Winter Utility Saving Tips

Good short term, but long term, perhaps new windows and storm windows for even better insulation.

How low is low? We keep the house very cool at night (60)and sleep under an electric blanket. Some tradeoff of energy cost, but sure is comfy. The heat comes on about 15 minutes before we get up.

Edwin.

Are you really saving anything as the furnace will run a longer period of time to catch up to a temperature that your comfortable with.

Tom

Billy - Make sure, when you add insulation to attic, that you maintain proper ventalation. See

Quite certainly Ed is. I know I am, with deep setbacks and woodstove supplement. And ... quite comfortably, thanks.

Typical furnace is most efficient when it's essentially off (setback) or essentially on (recovery), not to mention the reduced loss to ambient durning setback.

Just don't want pipes to freeze, nor to have resistive heat-strips kick in with heat-pump.

This has been discussed ad-nauseam, if you DAGS on "thermostat setback" you'll find lots of hits: 70K on websites, and 1550 on GoogleGroups.

HTH, J

Do what I do. Only heat the house in the morning when you wake up so that when you step out of the shower, you step out into a warm room. Other than that, you really don't need heat unless your house gets below maybe 50 degrees anyway.

Study the following web site like there is no tomorrow. Plan (over time) to get new "Energy Star" appliances, windows, heating system, air condition system, etc.

Eww.

Ok - it's your house. I've made a trade-offs like that too, in the past. My priorities are a little more on the quality of my living space now, though.

Banty (who likes looking through her new Marvins..)

The subject has been debated for a long time. Generally, if the down time is more than the time to recover temperature, yes, there is a savings. ( we also like it for sleeping comfort)

Heat is always seeking equilibrium to a cooler place. The higher the differential between the two spaces, the faster the transfer. This is why it is cheaper to maintain 68 degrees instead of 70 degrees and why 64 would be even better in any given situation of a lower outdoor temperatures. . It is not only the temperature of the air, it is also the sensible heat being stored in your furnishings that come into play They are absorbing and giving off heat as the settings change.

There's only one way to tell. On any night where the outside temperatures are nearly identical, put the thermostat to your set temperature that you plan to wake up with and measure the fueld consumption during the night (let's say 10pm to 6 am). Then try it Edwins way on the other night, given that by 6 am the temperature has reached the target morning temperature (same as first nights set temperature). Compare fuel use.

Billy.. I lived many years in "cold" country. Minus 35 degree nights. I made redwood frames and covered with 3M shrink plastic (clear) added thin felt strips to edges of frames to make a snug fit against windows. This really helped because even on high quality thermo windows I would get icing up to to cooking humidity. Problem was solved. WW

Build a frame around a fan to tightly seal into a window or door opening. On a cold morning set this up and turn it on to depressurize the house and then go from room to room feeling for cold air being pulled in to find all the air leaks. I found some pretty substantial leaks this way. Nice of the previous owner of my house to leave an old squirrel cage blower behind.

Steve.

Just be careful if you have any gas or oil burning appliances as this will suck the CO2 back into the house. Turn them off before depressurizing the house. Close your fireplace damper too.

Steve.

I have natural gas heat, but am planning on adding a 14 SEER heat pump when I replace my AC.

Next year, I plan on modifying my fireplace with an efficient wood burning stove.

One of my neighbors has those black coils on the south side of his roof.

I'm thinking about venting my electric dreyer back inside via some kind of a lint filter.

Keep the heat and humidity inside where I need it and not pushing nice warm air outside.

Anybody have any idea about a good filter ot use for this?

Tried it many years ago. The filter caught much of the lint, but the oil heater serviceman showed me where a lot of it went too. Now worth the hassle of having damp dirty air circulating in the house.