My house is freezing!

[Jennasis]

For starters, it's an old house. 1800 square ft. Only one bedroom and a bathroom upstairs, and two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen/livingroom, dining room downstairs. Our heating bills are outrageous...we are hemorrhaging heat! The upstairs is hot as Hades but downstairs it's 57 degrees with the heat set at 70 and running constantly!

I think we narrowed the cause down to one wall in our living room. I can feel cold air coming through the light sockets in the wall (it's an exterior wall)! If you place your hand on the wall itself it feels cold. We think there is little ir possibly NO insulation in that wall. The wall also house a "bay" window with an exterior door. The house is so old that the door frame has shifted and settled and is no longer square. At the very bottom of the door, you can see light. Iknow it isn't sealing properly.

DH bought those foam insulators for the outlets and is installing them today. Also got weatherstripping to try to seal up any leaks in the window/door. The living room is on a slab. Someday I want too pull up the carpet and put down radiant heat and hardwood.

Anyway. Has anyone ever had an energy audit done? How much did it cost? Did it help (the info you got)? I can't sit in a cold house all winter while I am paying for heat!!

 

[snapppyd]

Do you have a fireplace? I noticed that whenever we use ours all the heat goes straight up the chimney.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Have not had an audit done, but we left our previous home with the same issues - exterior wall insulation (or the lack, thereof). The windows were also poorly sealed when installed. You could feel a draft in every room. It cost us a small fortune to heat that house in the winter.

Our current home is considerably larger and it costs us less than half as much to heat it. Not sure what the cost of an audit might be, but if you are going to stay in the home for a few years, it would probably be a wise investment.

 

[Jennasis]

Do you have a fireplace? I noticed that whenever we use ours all the heat goes straight up the chimney.

We do, but we never use it. I swear when we have a fire in there I have to practically sit IN the firebox to feel any heat. I've heard they can actually make a house colder as the heat gets sucked up the floo?

A friend mentioned some kind of insert for a fireplace that is supposed to maximize heat output.

 

[shortbun]

Is your damper closed? Check it.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

We do, but we never use it. I swear when we have a fire in there I have to practically sit IN the firebox to feel any heat. I've heard they can actually make a house colder as the heat gets sucked up the floo?

A friend mentioned some kind of insert for a fireplace that is supposed to maximize heat output.

My father in law has one of those fireplaces that is completely enclosed, but has vents and a blower to force heat into the room. Works very well - you get all of the beauty of the fire, plus the heat.

We have an open fireplace with a sliding glass door front. The glass front limits airflow, which makes the logs burn more slowly. However, we still get heat in the Den from the fire, just not as much as my father in law.

The room with the fireplace shouldn't get colder when a fire is burning.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I was JUST thinking the exact same thing, Jennasis! I just sat down from turning up the heat and checking the windows in this room! I could have SWORE that they were open!

Our basement perpetually stays about 10 degrees warmer in the winter, and 10 degrees cooler in the summer, than the upstairs. I might go hang out down there.

Oh, and you've gotta LOVE the vaulted ceilings in our kitchen, dining room, and living room! I do love them, but BRRRRRR!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Do you have forced air heat or radiant heat? If forced air, where is the blower?

 

[Jennasis]

Is your damper closed? Check it.

It's closed.

We're pretty certain the culprit is the one wall and the windows/door in the wall. If we had the money we would have the whole wall torn down and redone.

 

[Jennasis]

Do you have forced air heat or radiant heat? If forced air, where is the blower?

There are grates/vents in every room. We close the one in the spare room that we never use at the back of the house. Cold as a coal digger's bum in there but we don't use that room. Downstairs bathroom (next to spare room) is TOASTY. The computer room is toasty (if I leave the door closed with the vents open). Hallway connecting those rooms is cold (no vent in hallway).

Laundry room on same hallway has a vent.

Kitchen has two vents. Usually cold in here.

Living room has two vents, and is open to the kitchen. This is the coldest room.

Upstairs bedroom has two vents and is like the surface of the sun. We do not have two-zone heating. The air exchanger and the thermostat is in the downstairs hallway outside the laundry and computer room.



On the plus side...after we installed the weatherstripping and such last night, the thermostat says it is 61/62 and the heater is set at 69. So maybe the house is finally starting to heat up? If we could get the interior temp to match what we have the thermostat set at, I could raise the temp to a livable level!

 

[AKL_Megs]

Just for fun, I went and felt our Northernmost exposed wall... it doesn't see sun all day long, and the wind whips across our backyard right onto that wall... it's cold, but not any more cold than the interior wall across from it, or the other side of THAT wall.

Sounds like you need some insulation. That stinks. Can't they make a hole and blow that "blown cellulose" type insulation in the wall pretty easily? Does it have a lot of wiring?

 

[ilovejack02]

We have the same problem . Child's bedroom is FREEZING in the winter. We checked the attic and there is no insulation above his room. This spring we will redo the insulation in the attic. We also have a large storage room that the exterior wall has no insulation. Not much we can do but rip out the sheetrock and insulate it , which we will do also . Our den was a garage and was closed it, looks great, but they needed to add a bigger unit to the house to accomodate the extra space. We are also thinking of adding a second unit or putting a bigger unit in the house. You would think in South Louisiana we wouldn't need it ,but there are days such as last night that we do need the extra heat.

 

[AKL_Megs]

There are grates/vents in every room. We close the one in the spare room that we never use at the back of the house. Cold as a coal digger's bum in there but we don't use that room. Downstairs bathroom (next to spare room) is TOASTY. The computer room is toasty (if I leave the door closed with the vents open). Hallway connecting those rooms is cold (no vent in hallway).

Laundry room on same hallway has a vent.

Kitchen has two vents. Usually cold in here.

Living room has two vents, and is open to the kitchen. This is the coldest room.

Upstairs bedroom has two vents and is like the surface of the sun. We do not have two-zone heating. The air exchanger and the thermostat is in the downstairs hallway outside the laundry and computer room.

You should try keeping ALL of your basement vents closed. The basement should heat just fine with the radiant heat from the duct work... ours does quite well... and it REALLY helps with forcing ALL of the air upstairs... you don't lose any downstairs.

 

[jen0610]

My father in law has one of those fireplaces that is completely enclosed, but has vents and a blower to force heat into the room. Works very well - you get all of the beauty of the fire, plus the heat.
We have an open fireplace with a sliding glass door front. The glass front limits airflow, which makes the logs burn more slowly. However, we still get heat in the Den from the fire, just not as much as my father in law.

The room with the fireplace shouldn't get colder when a fire is burning.

My inlaws have one of these. I swear even with just 2 small logs in there, the heat it puts off is outta this world.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

There are grates/vents in every room. We close the one in the spare room that we never use at the back of the house. Cold as a coal digger's bum in there but we don't use that room. Downstairs bathroom (next to spare room) is TOASTY. The computer room is toasty (if I leave the door closed with the vents open). Hallway connecting those rooms is cold (no vent in hallway).

Laundry room on same hallway has a vent.

Kitchen has two vents. Usually cold in here.

Living room has two vents, and is open to the kitchen. This is the coldest room.

Upstairs bedroom has two vents and is like the surface of the sun. We do not have two-zone heating. The air exchanger and the thermostat is in the downstairs hallway outside the laundry and computer room.

Though you may have poor insulation, you may also have a poorly designed duct network. If you get the audit done, I would also get an HVAC person to take a look at your ducts. Forced air heating systems usually produce warmer rooms and colder rooms - it is very hard to completely eliminate airflow issues. They also generally produce a warmer top floor, as the heat rises through the ducts as the air is being delivered. The hotter the air (relative to room temperature), the faster it rises through the ducts.

Generally, the coldest room in a forced air heated home is the room furthest from the blower on the bottom most floor.

 

[Jennasis]

You should try keeping ALL of your basement vents closed. The basement should heat just fine with the radiant heat from the duct work... ours does quite well... and it REALLY helps with forcing ALL of the air upstairs... you don't lose any downstairs.

Basement? We don't have a basement. There's a cellar...one of those old timey type deals. No heat down there. It's just where the unit lives. You can crawl right under the house from the cellar. DH actually shimmied under there this weekend thinking maybe we had no insulation under the floor somewhere but this is not the case.

I need Mike Holmes!

 

[Jennasis]

Though you may have poor insulation, you may also have a poorly designed duct network. If you get the audit done, I would also get an HVAC person to take a look at your ducts. Forced air heating systems usually produce warmer rooms and colder rooms - it is very hard to completely eliminate airflow issues. They also generally produce a warmer top floor, as the heat rises through the ducts as the air is being delivered. The hotter the air (relative to room temperature), the faster it rises through the ducts.

Generally, the coldest room in a forced air heated home is the room furthest from the blower on the bottom most floor.

I don't doubt it. This house is OLD...like built in 19-diggity-two old. Down in the cellar, you can see the load bearing tree. It's a large tree that they shaved the limbs off of and is used to hold up the house.

Hopefully once we get the audit done, we can get to work on making fixes. DH and I are both handy and able to do pretty much everything ourselves.

 

[MickeySP]

Maybe call your energy supplier - oil or gas - they will sometimes do an audit for free.

We had a pre-civil war built house in Boston and like you we hemorraghed heat. We closed rooms we didin't use sealed the door with the plastic you can by.

Also you may try a small electric fireplace or cermaic heater that can go room to room with you. Might work unitil you can pinpont the problem or insulate that wall.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Keeping the bedroom doors shut upstairs really helps here.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Basement? We don't have a basement. There's a cellar...one of those old timey type deals. No heat down there. It's just where the unit lives. You can crawl right under the house from the cellar. DH actually shimmied under there this weekend thinking maybe we had no insulation under the floor somewhere but this is not the case.

I need Mike Holmes!

Okay, yeah, nevermind!

Down in the cellar, you can see the load bearing tree.

LOL! If you didn't have enough already I'd say this would be the PERFECT tag!!! LMAO!

I'd love to see that tree. We were built in '54... glad to see advancements such as METAL.

Still, that's cool!