Anyone turning off their heat this winter?

We haven't-yet anyway. With the rising price of home heating oil it's probably only a matter of time though. I just need to try and convince my mom. I figure with only two people living here it makes more sense to use a ceramic heater in only those rooms which are occupied, or just keep our coats on. Electric rates aren't rising as steeply as oil prices. Long term we'll probably go to a geothermal heat pump when the boiler quits (it's 55 years old), and solar for electricity, but that's another story. Hopefully with these conservation measures we'll at least have enough to continue to be able to afford hot water.

Anyone else switching from central to local heating sources, or just turning their heat off entirely?

Also, I've heard of using solar for hot water heating but isn't this problematic in the winter? How do you keep the water from freezing since it has to go outside to the collectors?

Do you not have town gas in NY?

In colder climates, maybe if you living in an apartment or other community dwelling individual area heating might work but I know where I live if you were to go to entirely individual area heating, you run a big risk of your pipes freezing.

But yeah I've thought about it and how unfortunately some people are going to have to make a choice between heat and food.

lctorana said:

Do you not have town gas in NY?

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Yes, but that's going up fast, too, and would require a gas boiler. If we're going to go through the expense/bother changing over our heating system, I'd rather just go with a geothermal heat pump as electricity is more immune to swings in the price of fossil fuels. That future-proofs us for the time when solar electricity becomes cost effective. It's interesting to note that our oil-hot water system still uses a substantial amount of electricity. There's the hot water pump for the registers, and the blower for the combustion chamber. Combined they use the equivalent of a small space heater.

geepondy said:

In colder climates, maybe if you living in an apartment or other community dwelling individual area heating might work but I know where I live if you were to go to entirely individual area heating, you run a big risk of your pipes freezing.

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Well, we wouldn't turn it off entirely because of the problem you mentioned, but rather would set the thermostat to 35°F. Honestly, it rarely if ever gets cold enough here for that to happen. The house naturally holds about 25°F over ambient temperature. We really don't even need heat until it starts getting into the mid-40s. It would take sustained single digits day and night before there would even be a chance of the pipes freezing. That just never happens here. In fact, single digits are rare. They happen a few times a season.

Nope...... not switching, not turning off, not looking for alternatives. I'll continue to fire-up my oil-fired heater whenever I'm cold. I work too hard and for too long to cheat myself when it comes to keeping warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Hmmm... There should be a point of maxium efficiency between off and on but... That would depend on factoring in the start up of the heating medium comparted to constant running.

I"m such a simple human... Mine stays at 66-68 during the day and around 69-70 at night. i live right on the line!!! :lolsign:

switching off is certainly not an option, around here electric heat is still way more expensive than the gas. Probably makes even more sense to use a heatpump but of course upgrading to an entirely new system is a lot more expensive than buying an electric heater.

I had electric baseboard heat in an apartment in Chicago years and years ago and that was by far the worst way to heat a place. Always cold, always SUPER expensive.

What I've been doing is upgrading the insulation a little at a time around here. Last year I did the attic insulation above the kids rooms, and around my sons room walls. THis year I'll be doing the master bathroom and the main attic space as well as adding another layer of insulation around the ductwork that runs through the attic (and is accessible) I'd really love to foam and seal the entire attic, but i'm afraid the cost of that would be out of the question. I need a new roof next year too so I'm going to look into doing a radiant barrier at that point too. That wont help in the winter, but it sure will in the summer which is the worst of the cost of keeping this place comfortable now.

I'd have a look at that 55 year old boiler. I'll be impressed if it's current efficiency is over 50%. I'm close to replacing my 20 year old boiler because I know there are better units out there. As oil prices rise, the return on my investment can only come sooner.

This will be the first full winter the wife and I will have in our house. It was built in 2006 with awesome insulation and double-paned windows. For all intents and purposes, the house is air-tight when closed up.

So far this year the coldest outside temp has been 44 °F, I know, severe for a California autumn hahaha. We have not had to run the heat yet. The house hasn't gotten colder than 68 degrees (bathrobe territory).

We moved into the house at the tail-end of last year's winter, and even over the summer with the temps in the 102s our electric bill hasn't been over $45. I never realized how key insulation could be to energy conservation.

I haven't even turned my heat on yet. The coldest it's been inside the house is an indicated 59 F. We've had a few colder days here, but nothing bad yet.

At this point, it's more of a game to see how long I can keep from turning it on at all.

I have central forced air, and I'm keeping the heat set at 65F all winter. Will be using the "blanket and cuddle" method for keeping warm :twothumbs :naughty:

Not off, but down. Way, way down.

Strange thing is that we started keeping the winter temp down 2 years ago and noticed that we weren't getting sick as usual during the season. We expected to be worse off but instead were much, much better.

Many of our friends noticed the same thing and have settled on keeping the temp down regardless of price.

JimmyM said:

I'd have a look at that 55 year old boiler. I'll be impressed if it's current efficiency is over 50%. I'm close to replacing my 20 year old boiler because I know there are better units out there. As oil prices rise, the return on my investment can only come sooner.

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Last time it was tested the efficiency was in the 70s. We have a service contract to clean it each year. At this point I wouldn't bother replacing our oil burner with another. Oil prices are only going one way, and it's dirty besides compared to electric heat. For a while here the utilities were giving away free gas boilers (you still had to pay for installation). My mom was ready to jump on it. I talked her out of it. Besides not liking the idea of having a gas line in the room, I told her there's only one reason they're doing this-because they know the price of natural gas is going up. Sure enough, I was right.

binky said:

Strange thing is that we started keeping the winter temp down 2 years ago and noticed that we weren't getting sick as usual during the season. We expected to be worse off but instead were much, much better.

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Funny that you mentioned this, but my father stayed mostly in the finished basement until he passed away. Naturally, he kept the heat down there on. Because the place was messy and occasionally flooded, there were undoubtedly things growing down there. Higher temperatures only increased the problem. Until 2006, when my dad died, I would get sick enough to be bedridden for a week at least 3 or 4 times a year. Since he passed away we never turn the heat on downstairs (except a ceramic heater in my workroom). Even though we cleaned up quite a bit there's still the original tile and many cardboard boxes. In other words, plenty of places for mold/bacteria to grow if it wanted to. On account of the cooler temperatures downstairs for most of the year it seems things don't grow as much. I haven't been really sick since July 2006. Keeping the house warmer also tends to result in more insects like fruit flies, mosquitoes, silverfish, or millipedes, even in winter. The only time I really need to be a little warmer is when I'm sleeping. Other than that, a cool house is a good thing.

If you have hot water baseboard heating don't turn the heat off or way down. If the house has poor insulation, the outside walls will be a lot colder than the room temperature. I have heard of the water in the heating system freezing when the main source of heat was a kerosene heater.

Sigh.... Still using the A/C. Hope it gets cool enough for heat sometime this winter. So far, the heat from my little AAAP provides more than enough warmth. On the brighter side, I've noticed that it is getting darker earlier in the day (maybe that means winter is coming) and of course that allows for more flashlight use. I sometimes envy you people up North.

Dances with Flashlight said:

I sometimes envy you people up North.

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Wait till you see our heating bill.

Nope, won't be changing a thing here.

For one, my wife and I are weird. We really prefer cooler temperatures. It's 37 degrees outside right now, and 55 here in the house. My wife is in lounging pajamas and I'm in my boxers, we're both completely comfortable. At night we'll turn the heat off completely and snuggle under a pile of blankets. Often we'll open the bedroom window a crack, even if the outside temp is below zero.

If we did prefer normal temperatures, the rising costs of fuel still wouldn't affect us much at all. My house is nearly a hundred years old, but I've upgraded it with double pane vinyl windows, lots and lots of blown in insulation and foam, new doors/door frames/seals, new insulated ducting and vents for the central forced air hvac, insulated water pipes, etc. This house is as insulated as it could possibly be, without being torn down and rebuilt. Central heat is propane, but the wood stove is our sole heat source 99.95% of the time. I'm often on logging roads and log landings in the course of my work and it's nothing to throw a couple culls in the back of the truck before I head home, so the wood is free. We do run an electric fan (~150w) with the wood stove. When the central heat is used, it's just for 15 minutes or so first thing in the morning, to heat the place up before the fire gets built and the wood stove takes over.

This catches up with us in the summer when we're running the AC heavily.

:buddies:

I have gas here in SE MA. It works fine with forced hot air. I also have 2 wood stoves (1 for each chimney). I have turned the heat down a bit, but not way down. I've decided that I'm not going to go below a reasonable comfort level. I've worked too hard to be freezing. I also present these thoughts:

1. There is no cheap way to heat, unless you own your own forest. Oil, gas, electric (ok, forget electric all together :thumbsdow), are all expensive . even wood is a killer (tip: drive around the back of stores and warehouses. Many will be glad to give you their wooden palates. Good burning stuff).

2. Being only a few miles from Plymouth, MA I realize one thing about the Pilgrims as it's Thanksgiving and all.

a. The first Thanksgiving was for being in the new world :thumbsup:

b. The second Thanksgiving was for just being alive after the cold killed a good number of them . They found out that New England was not exactly like the Old England

I'm not going suffer, if I can help it. I'll just cut back on things, except lights of course

Happy Turkey day to all!!

Diesel_Bomber said:

For one, my wife and I are weird. We really prefer cooler temperatures. It's 37 degrees outside right now, and 55 here in the house. My wife is in lounging pajamas and I'm in my boxers, we're both completely comfortable. At night we'll turn the heat off completely and snuggle under a pile of blankets. Often we'll open the bedroom window a crack, even if the outside temp is below zero.

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Kind of sounds like me. Nothing like cold, refreshing winter air. Fact is most people keep their houses too hot either in summer or winter.

This catches up with us in the summer when we're running the AC heavily.

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That's the downside for me as well. I'll tend to keep my bedroom at 65°F in the summers, maybe at most low 70s when I'm sleeping, sometimes as low as 55 when I feel my core temperature getting too high. Still, according to my Kill-A-Watt I only used about 1250 kW-hr for my bedroom the entire cooling system. Not bad considering the kinds of temps I like to maintain. They can keep the "recommended 78". That feels ridiculously warm to me, even lying in bed.