floor furnace to heat the whole house...so it is rather expensive. Any ideas anyone?

**Greebo** · 06-10-2008, 02:15 PM

I am assuming you own your home here. What kind of insulation do you have in the attic?

**eyrehead** · 06-10-2008, 02:26 PM

Plastic on windows, checking weather stripping around doors, checking insulation in attic, turning the thermostat down, bundling up, etc. are all good ways to save on heating costs. We keep our heat set at 66* in winter...it's never been above 68* ever, even when our twins were really little. Bundle the kids up, bake cookies, or dinner to help heat a little. If possible, look into wood burning stoves.

**latierra84** · 06-10-2008, 02:55 PM

a heating blaket underneath a fitted flannel sheet will do wonders. We got it at Walmart a twin size one for about $30. It was large enough for our queen size bed. DH and I did not use the heat ONCE this past winter thanks to that blanket.... that and the central heat did not work. Also we tended to stay in one room, closed the doors and hung blankets over the windows. It really helped alot. We don't have little ones though.

actually.. ive seen those blankets on clearance on walmart lately. up to fifty percent off!

**jolenegreen2** · 06-10-2008, 03:08 PM

Yes I do own my own home. I cant really afford to go and buy a new heating system, LOL....and my insulation is blow in kind. Thanks for all the great tips so far!

**shoiji** · 06-10-2008, 03:21 PM

Have a down mattress pad and down comforter. Between these, a blanket and a comforter I am really warm sleeping at night. I kept the temp at 55 degrees at night. Also invested in more thermal underwear than usual. Just put them under my clothes was was pretty warm. There are so many great tips here.

**The Muse** · 06-10-2008, 03:32 PM

We're buying a pellet stove. I'm hoping to get one with a cook top so I can use it to simmer, too.

**FrugalGypsy** · 06-10-2008, 04:19 PM

This is what I do here in the winter. (Im in mid NC)

I make sure the curtains/blinds are wide open by 6:30am, when it is sunny. That brings a lot of FREE heat into the house.

All beds have an electric blanket. Hubby and I have duel controls, I dont use mine. (hot flashes)

Warm PJs are a must. No sexy nighties in the winter here. I tell DH Im hibernating.

During the day, sweaters and/or sweat shirts are a must here. I keep the day heat set at 62, unless my Grandma is over to visit, I turn it up the heat for her. Everyone else has to dress warm and deal with it. (Im a mean mom. LOL) At night the heat is set at 58.
My skinny relatives dont visit me in the winter. LOL Can ya tell Im heart broken over it?

Each fall I seal up drafty windows and doors.

I bake in the afternoons to warm the house as the sun sets.

When I get to chilly I get up and move around, clean, vacuum. When my kids were little I would do little dances with them, or jumping jacks to warm up.

Getting dressed very early in the morning, putting on warm wool socks and shoes helps too.

**freebs** · 06-10-2008, 04:46 PM

I would watch craigslist.com to see if you can find a used wood burning stove. They will work wonders in your heating expence, but wood can be pricey to buy if you have to buy it. I know when our central heating went out we installed a wood burning stove it keeps us plenty warm!~

**jolenegreen2** · 06-11-2008, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by FrugalGypsy

This is what I do here in the winter. (Im in mid NC)

I make sure the curtains/blinds are wide open by 6:30am, when it is sunny. That brings a lot of FREE heat into the house.

All beds have an electric blanket. Hubby and I have duel controls, I dont use mine. (hot flashes)

Warm PJs are a must. No sexy nighties in the winter here. I tell DH Im hibernating.

During the day, sweaters and/or sweat shirts are a must here. I keep the day heat set at 62, unless my Grandma is over to visit, I turn it up the heat for her. Everyone else has to dress warm and deal with it. (Im a mean mom. LOL) At night the heat is set at 58.
My skinny relatives dont visit me in the winter. LOL Can ya tell Im heart broken over it?

Each fall I seal up drafty windows and doors.

I bake in the afternoons to warm the house as the sun sets.

When I get to chilly I get up and move around, clean, vacuum. When my kids were little I would do little dances with them, or jumping jacks to warm up.

Getting dressed very early in the morning, putting on warm wool socks and shoes helps too.

Thanks for all the great tips! ANd I ROFL about you telling your hubby you are "hibernating" LOL!!!!!!

**MomToTwoBoys** · 06-11-2008, 12:07 PM

Winters in Calgary are really strange. The last six years I've been here, there's one thing in common:

There's one cold week in November/December and two more in January/February.

It gets down to practically -45C here sometimes, and my house is notoriously cold! This is what I do to stay warm:

1) Weather strip all the doors. We have one door that leads out our kitchen, and one that's a sliding glass door in the back. The sliding-glass door is really hard to insulate, so this year we're going to go with a plastic cover. I just have to keep the kids from putting their fingers through it.

I'd also put plastic on the windows to keep the cold from coming in. If you want, put some caulk sealant where your window pane and the frame are at. That'll help alot with keeping leaks out.

2) Heavy wool socks: I live all year round with these things on. I'd get the ones that you can wear for camping because those are just the best! I have really poor circulation in my feet and hands, which also leads me to the next one. I'd wear gloves.

3) A duvet on every bed: duvets are the warmest things I've ever slept with (well, next to DH because he's a heat magnet). I'd invest in some long underwear, some wool socks and sleep with one of those. You don't really need to crank your heat up at night anyways, so it's really good. I'm constantly cold and even I wake up in a sweat sometimes when I sleep under one.

4) Area rugs in the spots that you walk on the most.

5) I dress in layers. I'll seriously walk around like this:

Touque on my head (so like a ski cap or at least a wool hat)
Scarf on my neck
T-shirt
Overshirt (I have a really great pullover and I manage to steal DH's when he's not looking)
Jeans
Wool socks
Thin gloves

I may look like I'm hibernating but I'm at least warm.

**ladytoysdream** · 06-11-2008, 06:08 PM

We been heating with propane. Use 500 gallons per year, and current price is $ 3.70 a gallon. Last contract price was 2.44 gallon. I told hubby we would not be held hostage by the propane people.

We took out a loan, and went ahead and bought our outside wood furnace. This week, we are starting on getting wood here. I am really worried about the prices for fuel this winter.

We kept our thermostat at 68 - 70 last winter. And if either one of us was cold, we just added more layers of clothes.

Now is the time to be preparing for the next fuel season.
Don't wait till this fall, and no bargains to be had anywhere.

**larabelle** · 06-11-2008, 06:52 PM

There are lots of good tips here and I am trying to not repeat so the only one I can think of is I run a little room humidifier all winter. I bought it at WalMart for I think $12.00 I feel warmer when the air inside of the house is not as dry.

**cejhome** · 06-12-2008, 09:24 AM

Don't forget fireplaces. If you don't use it, figure out someway to seal it. The damper won't keep out cold air. After seeing what natural gas prices are projected to be this winter, we will NOT be using our gas fireplace for "fun" this year. We will be sealing it w/styrofoam insert. Only use it will get is if for some reason we loose power and need it for heat!

We locked in at .98 cents/therm last October for Natural Gas. I do NOT want to see what the new rate will be this winter. Thankfully we have a heat pump, which we use for heating (as well as ac) until it gets below 45F. Here in Georgia that doesn't happen too much, maybe 2 weeks or so max. I will also be keeping the heat a bit lower during the day, but can't do too much w/what we set our thermostat at - don't want our kitty cat to be cold! (No she isn't spoiled.) And a whiney husband if he gets cold. I have warned him that he will have to dress warmly in the house like it or not.

Make sure you have plenty of insulation in the attic and any crawl spaces. Check all insulated areas. Even if you had good insulation done "years ago", it can settle in the attic. Crawl space insulation can become loose. Make sure windows are caulked around them between the window sill and wall. A lot of times there can be a small setting crack around them. Seal around plumbing pipes, water pipes that come into the house -any sort or cable/pipe etc, that come into the house. Seal around electrical outlets on outside wall. Anywhere you feel a draft. Replace old weather stripping w/new. This is stuff that we were told to do when we had a free energy audit w/our Natural Gas company when we bought our house. They don't do free audits anymore in our area. We were lucky - back then, they would even pay you back when you did the stuff they recommended! We acutally ended up 25.00 ahead - their estimate was 25.00 more than what we ended up paying to do the extra insulation. We did the rest ourselves.

Seems obvious to me, in both winter and summer, but lots of our neighbors do not see this. If you have garage doors - KEEP THEM CLOSED. I can't imagine how much heat in the winter and ac in the summer is wasted when people leave their garage doors opened.

**KimmieSC** · 06-12-2008, 09:39 AM

Hi,

Lots of great tips here! One thing my DH and I did last year was buy a small electric heater (which has a fan in it to blow the heat out) on clearance at Wal-Mart in the Spring/Summer. It was originally $40, but we got it for $10. Now is about the time we found it at Wal-Mart, so we may go look again for another one. We also flip the little switch on our ceiling fans, so they rotate the opposite way and pull the heat near the ceiling down into the rooms (does that make sense?). Also, you may want to consider using regular fans on low speed near your floor furnace to help distribute the heat to other areas of your house. We have done this too, and it seems to help.

Blessings,