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New Member
 
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 2/6/2012 4:20:28 PM
Posts: 77,
Visits: 705
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The Hobby Farms editors would like to know:
"What are you doing to save energy this winter?"
Hobby Farms Community Moderator
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Senior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 1:28:39 PM
Posts: 1,121,
Visits: 1,328
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| We made sure to do a lot of insulating and filling in the cracks this year. Our house is well over a hundred years old and still settling, so we have to explore when the weather turns cold and find where it is seeping in. We have some old doors that are non standard and much to expensive to replace, but we put rubber stripping (made for the bottom of garage doors) around the edges to overlap with the frames when the doors are closed and it really blocks the cold. We heat mostly with wood and the wood stove blower is vented to the whole house heating system, but our house is rather large and not much warm air was making it to the upper floor. This year, we added a heat duct booster fan that plugs into a thermostatic switch that is attached to the ductwork. It only runs when the duct reaches a certain temperature. When the duct cools off, the fan shuts off. We found that the little fan helped a bit, but nowhere as much as we really needed, so we added another fan just before the last vent in the run and it has really pulled a lot more heat into our main living area. As our LP furnace isn't running very much at all (only about once a day when temps dip below zero) we are using much less LP and much less electricity, as the blower fan on that furnace really uses a lot of energy.
Karen http://www.facebook.com/MrsKsCreations
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Average Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/26/2011 1:46:54 PM
Posts: 729,
Visits: 1,261
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| Our story is very similar to MrsKarens above. We heat our house mainly with wood that is harvested from our own lot. We do have a propane furnace which, untill this winter, was used to give a heat boost early morning. This season however we have survived without the propane at all, the reason being the men that came to build our new barn last fall disconnected the tank and moved it. They put it back but didn't connect the pipe. I connected it up a month or so back but the stupid looking furnace doesn't want to start anymore. We will make do with the wood burner and the two electric heaters in the two teenagers rooms. We have been talking with an alternative energy supplier and are concidering replacing the propane furnace with a pellet furnace OR installing a large output pellet stand alone burner at the other end of the house to where the log burner is. I am not sure whether not having a gas furnace will affect our chances of selling the house when the time comes.
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Advanced Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 6:38:37 AM
Posts: 2,777,
Visits: 2,273
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| Our house is off the ground so we put tin or plastic behind the laced work to block the north wind. We don't block the other three sides unless it's that bad. We have thermal curtains in all room except the back porch. We double the white plastic that coves the single pain glass windows on the back porch. The thermostate is lowered as far as we can take it, with extra clothes on. We do a propane heater in the bathroom and kitchen in case the power goes out to keep those faucet free of ice. Water is dripped when they call for a freeze. Our main blockage for that due north wind was taken down by hurricanne "k" may plant bushes but that's not on my list to cut that north wind just yet.
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Average Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/28/2012 8:23:24 PM
Posts: 830,
Visits: 3,148
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| The north facing walls of my house are very well insulated and I use miniblinds and heavy insulated curtains on those windows. The lower 2 feet of 2 of our outside walls are cement block and last summer I covered those with rigid foam insulation and that blocks a lot of the draft coming thru those. We've installed a programable thermostat for our furnace which is oil, because we have outside tanks we have to burn a more expensive winter blend of oil (kerosene mixed with standard heating oil) to keep our oil from congelling in the winter, last summer when we had the furnace cleaned a new motor was added which makes it run a little more effeciently. By adding the rigid foam and closing the blinds & curtains at night even with the extreme cold we've had we only burned 394 gallons of oil for 4 months. We had a delivery in September just got our second this week and will get one more sometime around May or June. Our hot water & cooking are propane and even with 6 of us in the house we only get that delivered every 3 to 4 months. The area where the furnace, hotwater heater & my washer & dryer are is also well insulated and there is a heat vent out there as well which only runs maybe 3 times a day tops but it keeps the area warm enough that the water heater & the furnace don't have to run much at all. I have CFL bulbs in all but 2 seldom used lights when I see a rise in my power bill is when we turn on the lights in the hen house and plug in the pond heater & the heated water dishes for the birds, when you consider with the exception of a few days this week everything has been working over time to keep the water thawed for the birds I don't think a $30 jump in my powerbill for the month was bad.
Lord keep you arm around my shoulder & your hand over my mouth If God brings you to it, He will see you through it 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/28/2011 6:53:43 AM
Posts: 3,
Visits: 7
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| We are on heating oil/boiler heat and have over 22 windows. Even though they are the new double paned thermo windows in plastic frames, that many loses heat! The house is 3750 square feet. So we have turned the thermostat down to 58 degrees at night. It goes to 62 during the day and if someone is sick or we are expecting company, we will turn it up to 66 for maybe 4 hours. We open the blinds to let the sunshine in by 10 am and close the blinds about 4 pm. We've noticed it really helps to keep the heat in and we get to enjoy our daytime views of the wildlife activity or it snowing. We also CLOSE THE DOORS to all the rooms and if someone HAS to have the temp higher, they get an oil filled space heater or that new black box blower one on TV that are thermostat controlled. We have covered the stone base of the fireplace as we noticed it sucked the heat out of the room and transfers in frigid temps. If we run the fireplace, then all that stone acts to hold and transfer heat INTO the room. (of course all covers are removed!) Keeping the temps below 58 has saved us a few hundred dollars in winter heating. Anything above 62 rockets the heating costs. We also use the cooking stove to help heat on frigid winter days. So cooking that long pot roast, or even an all day turkey, the baking helps heat the home. If we have a lot of people over, we have to turn the temp down after the initial heating cause it gets too hot then due to all the body heat. We always have lots of comforters and blankets available for snuggling up in the cold as well. If the kids aren't home, the TEMP IS DOWN! Come visit me on Hobby Farms at Imaginary Alpaca Ranch, Bonnie
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/9/2012 10:49:57 PM
Posts: 142,
Visits: 230
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| We put up a new house 2 years ago as the 100 y/o old farm house had inadequate insulation, furnace and the basement, due to water seepage, created a mold and fungus issue. The new house has a ICF basement and geothermal heating and cooling. The house (a manufactured-type with a roof that I have been told by our plumber has an insulating rating of at least 90-100) is 1600 sq. ft running north to south with the concentration of windows on the east, west and south sides. Summer we simply close the blinds and curtains to block the solar heat gain but in the late fall, through winter until spring, the curtains and blinds are kept open and the house stays at or average 68-70 degrees (our comfort zone) without the furnace kicking in until late eveneing. The basement also has 2 south facing windows that help not so much with heat gain but for houseplant growth and spring seed propagation (in addition to shop lights). Part of the basement has sub-floor geothermal assisted heating for the future family room with a planned LP gas firerplace for assitant heat. The north end of the basement is left unheated for a root/wine cellar environment that is also working wel for canned garden produce. Doing what we can to make the most of what we have.
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/12/2011 8:59:39 PM
Posts: 3,
Visits: 5
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We burn wood. Last year we cut 5 cords to keep this old house warm - but not this year!
We learned about a new wood burning technology last year called: Rocket Mass Heaters. (RocketStoves.com) Apparently, the technology does a second burn chamber to burn off ll the smoke and gas so you get twice the heat from the wood. Then it snakes the final vapors through a 20' tube to release the rest of the heat. If you heat a mass, something like sand used for mass, it can stay warm for a long time - some say it gives off heat for days (but I wouldn't expect that kind of result here in MN in the dead of winter).
There are prefabricated units showing up online. These are a heavier metal and they do the same thing - burn the smoke and gas off. They can have snaked final vents tubes to finish releasing all the heat too. The one I found was on JetStove.com. They are also making a "smoke less chimney" so a chimney unit can be added to existing wood stoves....I like the look of my wood stove so this is the way we want to go. They also have videos available to make your own, which I have been trying to talk my hubby into doing so we don't burn so much to keep warm.
I can also see a few other things I would do with a wood stove like this - making hot water in the winter for ourselves and the barn instead of running those water de-icing power suckers all the time is one. If its easy enough to build, I would even think the hubby would like it in the shop so he goes through less wood.
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 7:36:46 PM
Posts: 316,
Visits: 654
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We had several storms this year so we have been chopping wood from the downed trees and plan to use our fireplace as much as possible.
I added heavy drapes to the windows and we close every room and heat only the main part of the house. We use a lot of blankets and a small bathroom space heater.
We also lowered the temp on our hot water heater. Every little bit helps me save more money to buy more goats...lol
M. and D.
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