Preparing for winter..

[SoCalDem]

The blonde "money expert" on CNN had some marvelous advice for you Northeasters..

Apparently this winter is predicted to be a "cold one"..

Her advice:

1) for about $20K, you can switch from oil heat to natural gas
2) for about $10K, you can install some solar panels
3) for about $5k, you could get a solar water heater (she said it would save you on water:eyes:.)


OR

you could go to Home Depot and buy some pipe insulation
you could buy new furnace filters

and

the best one..

you could change your light bulbs and save about $5...yes she said $5 in a year..

She did NOT touch on the issue of WHY costs to heat a home are going up by 36% this winter... or HOW people who are in debt, unemployed or just plain poor will heat their homes this winter..

[billyoc]

1. Did she mention that the government won't let them to freeze to death?

The government of Venezuela, that is. :rofl:

[Subdivisions]

2. HA! Good one! n/t

[MadHound]

3. Well, actually, the advice on buying new filters and pipe insulation is good

And rather cheap. In fact there are lots of cheap ways of boosting your insulation and weatherizing your house that will see net heat savings right away.

However the other stuff, switching to natural gas, etc., is just foolish, and you're right, beyond a lot of peoples reach.

Personally, after having just done my LP buy for the year, I'm in sticker shock still, and will be switching to a wood stove within a relatively short period of time. The model I want(an outdoor model) costs around 6500, but will pay for itself within about five years at most.

When I was poor, I got to the point where I would shut an entire house down and heat the one room I lived in with a kerosene heater. Worked well as a cheap alternative. However I haven't checked the price of kerosene in a few years, so it could be through the roof too.

[Lance_Boyle]

9. Kerosene is pricey and CO is deadly.

That is a decidedly DOUBLEPLUSUNGOOD idea. People die from it here every winter.

[tridim]

4. I wonder how many houses the blonde money expert owns?

And if she has ever had to worry about staying warm in the winter?

[Lorien]

5. You save a heck of a lot more than $5 by changing the bulbs to

compact fluorescents. It has saved me about $40 per MONTH.

How about caulking the windows? Doing whole house insulation? Buying a wood or pellet stove? (My grandparents rarely heated their N. Ohio home with anything else) Keeping the refrigerator coils clean and keeping the 'fridge full to cut down on energy use? There are many more options than what that "money expert" offered.

[SoCalDem]

6. I thought the $5 thing was odd too.. maybe it's $5 a

and per month:)

We are lucky here.. we hardly need a furnace.. in fact we went 2 winters with NO heat (our furnace was broken, and we decided to just wear warmer clothes & use more blankets).

It was kind of nippy in the house in the early AM, but we managed..

[PDJane]

7. Interesting.........

I've noticed the apothecary roses around here setting another round of blooms, which is very unusual. Pointed it to Agnes, and she claims that's an indicator of a really hard winter with unsettled weather.

Glad the co-op replaced my windows with the well-insulated kind last year (in November, which was a bit of bad planning).

[Turbineguy]

8. In Washington state

Washington Natural Gas used to have a good program of oil to gas burner leasing, the cost more than offset by savings. They did all the work. Or a new high efficiency furnace where the savings pay for the costs. All of these programs were financed at low interest rates. $20,000 dollars? Oh wait, that's for a 30,000 square foot home. Everybody has one of those.

You can get insulating panels to put over windows at night to cut heat loss. That's pretty cheap and effective since windows are the biggest loss.

Keeping the house at 65 degrees during the day and lower by night helps. Small incremental improvements add up. Stopping drafts is a biggie too.

Some breakfast napkin calculations:

If you convert to a high efficiency furnace remember to downsize capacity. A 100,000 BTU 70% furnace can be replaced by a 75,000 BTU at 96% efficiency. Also the original system may have been sized for a 72 degree comfort level.

If you expect outside temperatures to be say. 0 degrees, the drop from inside to outside is (obviously) 72 degrees. Setting the thermostat to 65 would result in a 10% savings. Working from our original furnace size you can easily get by with a 70,000 BTU system and possibly a 65,000 BTU unit. A substantial reduction in capital cost and a 35% drop in fuel consumption. The difference in temperature between inside and outside also affects the rate of heat loss so as you lower your inside temperture you lower heat loss rate.

I know this method works because I did it in reverse to arrive at the size requirement of air conditioners in the summer and we are very comfortable. The trick is to arrive at a situation where on the coldest day the furnace is just able to keep up running continuously.

It may make sense to size the system such that you augment with a small electric heater on the coldest of days, a few times per year.

[Turbineguy]

11. Oh, and one more thing:

Make sure the heatexchangers are clean on both sides. A thin layer of soot or dust is an excellent insulator leading to fuel waste.

Also, the burner elements should be clean.

[pansypoo53219]

10. if only the 20's era electric could handle

my antique dish heaters.