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 Expert
Posts: 3534
   
Location: Stuck in a cubicle having tropical thoughts | I need ideas on the best way to supplement our furnace to save on propane and make the house a tad warmer and cozy. My husband and i are tropical breeze babies and if we could afford it, we'd set the furnace at 76, except when we sleep, we do like it cold to sleep. Currenlty we've only been setting the furnace at 68 when we are home and 64 when we sleep and when we are awake, we feel like we are freezing even with wearing hoodies, pants, slippers and under blankets. I realize that space heaters, etc will use electric and run the electric bill up, but if we could be a tad warmer and save on some propane, and not double the elctric bill, I'd be happy.
Our biggest problem is we do have a very large home that is somewhat open. The living room and dining room are open to each other and are probably 500 sq ft. this is the room we are trying to make toasty, while we can turn the furnace thermostat down and let the other rooms cool down. I do have a smaller space heater we put in our bathroom that seems to work for that room and I also have a warm air humidifier in the bed room to help my sinus' while I sleep.
We bought a Lifesmart "amish inspired' infraded heater with the 3 quartz elements that's supposed to heat 1200 sq ft from menard's last night. The girl working in the section highly recommened it. Well, we've had it running nearly all day and it hasn't shut itself off and it's not any toastier in this room and the furnace hasn't ran any less. We paid $130 for it and it's going to be returned.
We also have a second level of the house that is not used. The stairway has solidwalls on the side but the bottom of the stairway is open, with no door. We need to find a way to close this off to keep the heat from escaping up it and the cold from coming down it. Our house is very high quality, highly designed and decorated (previous owner who built it was very weatlhy and it was for sale and we were able to buy it do to a divorce. i.e. it has imported Italian Marble or white oak hardwood for all of the flooring on the lower level). Do to the house being so nice, I don't want it to look tacky to close off this stairway opening. Hanging a door will really effect the design work of the staircase. and I'd like whatever we put up to be able to be removed once it's warm. Any suggestions on this? My dad mentioned two shower curtain rod's and sew each end of a blanket around it to hang up. Not sure if the blanket will be effective for what we are trying to accomplish and this opening is pretty large so this idea could be a tad difficult. |
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  Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4553
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Solar Panels are becoming the in thing. My brother made his own and the electric company is paying him instead. They are efficient for heating and cooling. We have an electric furnace for heating, I talked my honey into a wood stove and it has never kicked in. It keeps the house so warm we even open the windows to let some heat out. When he goes back to work we will put in a larger one with blower allowing us to use less wood. We fill it at night and kind of shut it down, keeps plenty warm till morning. Either one these can make a big difference. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1446
Location: Wisconsin | We have been running our fuel oil down as we are installing a new LP furnace, we woke up to no fuel oil friday morning. Holy man was it cold getting out from underneath the covers!!!!!!!
I plugged in an eden pure heater in the dining room at 5am and when the guys came to install our new furnace at 3 that afternoon they commented on how warm it actaully was when the walked in the house. |
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Expert
Posts: 3534
Location: Stuck in a cubicle having tropical thoughts | hubby quoted installing a wood stove and they said it would be 10K because this house has no exhaust/chimmney. I don't know if that is a high quote or not. I would love to have a wood burner. We have a gas fireplace with a blower that really heats the place up, but it also burns up the propane. it only has a small exhaust on the other side of the wall. A lot of cold air does come in where this gas fireplace is. We'd love to replace it with a wood burning fireplace but that quote was 5 times higher than the wood burner quote.
my parents have an EdenPure. She said she'd let me try it for a few days to see if it helps us. Does it run the electric bill up a lot? I asked her but when they were using strictly heaters and no furnace one winter, they had 3 other heaters running so she doens't know how much the EdenPure affected the electric bill |
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 MEOW!
Posts: 4477
Location: High heels in the air... | I had spray foam done this year...I get a tax break and my electric bill has dropped tremendously...I highly recommend it... |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| barlracr429 - 2013-11-23 11:36 PM
hubby quoted installing a wood stove and they said it would be 10K because this house has no exhaust/chimmney. I don't know if that is a high quote or not. I would love to have a wood burner. We have a gas fireplace with a blower that really heats the place up, but it also burns up the propane. it only has a small exhaust on the other side of the wall. A lot of cold air does come in where this gas fireplace is. We'd love to replace it with a wood burning fireplace but that quote was 5 times higher than the wood burner quote.
my parents have an EdenPure. She said she'd let me try it for a few days to see if it helps us. Does it run the electric bill up a lot? I asked her but when they were using strictly heaters and no furnace one winter, they had 3 other heaters running so she doens't know how much the EdenPure affected the electric bill
I think that quote could be a little high, my parents installed their own wood heater, the chimney went out the wall then vertical, it cost them about 500 in supplies, as you need the insulated chimney, and the brackets to hold it in place |
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 Certified Snake Wrangler
Posts: 1672
Location: North MS | My husband has his own heating and ac business. We have a wood burning fireplace! I spend about $150 a year on wood. It is 34 degrees outside right now, I'm laying in my bed sweating with bedroom door shut and it is 1/2 the house away from heater (it is in middle of home). Our house is 1200 square feet as well. No upstairs. I had a wood burning heater in college as well. Currently my electric bill in winter runs about $150-175 running the odd space heater in bedroom and bathroom just for instant heat situations and normal electric uses.
We also used to be in the spray foam insulation business. It ran about $4 a square foot and if you have a subfloor, it will make quite a difference! If you ever build a home, do it! Closed cell foam forms a denser coverage while open cell (what you find in small instant spray foam cans) occupies more space but less dense. We got in early and demand for that business in our area just wasn't there. They do give tax credits for this though. Spray foaming your attic roof rafters makes a big difference as well. Just an option to consider.
Installing a wood burning heater- Do you have subfloor or concrete? If subfloor, you have to have a special base to install the heater on if you choose a freestanding floor model. Then you can have your flue go horizontal out a wall and then up. Have to have more heatproof wall work done though.
Brick Chimney install would be more expensive of course. Due to costs of bricks. Have you contacted a brickworker or general contractor? It would only require a hole cut in home, electrical plug located nearby and brickwork installed. Maybe you should get several brickworker quotes before moving forward. A decent chimney shouldn't take more than a week to install in good weather and 3 days in actuallity.
There is another alternative though. You can install a wood furnace outdoors. The burning portion all stays outside and uses existing ductwork to funnel the air. Might be a good happy medium and I believe they might have tax credits as well. |
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Veteran
Posts: 165
| My Father in law has a pellet stove. Cute little thing that is vented out right through the wall and takes the extra chill off. The pellets are fairly cheap and much cleaner burning than the wood we heat with.
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Wood stove for sure. Growing up we had space heaters but they didn't help much. Now the parents have a wood stove and BOY, is it toasty!! We frequently open the windows in the winter. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| Those little amish heaters are great i have 4 of them in my house it is open. This mouring it is 20 degrees and i have no heat on and it is tostee. |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | We run humidifiers in our rooms at night and some in the living spaces.
We keep our house a little colder because of the humidifiers. It really helps! |
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 I don't speak Portuguese
Posts: 4883
Location: West River - SoDak | It was in the negative temps the last few days here and I don't have a furnace/heat! So let me tell you about what works! Shutting doors, a wood stove and one of those amish heaters... along with 3 others. Our hunters were out this week and I was so embarrassed to have them in my house, we have blankets and sheets hanging in every door way to trap the heat... super classy. |
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Fire Ant Peddler
Posts: 2881
| My trainer recommended a HEAT SURGE. Just got it and it seems to be doing a good job. I also have an EDEN PURE style of heater but it is SEARS KENMORE. It was on sale 50% off last year and it heats well too.
I have a LOPI high tech woodstove and it will run you out of the house. I think installation and all is about $2000 because the stove pipe is high. It is 35 outside right now and my wood is wet so the electric heaters are doing the job. The electric heaters do not run my electric bill up much. |
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 Just a Yankee
Posts: 1237
Location: Some where I haven't left yet | I have a Natural Gas Furnace.... Right now my Pellet stove is running on the LOWEST setting there is snow on the ground and it's cold outside..... My furnace hasn't been on and it's over 80 degrees in here. I'm headed to open a door to cool this place off just a smidge. I had to move the pellet stove to the farthest point in my house because it would run us out, it would be so hot. On the lowest setting if it's below Zero outside it will keep the house a comfortable 72 ish temp. My house is just shy of 1400 square feet and my stove is rated to heat up to 1500 square feet.
Pellet Stove all the way :)
Pellets are easy and very efficient - I might burn a 1/2-3/4 of a bag in a 24 hr period depending on if I need to shut it off to cool the house down.  In the winter time my gas bill to run my hot water and furnace back up is right around $20.00 a month, the only thing electric on the pellet stove is the blower fan. So the only electricity you will use will be running the fan.
Edited by Lucylouwon 2013-11-24 10:35 AM
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Location: KS | We have a wood stove that is outside but is ducted into the house vents with a blower. Keeps our house extremely warm without having the mess of hauling wood into the house. We do have to open windows/doors sometimes depending on what type of wood we are burning. There's plenty of wood to cut around here so that is never a problem. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I didn't use the upstairs in my old home either, so i bought cheap curtain rods and the insulated blackout curtain panels and hung them up. It was always noticeably colder when I did go upstairs than the rest of the house.
Currently we are on propane, but we have a heat pump. I cannot believe how efficient this house is because of the heat pump. Our electric bill runs about $75-$100 a month, but everything aside from the furnace in the house is electric. We only use about 200gal of propane a year because propane only kicks in when the heat pump can't keep up. If your furnace is older and you can justify replacing it, look into a heat pump.
We also have a wood burning fireplace. So we keep the house set at about 60 and burn 6 or 8 logs a night to keep the first floor warm. Down comforter on the bed and we're okay with the upstairs being a little chilly. |
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Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4553
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | A inserted wood burner is costly, but to have a regular free standing wood stove would run about $2000 or less depending on the model it can run through the wall or strait threw the ceiling. We purchased a used one for $180 with pipe and bought a few accessories to put in place. |
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 More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | We had an ancient fuel oil burner with hot water heat. No way will I give up my hot water heat but the boiler was getting old and no one wants to work on oil burners anymore plus the cost factor. Last year we had it switched over to an electric boiler. We get a cut rate from the electric company, its very inexpensive to run, quiet, no stinky fuel and the major bonus is I got to keep my hot water heat! |
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"Heck's Coming With Me"
Posts: 10794
Location: Kansas | If I were you I'd quit looking for alternate ways to heat my house and just turn the thermostat up and let your house be warm via propane. It's better to be warm and spend a little more money than be miserable and hunt for other methods of heating your house that will also be expensive and possibly even dangerous. I was in a friends mobile home who had EdenPure heaters running. I had a headache when I left and I rarely get headaches. |
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best heating alternatives to supplement furnace and save on the propane bill