Our heater broke ...

[hermione]

Our heater stopped working last week and we decided to try to stick it out this winter and save on our gas bill since our gas company just raised the price of propane by $0.52 per gallon. We figure we can save about $200-$400 per month from now till spring. We live in the Mojave Desert with highs in the 50's and lows in the 20-30's, and the temperature inside our house is around 55-60. Does anyone have tips for keeping our house (and selves) warm? We grew up in Hawaii where I thought the 70's were cold.

[amandajane]

This sounds a bit obvious but the key thing is more layers, decent socks and a wooly hat. I sleep with a balaclava and gloves on when it's really cold here, if anyone broke in they'd have a shock, lol.

Seriously though, I just pile on the layers and don't care what I look like. I haven't had a heater on over winter for as long as I can remember. It does get very cold here in NZ but it sure isn't as cold as England, where I was before I came here ten years ago.

[Xin Lu]

My hubby and I bought some puffy down jackets and it has been working well! another thing is that fuzzy slippers are great.

[hermione]

Yes, we have been piling on the clothing - socks, slippers, multiple layers and even long underwear and mob caps we've sewn from flannel - we look ridiculous.

As for the house, we've added curtains (we used to have blinds) to try to keep drafts out, and we try to bake as much as we can and the oven helps warm the place up by a couple of degrees, but it's still very chilly, so I was just wondering if were any other house-warming tricks besides these.

[lucille]

Open all your drapes on the sunny side of the house during the day. That helps pull in the radiant heat. If your house has tile floors that can help store the heat even more. We have a regular stick framed house and live in South Dakota. If it is over about 25 degrees as long as we have the curtains open during the day our furnace doesn't run until about 10pm.

Most of the houses I have seen in AZ & NM have fireplaces in them. That might be something to think about adding for next year if you have a reasonable access to something to burn.

We sleep on a waterbed because we both have arthritis so we tend to stay pretty warm at night anyway. Extra blankets on the bed help. Sheepskins work great for keeping you warm. We have a big sheepskin blanket we used to take camping with us. Stayed pretty warm even sleeping at 32 degrees in the spring. Good quality polar fleece and high tech thermal under garments like under armor or the knock off Champion brand versions that Target sells work great to keep warm in the winter.

[Milehimama]

Close the vents and close off rooms you are not using. Also keep closet doors, etc. closed - no sense it wasting heat on them.

Humid air feels warmer than dry air. Keep a pot of water simmering on the stove, or a crockpot without the lid but filled with water will work as well.

If you get bubblewrap wet and stick it to the windows, it will still let light in but also keep the heat from escaping. Or you can cut out foamcore boards and stick tehm in the windows.

When you cook, opt for casseroles or things you bake in the oven. The oven will heat up the house. Same for the dryer, if you use one. Run the dryer while you are in or near the laundry room/active parts of the day.

Keep your feet warm. If your feet are warm, the rest of you will feel warm too. If your feet are cold - you'll be cold no matter what the actual room temperature is!

[jkuo13]

You could also use a space heater. There's no reason to heat the entire house. We used to turn down the thermostat on the main heat, and use space heaters in the bedrooms to keep it from getting too cold. It burns some electricity, but for just one room, it shouldn't be outrageously expensive.

Using free solar heat is a good idea. Open up your curtains during the day to let in as much solar heat as possible. I'll add that in those sunny rooms, try to maximize the thermal mass and have as many dark colored objects as possible to absorb thermal energy from the sunlight. The ideal situation is to have tile floors or a lot of stone-like material around, but that's probably not the controllable. You might be able to increase your effective thermal absorption by creative furniture placement, using dark fabric, etc.

For keeping your feet warm, I recommend some wool socks (personally, I'm a fan of Smartwool). If you're just using regular cotton socks, they're probably not going to be as warm as a decent pair of wool socks.

[hermione]

Wow, thanks everyone for all these great tips. We'll try them all and think about the space heater. We actually do have a fireplace in our living room which is our sewing studio and home office, but this is the first time we've had one and being just the two of us girls, we've sort of been apprehensive about using it in case something happens. I don't know when it was last used; we bought the house at the end of 2005. Do we need to get a professional chimney sweep to look it over before we attempt to use it?

I know I sound stupid with these amateur questions, but we are quite new to mainland winter life; we didn't have air conditioning, heaters or chimneys when we lived in Hawaii even though it sometimes would have been nice because it gets pretty chilly there too.

[72Tiger]

I have used the DeLonghi brand oil filled electric heaters. They look like a radiator, but they run off of a standard electrical outlet. Most retail stores carry them (Walmart, Kmart, etc). They do not provide quick heat, but once they get going, they really work well. They probably cost less than $100 per unit.

They will take up most of a standard 15 amp household circuit, so you can't run a whole lot more than them in a room, but running a lamp, radio, tv, etc is fine. Anything like a hairdyer, or microwave needs to be run off a separate circuit though.

Here is a favorable review I found, and you can do some quick google searches to see what others think.

Pros
Quite, mobile, excellent heat, little effect on the heating bill

Cons
Could be better lit, needs a longer cord

The Bottom Line
A wonderful option if you want to efficiently heat a room.

Full Review I live in the Philadelphia area and we just turned the clocks back and recently went through the first freeze of the year. What does all this mean? Well, for one, it is about to get cold for about four months. For two, my heating bill is about to grow significantly. Hence, my search for something that can alleviate some of the pain of the high heating bill.

We included the Delonghi MG15T in our list of registery items for the simple reason that I grew up with one and if my parents found that the electrical cost was less than the cost of heating the entire house, well, that was good enough for me. We have turned the MG15T on four or five times so far and expect to use it many more as the weather turns colder.

What does this heater have that I like so much? A separate thermostat so that you can set it for 85 degrees if you want. The temperature around the heater gets to that level and the heater turns off. A must with these types of heaters or they will run forever and not be too efficient. It also has 96 different settings that can be used in conjunction with the thermostat. I have no idea why you want 96 different settings and I am sure you pat extra for all those settings, but it is nice to have options.

I am also a fan of the ability to move this heater around with ease. While not a light piece of equipment, it has a good set of wheels that do not take a lot of effort to pull or push into position. You also have a handle that does not get too warm in order to help with the movement.

Finally, unlike the propane tanks underneath our backyard, the MG15T runs on a highly efficient "diathermic" oil that does not need to be replaced- ever. A huge plus. So you can presumably run the MG15T for 24/7 for the rest of the decade and not need to re-fill the oil.

One additional area that I think I will like is that this heater is somewhat child proof. The heat is distributed much like the old radiators of years past. In other words, there are no super hot pieces that will burn the skin immediately upon touching. Sure, you can still get a good burn if you leave your hand on the unit, but most of us have a reflex that will prevent that from happening. So, I consider this to be somewhat child proof and hope that is the case when we do eventually have kids.

The best way to use the MG15T is to do so with something that will circulate the air in the room you want to heat. A ceiling fan is ideal. Otherwise, you will find that you are heating a relatively small area as the MG15T does not have the ability to circulate the air it heats.

A couple of final points that are important to some people. The heater is so quiet that you do not know it is on. This is a good thing when using it, but a bad thing if you forget about it. The second point is that it does take a few minutes for the MG15T to reach it's top heat. Not a big deal to me, but something to be aware of.

There are two negatives that I have found. First of all, the heater is not very well lit. You have two small (Think eraser head size) lights that show you that the heater is on and that is it. I would like to see a light that at least provides a little more guidance at night. Secondly, the cord is not very long so you need to use the heater near an outlet.

If you are looking to heat a normal size room without killing your heating budget, the Delonghi Magnum Oil-Filled MG15T is a great way to do so. I highly recommend this heater.

[triathing]

The problem with the fireplace is that more than half of the heat goes straight up (and out) the chimney. Long-term, you might think about getting a fireplace insert for teh fireplace. It's basically just a woodstove that fits inside the firebox. It's not something you want to install yourself, though. Anyway, I figure wood is going to be cheaper than gas for a long time, even in the Mojave.

Aside from that, the layering advice is good. And while we've got mixed feelings about this one, our two border collies keep our feet warm at night by sleeping at the end of the bed.