House Temperature

[CherylA]

Today, I have two parts to my house. The original house is heated by forced hot air. The second part, a 25'X14' family room, is an addition where I was not able to run the forced hot air. The primary source of heat in the family room is wood. Each year I burn between 1.5 to 2 cord of wood. I just purchased 2 cord of wood for 265/cord.

Personally, I don't see a cost savings in converting my family room to a pellet stove. The wood stove runs me the same price roughly.

The original house is built on a slab, and the downstairs is often much cooler than the upstairs. I could supplement the downstairs with a pellet stove. This would increase the comfort level downstairs, and allow me to lower the forced hot air thermostat in the upstairs area.

The only problem I see is the additional cost of 2ton of pellets each year. At the 269/ton, I'd be looking at another $538 in annual cost. I wonder if my oil usage would be reduced enough to save me the $538?

If you already have a wood burner then changing to a pellet stove probably isn't the way to go. For people who have just their oil or gas heat thats when I think the pellet stoves are the way to go. I paid 280/ton for my hardwood pellets plus another 60 for delivery of 3 tons. Last year I bought 4 tons and had roughly half a ton left over. We store ours in our car port. They do need to be covered I think. I wouldn't just put the pallets outside.

We paid a lot for our stove. I think it was 3800 then we paid another 800 or 900 to have it installed. Ours is a Harman cast iron stove. I like the cst iron because it does retain the heat for a while. This morning our house was 67. We turned on the pelllet stove for about an hour and a half, it brought the living room temp up to 70 and I turned it off. From the residual heat and the fact that it will watrm up outside today to be in the upper 60s the house will stay at 69/70 for the day. I will probablly turn it back on this evening for a couple hours too.

When I'm not running the furnace the pellet stove doesn't heat my house evenly though. It gets the bedrooms, bathroom, living room and dining room toasty to comfortable but the finished basement and kitchen are like an ice box. Oh well you make some sacrifices!

 

[boettj]

If you already have a wood burner then changing to a pellet stove probably isn't the way to go. For people who have just their oil or gas heat thats when I think the pellet stoves are the way to go. I paid 280/ton for my hardwood pellets plus another 60 for delivery of 3 tons. Last year I bought 4 tons and had roughly half a ton left over. We store ours in our car port. They do need to be covered I think. I wouldn't just put the pallets outside.

We paid a lot for our stove. I think it was 3800 then we paid another 800 or 900 to have it installed. Ours is a Harman cast iron stove. I like the cst iron because it does retain the heat for a while. This morning our house was 67. We turned on the pelllet stove for about an hour and a half, it brought the living room temp up to 70 and I turned it off. From the residual heat and the fact that it will watrm up outside today to be in the upper 60s the house will stay at 69/70 for the day. I will probablly turn it back on this evening for a couple hours too.

When I'm not running the furnace the pellet stove doesn't heat my house evenly though. It gets the bedrooms, bathroom, living room and dining room toasty to comfortable but the finished basement and kitchen are like an ice box. Oh well you make some sacrifices!

Wow you made an interesting point. With the wood stove it takes some effort to get it going, and then you need to wait for it to heat the room. As you stated, the pellet stove can be turned on and off as needed. No vigorous effort to get it going. Um... now you have me thinking.

My only hurdle is now the additional cost of the pellets and storing them.


Thank you

 

[Colleen27]

We've always kept ours at 65, which is warm enough for me. We haven't bothered with a programmable thermostat because there's almost always someone home here so there aren't any long stretches of time when we'd turn it down to save money. I'm kind of curious to see if/how our thermostate setting will have to change because of the new house. We went from a ranch with a natural gas furnace to a 2 story farmhouse with a natural gas boiler, and I've no idea what to expect from the new system.

 

[Crystal0608]

We have central heat & air and are in NC where it doesn't get below 30 often. In the summer I run the air at 70-72 about constantly b/c I get hot easy & I try not to use the stove b/c it heats up the kitchen. Right now its 59 outside, supp to be 47-73 today, about the same for the past few weeks, so we have 3 window fans, a ceiling fan & 2 stand fans as well as opening the windows when the house heat up during the day. At night we cut off the fans & shut the windows. This will work for a couple months, then in the colder months Nov-Feb I cut on the heat to 70 before baths & bedtime & cut it off 30 minutes later. I cut the heat on about 30 minutes before I wake the kids up then cut it off which is enough to knock the chill out. If I leave it on all night, it will get way too hot and we sleep with one blanket, the kids prefer to sleep between blankets & wear flannel pjs & fuzzy socks in the winter. We live in an apartment building between 2 other apts that constantly run their heat in the winter, so I think that why our apt stays warmer without it. Two years ago, the owner put up a tin roof to replace the shingle one and replaced all the windows and it dropped our bill on average $15/mo.

 

[3boymthr]

The Pellet stove has me intrigued. Not much of an increase in electricity. Right now qualifying Pellet stoves "can receive a U.S. federal tax credit for 30% of their cost, up to $1,500." I still have a few questions.

1. How much does Pellets cost?
   
2. How are they stored?
   
3. Are the stoves vented in a standard chimney?
4. Any other hidden concerns?

Thank you

We store our pellets in the basement but as long as you have a dry covered spot to store them you are good to go as far as storage is concerned.

We just bought 3 ton at Lowes. The cost was $269/ton but if you bought 3 ton they'd deduct $100 off the total cost. We have a truck so we moved them ourselves - half ton at a time. We burned 3 1/2 ton last year - our house is 1,200 sq ft. We've used a hundred gallons of oil this year down from 660 gallons.

We have a fireplace insert from Breckwell. It went right in our current fireplace with a pipe that ran up our chimney. DH was able to install the stove himself. It took him about a day. We got our stove online for $1,800 with free shipping.

As far as other concerns, If you have a house with lots of walls there is an issue even distribution of the heat, but we've solved that problem by placing a small fan on the floor. Before the fan the bedroom temps were in the high 50's after the fan they climbed to the high 60s while the LR and Kitchen were in the low 70s.

The stove does require daily filling with pellets. If you have a bad back this is not the heat source for you as the bags of pellets weigh 40 lbs. Figure you have to move a minimum of one bag a day depending upon the size of your house and the size of the stove hopper.

You do have to clean the stove. We clean our glass and stir the pot or dump the ashes daily (about 5 minutes work). You need to remove the ashes at least once a week possibly more frequently depending upon your stove and your fuel. The rest of the stove needs regular maintenance as well. DH is handy and does all this maintenance himself.

 

[Piecey]

It's 64 in here and I've got kidlet as bundled as I could get him. He's still freezing. I think we're going to have to suck up the cost and turn on the heat.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Our thermostat is always set to 60, unless we have someone staying over who can't stand to be cold. DH, DS, and I are all happier when it's chilly. Our furnace isn't even turned on yet, and probably won't be for a few more weeks.

We do have a woodstove, and we try to run that constantly to heat with wood as opposed to using oil. The woodstove with the ceiling fans going really heats up the house, and the furnace kicks on 1-2 times daily. For NH, that's pretty good.

Jen

 

[wdwfan16]

You are kidding right? 74???

I almost don't believe you are a home owner.. Gotta be a renter who does not have to pay the heating bill

I am a homeowner and the bill payer and I will not be cold. We put money into making the home energy efficient so we could pay the same as smaller homes and be warmer too.

If my nose is cold, below 68 it gets cold, then I am not a happy camper.

 

[KAMKIM]

We use down comforters and flannel sheets. We also put plastic on our windows to keep out drafts. While we are at work/school I turn it down to 55. When I get home I turn it up to 70 sometimes 72

 

[DonnaBelle06]

We are very hot natured people...never sleeping more than a comforter on the bed and with that being said...we keep the heat on 62 unless it is "very" cold outside and we'll bump it up to 65 or so.

Upstairs in our home with it being on 62....it will get anywhere from 66 - 70 so that is why we keep it cooler downstairs.

During the day - we too keep it on 62 and if we leave for more than a couple of days we drop it to 60.

 

[eyor44]

We usually keep our AC on 78 during the warm months. We turn it up to 80 when we are gone and sometimes I have to put it on 77 at night if I am having sinus problems.

We keep the heat on 74 when we are home in the cold months. Lower it to 65when we are gone, 60 if we go on a trip, and sometimes we can even have it at 72 in the evenings, but I also have arthritis in my hands and feet, which gets bad if I get cold. We have a gas fireplace in the family room and programmable thremostats, one for each side of the house. We do have it go lower while we sleep and then have it set to come on 30 minutes before the first person is to get up. Our heat is electric.

Yes, we own our home and I pay the bill each month.

I near about freeze when we go up North each winter. The Inlaws keep their house at 68 and then turn the thermostat down at night and open the windows. Yes, in December and January, they open the windows at night in upstate New York.

 

[semo233]

Programmable thermostats are a God-send!!! We keep it at 64 during the day and at 60 from 11-5. We are up at 6am and the hour it goes up to 64 gives it a little time to warm up.
From Dec-Mar, we have a fire almost every night. We burn 1 1/2 - 2 cords of wood per year and do everything we can to get as much heat out of it as we can. This year, I'm buying one of those reflectors to get more heat reflected into the room, but our family room gets so hot , I'm worried we won't be able to stay in there!

 

[boettj]

The temperatures vary greatly on this thread. From those that like it cold to those that cannot stand the cold.

Cost of heating a room or a house is not simply the cost of the fuel itself. That cost can vary depending on how efficiently the home is insulated. A drafty house will cost more to heat as the heat is going right out the door. While houses have become tighter, even a new house will suffer a great deal from heat loss. On Ask This Old House, a 3 year old home in Massachusetts was shown to lose it's heat. This was done using a blower test and a thermal imaging camera.

Many homes could reduce their heating bills by simply insulating more, but not just anywhere. The places where a home loses heat loss should be checked by a professional. No sense spending your money to insulate something that might be working just fine.

 

[mamalle]

our heat is hardly turned on but than again we live in south fla. Air is usually at 79 during the day. 80 when we are not home and 78 at night.. Right now I have it totally off thanks to a fluke cool front..my window are open, low humidity and my air says 80 but it doesnt feel that way

 

[NVDisMom]

Okay - I have questions for you. We, too, have an area of our house where we spend most of our day - kitchen/family room. We can close it off with doors. We usually keep our house at 62 during the winter during the day and 55 at night.

So, my question - we had a space heater in our last house that we used occasionally at night. It upped our bill something terrible! What kind of heater do you have? Our space heater was electric and our furnace was gas, so that may have had something to do with it!

And, about the sleeping arrangements - we usually end up with a child in our bed by the end of the night during the winter. And, this is from the older set - the 9, 11, and 13 yo!! The 3 yo is in bed with us anyway. And, the others end up in the same bed sometimes! I think it's cute.

None of my kids minds the colder temps. They know it's more travelling we can do if the bills are lower!!

Oh - we also have LOTS of blankets around the house for cold people to use.

We use a 1500 watt ceramic Lasko heater. Even when we are home and use it for 10 hours each day it raises our electric bill by $60/month or so. But I'm saving $300/month on the gas bill. Usually we aren't home needing that extra heat that much anyway. I'm busy working/cooking/cleaning during the day, DH likes it cold because he spreads his workout throughout his work day (home office) and the girls are at school.

Now keep in mind, we are in the mountains north of Reno, so it is cold and we do get snow, but we also get 300+ days of sun every year. Our house is only 3 years old, so its pretty energy efficient, but its 2300 sq ft. We have windows that soak in the sun in the living room during the day (sucks in the summer) and I cook alot during the winter.

I guess we are a family that is used to cold. Our house (A-frame) in Tahoe when the girls were little didn't have central heat, or very good insulation. We had a woodstove and a small wall heater downstairs. No heat upstairs at all. We used space heaters in the bedrooms when necessary. Moving into a house with central heat was a luxury that we don't really need I guess. DH and I always said we were born in the wrong century!

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

we are set today at 74...not too expensive because we have a heat pump system w/ gas furnace as back up.

my parents kept the house freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing when I was a child. One nite I counted 15 blankets on my bed to keep warm.

Since I was scarred for life, I now am happy to pay whatever to be comfortable.

 

[spare+a_pair]

I WISH it were time to turn on the heat!!!!!!!!!

We're in TX and still running the AC. We set that at 74, and we set the heater (electric) to 65. We also have gas logs with a programmable thermostat. These work GREAT since when we are home, we typically are in the living room with the logs. We usually bump the thermostat down to 60 when the logs are going.

 

[rie'smom]

Our house temp is set at 68 degrees all year.

 

[daisyduck123]

It's 64 in here and I've got kidlet as bundled as I could get him. He's still freezing. I think we're going to have to suck up the cost and turn on the heat.

That is so sad. Please just suck it up (your words) and turn on the heat.

 

[tigger51276]

I hate the cold and the in the winter I am not happy unless it's around 74 in the house. It's going to totally bite this winter cause I got laid off 2 weeks ago so now we have less money coming and I'll probably be home all winter so that is going to mean yucky heating bills this winter.